An endless realm of doors. Some of them opened as Maribel passed, revealing locations beyond her imagining, places from her dreams and places from her 'true' reality. There was no gravity, no sun, yet Maribel could see and move around. She'd been here before, but it was different now. It had become significantly darker, and it felt like she was being stalked, two pairs of eyes moving in the darkness. But what had her most anxious; Maribel couldn't see the boundaries in this dream. Whispers danced throughout her mind, around this place, and only made her wish for an escape.

Soon enough she was scared enough to begin to panic, beginning when Maribel believed that she saw human shapes moving around in the distance. Maribel wanted nothing but escape, and as luck would have it the doors around her opened to places of strange attraction. Hearn took the first and found herself to face with a first quarter moon. An endlessly spanning field of red grids, eerily glowing and running throughout all of space. Despite this dream and her thoughts being unusually hazy, Maribel wondered how she was even breathing here. Letting herself spin around aimlessly for what seemed like an eternity she came face to face, upside down, with a person whose face looked creepy. Blue eyes with a neutral expression. A shock that she could not perceive hit her and her dream state ended, it felt like she was falling.

Maribel hit the bedroom floor with a thud. She instantaneously turned around and landed on her back. "O-ow... Gh..." Her hand was held over her nose, she wasn't bleeding, but damn did it hurt. She was whining on the ground for almost a minute until she calmed down and sat up.

Guess I'll go brush my teeth... Maribel thought with a tired, strained and lifeless expression. It didn't take long for her to change into her new school uniform and fix up her hair, she wasn't that much for cosmetics and most people Maribel knew told her that she looked just fine without it, even after she asked them for an honest opinion. Well, at least whenever she found herself with enough courage to do so.

She left the house for high school later that morning, her dad was more encouraging than usual.

Maribel Hearn had entered the classroom somewhat early and scouted for the most suitable place to sit at. She took off her backpack and put it beside her chair for now, straightening her posture just a little bit. She learned from Renko and studying as a hobby, that physical fitness contributed largely to how well you could remember and helped against depression. Because of that, Maribel exercised a lot the last year. A benefit of this was a straighter posture and the aforementioned psychological effects, as well as better stamina. Of course, she was not the best but it was a massive improvement on herself from just a year ago. The boundary girl had also figured it would play some part in the practical exams as relying entirely on her quirk wasn't very smart.

Soon enough other classmates would pour in, among them were some vaguely familiar faces. Eventually came Tenya Iida, who cursed how he wasn't there before everyone else. He didn't seem intent on sitting down first, instead taking his sweet time greeting all his classmates personally. Now I just feel like a loner... Thought Maribel and looked at her desk. She didn't know anyone here at all, not one bit.

"Ah, it's you from the exam. Maribel Hearn-san, was it?" He looked down at her with those glasses of his, he oozed an air of an upper class now that he wore something more formal.

"Yep. Nice to meet you again, uh... Tenya Iida-san." Maribel made a pause, having a slow memory at this moment.

There was some small chatter in the room, but it was interrupted when a boy with ash blond hair barged into the classroom. He surveyed the classroom before walking himself over to the empty seat in front of Maribel and sitting down. Thereafter he threw his legs onto the table and leaned on his chair.

"Oh?" Tenya looked to the man who just entered the class. "Ahem, excuse me..." He glanced down at Maribel.

"Mhm, okay." She mumbled to him with what she thought was an indifferent expression, unaware of her own smile. ...You know, I think I should try and get genuinely close to these people. Seeing this, I just don't feel that Renko is enough, and besides, my quirk isn't that special in a hero class.

Tenya made his way over to the new kid in class and after being be met with a glare he spoke in a firm and demanding voice. "Please don't put your feet on the desk."

The glare contorted into a grin. He turned his head to look at Iida. "...Eh? What are you saying?"

"Don't you think it's rude to the U.A upperclassmen and the people who made that desk? Show some manners." He continued where he left off. Maribel could tell he wasn't ready to deal with a delinquent, the approach didn't work back in her school, it was much better to just tell the teacher on them. She thought to herself just after. Why would you assume someone thinks like you at first glance? Well... At least he's confident and decisive, I like that.

The boundary girl put her arm against the desk, resting her chin and cheek in her palm. Maribel had become used to being popular, but she didn't find it in her to talk that much, not today at least. While she did this, she paid no heed to what they were talking about, but the loud voice of the boy would emanate and break her out of her little bubble.

"Somei!? So you're one of them rich boys, looks like I'll have some fun crushing you." He leaned towards Tenya in an attempt to intimidate him.

"Crushing? Are you even trying to be a hero!?" He responded seriously. Her eyes wandered around the place until she saw that boy who destroyed the arena trap back during the exam. He hadn't even entered the room yet, but Tenya left the side of the loud kid and approached him. Maybe he just wants to make his introduction as memorable as possible so that nobody forgets him?

She really couldn't hear what they were saying from this distance, but she caught that the delinquent from earlier gave her a glance or two. Come on, Maribel, be a bit sociable. Maribel grabbed her cheeks by her fingers and pulled them up, forming a fake smile. She let them go just after that and chuckled to herself. After some moments of consideration, Maribel left her desk and walked over to the doorway, eager to introduce herself to the other classmates. The boundary girl got up behind Iida and opted to stand a little to his side, she then made a natural smile before revealing herself.

"...You're the guy who destroyed the arena trap, right?" She peeked out from behind Iida and asked, pointing at the short kid with dark green hair.

He looked visibly stunned for a second before hastily answering. "Uh, yes, that's me! I'm Izuku Midoriya."

Ochaco looked excited to see her again. "Oh, it's you, M-"

"If you're here to make friends, do it somewhere else..." A man muttered behind them, he laid on the floor in a yellow sleeping bag, completely interrupting any conversation. "This... Is the department of heroics." He said, bringing out a soft, plastic drinking carton which he quickly slurped up. Maribel wasn't ready for any of this, and she wasn't ready for what he would put them through later.

Maribel Hearn didn't know what to expect of the first day. Her dad had no experience with hero schools and her only experience was with junior and below. But people thought there was going to be an entrance ceremony and so on. If Maribel was completely awake, she might've cared, but that nightmare from earlier took the sleep out of her and she felt kind of tired. The teacher, Aizawa Shota put it clearly. "If you're going to become a hero, you don't have much time for such leisurely events." His voice seemed like it would go nicely alongside her current state of mind, tired and uninterested.

Aizawa stood before everyone else with his back facing them. "U.A's selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are. That's also how the teachers run their classes." Before turning to the side and looking at the class. A slight breeze of air came by, ruffling her hair and prompting her to fix it up slightly. "You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right?" Aizawa took out his phone with the information already displayed, "Physical fitness tests where you aren't allowed to use your quirk. The country hasn't decided to look at what people can do with their quirks, assuming that most people don't become heroes. I think that's foolish and irrational. " He then turned to look at the loud ash blond. "Bakugo, you finished at the top of the practical exam, right? In junior high, what was your best result for the softball throw?"

He must've checked our names and identified us before he came here today. Back at my school, we just had the teachers ask our names in class, feels a little unnatural.

Bakugo lowered his head to some extent. "67 meters." He said in an unusually dry tone compared to earlier. Maribel was honestly impressed, better than anything in her school.

"Try doing it with your quirk." Aizawa took out a ball with a tracker and held it out to him. Bakugo made his way to Aizawa and the teacher then pointed back at the circle behind him. "You can do whatever you want as long as you stay in the circle. Hurry up and give it all you've got." Aizawa followed up with.

"So we're doing that then..." Bakugo silently groveled to himself, he started to stretch his arms a little bit. He went through a standard pitch throwing motion and then threw the softball with a loud yell and a boom following the instant after. "HRRRGH! DIE!"

Where did the ball go? Maribel wondered to herself until she noticed what came next.

The explosion concealed where it went until it actually escaped the cloud, a trail of smoke following it as it flew far away. "Know your maximum first, that is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero." Homeroom teacher Aizawa said, holding up his phone with the results of the test logged.

705.2m

If I'm going to do something like that, I'm gonna get sick, aren't I? Does just letting it go through a gate to somewhere even count as throwing it? ...That's a stupid question, of course it does.

While Maribel was out of it, the teacher was speaking. "All right, whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be punished with expulsion." which caught her off guard. "Do your best."'

"...Huh?" She let out in the ensuing silence, drawing slight ire from the people around her for but a moment. Maribel was still tired today.

"There's nothing to be confused about. We, teachers, are free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students. Welcome to the hero course." Aizawa spoke confidently, causing the class to erupt in chatter.

"W-wha... The one in last place will be expelled?! But it's the first day of school! Even if it wasn't, that isn't fair!" Ochaco Uraraka criticized.

"There's natural disasters, big villains, collapsing buildings and malicious gangs terrorizing the population. Japan is covered with unfairness. You... No, us, heroes are the ones who reverse those situations and restore the peace." Aizawa looked disappointingly at his students for a moment. "If you only wanted to get some friends to go talk with at McDonald's after school, too bad." He set his eyes on Ochaco specifically. "For the next three years, you will be put through constant hardships, you will have to adapt and learn. Go beyond. Plus Ultra." The teacher raised his hand out to them and swayed his index finger back and forth, as if challenging them. "Intelligent work, hard work, use it all and overcome it."

Maribel was still tired, so no amount of encouraging barring adrenaline was going to wake her up. If that was supposed to be motivating, then he should've raised his voice some more. Her eyes drifted to the rest of her classmates, everyone else began to stretch and prepare themselves for the upcoming tests. I suppose I'll do, too. She thought and tried some of the simple stuff for her arms and legs to stop them from being so stiff.

"All right, demonstration's over. The real thing starts now." Aizawa said, "Follow me. I'll lead you to test one, fifty-meter dash."

Test 1: 50-Meter Dash

"Hey, Ochaco. I know you're making your clothes lighter, but what about yourself? If you aren't inhibited by gravity, you can just push away and pull yourself forward. The ground isn't solid, after all." Maribel advised, she knew a little about kinetics and such after listening to Renko.

Ochaco gave her a look. "Oh... Oh! That's pretty smart." She replied afterwards and crouched down before putting her feet on the start blocks, holding herself in place using her hands.

Maribel Hearn was also at the start line, not entirely sure whether to use her quirk or not. The person who she was supposed to run alongside was Ochaco Uraraka, just because they happened to stand close to each other. "Hey! Aizawa-sensei, is cross-" She let out, only to be interrupted.

He turned his head to her and gave her a nonchalant look. "Your quirk can be used in whatever way you wish as long as you cross the distance. I know what you're thinking."

The bot spoke in a very high pitched voice as it talked. "On your mark... Get set..." Bang. Just as it started, her eyes entered their special state, which was what happened when she was focusing her quirk. It was not necessary to manipulate the boundaries, but it greatly helped focusing on them. This was followed by Maribel opening a hole in space before her. Unlike her creations back during the entrance exam, this one had the same refined form she had given it back when she invited Renko home. Which was a very mild surprise to her, it seemed that her skill with the quirk was improving. She leaped through it and landed on the other end of the course almost instantaneously.

"0.83 seconds." The robot called out, the gap she had created disappeared and Maribel straightened herself out, which would naturally show off more of her form. I hope I don't get any prying eyes from this.

Some seconds after, Maribel turned around to see Ochaco making her way across the dash, just crossing the finish line a second after she looked. "6.23 seconds." It spoke in the same robotic pipsqueak voice as before.

Once she had crossed the finish line, she took a breather and looked almost satisfied. Her eyes returned to normal. Ochaco clasped her fingers and fell into the dirt, but picked herself up quite quickly.

"Thanks, Merry! That was a great idea." Ochaco told her as she stood back up.

"...I feel like I'm cheating with my quirk." Maribel soullessly exclaimed, in truth it was more in the way that she didn't really cross it on foot.

"You're not here for a competition, though. There's no need to feel like that." The brunette uplifted the blonde. Maribel looked at Ochaco with her tired look as a response.

"I guess so..."

"Are you're tired." She commented on the boundary girl's state of being, sounding a little concerned even if it wasn't so serious.

Maribel gave her a glance with a glimmer of life this time, "Well, my nights have never really been good."

Zero Gravity's wielder was intrigued. "Do you wake up from nightmares all day?"

"...It's happened." She replied very plainly, too tired to really care what she was saying. Not a chance that I would tell her everything about those dreams.

Test 2: Grip Strength

It was a very simple test. She had no questions. Just so she would be used to her quirk for the rest of the test, she decided to focus it. Maribel took one of the devices and gripped it with all her might, a brief flash in her eyes occurred to give her...

36kg.

She didn't commonly do these tests, but back in junior high, her result was far lower than that. Was lifting each once in a while really that effective? Maribel didn't know, and simple put it back where it belonged as it hadn't broke or anything.

Test 3: Standing Long Jump

Maribel had an idea for this test, she would create a gap beforehand that she could go through to outside the measurements for the long jump entirely. Her sprint was off to a good start and her jump was alright, nothing special. When she reached the gap she flew straight through and landed outside the testing zone, it was a rough landing, but she forced herself back up quickly.

Aizawa simply gave the people who crossed the measurements completely a 'Clear' as they completely cleared the test. Not everyone's quirk let them pass it.

Test 4: Repeated Side Steps

She wasn't sure how to handle this one, so initially she tried jumping normally but suddenly stopped when an idea entered her head. Her posture fixed into a tighter one and she created a gap that would lead right above each line. She got in the middle and essentially split herself in two. Instead of having to do long jumps, she simply jumped up and down on each of her feet, landing her a 73.

According to Iida, this was apparently a very high score which he hadn't beat. He could do around 50, but due to his quirk not being suited for rapid side-ways movement, he couldn't use it so well for this. There were some higher placements, but she could count them on her fingers.

Test 5: Softball throw

Thinking mostly about how she was going to tackle the tests using her quirk was more annoying than she thought it would be, but she already had an idea for this test after watching the demonstration. Maribel thought she could simply toss it through a gap and be over with it, simple enough. "Aizawa-sensei, how long is this field?" Maribel scouted out, unsure of its size.

"Four-hundred meters." He looked at his mobile device, replying in a disinterested way before looking back at her.

Maybe I'll try to top that guy from before. I've been using my quirk a little bit recently, so I hope I don't get too nauseous. But, you know... Go beyond and all that...! Her iris became purple, those who noticed found themselves with more intrigue than earlier. Some had already seen the phenomenon, but now that she was probably going to exert herself more, it was somewhat more exciting.

She pulled herself into a pitcher pose, thinking she was going to use it to activate her quirk by timing it with her muscle movements. "I'll send it across the entire field..." She spoke to herself. Maribel tried drawing the image into her mind, a distance beyond the field, beyond the clearing outside of it and further into the forest. Throwing it by bending slightly down and sending her arm down conjunction, she let go and threw the ball. Space twisted and the ball just disappeared through a round rift immediately that led to somewhere far away, before it disappeared.

"Two point zero-five kilometers." Aizawa smiled at the results. "Impressive, it's been a while since I've seen a class with multiple high scorers in a row."

She looked confused, the last time she created a gap over those distances she became extremely nauseous. It was almost like she'd throw up on the spot. Maribel brought a hand to her chin and pondered, noticing a faint purple glow coming from her eyes. Looking over to the rest of the class, some looked on impressed. Even if Ochaco had broken any record, this was an impressive feat as it had outdone the previous numbered record made by Bakugo. Maribel glanced at him as she thought and received one back, but before she saw how he responded, she walked out of the circle and back to the class. Instead of any enthusiastic celebrating on her part, she simply wobbled back to the class. Damn did she feel sick after creating that gap, but compared to the last time she tried something similar with Renko, it went a lot better. ...Could I be improving my quirk?

Next up was the boy whose name she hadn't asked for yet, he broke his arm back during the entrance exam. Maribel approached Iida from behind and asked "What's his name again?" with a moderately unbalanced pose. Dizzy. Her eyes became gold again without anybody noticing.

"It's only been close to an hour, Merry." Tenya replied to Maribel, snickering a little as if he thought she was playing dumb. "He's Izuku Midoriya. Though, I don't think he's doing too well right now."

"Oh... I forgot his name." Maribel responded, starting to lean on Iida for support. "He destroyed that arena trap, I can't imagine he won't throw that thing a couple hundred meters at least."

"Your display was pretty impressive, but if he uses the same amount of force he used back then, maybe he could top it." Tenya Iida replied, they spoke lowly, so the teacher didn't seem to notice.

Just as Izuku was about to throw his ball, the wrappings around Aizawa detached and Izuku's arm ceased glowing and the ball was thrown normally. Landing at 46 meters.

"I-I was definitely trying to use it just now..." Izuku blinked, looking at his arms and then back to the teacher.

"I erased your quirk." The teacher gave him an intimidating look. "That entrance exam was definitely not good enough considering a kid like you slipped through the cracks, I suppose we'll need to review the examinees personally next time."

"You erased my quirk?!" Izuku was confused, but eventually a look of understanding, albeit sadness spread across his face. "Those goggles, I see! You can erase other people's quirks with your quirk just by looking at them! Eraser Head!"

Almost everyone began to chatter. "Yes, yes... Anyway, from what I can tell, you can't control you quirk at all. Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?" The teacher berated him.

"Th-that's not my intention!" The student let out. Immediately as he said this, one of the wrappings took a hold of Izuku and pulled him close to Aizawa. He spoke lower and then raised his voice for everyone else to hear "Izuku Midoriya. You have courage, but a self-injuring quirk like your own won't help you become a hero."

Izuku gulped and go back into place as Aizawa returned to normal, "You have two turns left for the throw. Hurry up."

"Looks like he received some advice." Tenya took note in the same authoritative voice as usual.

Bakugo cut into the conversation and began to speak. "Probably that he'll be expelled."

"...But he destroyed the arena trap..." Maribel replied with plainness unmatched by even Aizawa's voice and pulled away from Iida.

Bakugo glared, but in her drowsy state, Hearn couldn't care any less.

Izuku had stood there for almost a straight minute before he got into position again, he held the ball tight and prepared to throw. "SMAAAAASH!" Midoriya yelled out as he threw the ball, focusing all his power into what appeared to be his finger.

Maribel was shaken by the sudden sonic boom from the throw, but not only that, Izuku emitted a feeling of overwhelming power and will. Back during the exam she couldn't get to feel it so clearly. Perhaps it was because he passed by so fast, but on display and for her to see, it was something different. Through her quirk, she felt intimidated, and that didn't help her sickness. So all of a sudden Maribel began losing her balance and barely stood up.

His throw had kicked up some dirt, so the student wasn't even visible until it settled. Once he became visible again, Izuku took a long look at his finger before glaring back at his teacher as some sort of revenge. "Sensei... It looks like I can still move!" He yelled out and clenched his fist in victory, raising it up high for a moment.