Casting his eyes towards the towering entrance of U.A. for the second time in his life, the second of many he noted with a smile, Izuku took a deep breath to cool his nerves.
Despite all the changes he'd managed to make in his character the last few months, some things were harder to change than others.
In this case, the hero fanboy inside of him wanted to squeal in a pitch that would likely shatter the windows of the building he was looking at with such reverence.
His new, more realistic view of heroics had not affected his love for all things crime fighty after all, and this was still the best hero school in all of Japan, that still meant something to him despite his less than starry outlook on the hero system itself.
The crux of the matter was, anyone who came through the halls of this school, his new school, left a powerful and highly skilled hero, what they choose to do with that power and skill was their own choice after all.
"Are we gonna go in Izuku? Or should I stare at the entrance for a little longer?" Ochako asked in a mirthful voice.
The green haired boy turned to his best, and only friend for that matter, shooting her a smirk for her cheek.
"Well, I could look at the entrance all day, but I suppose being on time is important, so I guess I can move on…" he replied with mock begrudging in his tone.
This signalled the two teens to begin walking forward into the school building.
Izuku thought it was rather lucky that he and Ochako took the same train line to school, and were in the same class, it not only allowed them to spend the next few years sharing experiences that would tighten their bonds, but it also meant that he didn't have to walk into his new class all on his own.
Deep down he was still nervous in social situations, but having the bubbly personality of his new partner in crime by his side helped alleviate a lot of this anxiety, which would hopefully save him from ruining every one of his first impression with the other people in his class.
It also helped that he now had hours of experience talking to cute girls, not that he got any better at it, he was just less mortally terrified and confused by the species in general.
Despite all this, he couldn't shake this odd feeling he had that the universe was about to hit him in the face with a can of worms that he would inevitably have to deal with, so he supposed having someone who would hopefully always be on his side wasn't the worst thing in the world.
After successfully navigating the maze that was UA's corridors, which was not an easy task, and finally finding the entrance to their new class, the two heroes in training couldn't help but marvel at the size of the doors.
"Those are pretty big huh?" Ochako said rather matter-of-factly, Izuku fought down the urge to make a snarky remark about the obviousness of her statement, he had learnt early on that Ochako always meant well, especially with her occasional lighthearted but empty comments, he reckoned half the time they were just made to break an awkward silence or help lighten the mood, both of which the boy was grateful for because he absolutely sucked at any form of small talk, besides, Izuku needed to save his snark for the inevitable arguments he would have with his other classmates, hormonal teenagers that they were.
There was also the fact he was trying to cut back on being an ass, now that he had a suspicion that his other forms were starting to affect him more than just physically.
"They're probably for people with body altering quirks." The boy offered his friends as he pushed the unsurprisingly heavy door aside, offering one final prayer to the universe in the hopes that it didn't do him dirty.
His prayer went unanswered as he was instantly caught in the middle of a shouting match between a boy that struck him as somewhat familiar, and his oldest acquaintance.
Honestly, he didn't know exactly what to make of Katsuki Bakugou anymore, ever since he had gotten the watch, it was like the blonde had completely forgotten who he was, he hadn't attempted to bully him even once, nor had he offered any support to the bullies that rose up in his place, not that Izuku was complaining, the last ten months were nice and quiet for a change, he'd discovered that not everyone was quite as brutally efficient as the blonde when it came to decimating someone's self esteem, plus the green haired boy had the watch now, and it gave him abilities that were much better than anything his classmates could produce.
God did that make him sound like his ex tormentor.
Izuku had started getting a little concerned when he had sat next to the boy for the entrance exam briefing and the blonde hadn't even spared a glance his way.
Again, he wasn't exactly complaining, it struck him as odd was all.
No sooner had he finished opening the large door to the classroom, did the attention of the two quarrelling teens snap towards him.
The tall, blue haired boy considered him with what Izuku could only describe with surprised admiration for a second, before dashing up to him in what the greenette assumed was a poor imitation of robotic movement.
"YOU!" the boy yelled, causing Izuku to step back in surprise, "you are the boy from the start of the entrance exam, I must apologise for my brashness during that time." he began before giving a perfect ninety degree bow, "you managed to discern the true meaning of the exam, something which I, myself, could not achieve!"
Izuku blinked at him owlishly, was the boy talking about rescue points?
Truthfully, the green haired boy had no clue that they were a part of the exam, but what he did know was who the boy before him was now, and he certainly wasn't going to let a chance to mess with this guy again slip by unexploited.
"Ahhh, so you too figured it out?" Izuku began with grandiosity, "Truly a student worthy of U.A, tell me friend, what is thy name?" it was hard to fight the grin of his face when the boy vehemently reached for his outstretched hand with both of his own and began shaking vigorously.
'I'll cut back on being an ass tomorrow.' the green haired boy swore in his mind.
Ochako had no such qualms with hiding her amusement as she covered her mouth to stifle her giggle and began shaking her head at her friend's antics.
"My name is Iida Tenya, it is a pleasure to meet you." the boy said politely, before pausing, offering Izuku a chance to give his name.
Before he could, however, a sudden voice came from behind him in a low tone, causing him to jump in surprise.
"If you're here to socialise then get out."
Izuku turned to regard the speaker only to be met with what he could best describe as a yellow caterpillar with an unkempt face.
Izuku held in his yell of surprise, releasing a sort of choked gasp.
The others did not.
Izuku's ears hated him at that instant.
"You took 8 seconds to sit down, which is completely irrational." the caterpillar said, as he took his place at the front of the class, "I am Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher." it said, before the crisp sound of a zip was heard and a man with long, scruffy, black hair, a simple set of black clothes and white bandages wrapped around his neck emerged. "Go get changed into these and meet me outside." he stated simply, removing a P.E kit from his yellow chrysalis. "You have ten minutes."
He then left the class with no further instructions, leaving a class of twenty confused teenagers to sort themselves out.
It was a trial and a half for Izuku to complete his teacher's request.
Not only did he not know where he was meant to get the necessary P.E kit in his size, he also had to find the changing rooms, he assumed the school had them, he was just struggling to figure out where, but finding out required him to navigate the sprawling labyrinth that were the halls of his new school, and he only had ten minutes to do so.
He was questioning his teacher's ability to. Well. teach. He had thrown the lot of them in the deep end within about five seconds and didn't even stay to watch them drown.
Maybe it was a test of independence or something, to show them they would no longer be spoon fed everything they needed by the faculty, or maybe he was just over thinking it and his teacher was just horribly lazy.
Izuku was really hard pressed to tell.
Because of how big of a rush he and everyone else had been in he was unable to even start a conversation with any new people, in fact everyone was in such a rush to get outside that they didn't much help each other to achieve their collective goal, but Izuku didn't make an effort either really, so he wouldn't hold it against anyone.
He'd made a new friend, or he thought so at least, since Iida had tagged along with him and Ochako on their U.A maze adventure, he wasn't sure why since he'd literally done nothing but be an ass to the guy, but he somehow had the impression that the glasses wearing boy was even more socially dense than himself.
Once all was said and done, by some miracle the whole class made it outside before the time was up, and now they were regarding their new teacher curiously.
"What we are going to do today is the basic physical apprehension exam, however, the government puts a ban on quirk use during said exam, which is completely illogical." the tall, scruffy man said, pulling out a ball with a mechanical portion that Izuku was unsure as to what it did. "Izuku Midoriya, you scored the highest in the entrance exam correct?" the man asked, throwing the ball towards him.
Izuku noticed the attention on him instantly, looks of admiration and rivalry focused on him with the intensity of a high baring laser was also Katsuki's slightly angry glare in the mix, but that was probably the least odd thing the blonde had done in the last ten months, Izuku was more concerned by the fact that it wasn't as angry as he thought it should be, and that there was no shouting.
"Y-yes sir." Izuku replied, catching the ball, thanking his recently developed reflexes for saving him from embarrassment, not that he wasn't embarrassed by the attention, but he was somewhat able to mask that.
"What was your ball throw score in middle school?" the man questioned.
"Umm… W-well, something like forty meters…" Izuku said, chuckling nervously, it wasn't exactly the best score, and he knew it, although it was probably better now from all of his exercising.
"Throw the ball without leaving the circle, you have three attempts, use whatever means necessary to get the highest score."
Izuku walked up to the circle dauntlessly.
The boy looked down at the display of his watch for a second, wondering if he could gain a better score with his other forms other than Four Arms, he felt like he was overusing the form a little, but most of the challenges he'd met at U.A so far could easily be dealt with through the use of sheer brute force.
Nothing said brute force like a hulking four armed figure.
He deliberated for a few more seconds, thinking up a few elaborate schemes that he could do, before simply decided that running with the same old thing wasn't necessarily bad.
In a flash of green light, Izuku was now stood there in all his red glory, many of the class exclaimed in excitement, it was the first time they were seeing him in this form, and Four Arms had quite the impressive presence.
Izuku got into position to pitch the ball as far as he could, his muscles straining against the uniform that had grown to match his new size, the watch liked to be nifty like that, although he wasn't sure what U.A were thinking making the uniform so tight at the sleeves.
The boy threw the ball using his best imitation of a professional pitch, causing a shock wave to spread out from the sheer force of the movement.
"2115.9m" Aizawa stated, seemingly unperturbed by his long black hair billowing in the winds Izuku had just generated, in fact the man stood perfectly still, as if unaffected by the force at all, which was quite impressive to the teen.
Aizawa showed the monitor he was holding in his hand to the class so they could verify it for themselves, and they all began clamouring in an excited tone.
"Awesome! That looks so fun!" A girl with pink skin, matching hair, and an interesting set of eyes exclaimed excitedly.
"It looks like fun you say?" Aizawa asked demurely, "So you were planning to spend your three years here having a good ol' time? What happened to becoming heroes?" He continued, the tone of his voice raising the tension in the air considerably. "All right then. In that case new rule: the student who ranks last in total points will be judged hopeless."
He gave the class a stern once over, as if to make sure everyone was paying proper attention.
"And instantly expelled."