Eijirou took in a deep breath as he walked through the gates of the of most prestigious high school that you could get into if you wanted to go into hero work. He still couldn't believe that he had gotten here with his quirk, something so small and straightforward as hardening had him here, walking through the gates of UA. He glanced around the campus, searching for some familiar faces and finding none. He was completely alone and a new face and the thought caused his heart to sore and jump.
He could finally be Eijirou like he wanted to be. Without any of the titles that people had branded him with when he was going to middle school. Here, no one knew who he was. He was a brand new person that could make his own mark without anyone having to know his past.
It was almost like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders as he walked through the gates as if he was leaving behind the abusive foster homes and transphobic friends that he had had to deal with for years prior. His binder and male uniform were the only things in his backpack, which might have been detrimental for the future, but right then all he cared about was running to the nearest bathroom.
Once he had gotten in there, he locked himself in the handicap stall, tossing his skirt onto the grimy floor and shuddering as he thought of anyone having seen him wearing it. His shirt came off next, but he treated that with a bit more care, hanging it on the hook that was attached to the stall door. He tore off his sports bra, throwing it on top of the skirt on the floor. He quickly replaced the feminine undergarment with his well-worn binder, securing it over his breasts to make it appear almost as though he had a completely flat chest. The small lump still upset him, but at least it was better than nothing. He quickly pulled on his pants, tucking his shirt in before grabbing the skirt and bra off the ground, shoving those into his backpack.
He darted out of the bathroom quickly, hoping he could still make it to his meeting the principal of the school before Homeroom started and his deadname got called out in front of the entire class. A startled looking second-year student stared at him as he raced from the bathroom, but it wasn't a look that Eijirou was unfamiliar with. After all, his hair was bright red and spiked up towards the sky in a brash attempt to both become more masculine and rebel against his foster parents.
He remembered back when he had taken a fistful of his dark black locks, his foster mother's kitchen shears in one hand, his heart hammering in his chest as he hacked messily at the locks. He had bleached and dyed his hair himself, using the store-bought bleach and hair dye. It had turned out better than he thought it would, seeing as he had no experience whatsoever, and it had the effect that he had wanted it to. When he had looked at himself in the mirror, regardless of the fact that he was in the girliest bra he owned (in hopes of ruining it and never having it wear it again) he had felt more like a man than he ever had in his entire life. He would also never forget the look of disdain and distaste that had rested on his foster father's face when he had come home from work. His foster mother arriving shortly after that and nearly fainting at seeing what her 'heathen' of a charity case had done this time.
His memories were cut short as he arrived at the principal's office, and then he suddenly felt how hard his heart was beating and how hard he was breathing from sprinting there. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but before he could even tap it once, a small, high-pitched voice called out, "Come in young Kirishima!"
Eijirou did as he was told, walking into the oddly neat office. It was lined with large windows facing the South, and there was a perfectly groomed potted plant in each corner of that side of the room. The desk was slightly off to the side away from the windows, as if whoever had placed it there had been trying to leave the plants alone. As Eijirou looked around a little bit more, he spotted both a comfortable looking couch and a chair sat in front of the desk. Behind the large, neatly organized desk sat a small anthropomorphized rat. He had his hands folded in front of him neatly and there appeared to be some sort of smile resting on his lips.
"What brings you here today?" he asked, jumping straight to the point. Little did Eijirou know that Nezu already knew exactly why he was here and had already made the necessary emails to the teachers just before the teenager had arrived.
"Well, sir," Eijirou started respectively, "I would like it if you and all the other teachers would use he/him pronouns for me and call me Eijirou for my first name instead of Eiko."
He said it all in a rush, his heart pounding in his ears as he waited for the principal to respond. Suddenly, fear rushed into his mind, just as it had the night before. He had no idea what kind of people worked here and what they thought of transgender people or homosexuals. Maybe it would have been safer to just wait until he was eighteen and then make the smooth transition to the man that nobody knew existed.
"Done!" the mouse squeaked happily, proud of how bold the boy had been. "I will email all your teachers about it immediately. From here on out you are Eijirou Kirishima."
"Thank you," Eijirou bowed deeply, trying to hold the tears back as his heart swelled with happiness.
"You're welcome, young Kirishima," Principal Nezu grinned to himself, but kept his normal, passive face on for the students in front of him. "Now, don't you have a homeroom to get to?"
"Oh yeah! Thank you again, sir," Eijirou waved to the principal as he darted back out into the hallway, sprinting to his classroom faster than he had sprinted since he was in middle school and had come out to his 'friends.'
He slid the door open and found that there will only a couple of students in the classroom, meaning that a lot of people were still finding their way there. He frowned as he saw that people were already talking to each other in tight groups. He awkwardly made his way to the back row, where he had gotten used to sitting after he came out due to the awful bullying he had endured. He sat down on at the desk in the back corner, the furthest away from the crowds of people. He sat his backpack down by the door, hoping to hide it so that he could play it off that he hadn't brought a backpack at all as opposed to the fact that he was too excited about getting to be Eijirou instead of Eiko to pack his regular school supplies
He glanced at the groups of people around the wall and his eyes were drawn to the trio sitting closest to him. There were two boys and a girl, all laughing as they chatted with each other. One of the boys had straight black hair, much like Eijirou's had been before he had cut and dyed it. The other boy had bright blond hair which an odd looking black piece that fell down to look like something like a lightning bolt. The girl had bright pink hair, and skin, which surprised Eijirou a bit as he had never seen anyone that affected by a Quirk.
After another moment, the girl noticed him and began to jump and down as she rushed over to him. "Hi!" she said, her voice was high and giddy as she spoke. "My name is Ashido Mina! What's yours?"
"I-" he stopped, clearing his throat and then speaking again with a slightly deeper voice. "I'm Kirishima Eijirou. It's nice to meet you."
"Dude, Ashido," the boy with blond hair called out to the girl, now known as Ashido to Eijirou. "Why did you leave us?"
"I wanted to talk to this guy!" Ashido explained, gesturing to him broadly to Eijirou. When the word 'guy' fell from her mouth in terms that related to him and his gender, the red-haired teenager felt his heart swore and break through his ribcage.
"Oh," the blond haired boy nodded. "I'm Kaminari Denki," the blond haired boy said, sticking his hand out for the other to shake. Kirishima took it and introduced himself to Kaminari the same way that he had to Ashido.
The black haired boy took the silence that followed after as the opportunity to introduce himself. "I'm Hanta Sero. It's nice to meet you Kirishima."
"So what's your Quirk?" Mina asked excitedly, nearly bouncing up and down again.
"This," Eijirou said, sticking his hand out in front of him and taking some extra care to only harden his hand so that he wouldn't rip through his binder.
"Woah! Dude that's so manly," Kaminari gushed, his eyebrows raised in amazement. "It must have been so easy for you to pass the entrance exams!"
"Yeah man," Eijirou nodded, quickly taking the relaxed tone that this group seemed to have and rolling with it. His heart was now a bird, soaring freely through the air and having the time of its life at how easily these guys called him 'manly' and 'dude.' (Even if Kaminari seemed to call everyone 'dude' regardless of their gender). "What's your Quirk?"
"I have electricity!" Kaminari almost shouted, holding his hands out and displaying the crackling, golden electricity that flickered across his palms.
"Careful Denki, you don't want to short circuit your brain," a new voice said from behind the small group. The girl that had approached their group had elongated earlobes that turned into jacks at the very end, making Eijirou snicker at the thought of the pun 'earphone jack'.
"I won't," Kaminari rolled his eyes so hard he must have seen his brain. "That only happens when I use a lot of electricity. Anyways, guys, this is Kyoka Jiro, my childhood best friend!"
"Your hair is so pretty," Ashido gushed as she reached up to touch the black-ish/blue-ish/purple-ish locks. Jiro ducked away from her hand with an awkward 'thanks.'
"Anyway, going back to Quirks," Kaminari said, grinning from ear to ear. "You should tell them what yours is Ashido."
"Okay," the pink girl returned his grin, sticking her hand out to where his hand been only a few moments ago. Her palm quickly filled with a murky looking liquid, which smelled awful. "I can create acid, so make sure not to touch this," she chastised, though no one in the group had any plans of touching the liquid anyways.
"That's really cool," Jiro nodded as she assessed her classmate's Quirk.
"Thanks! What can you do, Jiro?" Ashido asked the other girl.
"Huh?" Jiro asked, snapping back to the group and out of her thoughts. "Oh, my ears can plug into stuff so that I can hear vibrations and stuff. It's kinda hard to explain."
"You and Kaminari must've breezed through all those robots," Sero sighed, running a hand through his dark black hair. "Having electricity related Quirks can really help with technology, huh?"
"I mean, I almost failed the entrance exam, so it's good that the robots were easy for me," Kaminari grinned.
Ashido laughed. "I almost failed the written exam too," she rubbed the back of her wild pink hair with her hands sheepishly.
"Wow, really? Me too," Kirishima laughed loudly. "Sounds like we're going to be great friends then."
"Am I seriously the only one that passed the entrance exam?" Jiro chuckled.
"I passed it too," Sero said defensively.
Before Eijirou had time to comment, the door swung open, slamming against the wall as someone walked inside. The red-haired teenager's jaw dropped as he saw the beautiful boy enter the room. He had white-blonde, spiky hair that stuck up to the sky much like Eijirou's but a bit more natural and chaotic. His eyes were the same gorgeous shade of red that his own eyes were and he couldn't tear them away as the muscular teenager sat down in a chair not too far away from him.
Ashido was quick to go introduce herself to him, just as she had with Eijirou. "Hi! I'm Ashido Mina! What's your name?"
"Does it matter?" he growled, folding his arms over his obviously muscular chest. "I'm not here to make friends."
Eijirou winced, the angry tone that the boy portrayed reminded him a little too much of previous foster siblings that he had had to live with. Despite his aggressive nature, something about the new boy struck Eijirou as odd, leaving him with the feeling of longing to get to know the boy. "C'mon, even if we're not going to be your friends you could at least tell us your name!" he chuckled
"Tch," the boy sneered. "I'm Katsuki Bakugou."
"Nice to meet you Bakugou!" Kaminari grinned, holding his hand out for the other boy to shake.
Bakugou sneered again, "You might want to think twice before touching me, Pikachu."
"Oh, uh," he pulled his hand back, shoving it into his pocket.
"Why?" Eijirou asked curiously.
"Because I blow shit up, Shitty Hair!" Bakugou shouted at the red-haired teenager, causing him to flinch.
"Kaa-chan!" a new, slightly shrill voice called out from one of the other groups that had been there when Eijirou had shown up.
"Oh great, fucking Deku is here," the boy rolled his eyes.
"Everyone! Homeroom is about to begin, please sit down!" a blue-haired, very, very tall boy called out, silencing all the conversations that were happening as everyone moved to sit down. They waited for a few moments in complete silence, but after five minutes the teacher still hadn't arrived.
Kaminari, who had sat down in the seat in front of him, turned around, making a face at him. "Bro, what kind of teacher doesn't show up to the first class on the first day?"
"I know, right?" Eijirou laughed. Several other conversations around the classroom had arisen, which made the blue-haired boy from earlier frown and try to quiet everyone around him down. "Like, I thought this was a really top notch school and then our homeroom teacher doesn't even show up on time?"
As the words fell from his mouth, the door slid open, and a tired-looking man stood in the door frame. He walked to the front of the room, standing there with some papers in his hands. "Everyone shut up," he growled, looking over the students.
The boy with green hair that had called Bakugou 'Kaachan' seemed to be struggling to stay in his seat. His legs were eagerly bouncing up and down as he flipped through a dirty, burnt notebook. His lips moved quickly as he mumbled things to himself.
The man sighed. "I'm your homeroom teacher. My name is Aizawa Shouta, one of you will be gone from the hero course by the end of the day."
The green haired boy paled and looked up, his breath obviously hitching in his throat. Several of the other students quickly began to panic, shouting at the teacher. He looked up, his tired eyes glaring at all the teenagers, "I thought I told you all to shut up."
The entire classroom went quiet, sitting in fear as he began to call off names from the role. Each person went in turn, raising their hand and respectfully saying 'here.'
"Aoyama Yuga?" the teacher drawled in his bored tone.
"Here," a French-accented voice called out as a boy with longish blond hair rose his hand.
"Ashido Mina?" he said without even marking anything on his roll sheet.
"Here!" Ashido sing-sung as she raised her perfectly pink hand in the air.
"Asui Tsuyu?"
"Here," a frog-like voice emanated from a girl with green hair that looked frighteningly like a frog herself.
"Iida Tenya?"
"Present," the boy from earlier that had gotten the entire class to sit down called out, standing up eagerly.
"Sit down," the teacher growled with a deeper frown. "Uraraka Ochaco?"
"Here," a high voice called out as a very feminine girl raised her hand.
"Oijiro Mashirao?"
"Present, sir," a boy with a huge tail, and oddly yellow hair raised his hand.
"Kaminari Denki?"
"Pre-sent," the boy in front of Eijirou raised his hand, splitting the word up awkwardly, which earned him a glare from the teacher.
"Kirishima," as his last name fell from the teacher's mouth, he felt his stomach clench anxiously as he waited for the first name to come and he prayed to any deity that would listen to him that the teacher had already received the email about his name change and would respect it. "Eijirou."
"Here," Eijirou raised his hand, tears welling in his eyes as he was called by his name, as opposed to his deadname.
"Koda Koji," he called out, looking up this time as the student only raised his hand. "Please say 'here' next time. Satou Rikidou."
"Here."
"Shoji Mezo?"
"Here," a muffled voice called out.
"Jiro Kyoka?"
"Here," she sighed, folding her arms over her chest and slumping down in her seat.
"Tokoyami Fumikage?" he called out after shooting a small glare to Jiro for not speaking clearly.
"Present," a deep, masculine voice called out, causing the insecurities inside of Eijirou to rare their head again.
"Todoroki Shoto?"
"Present," a boy with heterochromatic eyes and evenly split hair almost growled, which earned him a glare that the teacher seemed so fond of giving.
"Hagakure Tooru?"
A person less uniform raised the arm and a girl's voice called out. "Here!"
"Oh boy," the teacher grumbled. "Bakugou Katsuki?"
"Here," he muttered, just loud enough for the people around him to hear.
"Bakugou Katsuki?" the teacher called out again, annoyance heavy in his tone.
"I SAID HERE YOU FUCKER!" Bakugou called out angrily.
"Please refrain from swearing in this class," Aizawa-sensei grew, looking up with narrowed, intimidating eyes. "Midoriya Izuku."
"Here," the boy from earlier jumped and said instinctively as he glanced up from the burnt notebook on his lap.
"Mineta Minoru?"
"Here," a greazy, slurred tone called out from the shortest member of the class.
"Yaoyorozu Momo?" he called out the last name.
"Present, sir," the tallest girl in the class called out, respectfully raising her hand.
"Great, a full class," Aizawa-sensei growled as he placed the roll sheet on the podium in front of him. "As I said before, one of you will be expelled by the end of class today."
Eijirou felt the anxiety that he thought he had gotten rid of when he got called by the proper name and pronouns arise, settling down in his stomach as if it was there to stay forever. Today was definitely going to be more nerve-wracking and for a completely different reason than he had expected.
It had been a nerve-wracking, stressful day, but Eijirou had made it through the entire day without a single panic attack. He had spent lunch and all of his classes around Kaminari, Ashido, and Sero. They had spent a large portion of their lunch bugging Bakugou because they had nothing better to do, despite having seen what he had done during their training.
Now Eijirou stood in the same bathroom that he had been in this morning, taking off his pants with an ache in his heart as he replaced it with his skirt. He removed his binder for the third time today, the others being when they had had to exercise. He placed his sports bra back on with a sigh before he turned and left the bathroom to head home.