I uploaded this chapter in the wrong format, so I have reuploaded it to make it easier to read and understand. Sorry for the people that left review but the previous chapter was quite unreadable.
(xx)
Izuku smiled as he all but skipped to the corridor, wearing the UA uniform. 'I'm going to UA, I'm going to UA, I'm going to UA…'
"Izuku!" Hisashi threw him something. Izuku would have fumbled a few months back, but his training with Stendhal had made him a lot better at catching stuff that was being thrown at his face. It usually was a toy knife, but details.
This time it was a velvety box closed with a small bow. "What's this?" He asked.
"Just a little gift. Your mom gave you your costume, so I figured I'd at least throw in an accessory." He smiled, "Good luck."
Izuku smiled back. It was hard to say what he thought of his dad after ten months of knowing he was a Yakuza. Hisashi didn't behave differently around him than he had done before, at least when Himiko or All for One weren't involved. He was his usual father, smiles and apologetic looks to his mom whenever he messed something up, and the rest of the time out for work.
But at the same time, he was a Villain. Or well, a criminal. The technical definition of Villain required Quirk usage, and Hisashi never did, unless someone counted lighting a cigarette as unlawful, which would have landed at least three-quarters of the population with fire-related Quirks in jail. So yeah, criminal, but still a high-profile one.
So it was a bit hard to think of him just as his regular old dad. "Thank you." He still said, and Hisashi's smile was warm.
"No cutting sarcasm this time?"
"I… I'm not happy with who… with what you are." Izuku amended. He wasn't about to say he didn't like his father. He just didn't, couldn't like his job. "But I don't hate you. I think. So… Thank you."
Hisashi kept smiling, and glanced at Inko, that discreetly – well, she tried to be discreet, really Izuku noticed it clearly – gave him a thumb up. "Good. I… I love you son. You know that right? I don't think I say it nearly enough."
Izuku nodded, and felt a few tears swell in his eyes. His emotions were a bit too complicated, so he decided to open the box instead. Inside he found a watch. It looked rather expansive, to be honest, even if it wasn't gold. "It's nice." He said, meaning it.
"No problem. Now go." Hisashi smiled, and Izuku noticed just a hint of tears in his eyes. His mom wasn't nearly as composed.
"You look really cool Izuku!" She said, as Izuku put the watch on under the sleeve of his uniform.
"Thanks, mom! Bye, dad." He said, and waved, leaving the room while both of his parents waved at him and said goodbye.
Izuku smiled. 'First day of UA, here I come.'
-x-
"Are you sure you have everything?" All for One asked for the fifth time. Mustard did his best to not groan in exasperation.
"Yes, dad." Toga replied.
"The textbooks."
"Packed."
"The notebooks."
"Three of them."
"Blood?"
"I wouldn't forget my blood!" She said, shoving the thermos almost in the villain's face.
"Of course." He nodded, "It wouldn't do for the daughter of All for One to be any less than perfect." He nodded again, and Mustard smirked. Of course, that was the reason, totally.
"Well then, I shall leave you to your day. Mustard, I trust you will guard her with your life."
Mustard nodded frantically, understanding the undertone of 'if anything bad happens you die'. Not much of an undertone really.
Which explained why Mustard was so nervous. He didn't have much of a stake in this. With his appearance slightly changed, he wasn't recognizable, and his case hadn't even made it to national news. Kids ran from home all the time, and he had left a note saying he was doing just that, so there never was reason to think he had been kidnapped.
"Good. Compress, say something encouraging to your son."
"Something encouraging, son." The man said while taking a turn left that made the car screech.
"I was hoping it would be something more specific." All for One grumbled.
"Sorry sir, I'm busy – Get out of the way! I don't care if it was red, traffic light colors are more what you call a guideline anyway." He shouted, narrowly missing a pedestrian.
"I'm not sure that's true…" Himiko started, but Mustard shook his head. Trying to tell Compress how to drive properly was a losing battle. It seemed the man's composed demeanor disappeared once he was behind the wheel.
"I still don't understand how we don't get stopped by the police all the time." The teen mused.
"We do." Compress replied, opening the glove compartment. A rain of fines flowed out, "The nice thing about owning several sets of fake documents and a collection of spare car plates is that it's always your first offense."
Mustard snorted, as the car came to a halt screeching on the asphalt and leaving behind a trail. "This is your stop, five minutes from UA."
'Alright. Izukun should already be here.' Mustard thought.
"Let's go then. Izuku is probably waiting." Himiko opened the door, and Mustard nodded, following after her. "We also need to find this class 1-A. I heard going through UA can be pretty confusing the first few days. Good thing we got to be in the same class."
As had Pony and Jiro, Mustard mentally added. It was nice to know their friend group hadn't been split up – save for Melissa, but that was a given. They walked away, following the road to their new high school, and he mentally tried to prepare himself for a room full of Heroes wannabe. 'First of all I have to figure out the greeting. Can't really go up to them and go 'Hello, I'm Mustard, aspiring Villain undercover. How are you?'
Yeah, that wouldn't work for a variety of reasons.
He didn't even have his gun. UA had him send in a costume request and had required that any Support Item that wasn't for life support to be sent in too to make sure the costume design didn't clash with it. Which had him quite worried, to be honest, but it wasn't like he could deny he owned a Projectile Shooting Mu- A gun when he had used it at the Entrance Exam. Hopefully, they wouldn't look too much into it, considering the documents were in order, technically.
… Thinking about it, maybe it hadn't been the smartest decision of his life.
Welp, live and learn. He was a Villain wannabe in training accompanying the daughter of a legendary Villain, who was also a wanted serial killer, getting found out for owning a gun was small fry by comparison. They could always blame the company credited for making the Support item.
Again though, better hope they just didn't realize his Projectile Launching Multifunctional Support Item was actually a gun.
He sighed as they reached the gates, and waved at Izuku, who was nervously waiting next to them. "Masuchan!" He shouted, "Himiko!"
"Hello Izukun, ready?!" He called back, as Himiko all but skipped toward the boy.
"I-I'm not sure…"
"Izukun, that was a rhetorical question. Let's go."
Izuku nodded, and the three walked toward their class.
-x-
In hindsight, Izuku should have known this was going too well.
Then again, hindsight was twenty/twenty, as they said.
"What the fuck are you doing here, you bitch?!" Kacchan shouted, pointing his finger toward Himiko the second the three entered 1-A.
Himiko gasped, "You!" Then she paused, "Uh… Who were you again?"
"I'm Katsuki Bakugo!"
"Ah! The asshole!" She shouted back, turning to Izuku, "Izuku, why is he here?!"
"Because the universe hates me, I think." He turned to Masuchan, "Any idea to defuse this?"
"Please don't drag me into this Izukun."
"Everyone!" A tall, muscular boy with glasses and blue hair marched forward, "Please, control your tone and your language. We are in UA, our behavior should show respect for all our predecessors!"
"Who the fuck asked your help?!" Bakugo and Himiko both shouted toward him, before turning to each other, "Don't you copy me bitch/asshole!" They paused, then turned to Izuku, "Deku/Izuku tell the bitch/asshole to stop it!"
Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose, "I… Just…" he sighed, "Kacchan, I told you to stop calling her that, I hope you remember that. Himiko, please don't talk like Kacchan, one is enough."
"Are you implying something, Deku?!" Kacchan snarled.
"He is saying you swear like a sailor." Jiro, who Izuku hadn't even noticed in all the confusion, said from her desk.
"I don't- Wait a fucking minute, I remember you, you are Earlobes!" He shouted, pointing a finger at her.
"I- What?"
"Sorry Jiro, he is really bad at remembering people's names." Izuku said.
"I don't need to remember the name of some Extras!" Bakugo snarled, turning around.
Izuku sighed. Typical Kacchan. "Yeah he says that, but really he just isn't good at it!"
"You bastard, don't contradict me!"
"Stop arguing with them and come back here, we were arguing first!" Himiko shouted.
Izuku sighed, "Can you just not argue…" He pleaded, to no avail.
"Uhm, sorry, is this 1-A?" A girl with raven black hair with some massive b- Goddamit focus Izuku! – asked as she entered the class. "I heard someone shouting and… Mister Bakugou?"
"Who the fuck ask… Ponytail?"
"Oh my gosh, it's so nice to see you! How are you doing? Did you read Troubles of a Tender Heart after all?"
Several people in the class snorted, while a guy with blonde hair choked on the water he was drinking, as Bakugo started blushing. "Yeah Bakugo, did you read Troubles of a Tender Heart?" Masuchan asked with the biggest shit-eating grin Izuku had ever seen.
"… Yes." Bakugo scowled, while the girl's face clearly brightened, her smile growing larger.
"Oh wow, he admitted it in front of the class, that's super manly." A guy with red spiky hair said.
The same guy with blonde hair turned to him, "Dude do you even know what manly means?"
Izuku basically buried his face in his hands. Wow, it had taken all of five minutes to make his school life hell. Aldera at least had only sucked for the fact he got largely ignored by his classmates and ridiculed for his dreams, but this… Alright maybe this was a bit of an improvement, but still why?!
"Good morning boss." Pony saluted him, jumping into the classroom.
"Hello Pony." He sighed, "I hope at least you had a normal morning."
"Oh yeah, pretty normal stuff. Just the giant caterpillar crawling toward the class was a bit out of the norm."
"… Come again?"
"Yeah, it was pretty weird."
Izuku took a deep breath. Alright, alright, he would just pretend he hadn't heard that. "Nice. I'm doing well too…" He glanced at the class. Himiko and Bakugo were glaring at each other from opposite sides of the room, Jiro had pulled out a phone to film Momo as she enthusiastically asked Bakugo more about his favorite parts of some Shojo manga, and Musachan seemed to be more than ready to pull out some popcorn and enjoy the show. To be fair, most of the class was, the only exception being the glass-wearing student that was gesticulating wildly to try and stop them from doing anything inappropriate. "Yep. Exactly what I wanted."
"Oh, you are the guy from the exam!" A girl with brown hair said, walking into the class, "Nice to see we both made it! You really saved my bacon back there!"
"You did the same actually!" Izuku answered, recognizing her as the girl he had helped during the 0-pointer rampage, "If you didn't save me from that fall, I'd have probably injured myself a lot more."
"Oh, you are the girl that saved the boss!" Pony said, bowing so fast Uraraka barely had the time to step back before the horns passed through the point where her face had been a moment before. Izuku promised himself then and there to always make sure he was at least two meters in front of Pony whenever possible. He liked his eye bulbs in their sockets, thank you very much. "Thank you very much!"
"… The boss?"
"Ah, it's uhm…" Izuku struggled to figure out how to explain it away, but luckily something else caught his attention.
A giant yellow caterpillar stopped next to the door. He pointed at it, and Pony and the other girl followed his gaze, along with the nearby students. Pony nodded, "Yep, that's the caterpillar!"
"Silence." The caterpillar said, before slowly turning to reveal a face covered by an unkempt stubble and messy and long black hair.
The thing then opened a zipper and revealed itself as a man in his late twenties or early thirties, who sighed as he put the yellow sleeping bag he had been apparently crawling into until then back away. The class at large was staring at him with a mix of disbelief, confusion, and amusement. Even Bakugo and Himiko had stopped their glaring contest.
"It took you six seconds to do that. That's wasted time, we will need to rectify that." The man said in a monotone voice as he walked to the desk. Izuku, Pony and the others quickly rushed to their own seats. "My name is Shota Aizawa. I will be your Homeroom Teacher for this year, and most likely every other year. If you make it that far." Well, that didn't sound ominous at all. "Now, open your desk. Inside there is a UA gym suit of your size. Take it, we are going to do a Quirk Assessment Test."
"Uh, what about the Entrance Ceremony?" One of the students asked a girl with pink skin, black sclera in her eyes, and a pair of yellow horns.
"Waste of time."
"Introducing ourselves to the class?" A guy with blonde hair asked then.
"Do it after today, trust me." He said, again, very ominously.
Izuku grabbed his gym clothes and followed the others as they left the class, Himiko and Kacchan still glaring at each other. 'Well, nice start of my High School career.'
-x-
Himiko looked around at the others as they formed a line. The class was made up of twelve boys and eight girls, herself included. Everyone had put on the blue tracksuits with the white UA letters on them, and they were now waiting for this Quirk Assessment thing.
Which really didn't sound good for her.
"Now listen well." Aizawa, her new teacher, said, moving forward to face them all. "I will now test each of you through a series of exercises. Midoriya, you arrived first in the entrance exam, step forward."
Himiko could see Midoriya cringe as the asshole- ahem, Bakugo shouted an angry 'he did what?!' as Izuku did his best to ignore him and walk on the field.
"What was your record for ball throwing back in high school?"
"Uh…Forty-six meters?" He asked, sounding a bit unsure and ignoring the 'Ah! Sixty-seven. Suck it Deku!' From a specific member of the crowd.
Himiko really felt like stabbing someone right now. Preferably Bakugo.
"Good. Try to use your Quirk to throw it."
Izuku looked at it unsure, then pulled his arm back and activated One for All… And then Himiko could see it stop.
The ball bounced on the ground. "Stop." Aizawa said. Turning, Izuku saw his hair was standing up and his eyes shining red.
"What… Wait a minute… You are Eraserhead?"
Aizawa sighed as the rest of the class exchanged looks, and Himiko looked at Mustard, who shrugged too. Oh, so she wasn't the only one that didn't know.
Izuku did know though, if his eyes visibly brightening and him rushing toward him were any indication. "Oh my gosh, you are one of the best Underground Heroes! Can I have an autograph?"
"You will get a lot of my autographs soon," Aizawa grumbled. Himiko was fairly sure it was meant to be a threat of some kind, but Izuku squealed in joy. "Now, Midoriya, you know why I turned off your Quirk?"
"I was about to break my arm…" He said sheepishly.
"And why is that bad?"
"… Why is it bad I break my arm?" He asked, genuinely lost. Himiko glanced toward Masutaro.
'Uh, maybe he is a masochist after all. That would be nice.'
"Let me rephrase. Why is it bad for a Hero to injure himself so willy-nilly?"
Izuku thought, "Well, I will need other people to save me, right?"
"Correct." He sighed, "I will give you to the end of the exercises to figure out how to use your Quirk without blowing yourself up. If you can't do it, you have no business being in this school." He turned around to look at the rest of the class, "And before anyone of you thinks this is gonna be some funny entertaining time, know I will expel the lowest ranking student."
Everyone froze at once.
-x-
Aizawa hid his grin behind the capture scarf.
Of course, he wasn't lying entirely. He would gladly make his student experience 'death' by expulsion if needed, but today, save for some really bad showing and two special cases, he wouldn't do it. He already had a basic idea of where the class stood thanks to the entrance exam, this was merely to see how far they would push themselves.
People like Bakugo, Ashido, Asui and Shoji already showed a good understanding of how to use their Quirks to give themselves an advantage. Most of the class had a Quirk that gave them at least some advantage for at least one test.
What he was interested in were the few people that lacked said advantage. Hagakure was only invisible, which meant none of the physical tests would be influenced. Sako's Gas didn't offer any particular use for physical tests he could think of. He would keep it into consideration once the evaluation came up. While Heroes were supposed to be capable of thinking outside the box, he wasn't about to punish someone because their Quirk wasn't suited at all for a task. That would have been rather hypocritical.
Finally, there were the two people he was interested in, for opposite reasons.
Izuku Midoriya showed an attitude at team building during the entrance exam, but in contrast, the showing of his own power had been lackluster. Sure, it was strong, but a Hero couldn't constantly be in need of rescue after one blow. If he couldn't show him a compelling reason to stay, he would expel him for a bit to show him what the consequence of lacking control could be.
As for Himiko Shimura, her problem was the requirement of her Quirk. Blood Transformation seemed a good one, but the need to use other people's blood was a steep price. Looking through the regulations for this kind of Quirk, Aizawa had found that she needed permission from anyone she took it from unless she could prove it had been a life-or-death situation. Even then, the incident would be reviewed. She was never going to be a popular Hero, and definitely an Underground one.
As the exercises started, he decided he definitely wanted to see how far his new class would be pushed.
-x-
The first test was the 100 meters dash, Izuku noted. According to his research, All Might could cover that distance in about one second, so he should have been able to do the same.
If he could control his Quirk, which he couldn't right now. He tried his best to run, but all he got was a better result than middle school.
Himiko and Mustard did the same, with the former beating him and the latter only a little behind. On the bright side, they were in the upper half of the class – when it came to those that didn't have a Quirk that allowed to run.
Problem was, he technically had that, and Aizawa didn't look impressed.
'Alright, that was one out. I will do better next.'
Iida sped past him, his engines roaring as he rushed through the 100 meters dash.
'Yep, definitely gonna try to do better next.'
-x-
Himiko stared at the grip and bit her lip.
She could get a good result if she turned into someone strong. She watched as the guy with multiple arms achieved a 560 Kg grip easily, and considered her options.
Could she just walk up to him and ask?
'Hey, can I get some blood to turn into you?' Yeah, that was never going to fly.
She glanced at Aizawa. The school had sent in a pamphlet on the rules of using her Quirk, and one said bloodletting had to be consensual. Finding out that had been a bit of a shock. All that time, her parents had forced her to play the part of the normal girl, and she could just have asked people for blood?
Well, to be fair, maybe it was because this was a Hero school that wanted her to test her Quirk, but still, she had an option before. She could have used it…
"Are you ok?" A voice asked, and she turned around to see the brunette and the black-haired girl from earlier. The one that had spoken was the former, the one with rosy cheeks and pads on her fingers. She was fairly cute, Himiko assumed. Would probably look better if she was a bit more bloody, but…
"Uhm, yeah, why?"
"You haven't started the exercise yet." The girl replied, "Uhm, I'm Ochaco Uraraka, by the way, and this is…"
"Momo Yaoyorozu, nice to meet you." The girl said, and Himiko watched her other hand, where she was holding a vise that contained a broken grip tester.
"How did you do that?" She asked before the answer came to her, "Oh, Quirk, right."
"Yeah, it seems it was fairly useful for this test." She nodded, "How about you?"
"I… Don't really know what to do." She sheepishly admitted, "I could do something but it's a bit… weird."
Momo and Uraraka gave her a questioning look. "Uhm, why?"
"Well, my Quirk requires to…" She looked around, unsure of what to say. Aizawa was busy looking toward a point where she spotted Mustard, Jirou and Pony circling Izuku. Should she have told someone else.
'Don't be dumb. Everyone will find out sooner or later. This is a Hero School, they will have us test our Quirks every day.'
"To?"
"To drink someone's blood so I can turn into them." She said in a single breath, her eyes closed. She looked up, hesitantly opening one, and saw them both had recoiled a bit. Just slightly, but it was clear. She sighed. "I understand, it's…"
"No. No no no, it's a good Quirk!" Uraraka replied, "Do you want to turn into me? I can't really say I'm the strongest, but I have worked in my dad's company for a few years to build strength." She flexed her arm a bit, and Himiko felt the need to lick her lips. She didn't look like it but those were some nice muscles…
"Actually, Uraraka, I think Himiko should ask Shoji." Yaoyorozu interjected with a reassuring smile, "You shouldn't waste the opportunity." Himiko stared at her.
Had she entered an alternate reality? Were those people really suggesting she just used her Quirk? Like that?
"… Would he really let me?"
"I suppose. Do you need a syringe?" Momo offered, the object appearing from her hand.
Himiko decided then and there that she loved this school.
-x-
"Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!" Jiro and Masutaro chanted, as Pony did her best to jam the horn in the gap where her hand should have been in the grip tester. She finally sighed in relief as the horn jammed into it. As she pushed, the measured grip increased since the larger part of the horn was pushing up more and more the handle. It finally couldn't pass anymore after a while, the screen reading a satisfactory two hundred.
"I did it!" Pony cheered. Jiro and Masutaro cheered around her.
"I'm not sure that counts as grip." Izuku pointed out, panting to try and force his own to close as much as possible.
"She just used her tongue!" Pony pointed to a girl with green hair that, as she said, was using her prehensile tongue to grip the machine.
"And that guy had his shadow do it." Masutaro added, and Izuku saw that indeed a large shadow creature was gripping the machine of a bird-headed teen.
"And that guy is having a clone doing it." Jiro pointed to a large teen with six arms, standing next to another large teen with six arms, a syringe in hand and a blissful expression. Discarded clothes were for some reason on the floor, and both the two girls and the teen were all looking away blushing.
Then Izuku watched as the clone turned back into Himiko.
A very naked Himiko, even if the girls covered her before anyone could see anything by pulling out from nowhere – no, from the taller girl's side – a large towel that allowed her to hide her body.
"Oh come on, that was too fast!" A short guy with purple hair shouted, and Izuku felt like kicking himself for having agreed for an instant.
He reminded himself that Himiko had told him she could turn into anyone, and she could be wearing their clothes if she stripped naked beforehand.
Himiko quickly rushed to Aizawa, asked something and, once she nodded, left with her clothes. Probably to get dressed again.
"Well, that went better than expected…" He heard Masutaro mutter, and he nodded. It was nice to know some people in the class were supportive of Himiko. He knew her Quirk would attract some looks.
Looking at the rest of the class, the bright blonde teen was patting the purple one on the back to… comfort him? And the others were just quickly shrugging it off as the result of some Quirk shenanigans. Nothing new in a school, much less a Hero one.
He didn't miss though the two people that were scowling at her. One was Kacchan, of course, but the other… The other was a guy with a scar on the left side of his face.
For some reasons, he really seemed unhappy about what Himiko had just done.
-x-
Masutaro watched the purple-haired kid – Mineta, he thought – bounce from side to side thanks to his Quirk, getting what promised to be the high score of the side jumps test.
"Welp, there goes my hope to get in above him…" He thought with a sigh.
"I know right?" A voice asked to his right. He turned, seeing a girl that seemed to be missing her head. And arms. And every other body part around the gym clothing.
"Ah!" He gasped, taking a step back, before shaking his head as she chuckled. "Sorry, I… didn't expect that."
"Don't worry, I'm used to it." She chuckled again, "So, are you stuck like me?"
"Yeah…" He shook his head, "My Quirk kind of sucks when it comes to physical testing."
"Right? Mine too! Like, I'm just invisible, is not like I can run faster or grip harder or jump more."
"Yeah, and my Gas only comes out in slow bursts and circles me, so I can't propel myself or anything."
She snorted, "Did you just say your Gas?"
He blushed, coughing in his hand, "Ah, well…"
"Relax, I'm joking." She extended her hand – or he assumed so, hard to tell, but the arm movement seemed to be that, "I'm Tooru Hagakure. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Masutaro Sako." He replied, moving his hand until he felt hers grip it, "Nice to meet you too."
-x-
"Wow Himiko, that was a good jump!" Uraraka shouted. Himiko nodded, then looked at Yaoyorozu. "Good luck, she said."
"Don't worry, I know exactly what to do." She smiled and raised her shirt enough to expose her abdomen, from which a large stick burst out.
"Is… Is that a pogo stick?"
"Sure is. Why?" Momo asked, confused and then almost looking worried, "Is this weird?"
"No, no, it's just… I didn't expect you would choose that." Momo nodded, and walked to the platform. Himiko turned to Uraraka. "Thank you for earlier."
"Why? We didn't really do anything. Shoji agreed the moment you asked, once you assured you could copy the mask too."
"Yeah, I can see why he wants to cover his mouth."
"Does it look weird?"
"I'm not telling." Himiko winked, and Ochaco pouted, "But I was more wondering why you came up to me."
"Oh, well, I noticed you seemed to be friendly with Midoriya and Bakugo, so…"
"I'm not really sure how you got the impression I'm friendly with Bakugo."
"What?!" Uraraka gasped, "Did we read that wrong? But Momo said Bakugo talks like that all the time, and since you were answering word for word we thought…"
'Of course that's the reason…' "What about Izuku though?"
"Uh, you are on a first name basis-" Uraraka paused, then blushed, "Are you his girlfriend?!" Himiko nodded, trying to make sure no one was looking at them.
"Sure am." She added. She was pretending to be, after all.
Only pretending of course.
"That's great!" Uraraka nodded, "I wanted to try and become Midoriya's friend, you can help with that, right?"
"Why do you want to be Izuku's friend?"
"Why not? He was nice enough, and he helped me at the Entrance Exam."
Himiko nodded. Those seemed to be good reasons, and if there was anything else… she would deal with it. But she doubted Uraraka would try to steal her boyfriend. After all, they had known each other for what, an hour tops? Not like Melissa.
"And Momo?"
"Well, I think she wants to befriend Bakugo."
"Is she a masochist?"
Uraraka looked around, then leaned in to whisper in her hear, "I don't know but I think she is a bit of an exhibitionist. She really didn't need to make that pogo from her tummy."
Himiko snorted, "Did you just call her belly 'tummy'?"
Uraraka blushed, and brought her hands to her face – pointedly keeping a finger up like Tomura did – "Why did I say that…"
Himiko snickered.
-x-
It was back to ball throwing, and Izuku was starting to hate it. He looked at it, trying to think. He gripped it tightly for a moment. Throwing it with One for All was out of the question, it would just destroy his arm. Could he wait any longer? No, not really, the rest of the tests were sit-ups, seated toe-touch, and distance run. None of those were really influenced by One for All in a meaningful way. Except the sit-ups, but the idea of using All Might's Quirk to push himself up was followed in his mind by the image of his back breaking. Yeah, let's not do that.
Izuku closed his eyes to think.
-x-
"So, any idea guys?" Nana asked as they watched Izuku stare at the ball.
"I have one." The Second offered, raising his hand.
"That isn't making Nineth's limb explode to shreds next time he uses One for All."
The Second lowered his hand. Nana sighed, "I'm disappointed in you."
"He is a yakuza!"
"Unwillingly."
"Doesn't matter!"
"I feel like it does." She sighed, "Still, this is a bad drawback. Anyone ever experienced something like this?"
The others shook their head, except for En, the Sixth, who nodded, "Actually, I did, a bit. Not as much as Nineth though."
"And you never told me?!" Nana asked.
"Eh, I knew you could handle it."
"You didn't!"
"I totally did. I've always been a good guesser." He shrugged, "Also, telling you fell down a few spots in my list of priority when I had to rush the transfer. It went somewhere between 'Nana please don't die' and 'Oh god my spine is shattered, it hurts like a bitch'."
"… Touché." Nana sighed, before turning to Nineth's spot, "Good luck kiddo."
"Fail, fail, fail, fail." The second chanted.
"Wait, he is doing something." Shinomori pointed out. As they watched, the hand moved back, and then he tossed. For most of the movement, they felt nothing, before finally One for All activated, the ball exploding forward. Izuku cried in pain for a moment and looked down at his hands. Only one finger was broken.
"That crazy son of a bitch!" The Fifth shouted, "Nice!"
"What did he do?" Yoichi asked.
"He used One for All only at the last second." Nana explained, "His finger still broke, but now he can keep going instead of needing a rescue of his own."
"Umpf." The Second scoffed, "Just luck."
Nana shook her head, patting the sphere of dark fog that showed where Izuku's vestige would form, while looking at the screen. "Good job kid. I- Oh shit duck!" She shouted.
-x-
"What is this shit…" Bakugo muttered, trapped in Eraserhead's capture gear. Izuku had ducked out of the way on instinct when the Explosion kid had rushed in, though they had not come really close to each other. Aizawa wasn't about to let them.
"Enough." He said, letting Bakugo go. "Don't think of doing that again, or I will expel you." He added, and the teen looked down. Good. "As for you," He glanced at Izuku, "Good job."
Izuku sighed in relief, before Tsunotori, Jiro, Sako and Shimura all surrounded him to cheer. Aizawa coughed, "We aren't done yet." He added, and they awkwardly looked around.
He shook his head. Kids.
-x-
"How did you get infinity?!" Izuku asked Uraraka. She had introduced herself after they had been paired together for the sit-ups.
"My Quirk allows me to remove gravity. So I just… kind of tossed the ball."
"Oh, right, same thing you did to save me."
"Ayup."
"It was a good idea!" The guy next to them, Iida Tenya, said, "You did well too, Midoriya. I should also compliment you for the Entrance Exam, by the way. I misjudged you, and your friends were right to chastise me for it. I suppose I was nervous and I took it out on you. I apologize."
"N-No, don't mind."
"Midoriya. Iida." The looming figure of Aizawa stood before them, "Put your all into it or you will pay for it."
"Sorry sir!" They both shouted, returning to their sit-ups.
-x-
"That bastard…" Bakugo said, glaring at Izuku as he did his seated toe-touchs.
"You ok bro?" Spiky Hair asked. For some reason, the guy with red hair was insisting in buzzing around Bakugo.
"Yeah, just thinking about something."
He saw Spiky Hair follow his gaze toward Deku. "Some problem with your friend? You kinda tried to jump him earlier bro. Wasn't very manly."
"He isn't my friend. The bastard just went and hid the truth from me. First he doesn't understand who is girlfriend really is, and now he hides his fucking Quirk." He answered. Fucking Deku, thinking he could be better than he was.
Spiky Hair looked at him a long moment, then nodded solemnly, "I see, I see. I totally understand. It's a very manly problem."
For some reason, Bakugo doubted he had understood. And for some reason, he felt the look Pink sent their way, and the look she exchanged with Kirishima, was spelling trouble.
-x-
"He is what?!" Uraraka asked, as she panted to keep up with Ashido. The girl had just walked up to her. She had been left alone by Momo, who was using a scooter of all things for the last test, the Endurance Run. Some people had complained but Aizawa had just shrugged and said it was just a smart use of her Quirk.
Uraraka pretended she didn't wish she could jump on the vehicle, but she was really trying to figure out her chances to make it on without making both girls fall. Weightless clothes or not, they had already been running for eight minutes.
"I tell you, he is totally into that Izuku." Ashido winked, "Look at how much he is glaring at him! And he told Kirishima he doesn't like Izuku's girlfriend!" She cooed, "Those are all clear signs he has a crush! Imagine that!"
Uraraka did, trying to imagine what that would be like.
She succeeded in a lot of steamy details that made her blush. Back in her… old side job, she had ended up learning a lot on… internet content of a certain kind, so it wasn't hard to go there.
"Are you sure?" Uraraka asked, "I mean, he doesn't seem to like him much."
"No, no you see, it's the usual enemies to lovers trope at work." Ashido winked, "I can already tell, this year is gonna be great."
-x-
"Alright, that's all." Aizawa declared, and watched as the students stared at the screen.
Momo Yaoyorozu
Shoto Todoroki
Katsuki Bakugo
Tenya Iida
Fumikage Tokoyami
Mezo Shoji
Eijiro Kirishima
Pony Tsunotori
Mina Ashido
Ochaco Uraraka
Tsuyu Asui
Himiko Shimura
Yuga Aoyama
Hanta Sero
Denki Kaminari
Kyoka Jiro
Masutaro Sako
Toru Hagakure
Minoru Mineta
Izuku Midoriya
"Ah, and by the way, the whole expulsion thing was a logical deception to make you do your best."
Most of the class gasped and shouted as expected, while Yaoyorozu explained why it wouldn't have made sense for him to expel them. He hid once again a grin under his capture weapon. Technically, he had considered expelling Shimura or Midoriya before the former used her Quirk and the latter proved to him he wasn't just going to be a liability on the field. Aside from those two, there hadn't been issues worth considering.
He glanced at Todoroki. 'Actually, he didn't use his fire at all, except to unfreeze himself. Might be worth investigating, but maybe he didn't have a chance to. We will see tomorrow.'
As he walked away, he noticed the figure of All Might peeking from behind a corner and sighed. "Looking for something?"
"I was just… curious."
"I see." Aizawa nodded. He was a bit curious of which of the student would the Number One have an interest in, but he decided to let it go. It wasn't any of his business.
-x-
Izuku slumped on the floor the moment he made it back home, exhausted.
"Ah, Izuku. How did the day go? Nice day?"
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Please shut up."
(xx)
Ah, UA, the chaos, the beginning of this beautiful high school adventure...
Don't expect every chapter to be like this one, with so many quick jumps, but for this specific chapter, and given the frame of the story, I wanted to carry the sense of chaotic relationships that are developing from day one.
I've gone back and forth a lot on who would be the final three people that would be removed from 1-A and into 1-B or other classes. Or well, I've specifically gone back and forth on one person. Rikido Sato and Koji Koda were my choice from the start. But yes, I confirm that's 1-A in this story.