Chapter 23: Flashbacks and Cookies

"I can't believe we are going to UA soon," Izuku almost bounced in excitement as he talked to his friends. "It's almost a week away! Are you guys excited for it? I know I am."

The three childhood friends were all sitting in Shoto's room with a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies that his sister made. She was still practicing a bit because she wanted to surprise her students to reward their good behavior.

"Of course I am! I'm very delighted to be with both of my friends even if we might be in separate classes," Tenya replied, breaking a chunk out of his cookie to eat it more cleanly.

Shoto looked up with his cookie sticking out of his mouth, "Hmm, I don't think we will be separated from each other. I feel like it would only be logical to have us together since we are already familiar with each other."

"And I guess we will be the two recommended students in the class?" Izuku asked. "Since Inasa is going to Shiketsu that means we have a good chance of being two of the four recommended students. By the way, Tenya, you still need to tell me what your next free day is so we can introduce you to Inasa.

"Yeah, you are both tall and loud. You have some similarities, so I feel like you two will get along," Shoto agreed with cookie crumbs in his mouth before realizing what exactly Izuku was getting at. He swallowed what was in his mouth to turn his head to Izuku, "Oh, right. I forgot to tell you guys."

Tenya looked up worried, "What is it? Is it anything bad?"

"Do I need to find an alibi?" Izuku questioned, looking ready for anything that Shoto would tell them.

"Nothing that big. I contacted UA to let them know if I got enough points in the entrance exam to just count that as my acceptance. I only took both exams as more of a wider net to throw. Plus, I want to show Touya that I made it into UA by myself," Shoto explained. "And it might be a plus because Yaoyozoru will make it in. She is very talented and deserves to have a spot in the hero course."

Izuku pursed his lips in thought, "Why didn't you just reject his recommendation? Wouldn't that be an easier way to show that you could make it in?"

"Well, he is my brother. I would feel bad. But I made it in both ways, and Uncle, I mean, Principal Nedzu helped me out. I have to get used to saying that now that he is going to be our official principal," Shoto replied having his hand moving toward the most burned cookie on the plate before turning it Iida, "How about you, Tenya? What are you thinking about?"

Tenya straightened up, "Well, I'm was happy when I received my acceptance letter as well. Although I wish I could have done more. I felt like I hesitated during the exam when another participant was in trouble since the zero pointer was involved."

"Ah, the robot that the purple kid took care of right? I heard some strangers talking about it," Shoto clarified, midway through a warm chocolate chip cookie.

Iida nodded, "Yes! If I could do it over, I would have thought about what my brother and Izuku would do I hesitated at first, but I went to help because I started to think about what my brother and Izuku would do."

"Wait, why me?" Izuku questioned while Iida raised one of my eyebrows back at him. Izuku paused with his half-eaten cookie in his hands.

"Gee, I wonder," Shoto remarked sarcastically. Shoto then looked back at Tenya with cookie crumbles decorating his mouth, "What about me?"

Tenya sighed before instinctively wiping the crumbs away from his mouth with his sleeve. "Oh, pardon me. You had crumbs on your face."

"Yeah, whatever. Why wasn't I on that list? Am I not a good influence on you?"

Tenya blinked back at him. "Shoto, you literally told a police officer to... frick off... when he tried to tell off your brother for something."

Shoto looked at him with a knowing look, "Yeah, he was being a dick. Wasn't it deserved?"

"Oh, it was. Don't get me wrong. I just wouldn't do it to his face like that, it was a bit disrespectful," Tenya corrected himself, "But I'm not saying you aren't a good influence on me or anything. My brother came up first and Izuku came up next since he brought up that fact he accidentally took the exam before. That's the reason why I thought of those two so quickly at that moment. Trust me, almost everyone popped up in my mind afterward when the exam ended because I thought about what the others might do."

"Alright, you are forgiven," Shoto stated with a flourish of his hand to steal the last bite of Tenya's cookie out of his palms to eat for himself. He chuckled lightly at the shove that Tenya gave him afterward. "But on a serious note, I wonder what the actual classes would be like in UA.

"I was wondering about that as well. All of the faculty members are already aware of us and knew us since we were young. So we have both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that we have a trusting bond already with the faculty. The disadvantage is that they know almost every embarrassing story that they can use to their own advantage," Tenya said, holding his hands up like its own hands were a balancing scale. "I also wonder what the official training will be like."

"We haven't done really anything with the training grounds since they were only used for UA students. But we have been through hero situation exercises before," Shoto added his own thoughts about it, wiping his hands clean with a napkin.

"Remember when we began training when we were a little younger? What ages were we?" Tenya continued, humming in thought, "We must have been like six or seven when he started to tutor us."

Shoto nodded, "Yeah. And even then, we didn't do anything besides learning control and exercise. We began real training when we were a bit older at like nine."

"I remember the first day we 'trained' like it was yesterday," Izuku sighed, bringing his hands to rest behind his head. "Ah, past memories."

~Flashback~

"Training?" Shoto asked weakly with his eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah! Papa is going to tutor me and then train me. And we can all train together!"

Shoto looked like he was taken aback by the news before he saw Nedzu approaching the three friends. "The training in question I'll just be outdoor activities and exercises. It would function more as physical education than real training since you three are still so young. If you wished to train to be a hero, I would advise you to wait until you are around the age of nine or so."

Nedzu grabbed Shoto's small hand to reassure him," Don't worry. This is a safe space. The faculty here and I would never force you to do anything you didn't want to do. You have nothing to worry about."

"Hey, Izuku-Kun I practiced my quirk," Iida announced proudly, drawing Shoto's attention to his other two friends.

Izuku looked excited to hear that news, "Oh really? Show me, Ten-Chan!"

"Okay, here I go!" Iida nodded, jumping up before breaking off into a sprint. Izuku cheered as he watched his friend kick up the grass while he ran. Iida's engines were making him go so fast that he almost looked like a blur, it might have been because he was still so small. The blur didn't last because Iida had eventually run into a tree headfirst on the way back.

Izuku gasped worriedly, rushing over to his friend, "Ten-Chan!"

"Tenya!" Shoto shouted after Izuku, Nedzu following behind him as the three ran to where Iida was. Iida looked up with his glasses askew on his face and a red mark on his forehead.

"Ow, tree bark," Iida mumbled as he rubbed his forehead.

Nedzu asked, "Iida, would you like to go to Recover Girl? I'm sure we can get her to help or maybe get some ice to help as well."

"Yes please, Uncle Nedzu," Iida mumbled, allowing Izuku to help him up. He stumbled just a bit because of the uneven ground caused by the large roots of the tree.

"You might need a new pair of glasses," Shoto brought up, looking at the crooked glasses on Iida's face.

Iida blinked, bringing a hand up to his glasses to try and adjust them, "Is it that bad?"

Izuku only answered when a tiny screw fell into Iida's hand. He chuckled a bit when Tenya looked so shocked to see it fall into his palm. "Ten-Chan, you might need to carry around extra pairs of glasses."

"That is an excellent point. It would be more efficient," Iida said, trailing behind Nedzu into the nurse's office with his friends next to him.

"And then you began to carry...what? Five extra pairs with you in all times?" Shoto questioned, eyeing the cookie on the plate while Izuku was still on his second one.

Izuku smiled teasingly, "I would say more like ten... in each pocket."

"It is not like that!" Tenya argued back. "I don't carry that many glasses anymore."

Izuku stared at Tenya, locking eye contact with him. He waited for a moment before bringing out his master move that always worked on his childhood friends, "Ten-Chan..."

"Ooh, a childhood nickname. Ooooh," Shoto whispered.

Tenya stood his ground for a moment before sighing heavily. "I only carry three pairs on hand now, but I do keep at least twenty pairs in my bedroom and an emergency pair in my backpack."

"Oh, I was closer to you. I win," Shoto commented.

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "What are you exactly winning?"

Shoto met his eyes with an unimpressed expression. He didn't break eye contact as he slowly took the last cookie from the plate.

"But remember when we actually started our official training. We were like around nine when it actually started to get serious," Tenya brought up, letting the others reminisce about their past.

It was when they were older when it eventually happened. They all still wanted to be heroes that made a difference in the world. So from when they were nine to when it was time for the Entrance Exams, they were trained by some of the best heroes. So they each had time to train together and separately.

Tenya got taught by his brother mostly when he got off of patrol, using the school's track to race with him to help with his endurance. He even told him about a certain power boost that he could start when he was ready.

Shoto also got taught by his brother on how to control his fire better. His mother helped guide him with his ice, advising him to use more of ice sculpting techniques to create weapons out of the ice using his fire to melt it down to what he wanted. His sister gave advice about how to gain better control by remaining calmer since she noticed his quirk fares up when too many emotions overpower him. Fuyumi introduced him to ice skating which was a perfect way to gain a better balance of his quirk. Shoto learned how to skate on his own ice which provided a good advantage to him when he needed it. Natsuo didn't have much to add, but he did teach Shoto the basics of first aid.

Izuku had very specific training along with teachings. Uncle Mic taught him close combat since he excelled in that when he wasn't fighting long-range with his quirk. Aunt Nemuri taught him more about the art of fighting by mixing certain techniques from dancing. He took dance lessons to improve balance and flexibility. Uncle Aizawa taught him all about stealth, martial arts, and parkour moves like jumping from roof to roof using support item if needed to help him out. Izuku still remembers the day when he was ten that he decided he wanted to try and master his uncle's capture weapon only to be hung upside from the tree by the weapon while his Uncle watched him. And he learned how to hotwire objects like cars to the entrance exam robots from Power Loader

And his Papa didn't hold back with his lessons since he knew Izuku's limits. Izuku learned how to hack into phones, computers, tablets, and he was currently working on how to break into a full database. Nedzu always gathered practices to give Izuku to test how he would deal with each problem. And with each problem given, Izuku gave several solutions on what to do that all depended on who and what was near him. Izuku was taught how to utilize many techniques on how to fool enemies by manipulation whether it be my emotions or in more threatening ways. Izuku kept up with his analysis, going into even more detail on heroes and villains while writing in his own custom code that only he and his father can translate.

And together, they would train in mock battles in the gym with cementoss helping them with different layouts. Uncle Aizawa would teach all of them how to fight using their quirk to their full potential. He also made each one of them fight him all out separately at least once a month to allow them that time to improve and come back stronger for the next time. Uncle Mic was teaching all for them to sign language and English. And then the three will do one on one battles with each other with no quirks to gain experience and learn from each fight on what to get better at. If they were too predictable in their fighting, they were told by the other two and they would solve the issue together.

"Well, I'm glad that we each had our own training. And since we don't know anything still about the training grounds, we will be on the same level as our future classmates," Tenya said happily, drinking his orange juice calmly. "In fact, I can't wait to see what happens in our first year."

"Don't jinx it," Shoto warned, coughing a bit which made Izuku hand him a glass of milk.

Tenya spoke up, leaning back on his palms to relax back into the sedan of Shoto's mattress, "What are you excited for? I can just imagine you are waiting for when everyone finds out that you are Nedzu's son."

"Hehehehe. Yes, that is going to be the best," Izuku laughed loudly, "When that happens, can one of you record their expressions? I want to remember the day I strike some fear into my classmates."

Shoto raised a brow at his friend, "You say that like you aren't going to do it on a regular basis."

"Hey," Izuku started to protest only to shrug at his words. "Not that far off, but still. I wouldn't scare them on a daily basis, I'm aiming for more of one big weekly freakout if I can."

Tenya turned to Izuku like he was going to lecture him about not scaring their future peers before settling on asking, "Are we talking about airvent surprises or crawling through windows?"

"You will have to see. I'm not spoiling the surprises," Izuku grinned mischievously.