Be The Hero, Like A Wizard!

by MaskedEngineer

Having a Quirk that allows complete control over a mundane, ordinary object is hardly an ideal power. To one Yosuke Nendo however, it is all he needs to achieve his childhood dream. With video game expertise, unchecked delusions and unwilling friends, nothing shall stop Nendo on his quest to become the greatest wizard of all time! Rated M for future events.

5. The Path of Wizardry Starts Here!

Chapter 5: The Path of Wizardry Starts Here!

"Izu?" A snap of a finger is heard.

"Izu? Yoohoo?" A second snap occurs, albeit at a much greater volume than the first one.

"Izuku?" A gentler voice interjects in between the loud snappings of fingers, which only serves to further demonstrate just how unresponsive the target of both voices are when not even both the gentle and the confrontational approach work.

"Hello? Planet Earth, castle Midoriya to Izu!" Nendo raised his voice, now repeatedly snapping his fingers with both hands in front of the seemingly comatose Izuku whose eyes have not moved or even blink for the past five minutes. "I don't recall the food having a stun debuff, so snap out of it!"

It is currently dinner, with Nendo joining the mother and son of the Midoriya household as usual, ever since he moved in with them. It was nothing too spectacular - just marinated fish filets with rice, and a side dish of salad. Even though he had wholeheartedly accepted the help offered, Nendo still felt somewhat odd to be dining in someone else's house.

Though, as long as Izuku is fine with it, he finds no reason to be uncomfortable either.

Whether because Izuku was having some heavy rain on his head or is simply too smitten with the wall, painted in the exciting color of frozen peas that is facing him, he does not respond to the rapid-fire snappings either.

Huffing childishly with his mouth stretching into a comical frown, Nendo taps the ends of his chopsticks together and hovers them towards Izuku's bowl. "Izu-chan, if you don't wake up right now, I'm gonna steal your food!"

Nevertheless, Nendo's words seem to have reached the mind of the blank-eyed boy at last. "W-What? Oh, sorry Nendo, sorry mom. I didn't hear you two-hey!" The green-haired teen might have been out of touch with reality, but he was still cognizant enough to realize that Nendo had expertly snatched the piece of tuna in his half-eaten rice bowl.

"It is too late, Izu! You snooze, you lose!" Said Nendo as he performs his best 'generic doomsday supervillain' laugh, dramatically deepening his tone to the point of being more silly than intimidating.

"Give that back!" Protested Izuku, whipping out his own set of chopsticks to engage Nendo in a good old-fashioned session of miniature dinnertime jousting. Their chopsticks furiously clashed against one another as the noise of plastic hitting each other rang through the air, much to Inko's dismay and bemusement as the two full grown teenagers bicker over something as trivial as food.

As the battle went on, the afro-haired teen manages to find an opening in Izuku's grip on the piece of fish, and, with the weight of a thousand suns behind his fingertips, swings his chopsticks upwards at the fish itself.

The bit of food went airborne, flying high, high up the air, doing several pirouettes in the process…

…before landing right into Nendo's expectant mouth as he physically edges his body forward and stretches his neck out for additional reach. "Victory!" He raised his arms in glee, yelling in between mouthfuls of chewed-up fish.

Izuku said nothing as he simply reclined back into his chair, crossing his arms with his cheeks slightly puffed up from pouting and his eyebrows furrowing into a big, green caterpillar across the forehead.

"Aww, what's with that face? It's your fault for not listening to me." Nendo teasingly waved a thin piece of bone sticking out of his teeth at Izuku, before spitting it out and holding up his own bowl instead. "Oh, I know what will cheer you right up! Here, have some of mine."

With that being said, the noirette daintily slides his own portion of food, only slightly nibbled on one end and bigger than Izuku's own, into the green-haired boy's bowl. "A jolly compensation, don't you think?"

"W-Wha?" Stuttered Izuku, his (admittedly brief) bout of anger rapidly vanishing as his eyes slightly widened in surprise. He expected Nendo to bask in his victory, not something like this! "Nendo, you don't have to-"

"Ah, it's nothing! Besides, I did steal your food after all. Consider this my apology!" The black-haired teen claps his hands together and bowed his head in an apologetic fashion, all while flashing a toothy smile at his friend.

Izuku tightens his fists before letting out a long, resigned sigh. It's the little things like this that makes it all but impossible for him to keep up his angered facade for any amount of time. Sure, he could get mad at Nendo, but actually staying as such is an almost herculean task. At times, he pondered if Nendo's imagination was so great that they actually manifested some kind of item into reality that would boost his charisma.

It's a pleasant, yet oddly frustrating feeling at the same time, knowing that he couldn't get angry at Nendo for more than a second or so. As such, Izuku could only respond with a genuine smile. "If you insist…then thanks, Nen-chan." With the tips of his chopsticks rubbing together, he splitted the portion of filet before placing one half into his mouth. It tastes more delicious than usual, he wonders why?

"All's in good spirits, Izu." Replied Nendo with a similarly bright grin, before scarfing down what's left of his bowl at near-relativistic speeds. A surprised Izuku raises a brow as he eats his meal at a much slower rate, almost thinking that the noirette has a secondary speed-related Quirk.

Inko, witnessing the conflict being solved in such a simplistic way, was unsure of how she would appropriately react to this other than having a warm, if timid smile at the two boys. While Nendo's various oddities threw her off somewhat, at the end of the day, he is still a loyal friend to her baby boy.

After finishing up, Nendo offered to handle washing the dishes in spite of Inko's protests, who eventually acquiesced after the teen refused to move his hands from the pile of dirty plates, even resorting to holding them ransom by summoning a platform of bricks and placing the dishes on it and threatening to send them skywards.

"Inko-san, if you don't let me help you with the dishes right now, I'm gonna do something illegal with these plates!"

"Nendo, don't you even think about it young man!" The mature woman protested, feeling that the boy was being just a little too helpful towards her and her son.

"Oh, I will!"

"Then what will make you stop?!"

"Let me wash them for you. That's the least I could do. You and Izu took me in when I have nowhere else to go and no one to depend on…I still have to pay back my debt!"

"Nendo, you aren't indebted to us! I-" Inko cuts herself off at the last minute. "If you insist, Nendo." She replied defeatedly after a long pause, throwing her hands up as any semblance of emotional intensity vanished from Nendo's face with about the same gravitas as a gnat's biography.

While the self-proclaimed wizard merrily scrubs away at the dishes with a sponge as the Midoriya matriarch stood on the side with an awkward expression plastered on her face, Izuku has taken refuge on the family couch, staring off into the empty air again with not much life in his eyes. His right arm aimlessly slithers off his thigh before picking up a dumbbell on the floor and begins lifting it in a rhythmic fashion. "Back to the daily waiting, I suppose."

Even though the arm has recovered enough to have the cast taken off, the physical therapist told him that he still needs to regularly exercise in order to keep said arm in good shape after an extensive injury. But what bothers Izuku the most at the moment wasn't the fact that he has to lift dumbbells with one arm.

The reason was that it has been an entire week ever since the exam ended, and yet nothing of conclusive result came back from U.A or even All Might, his personal mentor. Was his scores in the practical exam so impossibly atrocious that they withheld the information out of fear that they might psychologically damage him? Or was the mail lost in transport? There is nothing Izuku could do to shorten the wait or relieve the clouds hanging above his head, and the knowledge of his helplessness only further builds up frustration.

In sharp contrast, Nendo maintained his cheerful exterior throughout the long days, despite having previously expressed doubts over his written exam potentially pulling his overall results down. "I don't think they're going to fail him. He did so well in the practical after all…" Thought Izuku, glumly looking at the wild-haired teen before stifling a small chuckle from looking at the outlandish hairstyle his mother inadvertently gave him, his mood lightened by a marginal degree.

Perhaps, he thought, doing well in the practical was what kept his friend in such a good mood. The exam was still fresh in Izuku's mind and, in what fleeting periods where he attained a peace of mind from not getting chased by the villain bots, he saw Nendo walking across the rubble-covered field with his hands in his pockets and all those bricks surrounding him, taking out any enemy that comes too close with a precise shot to the head. While most people would just derisively disregard the ability to create and control bricks, and only bricks, as 'underwhelming' or 'lame', but that's not how Izuku sees it.

To the hero-obsessed nerd, Nendo's Quirk has the potential to be terrifying in its own right. Being able to spontaneously create a material as durable and useful as bricks is already good enough, but also being able to control nearly every aspect of a brick, including its size, the speed it is thrown at and a myriad of other things makes for a very applicable and, given the situation, powerful Quirk.

Not to mention, Nendo clearly has mastered it to some degree and exercised good control over his Quirk, whereas Izuku breaks his arm the first time he uses his.

Shrugging off the mild, but lingering feeling of inadequacy, the freckled greenette continues lifting the five-kilogram dumbbell. Even if he doesn't make it, Izuku felt like he did the only right thing back then: saving someone in need. Thus, the only thing he truly regrets out of the whole affair was that in the end, he wasted All Might's training.

Ding-dong!

The soft chiming of the doorbell entered the ears of the apartment's occupants, slightly distracting the three from their current tasks. "I'll answer the door!" Exclaimed Inko with a spring in her feet, making her way over to the door in a series of short, rapid steps.

Nendo looked up from the sink, having just finished placing the last plate back into the dishwasher that was cleaned so perfectly that it practically reflects light. "What do you reckon that is?"

Izuku turned around to face him, his eyebrows cocking into an expression of puzzlement. "I dunno. I don't remember me or mom ordering anything though."

"Well…" Nendo dries his hands with a nearby towel before running towards Izuku and vaulting over the couch, plopping down just right next to his best friend with only a slight bounce from the cushioned seats. "Aside from you and my uncles, the only people who ever knocked on my place were telemarketers. And they don't even sell me the good stuff." Said Nendo, a small grin forming at the corner of his lips as he ran a hand over his spiky pseudo-afro.

Izuku nodded with a slight hum, before his smile briefly shifted to a frown upon Nendo mentioning his two uncles again, still remembering what they did to him. On their first dinner together, Inko manages to prod the teen into fessing up about who was responsible for him ending up in juvenile detention. Needless to say, Izuku was not happy. His emotions were nowhere near as intense as his mother's, but the greenette was angered nonetheless from hearing the uncle taking advantage of his friend's kindness like this. Though, at Nendo's own pleadings, the topic was dropped right there and then.

Feeling his grip around his knees loosening, Izuku tapped Nendo, who was still talking about how one time someone tried to sell him a brush which was meant to be a toilet scrub yet he finds more use in it as a back scratcher, to get his attention. "Nendo…could I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead. Nothing from you that I can't answer. Save for school things, though, you better just risk it with Bakugou rather than asking me about that stuff." Nendo went off in a talkative manner, before coughing into his hand. "But still, I would help you with that to the best of my abilities. So, go on."

"Do you think we got a chance?"

Nendo stared at Izuku for a second or two, before scoffing with amusement. "What are you talking about? Of course we do! I swear on the life of my console, if we don't get in the U.A, I'm gonna throw it out the window." There was the slightest hint of wariness in his voice since there is no way he's going to discard his lifeline just like that, but Nendo's plan when that time comes was to just slip a brick inside the machine and levitate it as soon as his gaming system actually goes out the window, should things ever be pushed so far. "What's with that question?"

"Eh… nothing. Just worried, that's all." Izuku quickly swallows his unspoken words and finds a new hobby in twiddling his thumbs instead. If Izuku was to be honest with himself, he wasn't sure where he was going with that question either. Must have been a byproduct of his mounting anxiety about his exam results.

"Well, don't be. I mean, it's not like sweating your ass off would make it any better-"

Before he could finish the sentence, what sounds like a large, puffy pillow falling down on the wooden floor emerged from the entrance doorway, with Inko scuttling back into the living room on all fours, extreme shock adorning her facial features. "I-IZUKU! NENDO!"

"Inko-san!/Mom!" Both superpowered teens yelled in unison, a terrible feeling resonating in their voices as they rushed over to the older woman's side and helped her up by the shoulders. "Are you alright?!"

Inko's eyes shot in random directions for a good while, before she remembered just what she was holding in her motherly hands: a pair of letters with official-looking emblems stamped on top of each one. The plain white paper betrayed the letters' true value. "I-It's here…" She spoke up, lips quivering out of sheer worry for the future of her son and his friend.

Taking notice of the shining, gold-plated emblem on both letters, Nendo guided the mentally short-circuited Inko down on the couch before gently taking the envelopes away from her. Inspecting the items thoroughly and even going as far as to sniff them in the same fashion as an inquisitive guard dog, Nendo almost thought that Inko was just overreacting.

"Hey, is that…?" Izuku, however, knew his mother better. At the corner of his green eyes, he spotted the writings on the envelopes, all rendered in plain, bold letters. The second he finishes reading out the words in his mind, all the color drains from Izuku's face, leaving it a pallid white not unlike a face one would make upon seeing a spirit.

Seeing how Izuku suddenly froze up like a deer in headlights, a similarly-unnerved Nendo edged his neck out to follow Midoriya's eyes. As soon as he witnessed the words, he too graduated from mime school as a valedictorian in the arts of standing still.

'Ultra Academy's Hero Course', so it is written on the clear, crisp white material of the envelopes containing the letters that will decide their fates.

It did not take long for the two to break out of their shared catatonic state and made a speedy beeline towards Izuku's room, whose door now has a yellow sticky note with a crudely written 'Nendo' scribbled on it, looking severely out of place with the more polished sign that spells out the greenette's first name.

"Nendo Nendo holy crap holy crap it's here it's actually here it's our results I can't believe it-" Izuku's mouth runs off with reckless abandon, unable to contain his stream of consciousness any longer. He was holding in all of his thoughts all this time, and the realization that the envelopes were the real deal was the droplet that broke the dam for him.

"Alright alright, calm down, calm down, CALM DOWN!" Nendo replied with equal shakiness in his voice, grabbing his trusted confidant by the shoulders and rattling him back and forth like a bobblehead figure until the green-headed teen's irises were bouncing around the white of his eyes akin to a pair of pinballs. "Freaking out won't help! We just gotta approach these two items…"

With great deliberation in his movements, the noirette placed the letter with his name on the room's only table. "With complete…"

And then, moving at the pace that would make a senile snail laugh, he puts Izuku's letter down as well. "And utter…" Just for good measure, Nendo painstakingly aligns the two envelopes so that they are perfectly symmetrical to each other in order to further highlight the sheer gravity of the situation. "Care."

Once done with the whole charade, Izuku and Nendo mechanically walk backwards to their designated sleeping quarters, with the former sitting on his bed and the latter standing on his futon.

A moment of silence, so pregnant that you could hear its water breaking, fills the air. With every second that passes, the glaring directed at the letters only grows more and more intense as both teens' faces start to enter their 'serious' form.

Nendo's chin and cheekbones became much more defined and sharp as a shadow inexplicably shrouds over his figure, in spite of the lights being turned on, obscuring his gray eyes that seemingly shone with an inscrutable, but fiery emotion. His hands balled up into fists, almost blazing with determination…even though his real reason for doing so is because his palms are so sweaty that tangible droplets of sweat have begun to drip onto the floor mats.

Izuku likewise underwent the same visual effect, with the only difference being that his lips slowly part to reveal a toothy frown, the light refracting off of every incisor as his eyes were fully hidden away by a mysterious shadow, not unlike the hero that he puts on a pedestal. What nobody noticed however, was that his knees were shaking at the rate of a machine gun with its trigger held down.

All in all, in this very moment, the two seemed less like teenagers and more like a pair of statues chiseled by ancient Greek sculptors with a choking, menacing aura emanating from them in the same manner as a radioactive element.

A full minute would go by before either of them spoke up again. "You ready for this?" Nendo asked, placing a hand on his friend's shoulders while maintaining that same smoldering gaze upon the envelopes.

"Whichever way the wind blows… I can take it." Izuku replied with his voice taken down by several pitches, his hand finding its way on top of the waiting Nendo's shoulder as well. Yosuke nodded intently, the jutting strands of his pseudo-afro swaying with every motion.

And with that, the duo picked their respective letters up, boring a hole through the envelopes with a piercing gleam in their eyes.

And then, they nodded at each other. "Moment of truth, Izu." Mirroring each other's moves, Izuku and Nendo's hands gripped on both sides of their envelopes, ready and willing to rip it in half to reveal the contents inside.

Whereas Izuku only saw a plain white envelope that was about to be torn in the middle…

Nendo, on the other hand, saw his envelope cracking and popping with immense, blue-colored energy as multiple beams of heavenly light emerged from the various rips and tears on the paper, formed from the letter somehow breaking down and disintegrating into oblivion right before his very eyes. "This…this radiance! It's exactly like opening a Mythical Chest in Arcane Quest! What sort of power is hiding underneath this wrapping of paper?! I can't take it! It's-It's TOO MUCH!"

As the brick wizard's overactive imagination reaches its critical point, Nendo finally finds the resolve to finish ripping the envelope open, his arms practically outstretching to form a wide arc with two pieces of the envelope on each hand. An imaginary explosion of light occurs, blinding Nendo from seeing the fruit of his hard work at the entrance exam.

His eyes fluttering, Nendo's hands instinctively reached out to try and grab the letter…only to find out that there was never a letter to begin with. Instead, a circular electronic device roughly the size of a badge drops to the floor with an unceremonious thud. "Eh?"

The sense of disappointment wasn't limited to Nendo, however. Mere moments later, Izuku opened his and, as expected, the same device came out. Confused beyond words, Nendo picks it up and lets his eyes scrutinize every nook and cranny on the device. "This is one weird-looking letter…did they stuff it inside this thing?" Said the brick-controlling boy, completely missing the point that there is nothing resembling a letter at all.

"I don't think there's even a letter, Nen-chan…" Izuku trailed off, scratching his neck as he fumbled around with the device, trying to see if there was some kind of mechanism he could interact with. Every touch seems to be drawing a blank…until his finger accidentally brushed past a little nub on the side that resembles a button. A tiny port opens up at the center, but the noise startled Izuku enough for him to involuntarily throw his hands up, sending the device careening through the air before landing on his table.

A few more beeps were heard from the thing before a beam of light projected from the port, forming a holographic screen. The screen flickers with static as the subject of the video being played slowly comes into view as the resolution clears up.

"AM I ON SCREEN YET?" Came the bombastic, larger-than-life figure of the one and only All Might, clad in a striped suit-and-tie that was barely able to contain his muscular frame. The two jumped from the sudden booming voice, with Izuku's eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

"All Might?! But isn't this supposed to be from U.A?" Izuku mentally asked himself, looking up and down from the torn envelope and then back at the imposing hero again.

In response to the Number One Hero questioning his virtual presence, a hand emerged from the bottom right of the screen, giving him a thumbs up for confirmation. "AH, YES! Thank you! Now, young man, you might be wondering why am I in this rather stuffy get-up!" Said All Might, pointing his index finger right at Izuku. "First, I wish to apologize for taking so long to reach out to you, for you see, because of outside circumstances and my own volition, I will now be teaching at U.A! We shall meet each other a lot more often because of this! Seeing myself wearing a suit was something I have forgotten, but it does look a lot more stylish than a multicolored bodysuit!"

Izuku felt his jaw slackening upon hearing the statement, with Nendo being equally surprised, letting out a shrill whistle in the background as he created a wall of bricks to lean against. "N-No way! He's gonna be teaching there?!" Izuku thought to himself, the irreverent words of a fanboy coursing through his neurons subtly trickled out from under his breath again.

"But anyway, enough about me! I will get straight to the point! Izuku Midoriya!" Hearing his full name being spoken with such power and volume, the greenette could not help but feel his toes curling inwards from both excitement and anxiety alone. "For the written portion, you've done very well! Exceptionally well, in fact! So much so that the honor of achieving the top mark goes to you! Only a few students managed to come close!"

In spite of the seed of self-deprecation he has planted in his mind, Izuku still manages to crack a tiny smile at the praise. At least, he could take solace from being the best at something. Though, it likely won't be enough to absolve him of the psychological pain that is about to come.

"But unfortunately, the same cannot be said for your performance in the practical portion. Because your sole victory was against one villain, your skills rating has been universally deemed to be zero. Even with an exemplary written score, having the lowest practical score would have dragged your overall results down enough for your entry into Ultra Academy to be rejected…" All Might muttered with a solemn tone, his shining grin faltering and morphing into a neutral frown as he shakes his head in a disappointed manner.

Nendo was ready to explode upon hearing those words. After all that, After Izuku has given his best and takes out a robot nearly the size of a high-rise, with a single punch no less, and the judges are just going to push him aside like that? Unacceptable! "You have got to be shitting me! He saved somebody's life and defeated that robot, and they won't let him in? Oh, I am SO going to march up there and give them all a piece of my mind!" With that being said, a fuming Nendo reaches for the door, fully intending to fulfill what he had in mind.

"Nendo." But before the messy-haired boy could even touch the doorknob, Izuku's calm but despondent voice easily breaks through his tunnel vision, stopping Nendo in his tracks. "Don't. You don't have to."

"But, Izu, this is bullcrap and you know it! They have to let you in-"

"Nendo…it's okay. I…I knew this would happen. Hurts a lot less when you know how it's gonna turn out, you know?" Izuku softly said to the ever-supportive Nendo, his voice gradually breaking apart with emotion and his eyes reflecting an extraordinary sadness. With his hands gripping tightly on the fabric of his pyjamas, the successor of One For All could only wallow in self-hatred. He hates himself for disappointing All Might. He hates himself for disappointing Nendo.

Right now, all he wanted was a bottomless hole for him to jump in and relieve this world of a useless existence. He appreciates Nendo's unending trust in him…and it is said support that makes him feel so goddamn bad about failing the exam.

Nendo could only look back at Izuku forlornly, biting his lower lip. He would have bitten hard enough to draw blood as well, if not for the fact that his best friend probably wouldn't appreciate him self-harming.

"If it wasn't for the fact that the zero-pointer was merely a part of a secret test of character!" Both Izuku and Nendo abruptly turned their heads towards the projection, their necks jerking so fast that an audible crack was heard. All Might has yet to finish his declaration, it seems. "The reason it was made so big and strong was to see how a hero would react when faced against impossible odds! And from the looks of it, you, young Midoriya, have overcome your personal fears and step up to the challenge! In case you missed it, I did say that we will be seeing each other more often!"

"Wait…so that means-!" A renewed sense of hope fills Izuku and Nendo's souls once more as the former held his breath while the latter started chipping away the nail of his thumb with his chattering teeth.

"It couldn't be-" Izuku's breathing was growing more and more haggard, unable to believe his eyes and ears.

"Yes…yes!" Nendo bites down on his entire thumb, his mouth rapidly expanding into an ear-to-ear grin.

"That's right! You have passed the test! But wait, that's not all!" All Might exclaimed as he spun around in one spot in a display of showmanship before stopping, reaching into his side pocket and producing a small tablet of sorts and pointing it at a monitor. "Behold! The fruit of your heroic actions that day!"

With a press of a button, the monitor lights up, revealing Ochako standing in the middle of a lounge of sorts. She was rubbing her right arm, looking rather pensive. "Um… excuse me? C-Can I speak to you?" Ochako asked an unseen figure, until the signature oversized pompadour of Present Mic came into view.

Izuku perked up, training his attention solely on the familiar brown-haired girl. "It's her!"

"As soon as the exam ended, this particular young madam came straight to the staff room. If you are wondering why, I'm sure what happens next won't surprise you!"

"Sorry to bother you but, do you know a boy with curly green hair and freckles? He's a tiny bit taller than me," Ochako raised her hand just slightly above the top of her head for demonstration. "And he has this sort of 'ordinary' look to him… oh, and if it helps, his name is Izuku. Izuku Midoriya."

The only reply from Present Mic was a curt nod. Uraraka lowered her head in return, before looking back up with a resolute shine in her eyes. "Is it…is it possible to share my points with him?!"

The greenette in question found himself unable to do anything but blink, paralyzed by shock and awe as he never expected anyone to do this for him. Meanwhile, Nendo had to stop himself from grinning so hard by physically pulling his lips down, lest he tear apart his facial muscles in the process. He could not have felt any prouder about his friend at this very point in time.

"I heard from him that he didn't gain a single point, and that's just not right! Not only is he strong, but he risked his life to save mine and a bunch of other students as well!" Ochako delivers her speech with a passionate fire in her voice, her movements growing increasingly more animated. "So please, can you give him the points he had lost because of me?"

As the video continued, Izuku had to resist the urge to cry out of gratitude, even if tears had already begun to pool in his glassy eyes. "Please! There is no one more deserving of being accepted into U.A than him!" A determined Ochako said as she bowed her head.

The flamboyant-looking Pro Hero scratched his chin for a bit before waving his hand, motioning Ochako to lift up her head. "That's very kind of you, young miss, but we can't just assign your points to him." Before the brunette girl could open her mouth in protest, Present Mic silences her with a gentle pat to her dome. "Besides, you don't have to anyway. Trust me, that kid… he's a definite pass."

"As you have witnessed, young Midoriya, your actions touched the hearts of people more than any mere Quirk! Your unabashedly selfless act has reached deeply into her heart and spurred her into taking action!" Spoken All Might while turning off the monitor, his usually pronounced facial traits now taking on a much more serene and collected appearance. "Did you really think any department of heroics worth their salt would rejecting someone who does the right thing? Perish the thought!"

"Think it's cheesy? Think it's narmy? Fine by me! Call it anything you want, but that's the job description: laying down your life to do cheesy things for the sake of others! The judges were looking for more important things than just beating up robots for points!" All Might crossed his arms standing firm and still like a beacon of justice, which he is in a figurative sense. "They all agree that you have exhibited another foundational quality for a true hero! So, Izuku Midoriya, take your 60 Rescue Points! You have rightfully earned them!"

Izuku barely manages to muster the strength to stand up from his chair, his tears now rolling down his cheeks in huge, crashing waves. "To reiterate myself…you have passed with flying colors, kid. I will certainly be looking forward to seeing your face in school." Then, the barrel-chested hero sweeps back his well-kempt mane of hair in a flairful manner and extends a hand towards the camera, as if beckoning the tearful Izuku to take it. "Come forth, young Midoriya. You've truly gone above and beyond Plus Ultra, and showed everyone just what you're made out of. U.A is now your hero academia!"

And with those closing words, the video ended and a hatch closed down on the projector. Struggling to wipe away the rivers flowing down from his oculars with the sleeve of his shirt, Izuku turned around to saw Nendo, who has returned to leaning against a wall, his posture unnaturally relaxed and the biggest smile known to humankind plastered on his lightly-tanned face.

Seeing and recognizing that look in Nendo's eyes, Izuku simply lets out a playful huff, fully knowing what the self-proclaimed wizard was going to do next. "Let me guess, you're gonna hug me until I turn purple?"

"You got the first half correct. Take this, Izu! I cast… Hug!" Intending to make good on his spell, Nendo quickly closes the distance between them and wraps his arms around Izuku, trapping the poor greenette in a crushing, but friendly bear hug. "And then, I cast… Noogie!"

Izuku barely has the chance to recover from a compressed diaphragm before he is swiftly put in a headlock and getting a knuckle rubbed against his fluffy hair. "Izu, how could you toy with my heart like this? You got in, and yet you keep on acting like you got rejected!" Said Nendo with mock hurt, though without any real malice in his tone. After a few more seconds of messing up Izuku's hair, he lets the greenette go.

Izuku slightly stumbles on his feet upon being released, rubbing his neck as if he nearly suffocated. "W-What? Nendo, I wasn't-" He tried to retort Nendo's statement, before realizing that his cheeks were still wet with tears. Scrubbing them away with haste, Izuku recomposes himself. "These are tears of joy! I'm not sad, the opposite of it! I'm… as happy as can be right now!"

"Okay, okay, chill! I'm just screwing with ya, Izu." Nendo reassured his buddy before he could go off on another speech on how he totally wasn't going to be depressed and all that. Giving Izuku a good-natured punch on the arm, the brick manipulator flicks his own projector into the air before catching it like a coin. "I suppose it's my turn now. Also, Izu?"

"Yeah?"

"You should totally give Uraraka a kiss for that. She deserves it."

"...WHAT?!"

"Alright, no kisses then. A big hug?"

"N-No! Nendo, we had just knew each other-"

"A thank-you, then? Look, if you can't even do that then I'm gonna have to slap you-"

"That's… fine. A thank-you, yeah, I should do that."

"Oh. Okay then, good to hear!" Nendo replies as he thumbs the little button on the side before gently placing the device on the same table as Izuku, quietly praying that whoever's presenting him the news will say nice things about him first before the inevitable dumpster fire that is his written test gets brought up.

Like before, a holographic screen was projected. Unlike before, however, instead of the muscle-bound visage of All Might showing up with all the energy and persona of a true entertainer, Nendo was graced with the presence of an odd humanoid that looks like a mixture between several different animals, most notably the head of a mouse, the ears of a bear, paws of a dog and the thin tail of a cat. It sits on a disproportionately large armchair with a cup of hot tea in its paws.

While most would have been either weirded out or question the current state of the world from seeing an anthropomorphic cartoon creature coming to life, Nendo maintains an unbroken stare at the figure with utmost amazement, his mouth agape. "Izu, dude…" He then turns to the greenette, stars twinkling in his enlarged eyes. "It's a Pokemon! A real life Pokemon, not a CGI one! I knew the developers weren't making them up! Quick Izu! Fetch me my pokeball!"

"I don't know where it is!"

"It's in the box!" Nendo's arm snaps towards the large box where he keep most of his belongings, sitting at a discrete corner of Izuku's room. The greenette sputtered, before giving in and started diving through the box that is even bigger than he is.

"Greetings." The cat-dog-bear-whatever humanoid speaks up in a polite tone, courteously nodding to Nendo, who was about to take a replica ball with a red and white color scheme from Izuku. "Now, before you surmised me as either a cat, a dog, a bear, a mouse or a fictional creature from a pre-Quirk era video game franchise, I regret to inform you that I am none of those things. I am Nezu. Principal Nezu."

Whereas Izuku almost has his eyes bulge out of their sockets, partially because the principal looks like something straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon and mainly because it's the principal of U.A High School himself making a vaunted appearance, Nendo drops the toy ball from his hand as the cloud of disappointment hung over his head, casting over his face a crestfallen shadow. "Aww…so it's not a Pokemon? Man, this blows. At least we still have dragons though." His mood then surreptitiously lightened again once the image of a certain dracomorphic heroine entered his mind.

"There is no use dilly-dallying around anyway, so I will be frank with you." Said Nezu, taking a small sip from his cup before placing it down on a nearby coffee table and pulling out a clipboard from behind his back. "First order of business, your written score. I say it is…"

Nendo could hear the sounds of his heart holding its breath, if it even had its own set of lungs to begin with. Thin beads of sweat precipitated on his forehead, rolling down on both sides of his head. His teeth start to chatter like a woodpecker coming down from a sugar rush. "Not good? Bad? Terrible? Abhorrent? Detestable? Unbecoming? Disappointing? Dammit, I'm running out of negative adjectives to describe my score!"

"It is…hmm, how should I put this in a way that makes it easier for you to stomach? Ah, right. It is, for lack of a better word, 'adequate'." Nezu finally drops the verdict, instantly making Nendo's mind go blank from the sheer intelligence exuding from his words alone. "That is right. Your score in the written exam is neither good nor bad. Not exceptional, but not horrible either. Leaves much to be desired, but not entirely hopeless. Just good enough for a pass. Passable, if you will."

Nendo continues to stare blankly at the projected screen before sighing heavily, relieved beyond belief that he made it pass the written exam. Slumping down on where he stands, the noirette practically melted and collapsed to the floor, the bones in his legs seemingly liquefying much to Izuku's horror. "Nendo! Are you-"

"No no, I'm good. Just…phew. Just felt like a huge weight's been lifted on my shoulders." Nendo reassures the green-haired teen, cracking open a grateful smile.

"Even though your written scores are average, your performance on the practical exam is more than enough to pull you through. You got second place, in fact!" The principal's previously neutral expression takes a turn for the cheerful when three smaller windows open up on one corner of the screen, playing recordings of Nendo's various moments on the testing site. One window shows him battling the villain bots that ganged up on him, while the other has him taking a stroll while the floating bricks handle all the robots around him, even preventing one from jumping on a student by sending a wall at it. The last one is, of course, the teamwork between him and the mushroom-spawning girl he newly befriended.

"I wonder if she's nervous about this stuff too?"

"As you can see, not only do you handle yourself just fine, you take the chance to help others when needed as well. If it hasn't been made clear, you passed. Normally, this is where I end this recording by congratulating you and wishing you good luck on your journey to becoming a hero, but…there are quite a few things that caused debates among our judges about you."

Nendo, now taking a considerably more relaxed stance, merely raised an eyebrow at what Nezu is insinuating.

"One of these things concerns your cooperation with the student known as Kinoko Komori. Several members of the board argue that the points earned during your time fighting alongside her should be dismissed." Nezu calmly proclaimed, brushing an invisible layer of dust off his double-breasted waistcoat. "Though, I admit that this was the lesser issue, as while the rules do discourage friends and affiliates from working together, you and Miss Komori never knew each other beforehand, and we have no rules that concern complete strangers working together. Thus, the points you two have gained together are safe, so to speak."

"So, the final judgment is: Yosuke Nendo, 55 Villain Points and 21 Rescue Points. As for your 'wartime' partner, rest assured, she passed as well. Also, points for creative use of your Quirk. Clever trap for the robots. What a shame Katsuki Bakugou bested you by a single point, or else you would have gotten first place." The animalesque principal gave him a little chuckle, remembering how the staff room practically gets shocked in silence about the absurdity of a mushroom-coated tank as he took another sip of his tea. "But let us move on to the more pressing issue. You see, while digging through several files, we came across an interesting fact about you. To put it bluntly…you were formerly placed under juvenile detention. For hospitalizing someone, no less."

Nendo's shoulders become ever so stiffer, but decided to keep his cool nonetheless. He knew he was innocent - nothing to worry about. If there are people who think he is nothing more than an ex-juvie, then be his guest.

He's not going to rat out his uncle, no matter what. It was a secret he is going to keep with him to the grave.

"Several judges declared that you should be denied entry for having a criminal background and, I quote, 'tendency for villainous actions', but I argued in your case that there isn't a law that prevents delinquents from wanting to become heroes." Said Nezu in a slow, deliberate tone, sipping his tea once more as he crossed his legs. "But they still protested against my decision, so I have to capitulate. I can just exercise my power and authority as the principal, but that would be terribly unfair and tyrannical, so I offered them a deal, and by extension, you."

Fixing his tie, the principal coughs into his left paw before continuing. "My offer is that, in exchange for your tenure at U.A, you will have to be on your best behavior for an entire month. That means no pointless fights outside of sparring and official events, no illegal activity obviously and no delinquent behavior such as truancy or bullying. If you can keep it up for a month, then your position here will be fully secured and there will be no further doubts that you have truly turned over a new leaf."

"If you are wondering why, then it is simply because I believe in the dogma that everyone deserves a second chance. Judging by your actions, it seems that you are serious in your attempts to become a hero. And you have only been released for less than two weeks."

"I wanna be a wizard…" Nendo muttered under his breath.

"And it would be plain nefarious of me to squash your dreams. So, with the knowledge of your conditions at U.A in mind, I will certainly be looking forward to your good conduct here." Nezu finishes his cup in one go, before hopping down from his armchair and giving the camera a little wave. "Oh, and should you not comply with these simple rules, we will kick you out and write a letter of warning to other schools not to take you in. But that will be all. Until we meet again, Yosuke Nendo. Good luck!"

The projection ended, leaving the two in the dimly-lit room with no other sound but the footsteps of Inko nervously pacing outside the door to the room. "Uh…well, that's…something. I'm not sure if I should be excited or intimidated if I were you. Are you alright?" Izuku tapped his fingers together, walking next to Nendo who continued to stare at the device. "Nen-chan?"

"WOOOO!" What Izuku didn't expect was his friend leaping nearly a full meter into the air with his arms swinging around like a pinwheel, nearly uppercutting him in the process. "I did it, Izu! I'm gonna be going to school with you!" Nendo cheered, the excitable child inside him surfacing as he grabs Izuku by the arms and quite literally swings him around like a ragdoll.

In the midst of his head spinning, Izuku felt mildly tempted to do his job as Nendo's friend and remind him that he has just been practically put on a watchlist by the principal, but given how elevated the mood of the room is right now, he doesn't want to ruin it. After all, he passed as well and to Izuku, that was nothing short of a miracle.

"Oh man, that written exam! It was like scaling the back of a fire elemental dragon, you know? Hot and hard as hell! But I still managed to overcome it!" Tightening his fists, Nendo alternatingly pumps them in the air like a pair of pistons to show just how, well, pumped he is about his results.

"Wait, but…don't all dragons breathe fire? So why would there be a 'fire' elemental?" Out of curiosity, Izuku asked, feeling his knowledge of fictional creatures at stake.

"Not all of them, silly! Some breathe ice and others breathe lightning. There's also earth dragons too, but breathing out dirt seems lame so I guess they raise mountains or something." Nendo replied without a care in the world, his spirit still flying above the clouds.

But then, as if a nerve was struck, Nendo's manic cheerings suddenly stopped. "Hey, Izu." With the greenette's attention now directed at him, the teen laughed quietly as he tip-toed over to the closet that Izuku typically reserved to store things he didn't use anymore. "Since we both made it, don't you think this is the right time for a…celebration?"

Before Izuku could even think of a reply, Nendo held onto the knob of the closet's door and threw it open. Instead of ancient junk gathering up dust, what came spilling out of the closet was a veritable motherlode of snack food, sweets and drinks. And what's more, some of the brands Izuku saw weren't even sold in Japan!

"Nen-chan, are these…?" Asked Izuku with a hushed tone, voice barely above a whisper.

"Our celebration party supplies? You bet." Nendo replied with a shit-eating grin, his eyes narrowing into a mischievous glint. "We're gonna party all night long."

"W-Where did you get all this?"

"Let's say…I have my connections, Izu. Back at Penny-Filter."

"Woah. But…does my mom allow this?"

"Look, I love Inko-san as much as you do, but what she doesn't know doesn't hurt her." Retorted Nendo, nudging Izuku in the elbow. "Besides, shouldn't you be breaking the good news to her now? I'm sure the poor woman's shaking in her socks right now."

"Oh, right!" The freckled boy perks up and grabs his projection device on the table before rushing out of the room to give his mother the exciting news. "Mom!"

Content with leaving the two Midoriyas to themselves, Nendo rearranged the snack items he smuggled into their home and lay down on his futon, staring at the ceiling while reminiscing about what Nezu said to him, now that the initial euphoria has subsided.

'Be on your best behavior for one month', he says. Too easy. Nendo hasn't the heart to sow conflict amongst others, and he made sure to treat everyone he came across with nothing but kindness and understanding. Honestly, how hard can it be to just be a good boy for a month? Basically, the principal was telling him to be his usual self.

Besides, if his ex-juvie status is what rustles their jimmies that hard, then it just means that they will pay extra attention to him, thus giving the wizard of bricks even greater coverage as he displays his fearsome skills. After all, there's no such thing as bad publicity. It will certainly help him grow his legend and finish fights without having to raise a finger out of intimidation alone.

And without a hint of worry in his heart, Nendo began singing the victory fanfare of Arcane Quest again, waiting for Izuku to rejoin him for their late night celebration.

-0-

"And so, this marks the day that the beginning of the legend of the hero and the wizard, one that will one day be immortalized in the history books."

"Their journey to greatness, recognition and acclaim will not be a simple and easy one. No, no. Adversaries big and small, strong and weak, noble and cowardly, will stop at nothing to hinder their way."

"But no matter what difficult and terrible hardships that will spawn from the wretched bowels of the underworld, our heroes will triumph in the end, in spite of the odds! All opposing forces shall fall before their combined might!"

"But before their legends could truly begin, they must craft the foundations first. And where better to do it than the academy for practitioners of the arcane, trained in the mystic arts to protect this wonderful realm against the encroaching hands of evil, seeking to seize power at any given moment-"

"Nendo, come on! We're gonna be late!" Izuku's full head of green hair pops out from behind the door, looking at Nendo who was assuming a dramatic pose with one foot resting on a chair and a fist aimed towards the sun, all while staring out of an open window. "What…are you doing?"

"Izu!" Nendo turned back to his friend, now fully clad in a brand new uniform, with uncharacteristic annoyance in his voice. "Can't you see I'm reciting our lore?!"

"Our…our what now?" Asked Izuku, cocking an eyebrow out of genuine confusion.

"Our lore! You know, the story behind the legend of Izuku Midoriya and Yosuke Nendo? I mean, someone has to document all the little snippets for future connoisseurs once we become world famous!" Nendo replied in a faux-royal voice, raising his pitch to a notch higher. "And I will take that responsibility! My heart and actions are utterly unclouded, so rest assured, my dear Izu, these accounts will be entirely unbiased."

Izuku takes a moment to swallow all the information, before breathing out from his nose as heavily as possible. Clapping his hands together, he glared at the teen with the pseudo-afro. Not even looking at the outlandish hairdo makes him laugh now. "Nendo, I get what you're doing is very important…but in case you haven't noticed, THIS IS OUR FIRST DAY!" He suddenly yells in a cartoonishly angry manner, chopping the air with his arm. "Our first class is in by a quarter of an hour, and you haven't even changed your clothes! I had to skip breakfast because of our party last night, which you insist on dragging on past midnight by the way, had me oversleeping and now you're standing there monologuing?!"

"Oh yeah, it is! Yeah, sorry Izu, you can go out first, just give me a minute!" Nendo responded as happily as ever, even giving the steaming Izuku, whose anger was already fading away fast, a pat on the shoulder before sending him out of the room. "Also, I'm not monologuing, I'm making lore!" He opened the door again to deliver that last sentence before closing it.

"But I…" Izuku wanted to make a point, but feeling like there is no use in further pegging Nendo about something he is already in the process of doing, opts to just shrug his shoulders and walk away instead. "It's Nendo for god's sake, why do you even bother?"

True to his word, Nendo emerges from their shared bedroom no more than a minute later, wearing the same trademarked U.A school uniform as Izuku. Walking with a spring in his step, the brickmancer makes his way towards the front door where he finds his pal currently being gently smothered by his mother with questions.

"Did you have enough tissues?"

"Yes, mom."

"Do you have your handkerchief as well?"

"Right here, mom."

"Your school supplies? Notebooks, pens, pencils and rulers?"

"All good to go, mom."

"Condoms?"

"Yes, mom-" Izuku almost replied with that same deadpan voice before he nearly choked on his own spit upon realizing two things: One, he doesn't have any, and two, his mother was asking him if he had the piece of latex that often imply potential intercourse. "W-What?! Mom, why would I ever need to use those?!"

"It's okay Izuku, there is nothing to be ashamed about things like this." Inko spoke with a serene tone only a mother could produce, instantly disabling the red-faced Izuku's mental defenses as her maidenly hand gently ruffled his hair. "It is perfectly normal for boys and girls of fifteen to experiment with each other's bodies. But if you are worried about having to take responsibility, which you should be, then wearing protection would provide a safety net against that issue. In fact, when I was your age, me and your father would-"

Before she could finish her extended, uncut version of the 'the talk', Izuku had already finished tying his shoes, went to grab Nendo who was still packing his duffel bag, and went back to the entrance. "Okay mom love you bye!" The words came out of his mouth as quickly as humanly possible before the two teens blitzed away and closed the door, leaving a befuddled Inko to blink blankly at the dust clouds that had taken the silhouette of her son and his friend.

"See you…later too." The mature woman waved awkwardly, a small smile never leaving her face. "Oh, they grow up so fast."

After rushing down the stairs and nearly tripping in the process, Izuku finally deemed it fit to let go of Nendo and get some air back into his lungs. The noirette, curious, peeked over the greenette's shoulders. "So…what was all of that about?" He asked while walking around, still trying to push the rest of his heels into his shoes.

"GAH! Nendo!" Izuku yelped, before latching onto Nendo with his hands around the taller boy's arms, an almost desperate look resonating in his iridescent green eyes. "How much. Did you. Hear?"

Nendo pursed his lips and left his eyes at half mast, before his lips curved into the smug grin to end all smug grins. "Just enough to continue Inko-san's talk."

That was all the response Izuku needed to feel the steam hissing out of his ears again as he attempted to cover his giant blush with his hands. "Mom…why, why?"

"What's the matter? I think it was pretty cool of your mom to approach you about those topics. I mean, you get a headstart."

"Nendo, you…you don't find that embarrassing?"

"Nope."

"H-How?"

"Well, I just don't think that, at this point, it's something big enough to worry too much about. I just take awkward stuff like that with an open smile. Easier to take things in stride rather than freaking out about it."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one with an amazing but sometimes overbearing mom-" Izuku grumbled before very swiftly slapping himself in the mouth for how horribly insensitive he accidentally came off as. "Oh…crap baskets. I am so, so sorry, Nendo, I didn't mean for it to sound like that!"

"No offense taken. Honestly, it's fine. I'm…used to it by now. Still wish Dad taught me that stuff before he was gone, though." Nendo wears a more wistful expression as he gives Izuku a supportive bump to the hips. Then, to change up the guilty look on his friend, he adopts a more happy-go-lucky attitude. "Anyway, cheer up! It's our big day! Like, even bigger than the last big day we have! You get to go to your dream school, and I finally returned to a proper learning environment after three years!"

"Well, if you put it like that…yeah, it is a big day." Izuku finds himself nodding along with Nendo, feeling his spirits being lifted as he remembered that he has worked so hard to get into U.A, and here he is now, dressed in its official uniform. "Oh Nendo, which class are you in?"

"I-!" Nendo raised a finger in the air, voice loud and clear. "Don't know. Do you?"

The school sent us emails with the lists for which class you're in, you can check it if you want." Izuku informed him, taking out his phone and flipping through the mails in his inbox. "Though only 41 out of 300 examinees made it, so we only have two freshman classes, 1-A and 1-B."

Wordlessly, Nendo dug through the pockets of his pants and fished out his own phone to check. Once he found the mail, his gray eyes immediately gained the sharpness of a hawk as he went over every name on the list with great meticulousness, his thumb idly scrolling up and down the screen.

The conversational air between the two friends died down as Nendo read the list of names mailed to him. Izuku, more than a tad uncomfortable that the usually-talkative Nendo suddenly went quiet, tapped him on the arm. "Nendo? Is everything okay? That was thirty seconds of radio silence there."

Nendo merely replied with a lackadaisical grunt, still reading the list. "Oh, there's my name! I don't see yours though."

It took more than a few seconds for Izuku to process the amount of brain matter in that response, knowing that Nendo was entirely ignoring the whole objective of finding out what class he is in and searching for their names instead, before sucking air through his teeth. "Have you tried to look at what class you're in? It's labeled on the top of the page."

"Oh yeah!" Nendo flashed Izuku an innocent grin, scrolling back to the top. "Alright, I'm in…1-B?"

"And I'm in 1-A."

A metaphorical cold gust of wind blew across the streets as Nendo's face became hardened with a desolate visage. "Oh…we're not in the same class." Groaned the noirette out of pure disheartenment, his shoulders slumping like a sack of bricks.

Izuku, seeing his friend becoming visibly depressed, rested a hand on his back for emotional support. "Hey, it's alright. We can still meet each other after school, no?" He said, consoling the saddened Nendo. "Besides, we still live together, so…"

And luckily for him, that was all it took for the crestfallen Nendo to snap out of his funk. "Aww, Izu. You know just the right words to cheer me up." Nendo cooed as he draped an arm over Izuku's shoulders and pulled his friend in for another bromantic hug. Izuku wondered if it's strange to see Nendo as oddly…'cute' sounds a bit too intimate, so he decided to go with 'endearing'. Yes, Nendo is more endearing than usual during moments like this. The greenette returned the gesture.

After the duo of Quirk users separated from their embrace, they continued their commute to school again, making small talks along the way. Eventually, Nendo decided that walking wasn't fast enough, and instead summoned a hovering platform of bricks wide and lengthy enough to accommodate two people, before asking Izuku to step on with him. The greenette was a little unused to this mode of transport, but accepted it nonetheless.

Skirting around districts at the speed of a motorbike with Izuku nearly falling off at times, the two finally arrived at their destination. Sizing up the gigantic school building with his mouth slightly hanging open, Nendo leaned down next to Izuku. "Why do I feel like I'm entering the Demon King's Tower?"

"The…what now?" Asked Izuku, rubbing his temples as Nendo has once again forgotten that his friend's knowledge of Arcane Quest is lightyears behind him.

"Oh, you know, the thirteenth world, where the Demon King is the second-to-last boss? I swear, his tower looks almost exactly like this building here. Huge, square and has four smaller towers around it." Nendo replied casually, making the brick platform fading away into red dust with a single touch.

"Whatever fits you, I guess." Izuku rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out, no longer having a proper reply to whatever comes out of Nendo's mouth. "So…I guess this is it. See you around?" He said, edging his fist towards the messy-haired teen as they entered the building.

Nendo responded to the oldest form of friendship gestures with a big smile, his hand balling together. "See you around. And good luck with your day!" With their fists touching, Nendo and Izuku finally parted ways and headed to their respective classrooms. The former confidently marched down the hallway opposing the latter's path…

Before his stride starts to become slower and smaller with each step as the crushing revelation that he doesn't know the ins and outs of a place this huge settles in. He tried to ask Izuku for help, but as it turns out, the greenette had already vanished.

Directionally helpless and essentially stranded in the middle of the school, Nendo never thought he would have to consult the help of one of his most hated enemies, the very thing that only serves to hinder him and distract him every time he got lost in the local mall that his dad took him to as a child.

Map directories. The clashing colors and confusing layout hurt his ten-year-old brain back then, and it still hurts him now.

"Oh man…"

-0-

Ah, Ultra Academy High School.

Japan's most highly-regarded and esteemed birthing grounds for professional heroes. With such a reputation, many would test their mettle just for a chance of touching its hallowed halls, but alas, the numbers of people that actually make it in is always inversely proportional to the number of people who tried.

It was still morning, but yet the air within the academy was calm and silent, with not a single peep to be heard. The reason for this is because of its cavernous insides, as well as most of the excitement being relegated to the two freshmen classes at the very top of the building.

Even in one of its pristine, well-maintained, spiraling staircases, the only sounds were the soft humming of the air conditioners keeping a balanced temperature, the chirping of birds making their nests from the trees surrounding the hill U.A rested upon…

And noises of intense physical exertion. "Hnngh…hah…" Groaned Nendo, his hands feebly grabbing onto the stair railings to try to pull himself up as his legs had given up halfway through, now limping uselessly and dragging behind him like a pair of ball-and-chain. "Who's the genius…that came up with the idea…to put our classes on the flippin' top floor?"

With one last heave, Nendo basically threw his body past several steps and, with the assistance of floating bricks propping him up, landed on the white marble floor of the hallway leading to class 1-B and, not too far away, 1-A.

Completely out of breath and immobilized due to severe muscle fatigue, there was not much Nendo could do to get to class until he recovers. "I really should exercise more often…" Lying on the ground and scratching his chin in thought, Nendo scoured his brain for a solution.

And then he came up with one that he should have thought of ever since he began thinking about it. His bricks, the eternal guardians that have stood by his side for so long, aiding him in his endeavors and helping him up whenever he is down, shall have the honor of carrying him to class. "Bricks!"

Heeding his revered words, swathes of crimson dust manifested from thin air, coagulating and converging into a cloud before a brick is formed out of it, floating and seemingly staring down at its master.

"I said bricks!" Nendo repeats himself, dragging out the 's'.

Another brick popped out. "Ah, good. Now, I need someone to haul me over to class. And who better to do it than my faithful bricks?" Nendo then points to his back. "Make a platform."

On command, several dozen more bricks were summoned and stacked next to each other until a slab roughly as long as Nendo is tall was formed. Seeing that his 'crutch' has been made, Nendo moves his body closer until he is close enough, where he hops on it instead. "Alright! Now, fly towards 1-B and stop in front of the door." Ordered Nendo, his finger aiming at the rather comically oversized door.

The slab starts to hover several inches off the ground, veering towards the direction of the classroom in question in a manner reminiscent of a turning car. Then, without warning, the platform rushed at the door with such unprecedented speeds that the force of friction acting upon Nendo's back is simply rendered null as he slides completely away from the platform when it flies away, thus causing the teen to fall instead.

"Ow! Not that fast!" Nendo berated the non-sentient slab of bricks, rolling over and lying on his stomach this time. Calling the platform back, he gets back on top and uses both hands to grip onto the sides of the slab to prevent himself from falling off again. "Slower this time."

The platform did exactly that, and flew towards the door at a slower, but still quite speedy pace. "Slower, dammit! Slower, slower…"

Adhering to his words, the platform would continuously move at an incrementally slower rate until its movement speed has been reduced to that of a person's average walking pace. As he inches closer and closer to the door, his heart thumps faster and harder. It has been so long since he set foot into an actual classroom with classmates - his time at juvie notwithstanding - that he wasn't sure if he could actually fit in.

But whatever turns out next, he'll make sure to face it to the best of his abilities. If his classmates reject him for his background, then fine by him - he will take it with a beaming smile and remain steadfast on his path to become a wizard. Not just any wizard either; he will become the most powerful one of all!

Arriving in front of the massive door, Nendo dispelled his platform before clapping and rubbing his hands together, sighing. "You can do this, Nendo! Just be yourself and act natural. But not too much of yourself! Sheer force of personality can sometimes be a double-edged sword." Nendo encourages himself, building up as much hype as possible so that any potential attempts at embarrassing himself will just bounce off the overwhelming inflation of his ego.

"On a side note…why is this door so big? Unless they're planning to have someone the size of All Might walk through-" Nendo's thought processes shut up the second he realizes that he answered his own question, and it is now accidentally rhetorical. "Anyway, it's big so it must have been really heavy. Sort of like when my party's on their way to the Tower of Babel." His eyes turned towards one of the windows in deep thought, remembering how all four of his active party members in Arcane Quest, appearing on the map as chibi versions of themselves, have an animation where together they pushed apart a massive steel gate guarding the Tower of Babel where the Lich Priest dwells.

"Well, better push it as hard as I can. Wonder if the others have to do the same?" Nendo asked no one in particular as he peeks through the glass window, finding several silhouettes inside already. Pressing his hands flat against the door, he inhaled sharply through the nose and pushed.

As it turns out, Nendo has vastly overestimated the weight of the door. It swings open with surprising lightness, and the strength behind his arms has proven to be the dark-haired teen's own undoing as he now finds himself falling down from the momentum. He manages to break the fall with his arms, but the damage is already done.

He couldn't quite see yet, but he was sure that the combination of noises had attracted every set of eyes in the classroom towards the source.

"Okay Nendo, not the best dramatic entry you've done so far. But, there is still a way to salvage the situation! Just…act like nothing happened. Be cool about it." Nendo mentally gave himself a pep talk on how to save face, still facing the ground and, unbeknownst to him, drawing even more attention to his current state.

Summoning two bricks under each hand, Nendo telekinetically raises them upwards, propping himself up in the process while making two more under his feet. Once he is sure of the exact position he is going to be landing on, Nendo has the bricks fly behind him in the opposite direction at great speeds before letting go, allowing himself to backflip several times in the air…

…and gracefully lands on his feet with his arms outstretched like a professional ballerina, assisted by the bricks underneath floating a centimeter or two off the floor. The bricks all dissipate into nothingness the second they leave his touch, turning into puffs of red dust for extra awesomeness.

Turning towards his class, Nendo placed one hand on his chest before bowing down in the most theatrical fashion possible, his back straight and his legs stiff. "Salutations, everyone!"

Hearing nothing in return from his classmates, save for a couple of nods of acknowledgement, Nendo deemed this a massive success in terms of not totally making a fool of himself on the first day.

The deafening silence would continue for a few seconds more until a familiar figure decidedly to stop hiding in plain sight. "H-Hi, Nendo…"

His head snapping towards the direction of the recognizable voice with unerring precision, Nendo saw that it was Kinoko, meekly waving at him with her other hand parting the bangs of her voluminous bob cut aside, revealing a glimpse of her warm cross-sliced eyes. Like him, she was wearing the school-provided uniform, though with the addition of brilliant red knee-high socks. "Komori-san! So good to see you again!" He greeted her jovially, quickly jogging over to her desk with a toothy grin. "How do you do, friend?"

"I'm, well, you know…good. Not doing bad." Kinoko tapped her fingers on the table as a mild blush gradually spread across the skin that wasn't hidden by her hair, still rather flustered about being in close proximity to Nendo. Not that she dislikes him of course, him being a nice guy and all, not to mention how he is actually quite handsome even with that odd hair…

Shaking and pulling her mind out of the gutter, the fungus-producing girl flashed her new friend a shy smile. "But yeah, I'm doing okay. What about you?"

"Who, me? I'm as good as can be! Feeling extra energized today, in fact!" Nendo said with the cheerfulness and excitement of someone half his age, rotating his arms and squeezing them together to showcase his physique, once again causing Komori to turn beet red. "Hmm…oh, right! I forgot to give you something!"

"Huh?" Before she could even ask him about what he meant by 'something', Nendo took her unsuspecting hand with his own and energetically shook it, smiling all the while.

"Congratulations on passing, Komori! Not that there was any doubt to begin with, but still! I was actually intending on telling you right after I got my letter, but then I remember I don't have your number." He explained his intentions, still gleefully shaking her hand and generally not caring about the number of eyes staring at the both of them.

While Kinoko certainly appreciates how thoughtful he is, right now there is a more pressing issue eating away at certain corners of her mind. Nendo, a dashing young man, is currently holding hands with her. Very much aware of the implications as well as the feeling of the rough texture of his palms touching her mushroom-blessed skin, the shorter girl was sure she would cook herself alive from the overwhelming heat boiling in her chest. "Nendo Nendo please let go I don't know how much longer I can take this before my brain fries itself-"

"Hey, it's you! Boy, ain't it great to see you here!" A gruff voice appeared from behind, catching Nendo's attention and inadvertently saving Kinoko from becoming a freshly smoked mushroom from embarrassment alone. "Ya stopped that robot from pulling a sneaky one on me! Even though you got no reason to, you did it anyway, and that is just so goddamn cool of you!"

It took the cogs and gears that make up Nendo's brain some time to recognize the messy gray hair and the thick eyelashes, but an image from his memories of the U.A Entrance Exam eventually manifested. "Oh yeah, I remembered you. You don't have to thank me though, I'm just making things fair for others." Nobody could see it, but his ego just grew three sizes bigger from the praise. Still, he doesn't let it get to his head. "Speaking of which, you were beating those things up with your bare hands! How'd you do that?"

"Well, my Quirk is pretty straightforward in the combat department. It just makes me tough and strong enough to beat the snot outta anything standing in my way!" Boasted the gray-haired teen, cracking a ferocious grin to reveal his set of sharp-pointed teeth that wouldn't look out of place in a T-Rex.

"Fitting for a berserker class like yourself. Simple, but practical." Nendo nodded along, placing a finger on his forehead and appearing much more sophisticated than his usual state.

"A…what? You mean like in those old video games?"

"Yeah, exactly! A berserker cause, you know, you're tough, big and strong and your power is melee-oriented?"

"Huh…guess I never thought of it that way. Nice comparison though! Yeah, I like to get up close and personal, to let them really feel the knuckles on my fists caving their faces in!" The hot-blooded male punched his fist into his palm before pointing a thumb at himself, a thuggish-looking scowl present on his face. "Anyway, the name's Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu! What's yours?" He did not mean any true ill will with the facial expression however, that was just how Tetsutetsu is whenever he felt stoked enough about a topic.

And at the moment, it seems to be something as simple as saying hello to the person who displayed a sense of camaraderie towards him in the battlefield.

"Yosuke Nendo, yours truly. Just Nendo for ease of reference." The noirette shot back a confident smirk, but could not hold a brief snicker as he thought over the inherently silly nature of Tetsutetsu's name. However, he wouldn't hold it over his head just because. "Well, your name's something I won't have trouble remembering. You better commit mine to memory though!"

"Oh, like hell I'll forget your name! You sent that robot flying for me, so I owe you for that! And I swear, the day I won't be able to repay that debt is when I DIE!" Tetsutetsu spoke with fiery emotions, clutching his fists and shaking them as his eyes gained an inspired glint. "This is a matter of honor amongst true men!"

"Well said, man!" Cheered Nendo, giving him a thumbs up. After the air of palpable masculinity dissipated somewhat, the brick-bender beckoned a hand at Komori instead, who was physically recoiling away from the aura of intensity emanated between her new friend and this angry-looking guy with no eyebrows. One looks like he's about to kill the other, and vice versa. "Oh, and this is my friend, Kinoko Komori! It rhymes too!"

Tetsutetsu's beady pupils landed on the diminutive girl, eyes narrowing before relaxing in the same window of one second. "Oh, neat! Did you two know each other long before?"

"Oh, nah. We literally met at the entrance exam. Those robots with the missiles were making the outside world a bit too hot, so I dived into a bunch of debris for cover and boom, there she is!" Said Nendo, recounting the nearby past with fond eyes. "In the darkness of our crude shelter and the blistering inferno of the battle outside, each other's companies were all that the two of us had."

The masculine student squinted his eyes in deep thought, before coming up with something to say after nearly a whole minute of not uttering a sound. "That sounds weirdly romantic."

"R-Romantic?! What is he saying?!" Poor Kinoko's blush only grew ever more hotter and vivid as a deep, dark part of her mind started to create some rather…interesting imagery involving her and Nendo and a darkened room, a product of her reclusive and nonsocial nature being suddenly thrusted into social environments. In an attempt to put a moratorium on the conversation, the fungi connoisseur opened her delicate lips to give her own two cents…only for her voice to suddenly die and a suggestive "Aahh…" came out instead.

Before the option of growing mushrooms in her lungs and choking to death to escape the ensuing wave of shame was available, she found out that the two males didn't notice the sound she just made. Pulling her bangs out of relief, Kinoko leans back on her seat with the vibrant blush fading away somewhat.

Her moment of peace didn't last long however, since one tap on the shoulder from Nendo was all it took for her nerves to jump. "Hey Komori, why don't you tell Tetsutetsu about our fabulous tank?"

The intimidating-looking Tetsutetsu sat down on a chair adjacent to Komori's, his teeth grinding against each other as his eyes narrowed in thought…before gasping uncharacteristically high-pitched, turning towards Nendo with stars in his eyes. "Tank…don't tell me it was you who-!" In the aftermath of the practical, Tetsutetsu has heard countless talks about how there's a tank, made of bricks no less, and covered in brightly colored mushrooms trundling across the ruins of the testing site, drawing more and more robots towards it before supposedly self-destructing, earning the two students 'operating' it a ton of points.

It is supposed to sound ridiculous…but it also sounded so ingenious that it reverts back to being awesome!

"Who else? I'm only one part of the effort though. The bigger part goes to her." Nendo replied humbly, both arms posing around Komori as if he was advertising a product. Even though his 'tank' provided the backbone, it was Kinoko's mushrooms that truly made their gambit work and he felt like she deserves the spotlight more than him. "Come on, tell him!"

"U-Uh…erm, well, I just grow the mushrooms on the outside, really…" Kinoko stammered, not really sure on how to explain her Quirk in a way that wouldn't earn her some mocking remarks for how silly it sounds. However, luckily for the fungal-based Quirk user, the classroom door swung open with a bang, causing everyone to look up from whatever they are doing currently.

Standing at the door with one hand on its frame and the other carrying a disproportionately small briefcase was a tall and strongly-built man with pale gray hair kept in a spiky fashion and small, thin eyes that were partially obscured by an orange visor. He was clad in what appears to be his hero costume, a dark red skin-tight suit with a low neckline that does a very good job at showing off his well-defined musculature and rock-hard pectorals. Curiously enough, there were several small scars focusing on his left cheek and a bigger but faded one on his neck, as well as a long tube emerging from his back and connected to one of the thick vambraces on his forearms.

The towering man looked strange to Nendo, but several students can already recognize him as Vlad King, appropriately dubbed as the Blood Hero, armed with the uncanny ability to control his own blood. Although, despite the moniker being an allusion to an infamous historical figure known for impaling people and being mistaken for a vampire, he never actually drained anyone but himself of life fluids.

The Pro Hero glanced around the classroom, taking in everybody's faces before walking over to his table and placed his briefcase on top. "Alright, settle down class!" He clapped his hands together and spoke with a powerful voice, instantly causing what little chatter there is left to peter out. The rest of the class then blinked in confusion, mixed with intimidation as the Blood Hero shot them all a scrutinizing glare, with Nendo receiving more screen time than others.

Not that that's always a good thing. Nendo, being Nendo, doesn't register even for a second that the man may have more likely than not been informed of that particular part of his background. The worst he assumed of the Pro Hero is that he is simply sizing him up.

Vlad King's piercing crimson eyes lingered on the brick manipulator for a couple more seconds before looking away. Then, with a light cough, he opens his mouth to speak once again, revealing the prominent canines of his lower jaw. "Apologies, I was just counting to see if everyone is here. Welcome to the U.A Hero Course! My name's Sekijiro Kan, and I will be your homeroom teacher for the time being. It's a great pleasure to be able to teach you all!" Sekijiro introduced himself with a much kinder tone this time, even if there was still an edge of sternness to it.

As everyone murmurs about having a Pro Hero as their teacher, let alone one as well respected as Vlad King, Nendo had much more important things in mind. "Who's this guy?" He whispered to Komori, who he is now sitting right next to as his homeroom teacher is busy talking about how they will outshine their fellow class of freshmen, 1-A.

"If my memory serves me right…he is Vlad King, the so-called Blood Hero." Kinoki quietly replies, intertwining her fingers together as her head subconsciously leans closer to Nendo's shoulder.

"Blood Hero? That sounds badass! What's his Quirk?"

"If you musht know…" Komori trailed off, unintentionally making a mushroom-related pun as she tried to put it in terms that best make sense for Nendo. "His power is basically bloodbending. Only with his own blood though, not others."

"...Wow! That's so-"

"Yucky?"

"Metal! He's a blood mage!"

"A blood mage? Oh, like the class in Arcane Quest?"

"Yeah! They're actually meant for veterans though, because their primary attack always shaves off thirty percent of the enemies' health. But the offset is, they can't increase that threshold any more than thirty, have the lowest health out of any class, a skill tree that takes way too many points to complete, and that undead enemies are immune to their percentage damage attack." Nendo explained to her with the vocabulary and eloquence of a college professor, a far cry from his usual casual manner of speech. "That being said, they're more usable in the late game since the bosses there became so insanely tanky that being able to shave off nearly one-third of their health bar in one hit is absolutely crucial if you want to deal any meaningful amount of damage."

Kinoko didn't have much to say other than numbly nodding at Nendo with her mouth constantly going 'Uh huh'. She made it a goal to have another go at the game once she's back home just to see for herself what Nendo was talking about.

"But hey, I mostly just spam the crap out of earth mage's Earthquake, so eh, to each of their own I guess." And just like that, smart Nendo was gone. Say hello to his idiot twin.

Before Nendo could further overload her brain with game knowledge however, he was interrupted by the sounds of Kan slamming his hands downwards, creating two palm-shaped indentations on the desk as he continued to speak with pure passion in his voice. Thinking that they may have been caught talking in class, the two sat up straight, their eyes facing the teacher. "...And unlike that lazy bum Aizawa, I will be taking the initiative on leading our class and turning all of you into the brightest stars this academy of heroes has ever seen! You are all diamonds in the rough, and I am the polisher!"

Tightening his fists, the teacher strikes a grand pose while pointing a finger at his students, who are now all sporting a different expression from when they first entered class. The uneasy glints in their eyes have now all been replaced with that same fire he instilled into them from the speech alone. "For our next three years here, we will triumph against all odds and rise above even the tallest of mountains life has to offer! So tell me…ARE YOU ALL READY TO BECOME HEROES?"

"YEAH!" Most of the class exploded in unison as the hype builds up to critical levels, with the sole exceptions being Komori (who cheered with vastly meeker voice), a pale girl with grayish hair that covers her left eye (who wasn't so much cheer as saying 'woohoo' in a stereotypical ghostly intonation) and a stone-faced girl with black hair (who merely said 'yay' in the most monotonous voice known to man while never breaking her stoic expression). One girl, who had lengthy green brambles in place of hair, didn't cheer at all, simply sitting at her table with her hands clasped together in a silent prayer.

On the other end of the spectrum, Nendo hollered the loudest, a manic smile present on his face. He felt like he would actually disappoint his awesome new teacher if he didn't show enough excitement.

"Now that's what I wanted to hear! As for what we will do next-!" Sekijiro proclaimed, moving the briefcase in front of him and opening it with a mechanical click of a lock. Somehow reaching deeper inside the case more than its size would allow, he pulled out a bundle of blue jumpsuits with white and red highlights on them, the most prominent of which being a stylized 'U' around the shoulder area and an 'A' stretched from the midsection all the way down to the leggings. "These are your P.E clothes. Put them on and head to the PE grounds, just downstairs. Class 1-A will also be participating there, so we will take one half of the field. Break a leg!"

As everyone took their assigned uniforms and exited the classroom in droves to change, Nendo stood still, his shaky hands clutching onto his PE uniform. "Wait…that's Izu's class! Then that means we'll get to see each other!" It took every fiber of Nendo's being to resist the urge to break into a musical number, though with his teacher firmly gesturing to him to move out of class, it wasn't too hard.

-0-

"Quirk Apprehension Test?" The entirety of class 1-B asked, most of which are surprised that they have just entered school and already have to undertake a whole test without any warning whatsoever.

"That is correct! It is a test to assess your proficiency in using your Quirk, as well as your physical and mental aptitude in the heat of battle!" Replied Sekijiro with an upbeat demeanor, currently leading his crowd of blue-jumpsuited students across U.A's vast grounds.

"Excuse me, Kan-sensei, but…I thought we're supposed to have a welcoming ceremony beforehand?" A girl of slim build, teal eyes and flowing tangerine hair that is kept in a ponytail raised her hand while still walking in line with the rest of the class.

"Well, Kendo, yes, we do have that. But you see, U.A is quite well-known for deviating from the rules and traditions that other schools practiced and offers a wide degree of freedom to everyone on campus to do whatever they want, as long as no crucial rules are broken. And I do mean everyone." Sekijiro lowered the pitch of his voice as he spoke for emphasis, glimpsing behind his back to see the looks on his students' faces. "Yes, that means us teachers as well. And as your teacher, I say we skip all of that and get straight to the meat and bones of your first day! The more time we waste on pointless flipperies, the less time we have to learn and train."

Some of the more rule-abiding members of the class wanted to protest the decision by raising their hands, but quickly put them down as they found themselves agreeing to his point of view to an extent. After all, their main goal of being here is to become a hero.

A few more minutes of trundling across the absurdly huge plot of land that only something of U.A's fame has the manpower to maintain all of its greeneries, the class of aspiring heroes (and one wizard-to-be) arrived at the field reserved for gym periods and outdoor sessions.

Just in time for the other class of first-years to come along. Nendo was the first to scout out the incoming group, and much to his delight, the familiar faces of Izuku and Ochako entered his sight. Not paying attention to the looks he got from both his classmates and the students of 1-A, Nendo waved aggressively at the two, even summoning a giant, vaguely shaped hand to wave in conjunction with him.

Izuku, effortlessly spotting his best friend from a distance away, could only hide his face in his uniform out of embarrassment. Ochako was likewise blushing, but still managed to mouth him a small 'hey' in acknowledgement.

"U-Um, Nendo…I think you should put your hand down." Kinoko hurriedly urges him, pinching on the fabric of his sleeve and pulling it. "Hands, I mean."

"What? I'm just saying hi from over here! Look, it's Izu and Ochako!"

"I can see that, but…everyone is kinda staring at y-you."

"Hmm?" Nendo turned around and, sure enough, there were about ten pairs of eyes focused on him, all sporting a variation of the ubiquitous 'raised eyebrow' look from his questionable actions. "Oh, sorry guys! Just saw a friend over there, got a bit too excited. Sorry!" The teen with the swept-back afro grinned like an idiot, scratching his head all the while.

His classmates continued to gaze at him with the intensity of three suns before swiftly looking away, the attention on him dying just as quickly as it had come with a blonde-haired male even rolling his eyes at Nendo in a derisive manner.

Like always, the noirette does not seem to mind. "Nendo? Are you okay? Everyone was looking at you…must have been scary." The concerned voice of his mushroom-loving friend reaches Nendo, and he simply gives her a warm smile.

"It's nothing! They just wanted to know who's waving a giant hand made of bricks in the air, that's all. Look, they all look away now!"

"I wish I had your confidence, Nendo…" Thought the brunette to herself, her lips curving into an anxious frown as she watched class 1-A getting closer.

As 1-A approaches within talking distance, the unflattering image of whoever was leading them becomes gradually clearer and clearer for the heroes-in-training of 1-B. A tall, thin, shaggy-looking man dressed in black with a long, flowing scarf wrapped around his neck and heavy bags under his deadened, tired eyes. With other attractive features such as an uncut mane of scraggly hair, an unshaven stubble and a general air of gloominess, he seemed less like a teacher for U.A and more like a nine-to-five office worker who just pulled an all-nighter and is now in urgent need of caffeine.

Boatloads of it.

"So…this is your batch, huh?" The unkempt man speaks up first, hands stuffed in his pockets as his soulless eyes scanned each and every student in 1-B, inspecting them like items at a pawn shop rather than living, breathing human beings.

"Yeah. And unlike you, I don't threaten them with expulsion on their first day. Look at them! Already hurting for action and more full of life than yours." The Blood Hero beamed with pride, beckoning an open hand towards his students, who responded with either an awkward smile, a deadpan stare and somewhere in between. His words have the opposite effect with the class of 1-A however, who now all looked at their teacher with an expression of disbelief and fear.

"You're making it sound as if coddling them like a bunch of whiny toddlers is any better." The gloomy teacher deadpanned, his eyes remaining half-lidded.

"I'm not coddling them, Aizawa! I pick them up whenever they are down, I encourage them and push them to do their best! Is that so wrong?" Kan shoots at the man, now named Aizawa, a comically offended look.

"Congratulations, you spelled out the definition of coddling."

"At least I don't expel students just because I woke up on the wrong side of bed! Should I remind you that we lost a bunch full of promising youngsters last year, thanks to you?" Sekijiro replied in a heated manner, pointing an accusing finger at Aizawa who merely yawned. "What makes you think you can kick out an entire class, just because you don't like them?"

"When the guy who gave me that kind of power without any repercussions is also the same guy who writes my paycheck, you bet I'm gonna abuse the hell out of it." Aizawa sweeps back his hair to reveal that his mouth has curved into a freaky Cheshire cat grin, with his normally half-lidded eyes opening wide, showing their bloodshot texture in detail. "Besides, it helps filter out the helpless idealists and fame seekers. See these eyes? They can't see the future, but they can see things that are bull. And that class…was full of it. They call it unfair, I call it being real."

Sekijiro said nothing, merely crossing his arms with a sneer, as if waiting to see what Aizawa will say next.

"The world is an unfair place. No villain is gonna sit around and wait for you to finish your heroic speech. No tragedy caused by natural disasters is gonna magically heal because you whispered sweet nothings to the victims. It's a hero's job to actively combat injustice. If you're serious about being a Pro, then we got no time for frilly niceties. If they can't work under maximum pressure, then I have no reason to keep them around. Villains won't pull their punches on kids, so neither will I-"

"And there we go again! It's always a cup half empty with you, isn't it Aizawa?" Kan cuts him off, before adopting an exaggerated version of the lankier teacher's voice. "Oh, the world is such a dark and gritty place, the sky is black, the streets are filled with bodies, so naturally, I gotta be dark and gritty and can't have fun as well! What, must everyone here end up as a sad sack like you?"

For a brief moment, Aizawa's devil-may-care disposition gave way for irritation. "What was that?" He asked, a contralto of danger present in his voice.

"Oh, I'll gladly repeat it for you! Does every hero and heroine coming out of this place have to end up becoming a sad, depressed sack of a human being like you? Are they not allowed to have friends? Do they have to show up in formal meetings in a sleeping bag and sleep through the entire process? Or, do they have to look like you? Yeah, I bet people are real happy about being rescued by someone who looks like they came from a homeless shelter!" Sekijiro finally laid his frustrations into Aizawa as the two men stepped right up to each other, with the former clearly having an advantage in terms of height. "Don't get me wrong, I respected you as a hero, Aizawa-san…but I don't like you as a person."

"Don't recall ever asking you to like me." Aizawa spat back with venom-laced words, having taken in the whole speech without so much as a twitching eye. "Nice speech, coming from discount Dracula."

"Big talk, coming from a superpowered hobo."

"Pretty words, coming from the guy whose hero name comes from a tyrant who liked eating dinner in front of corpses with pikes up their asses."

"Advanced vocabulary, coming from the guy whose hero name is the same as a movie about killing a baby."

This exchange would go on until it has devolved from sworn enemies shooting personal barbs at each other to vitriolic friends trading childish insults. By the time both parties have well and truly run out of breath and words, it has been five whole minutes. Silence settles in, and before long, both men come to a horrifying conclusion: They have been acting like teenagers in front of teenagers.

Coughing into their fists and nodding at one another, the two teachers mutually decided to save their asinine interaction for later. Retreating back to their respective classes, Sekijiro draws a long breath as he faces his students. "Apologies, class, for making you sit through all of that. Anyway, since 1-A has occupied this part of the PE grounds, we will go over there." He said, pointing a thumb at a faraway corner of the giant field.

The entirety of 1-B, unsure of what to say after seeing something like that, obediently followed his orders and scuttered over to the pinpointed location, with a few muttering amongst themselves about how the entire thing was strangely entertaining to watch.

"Well…that was a thing that happened." Said Kinoko to Nendo, as the two walked side-by-side.

"Yeah. Who's the guy teaching Izu's class though?"

"I…don't know either. Maybe he's an underground hero."

"Underground hero?"

"Mm hmm. A Pro who does hero work, but deliberately stays away from the spotlight so they aren't as popular or well-known."

"Ah. Well…" Nendo looked back at the two teachers' bickering. "They're probably really good pals with each other in secret though."

"Nendo, they literally just spam insults at each other for five minutes."

"That's what true friends do, no?" Not really having an argument for that, the shorter brunette merely gave him a nod and kept quiet for the rest of the trip…at least, until she mused over his last sentence, a microscopic resemblance of a grin slowly spreading across her thin lips.

"So…does that mean you would make fun of me too?" Said Komori, assuming a faux-innocent smile. The interactions between her and Nendo have mostly been one-sided up until now, with him always being the first to talk. Thus, she wanted to try and take initiative in starting a conversation this time, both to build up her self-confidence and to match better with Nendo's own bombastic personality.

Nendo looked introspective for a second, before shrugging his shoulders with a nonchalant attitude. "Nah, can't do that. Not because we aren't friends or anything, but I literally can't find anything about you to tease. You're a fun, kind person who likes the same things as I, and I like talking to you too, so what is there to mock about, not counting the gap in our knowledge of Arcane Quest?"

And with that, Nendo turns away with a dramatic flair in his movements, unaware that his heartfelt words have rendered Kinoko a blushing mess with her face red-hot once again. Oh, being backfired has never felt so good.

As Kinoko tries and fails to calm her fluttering heart, Sekijiro is done arranging every student into neat rows, before snapping his fingers and gently telling her to fall in line. With her cheeks still a deep crimson shade, the mushroom witch melded into her assigned row.

Now that class 1-B is in order, Kan placed a hand on his hips while walking in circles. "Now, as for the Quirk Apprehension Test, there's nothing to worry about! It's just the same stuff you all did in junior high." And then, out of seemingly nowhere, the statuesque teacher whipped out a tablet from his pocket. "Softball pitch, 50-meter dash, grip strength, long jump, side jumps, endurance run, seated toe touch, sit ups and so on. And unlike in middle school, you can freely use your Quirk to assist yourself in any way!"

His words garnered positive feedback from the class, who all felt as if their earlier places of education was purposefully holding their innate powers back to provide a 'fair and equal' environment for all students, in spite of it being nothing more than an elaborate lie.

"But that's not all! As I will grade your performances throughout the ordeal, any student who made it into the top ten by the end of the test will be participating in a special trial, in order to really bring out your makings as a hero!" The haemo-kinetic hero stated with one finger raised in the air. Nendo, his interests piqued upon hearing about this secret last test, stuck his neck out of his line so that he could hear better. "And with not much else to say about…let the test begin!"

As the class steeled themselves and put on their best game faces, Nendo was, in complete contrast, looking at the blue sky with a lax posture.

"Here I am, once a poor street rat that nobody bats an eye at, to a student at one of the top hero schools around the world. Guess when you're at rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up." Nendo thought to himself in a moment of mindful reflection, gazing skywards as he reminisces about all the people who have landed him on this path.

His dad…

His uncles…

Izuku…

Filled with a newfound determination to win, Nendo stretches his neck and limbers up his arms. Listening to his teacher going over the general rules, the Arcane Quest virtuoso closed his eyes…before looking back up with one eye squinted and the other wide open, grinning from ear to ear. In short, an expression that can only be described as 'positively deranged'.

He has to come out on top of this test. After all he has gone through, he can't disappoint the ones he held dear in his heart now.

The First Trial: Softball Pitch

"Nendo, can you come up here please?" Vlad King calls out for who he initially assumed to be the troublesome student, if Nendo's own words in his profile were to be taken seriously. However, trouble or not, it is clear to the Blood Hero that Nendo worked hard to pass through the entrance exam, and he wasn't about to think less of the kid just because he was a former delinquent. In the words of the principal, everyone deserves a second chance.

As Nendo marches up to him, Sekijiro produces a softball from a pouch strapped around his left thigh and passes it to the brick-bending wizard via an underarm throw, who easily catches it with both hands. "How far were you able to throw these back in junior high?"

"Erm…" Nendo honestly does not remember, as it has been three years ever since he attended school before he had to take over the shop in the wake of his father's passing. However, he would come off as disrespectful if he can't provide an answer. As such, Nendo had no choice but to come up with a random arbitrary number that he thinks best portrays the prowess of his throwing arm. "About eighty meters, I think?"

Kan's eyelids slightly shifted upwards. "Eighty. Meters. Without Quirk assistance?" He didn't mean to gawk like that, but Nendo does not have the exact look of someone who could throw a softball eighty meters away. While Nendo wasn't out of shape by any means, there was nothing eye-catching enough about his physique to write home about either. Nendo simply had a very balanced build.

"Yes sir!" Nendo replied with unfailing vehemence, his gray eyes staring right back into Sekijiro's red ones and showing that he is being totally, 100%, utterly, completely-not-making-it-up honest.

"Alright then," The Pro Hero-turned-teacher nodded, even if there was some passing skepticism in his voice. "Since you finished the practical exam with the second highest score, which translates to the highest out of any student in this class, why don't you do the honor and have a go first?" Sekijiro spoke with a firm voice, instructing Nendo to walk over a circle drawn in white paint on the ground.

While the blood-controlling hero was telling Nendo what to do, nearly the entire class broke into vivid conversations about the messy-haired teen who they now all look at with a mixture of amazement and stunned disbelief.

"Wait, THAT guy's the one who got all the way to second place?" Said a green-haired male with an insectoid appearance and what looks like two sharp mandibles coming out of either sides of his mouth, finding it hard to believe that a goofy-looking goober with the power to control bricks of all things came the closest to reaching the top than any of them.

"I saw him there too! He was taking those robots out without even lifting a finger, could you believe that?"

"Passing whispers informed me that Yosuke Nendo is the true master of the fungi-covered tank and the gargantuan sphere of crushing death that were giving the robots so much trouble."

"He actually went and aimed straight for the zero-pointer too! Like, who'd be crazy enough?!"

As the discussions went on, Vlad King finally finished giving Nendo a comprehensive speech about the best ways to throw a softball, even if there wasn't much to know about other than 'throwing it with all your weight'. "You can use your Quirk as well. Anything goes really, as long as you stay in the circle, okay?"

Nendo's brain has been tuning out since the start of the speech, but he wakes up just in time for Sekijiro to stop talking and awaiting a response. "Uh…sure thing, Kan-sensei!"

The teacher merely gave him a knowing nod before turning back to the class and shushing them, instantly snuffing out any ongoing talks and idle chatters like a candle in a hurricane. However, it wasn't enough to stop the whispers.

Squeezing the ball in his hand, Nendo absentmindedly licked his dry lips and gave his throwing arm a few good stretches while Sekijiro activated a tracking device inside the softball with a button on his tablet. "On your count."

Looking at his teacher and then back at the class, Nendo cracks a devious grin as he repositions his body so that he is turning at an angle that hides away his back. Wiggling his fingers, the wizard wannabe sneakily slipped his left hand behind and created a brick. "Kan-sensei, can I throw the ball with this brick too?"

Being one of the observers of the practical exam, the Blood Hero was fully aware of what Nendo's Quirk is. What he is interested in seeing however, is the extent to which the boy could exert it. And thus, he decided to play a little dumb, just to have a glimpse at Nendo's intentions. "And…what for, exactly?"

"Tee hee, you'll see!" Nendo lets out an impish chuckle, before holding both the softball and the brick in one hand with the former on top of the latter.

Kinoko, already having first-hand experience with Nendo's Quirk, sported a small smile as she knew exactly what was going to happen. Those who had no prior knowledge of his power however could only scratch their heads in confusion, wondering why Nendo would deliberately handicap himself with the additional weight of a brick like that.

Little did they know, he was about to unleash a portion of his power. After performing some squats to bring out his latent physical strength a bit more, Nendo took a stance where both of his legs are far apart and his arm was reeled all the way to his back.

"Reach…" Narrowing his eyes, Nendo aimed for the serene clouds passing above before throwing both the brick and the softball with as much strength as he could muster. "FOR THE SKIES!" But then, at the very last second before both objects leave the confines of his fingers, the noirette telekinetically commanded the brick to fly in a straight direction as fast as the laws of physics would allow it.

In a fraction of a second, the brick speeds up tremendously and takes off like a supercharged bullet, pushing the softball along with it as well as generating a massive gust of wind and a deafening sonic boom, a clear sign that the pair of objects has broken the sound barrier.

As the brick and the softball went up, higher and higher and pierced through the clouds, the overwhelming kinetic force generated by their velocities alone dissolving them into little more than miniscule fragments, Nendo kept his palm open, manually controlling the brick and keeping it flying at top speed. Even though the brick has disappeared into the horizon, the brick's presence can still be felt coursing through the air.

After holding his hand up for about a minute, Nendo decided that now was a good time to let go, as he doesn't want to massively overplay himself. Sure, he has a knack for theatrics and making things seem cooler than they actually are, but keep this up any further and people would just call him a show-off.

And with that, Nendo relieves the brick of its duty as the rectangular block of burnt clay crumbles to nothingness, leaving behind the softball to fall down to…somewhere, he had no idea. "Eh, whatever. It did fly pretty far though!" He thought, before swiveling on his heels like an expert salsa dancer to turn and face his teacher and classmates. "Ta-da!"

It was at this time that the thick fog of dust kicked up by the brick launching itself at mach speeds settled down, revealing the shocked visages of the 1-B students, in awe of what they assumed to be a display of immense superhuman strength.

Kinoko was forced to cover her ears from the loud bang, which felt like a shotgun going off right next to her. As her mushroom-shaped bob cut sways slightly from the residual wind, an expression of silent shock adorns her face. From the looks of it, Nendo was simply pretending to put effort into sending the brick off like that, at a speed that would pulverize anything on the receiving end. Which begs the question, just how fast could he make it go if he was serious?

The thought frankly scared her a little.

Vlad King, despite knowing that it was just an illusion of physical power, could not help but stare at the vast number shown on his tablet, which also told him that the softball is now currently sinking somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. "Well, color me mightily impressed..." Recomposing himself with a cough, Sekijiro gazed back and towards the rest of the class, who were all still sporting a look of mouth-gaping bemusement. "As you may have known, one of the most important qualities of a hero is to discover the limit of your strength…and then smash through it!"

As soon as the imposing teacher showed his tablet to the class, everybody's jaws collectively slackened and dropped to the ground like sacks of wet sand. The only exception was Komori, who gave her friend a meek thumbs up and a tiny smile. Nendo spotted this and responded with roughly twice the effort, earning him yet another vibrant blush from the shrinking violet, or rather, mushroom.

"WHAT THE HELL?! 4432…KILOMETERS?!" Exclaimed Tetsutetsu from the back row, clenching his fists. He knew Nendo was no pushover from his score and actions in the practical exam, but this display here demonstrated a whole new level that the noirette was hiding all along. To be able to send a brick and a softball flying at hypersonic speeds…it makes his blood boil! Not out of anger or jealousy, but out of an aggressive sense of respect as well as a growing desire to test the odd-haired teen's strength himself, just to see how strong the unimposing-looking Nendo was.

"So…did I do well, sir?" Asked Nendo, rubbing his hand that was getting sorer by the second. Even if it wasn't his body strength that sent the ball flying, he did throw it with all of his might, and now his nerves have shortly caught fire. "Oh, and sorry about losing the ball, sir. I can go buy a new one if-"

"No, that won't be necessary. You've gone Plus Ultra, and proven your strength. That is the purpose of this trial. You certainly did not do a bad job at all." Kan calmly praises Nendo, giving the teen a little nod for congratulatory purposes before waving his hand to dismiss the teen.

"Good to know, Kan-sensei!" Nendo gave the teacher a military salute before hopping back to his row and sat down, satisfied with himself.

After getting a replacement ball from the faculty room, Sekijiro began calling students up, one at a time, to test their own mettle via copious amounts of softball abuse. This, however, also conveniently helped introduce the rest of the class to Nendo who sat back on a comfy chair made of bricks, certainly proud of the fact that he is the undisputed champion of this trial.

The redhead who asked about the welcoming ceremony from earlier, Itsuka Kendo, drastically boosted her strength by enlarging her throwing hand to thrice its original size before chucking the softball with said hand, sending it blazing through the air and earning herself an impressive 1732.5 meters. Another high-scorer was a ghostly pale-haired female under the name of Reiko Yanagi, who possessed some sort of telekinesis Quirk that allows her to control the ball manually and let it float off into the distance before psychically punting it with great force, earning her some extra distance. With 718.3 meters under her belt, Yanagi landed on the bronze medal position. Pony Tsunotori, a transfer student from the United States with equine features and a large pair of horns on her head, also comes far via accurately shooting her ball in mid-air, using rapidly-regrowing horns as projectiles, propelling the softball further away. She eventually comes down with 664.8 meters.

After that, with the exception of Tetsutetsu, a furred student named Jurota Shishida whose Quirk enables him to transform into a freakishly strong humanoid beast and a short, stout student going by Nirengeki Shoda who can release a stronger impact on any surface he touched beforehand, the remaining students of 1-B tend to get rather middling scores. Most of them are only a moderate improvement over their previous records, mostly due to the fact that their Quirks either do not grant them any significant strength advantage or are simply not applicable to the situation.

The one holding the dubious honor of having the shortest distance was none other than Kinoko. Physical activities were never the mushroom druid's forte, and combined with her stature, mediocre strength and the inoffensive nature of her Quirk, she could only manage a measly 43.6 meters. Naturally, she was quite downcast about it.

"Aww, come on Komori! What's with the long face?" With his unnerving ability to sniff out negative emotions, Nendo gravitated towards his female compatriot and gave her a gentle nudge with his elbow.

Komori gave him a glass-eyed look, before a long, weary sigh was let loose from her shuddering lips. "I got the lowest score…but it's okay! Just a bite of this hallucinogenic mushroom and everything will be alright." She replied with a strange sing-song voice as a bulbous, colorful piece of fungus sprouted from her palm. The despair over having the weakest performance must have been such a crippling blow to her self-esteem that Kinoko was seriously considering figuratively sending her mind to the stratosphere and back again a reasonable option.

Before she could make good on her claim however, a less-excited Nendo softly places his hands on her shoulders, giving them a reassuring rub. "Hey, dummy. Since when did numbers decide how good you are?"

"Since homework was invented?" Komori snarked right back, shuffling her shoulders around the taller boy's firm hands. It wasn't because the feeling was unpleasant, but rather she was getting a bit too comfortable, and wanted to slide out of his grip before things became irreparably awkward between the two of them.

"Heh, yeah. But still, the thing is…don't worry too much about it!" Nendo's simple-minded wisdom strikes again as a wide smile spreads across his face. "This is only the first one, and we still have a bunch more! Plenty of chances to prove yourself, so cheer up! I believe in you, Komori! You can do it, so come on, let me see that smile!"

She hasn't had the foggiest clue how Nendo did it, but slowly, her frown twists into a smile. However, not willing to let him know that his charisma has won her over again, Kinoko fully hides her face inside her bob cut, pulling her bangs together to form a curtain of brown hair.

Nendo, taking this gesture as a challenge, pegs on. "Come on now, you know you wanna! Show me! Show me show me show me!" He repeated the words like a mantra, hopping around Kinoko in hopes that she might eventually crack up.

"Alright, you win, you win." Komori huffed in exasperation…but weirdly enough, in a good way. "Just…Nendo, why do you believe in me so much? I mean, my Quirk…it's not good for anything. Providing a distraction at best, so why?"

"Because you're my friend. And friends stuck with each other through thick and thin, no matter what. I'll even drag myself through hell and back again just for you." Nendo replied with absolute sincerity in his voice, raising a clenched fist as his eyebrows scrunched together. A visual indicator to just how convicted he is in his words.

Komori really doesn't have a word to describe how she feels right now. But, if one were to push it, she would say it's a mixture of unambiguous respect, total admiration, and the milder version of falling in love. Already turning red from that last one, Kinoko finds it hard to express her gratitude towards him, someone who she had only known for no more than a day, in any other way than to grant him his wish.

With dainty fingers, she parted her curtains of brown again, revealing her heart-meltingly warm eyes, with the peculiar cross-sliced pupils only further accentuating her genuine smile. Her chocolate-brown orbs match with Nendo's soulful gray ones, and for the two of them, the environment suddenly becomes immaterial.

Nendo goes to a feeling completely foreign to him before, resulting in his heart skipping a beat. He had talked and made eye contact with Kinoko before, and felt no different prior to this…so why is he finding her utterly, maddeningly adorable right now? So much so that, if he had his way, the first thing he wanted to do now is to scoop her up in his arms and give her the biggest, tightest hug he could muster from his own strength.

And then, not even a second later, the noirette's usual zany state of mind returns in full force, and the enraptured look in his eyes vanishes, only to be replaced with the regular confident glint. "There we go! You look much better when you smile, you know?"

"Y-You think so?" Kinoko also loses that breathtakingly beautiful look in her eyes, rescinding back to her stuttering shyness.

"Friend, I know so! That's a million-yen smile if there ever was one!" Nendo gave her a pair of thumbs up, grinning all the while before giving her a playful wink.

"Nendo…I don't know if I could ever say this to you, but…I'm truly thankful to have met you under that pile of debris." A fleeting thought invades her mind as Kinoko looks at Nendo…and gives him a wink back.

The Second Trial: 50-Meter Dash

"That. Is. So. Cool! And freaky! Freakily cool!" Shouted Nendo from the sidelines, having just witnessed a classmate under the name of Setsuna Tokage beating Kojiro Bondo, whose head looks like a glue dispenser filled with holes, by literally taking off her left hand and hurling it across the finish line with the grace of a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball, thus earning her the win by technicality as she touched the finish line first. Having taken notice of the very animated reaction from Nendo, Tokage turned towards him and gave the wizard-in-training a bow of showmanship while her disembodied hand crawled back to its stump and reattached itself without any blood or prolonged regeneration process.

Nendo, in turn, simply breaks into a series of whistlings that one would hear when a standing ovation is in procession. Setsuna was a tad surprised by Nendo's enthusiasm in continuing this little charade that is less than a minute old, but simply took it in stride and fluttered her wavy green hair with a hand gesture, grinning like a hungry shark at him.

"6.15 seconds." Spoke a robot with a head that vaguely resembles a camcorder, as well as a long, thin coat hanger-esque body with gangly arms. "And 7.3 seconds."

After a few more goes-a-round, it was Nendo's turn to participate. Flexing his legs and patting his calves, the afro-haired teen skipped his way towards the starting line before hopping up and down in one spot to warm his muscles up. Unlike his slim arms, Nendo's legs were considerably more toned and taut, mostly owing to all the time he had to spend chasing down little kids who would steal things from his store whenever he wasn't looking.

"Ah…good times." Nendo muttered under his breath, missing Penny-Filter District already. He couldn't help but wonder, how are the people there now? Has other establishments taken up the spots where his uncles' shops used to be? And what has become of his place-

"While I do not wish to interrupt you from your current endeavors, we do have a race to attend to." Comes a mature, regal-sounding voice that snaps Nendo out of his trip down memory lane. Turning towards the source of the voice, he saw that it was the girl with a mess of vines on her head, Ibara Shiozaki. "Are you not feeling well? If not, I shall inform the teacher so that you can rest."

It took Nendo a bit of time to register the information, before his shoulders jumped in realization. "Oh, no! I'm good! Just…remembering something, that's all." He then looked around. Some were chatting, some were looking at him, and Sekijiro is simply boring a hole through his soul with his red eyes, tapping an nonexistent watch on his wrist as a means to tell Nendo that he's taking up time. "Oh god, how long have I been standing here-"

A firm smack on the arm from Shiozaki has Nendo shutting up. "Do not speak of His name in vain." She said, frowning with a hint of disdain.

As Nendo has no prior knowledge of her religion, he could only verbally stumble around like a clumsy child. "Oh, uh, um…sorry, let me rephrase that. Ehem…" Letting out a theatrical cough, Nendo brought his hands to his cheeks and reenacted his earlier statement with high accuracy, almost a word-for-word replay. Almost. "Oh, sweet bricks and mortar, how long have I been standing here?!"

Ibara raised an eyebrow at his eccentric choice of exclamation words, but deemed it acceptable and gave him a demure smile, any semblance of annoyance from hearing God's name be spoken so brazenly now gone. "That is better. As for your question, your presence has graced this ground below our feet for all of three minutes."

"Oh, that's it? Gee, I thought it was longer! Thanks for letting me know!" A peppy Nendo flashes a bright smile that makes him shine like a brick-shaped diamond at Ibara, gratefulness practically radiating off of the noirette. "I appreciate it!"

"You are welcome. It is only fair to assist my fellow classmates with such trivial questions." The religious maiden nodded at the wizard-in-training, her saintly smile growing just a little bit bigger.

"DESIGNATED RUNNERS, ON YOUR MARK." The recorder robot's monotone voice blasts at full volume, forcing Nendo and Ibara to prematurely end their pre-race banter. Bending down on all fours, both students slowed their breathing, suspense precipitating from the air as they waited for the starting signal. "GET SET."

Once the sound file of a gun firing is played from a speaker on one side of the robot's dome, Ibara and Nendo took off, kicking up dirt with every step as they pushed their bodies to overcome the lactic acid rapidly building up in their muscles. Initially, the two seem to be evenly matched, but as they reached the midway point of the track, Nendo slowly began to outpace her. "Haha! I'm gonna win this!"

However, Shiozaki had an ace up her sleeve. Growing out her thrambles at supernatural speed, she commanded the vines to plant themselves to the ground while she pulled herself backwards with her feet while tugging onto the vines, increasing the tension acting on them before making her heels scarce from the ground. The vines snapped forward with terrifying force, essentially slingshotting Ibara through the air and passing Nendo on the way.

Nendo was shocked by her figure suddenly skirting past his vision, but not so shocked that he couldn't see that she was about to cross the finish line before him. "Oh, hell no!" Slowing down, the self-proclaimed wizard creates a pair of bricks for him to step on, hunching over to assume an aerodynamic pose with his head squeezed in-between his shoulders and his butt raised high. "You may be fast, but it will ultimately mean nothing once I shift into maximum overdrive! EAT MY DUST-"

Unfortunately for Nendo, he never got to finish his sentence as the bricks under his feet, as quoted by him, 'shift into maximum overdrive' and allows him to blitz past Ibara, who was only a hair's breadth away from touching the finish line, with such blinding speed that to the naked eye, all they could see is a blur.

As he never specified what 'maximum overdrive' is since speed is a concept which does not have a limit, the bricks simply responded to the first arbitrary number that came up in his head. And that number has more than two digits, unfortunately.

After the smokescreen of dust and sand caused by his incredible burst of speed dies down, a Nendo-shaped hole in one of U.A's grassfields is revealed far away from where the class is gathering, with a literal trail of fire leading up to said hole, formed due to the sheer amount of friction generated from the air rubbing against the bricks moving at extremely high speeds.

"4.01 seconds…" Said the recorder robot in a mechanical voice, its monocular eye running along the blazing trail and towards the hole where Nendo has crashed into, before turning back to a wide-eyed Ibara. "5.12 seconds."

The whole thing ended up having to be delayed a bit as Sekijiro had to enlist the help of Kendo and Tetsutetsu to dig the wizard out of six meters of solid earth. After a quick kiss from Recovery Girl and half a dozen pink band-aids with hearts on them plastered all over his face, the raven-haired teen was as good as new.

The Third Trial: Grip Strength

"Aw, crap!" Nendo cried out in cartoonish horror, having accidentally crushed the device used to measure everyone's grip strength via sandwiching the handle between two levitating bricks and pinching his fingers together, thus causing the bricks to slam together with the force of a freight train, easily flattening the handle as well as crumbling the bricks into fine red dust, courtesy of Newton's third law. "I'm sorry, Kan-sensei! I-I thought these things were supposed to be stronger than that!"

"Well, that just means you passed the trial! Good work…though, you should learn to pull your punches and only use an appropriate amount of force." Sekijiro chided him critically, but out of kindness and a genuine want for his student to improve. "That, and because we have a limited supply of these things, I would appreciate it if you can stop sending school property into the ocean or destroy them outright."

"Will do, sir!" Nendo nodded respectfully at the Blood Hero before marching back into his row, sitting right next to Kinoko who timidly smiled at him again, prompting the teen to return the favor.

The rest of the class takes their turns after Kan was able to fetch another device. As the act of crushing something specifically designed to withstand tremendous force guaranteed Nendo the maximum score, only a few others were able to come even remotely close to him. Shishida achieves a whopping 1210 kilos by very briefly transforming into his beast form, with Kendo managing a close second at 880 kilos, though she could easily increase that number if not for her fingers getting too big to properly hold the device, thus limiting her to a smaller size. Tetsutetsu clocks in at 273 kilos, which was a rather impressive feat as his Quirk does not provide that drastic of a strength increase.

The Fourth Trial: Standing Long Jump

"Weeeeeee!" A rather whimsical vocalization comes out of Nendo as he takes a leap before summoning several stacks of bricks to carry his airborne body through most of the sandbox at a comfortable pace, culminating with the noirette plopping down the finishing end of the sand trail on his feet in the same fashion as a five-year-old playing with sandcastles. "Yay!"

Kinoko followed her friend soon after, this time putting her Quirk to good use by spawning a pair of mushrooms nearly as tall as she was underneath her heels before making the jump, thus granting her initially short leap an additional boost, though her height meant that it could only get her so far.

While watching the rest of his class, Nendo's eyes wandered towards two particular classmates of his: the student with an insectoid appearance from earlier, Togaru Kamakiri, makes up for his lackluster performance in the earlier exercises by extending a pair of blades, each nearly a meter long, from his soles and touching the sand with it, gaining some extra distance. However, he was rather upset that doing so skewered his new shoes. Another boy with an actual, literal speech bubble for a head, Manga Fukidashi, also garnered an easy clear by looking straight ahead and shouted "WHOOSH!" at the ground. The physical manifestation of the onomatopoeia comes forth, on which he steps on, creating a powerful gale out from the letters themselves that carries him all the way to the other side of the sandbox.

The only thought that ran through Nendo's brain upon seeing that was a predictably hyper one. "OH MY GOD, IT'S JUST LIKE THOSE OLD COMICS! THAT IS SO GODDAMN COOL!"

The Fifth Trial: Sustained Side Jumps

Kinoko applied the same tactic as before, with the sole difference being that the giant mushrooms are now side-by-side with her standing between them. Their caps are made to be especially elastic, thus allowing the fungi-loving girl to bounce back and forth between them with ease. Nendo aced it as well, if only because he placed a brick under each of his feet and had them moving up and down while shifting his body left and right, thus creating the illusion that he is jumping. After their turns are up, Komori lightly teases him for being lazy, which the wizard-in-training simply took in its earnest.

The Sixth Trial: Endurance Run

In spite of being a test purely based on stamina, Nendo blew every competition out of the water by cruising on top of a brick platform of his own creation at a leisure pace, having learned his lesson about making his bricks going at maximum speed. Try as the others might to outlast Nendo, but their natural durability are simply not enough to match his mental powers, which obviously took far less energy than running. Kinoko was the first to falter, followed by the inexpressive Yui Kodai, whose stoic demeanor lingers on even when out of breath.

The Seventh Trial: Seated Toe Touch

"Alright, when I say press…you two press, okay?" Said Nendo to nobody in particular while bending over and trying his best to touch the tip of his shoes. As it turns out, he was referring to two bricks floating and laying flat against his back. "One, two…go!"

The bricks obeyed, and together, they pressed their master down…completely oblivious of the unimaginable agony he went through during the process. "OW OW OW LET GO LET GO! TOO TIGHT!"

But for what it's worth, his fingers did touch his toes, so…mission accomplished. Painfully.

The Eighth Trial: Sit Ups

As sit ups were physical exercise in the purest sense, this ended up being the only trial where everybody's scores are more or less close to each other, with the disparity not being as vast since no one had a Quirk that can feasibly help them with this. The only exception to this shared suffering is Nendo, who created a quartet of bricks, two on his shoulder blades, two on his arms and one on his back to keep him moving automatically should exhaustion ever get the better of him.

-0-

"And…done!" Sekijiro announced with a press of a button, a shrill electronic beeping coming out of his tablet to let the class know that the Quirk Apprehension Test is coming to an end. The fatigued students of class 1-B hastily stand back up, nervously awaiting their results without making a single peep. The only one exclusive to this shared feeling of trepidation was, of course, Nendo, whose positive disposition remained firm and punctuated with a smile. Not because of his performance, but rather because of the amount of XP he gained from doing these exercises. Not as much as a proper battle would give him, but every bit helps considering that he has leveled up.

Generic XP Gained! Nendo's Level Increased From LV.8 to LV.10!

Job XP Gained! Nendo's Magician Increased From LV.6 to LV. 8!

Character LV.10 Reached! Limit Breaks Unlocked!

"Ooh, Limit Breaks! Can't wait to try them out!" Nendo thought with childlike fervor, fantasizing of the particle effect-drenched special moves, accompanied by a short animated sequence, that often either do monumental damage against the enemies or buffing and healing the team, though at the cost of a larger-than-normal amount of mana points. He looked down on his imaginary status bar, flipping through the skill menu…only to find that the slots reserved for Limit Breaks are empty. "Oh. Right, I haven't actually got one yet. I'll come up with a super move eventually though! But what would I call it though..."

While Nendo was busy thinking about what his special attack would be, Sekijiro was thumbing a few buttons on his tablet. "Alright, I've ranked all of your scores from top to bottom. As naming each one of you would be a bit of a drag, I'll just put all of them in a list for the sake of brevity."

A tiny flap opened up on the leftmost side of the tablet, projecting a holographic screen with everybody's rankings fully displayed at the best possible resolution.

1. Yosuke Nendo

2. Itsuka Kendo

3. Setsuna Tokage

4. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

5. Jurota Shishida

6. Neito Monoma

7. Manga Fukidashi

8. Ibara Shiozaki

9. Nirengeki Shoda

10. Togaru Kamakiri

11. Reiko Yanagi

12. Pony Tsunotori

13. Hiryu Rin

14. Shihai Kuroiro

15. Sen Kaibara

16. Kosei Tsuburaba

17. Juzo Honenuki

18. Kojiro Bondo

19. Yosetsu Awase

20. Kinoko Komori

21. Yui Kodai

It was nearly imperceptible to the untrained ear, but Kinoko sighed ever so shakily, relieved that she wasn't dead last after her admittedly subpar display of her physical skills, save for very few trials that her Quirk can be put to good use. On the other hand, Kodai doesn't look even remotely phased by her position on the ranking chart as a noncommittal nod and a soft hum was all her reaction amounts to. Though, the slightest tinge of disappointment flashed through the phlegmatic beauty's onyx eyes.

While some of the more mouthy students have mixed reactions to their given ranks, most of the class were accepting of their results and strove to do better next time. Nendo was obviously elated about his score, laughing triumphantly and claiming how it is proof to his destiny to become the greatest wizard of all time, but instead of rubbing it into his classmates' faces, he quickly made his way over to Kinoko.

"Hey…don't beat yourself up too much, okay?" Nendo gave his female friend a supporting pat to the back, his gentle smile expressing great concern for her.

"It's…It's fine. I know I did my best, and if that's the score I get, then…oh well. I have no regrets." Komori replied in a manner different from her usual withdrawn attitude, no doubt having rubbed off of Nendo. "Besides, I'm not strictly at the bottom, so that's the consolation prize, I guess."

What happened next completely took the mushroom enthusiast off guard. Instead of giving her a thumbs up or something like that, Nendo actually took it a step further and pulled her in for a short, but friendly hug. "Now that's the spirit! When life gives you lemons…make lemonade and invite it in for a drink!"

The second Kinoko felt her face touching his chest, nearly all of the inhibitions she placed around her heart were shaken to their very core. In spite of the thick fabric that the PE uniform is composed of, the outline of his taut chest was very much made clear to her skin. "N-Nendo…a-a-ah…" The blushing Kinoko lets out an almost indecent moan as colonies of small, red fungi involuntarily grow underneath her feet, spreading around in a two-meter radius with the consistency of wet oatmeal as they react accordingly to the petite girl's emotions.

"What's with that voice?" Nendo teased her in a jovial manner while being as dense as a brick towards how Kinoko is feeling under the effects of close contact. "Come on, cheer with me! And make sure it's loud!" Letting go of the red-faced Komori, Nendo excitedly hops up…only to accidentally land on one of her fungi patches and slip like he just stepped on a banana peel due to how soft and wet they are, landing headfirst on the hard ground.

Witnessing his fall, Kinoko breaks out of her stupor and panickedly rushes over to the brick mage to help her fallen friend, grabbing the teen by the arm and trying her best to pull him up. "Nendo!"

"Oh, the primordial spirit of bricks…you look so lovely tonight, my princess…" Nendo slurred, his eyes swirling around as several bricks manifested on top of his head and circling around like birds.

"Oh no! He got a concussion and it's because of me!" Kinoko mentally cried, comical droplets of sweat bursting from her brown, mushroom-capped dome as she doubled her efforts to get Nendo back on his feet. Some of the boys expressed mild jealousy from Nendo having a girl doting on him like that, while the girls mostly found it somewhat cute, even more so from Nendo's amusing behavior.

As the so-called wizard of bricks wobbled on two legs and clutching his bruised head, Sekijiro snapped his fingers a few times to get 1-B's attention, having an important announcement to make. "Now, as you may recall, I did mention a special trial by the end of the test for those who had proven themselves to be the brightest even amongst stars." He then turns off the projection. "Students who made it to the top ten, follow me. The rest, you can either head back to class or spectate the trial."

Unsurprisingly, the remaining half of the class opted to follow.

As Kan leads them away from the PE grounds and towards an undisclosed location, the students of 1-B couldn't help but start noticing the changes in their surroundings. Less trees and sand to be seen with concrete and steel slowly becoming the norm. After trundling through a particularly lengthy running track, the class arrived at a fighting stage of some kind, with rows of seats doubtless meant for observers encompassing the central stage in a circle.

Several are more than a little confused, wondering why their teacher would lead them here as they saw nothing in this place that can't be replicated at the PE grounds. If anything, it feels even more cramped.

"You may be wondering as to why I lead you here," Sekijiro spoke up, crossing his arms and facing his class, looking at each and every one of them with the signature scowl on his face. "The truth is, this is the only place where this trial can be conducted without naysayers jumping in on how 'dangerous' or 'unsafe' it is! For you see, this last trial will be the one to truly bring out the latent talents in those who have exceeded my expectations, which are nothing but high! Not only will it test your abilities to their absolute limits, it will give you a taste of what it's like to fight something with more lateral thinking and adaptability than robots!"

Upon hearing that fighting was involved, class 1-B's reaction was a mixed one. Nendo and a few others were more than happy to be able to use their Quirks offensively, with Kamakiri sounding especially thrilled to be able to cut things up, while others, such as Shiozaki and Bondo, were rather appalled at the mere thought of violence.

"Thus, I've made my decision! For this final test, the students who made it to the top will be…sparring against one another!" Sekijiro finally drops the bomb, his arms outstretched in a grand manner.

A pregnant silence fills the air as Vlad King's voice echoed across the concrete walls…before the thunder that signifies the combined shock of both halves of the class cracks.

"A SPARRING MATCH?!"

-0-

And that concludes Chapter 5. First of all, I wish to apologize for two things: not updating for so long, and ending this chapter on a cliffhanger. Outside work unexpectedly comes crashing in and I find myself a little flatfooted and have to take some time off this fic to work on it. As for the chapter, the reason I put Nendo in 1-B is because I have a particular soft spot for the lovely underdogs there, and I felt like they deserve to share the spotlight with 1-A. And what better to do it than having a schizophrenic brick wizard joining the class to shake things up?

Needless to say, from this point onwards things will be a bit 1-B-centric. As there is little information on what 1-B does in the early parts of canon, I assume that it's like 1-A with a couple unique flairs that I will add in.

But anyway, that's all I have to say. Like always, read, enjoy and review. If you have any questions, please include them in the review so that I can answer them on the A/N of the next chapter. More chapters to come, so stay tuned.