Four Heroes

by Faff

For Ken it was personal. For Butters it was inevitable. For Izuku it was aspirational. For Itsuka it was principle. Each one had to become a hero, and each one would find themselves in the most chaotic student body U.A. had ever seen. From students to staff, this year there is no corner of this hero academia that could remotely be considered normal.

4. Entrance Exam (Part 3)

Chapter 1: Entrance Exam (Part 3)

—PUNCH—

At the crossroads of the mock industrial harbour, with the final alarm still echoing in the streets, Kendo sank to her knees heaving a breath. Despite her cradling her wounded hands, and despite Heidi and Kohï disentangling themselves from thorny vines, the speedster next to her still managed to say. "Wow. Don't we all look like real su-su-suhh… superheroes!"

"Agh! I'm alive?!" Tumbling to the floor in a heap, the sparky blonde Kohï cried out suddenly in surprise.

Hands placed together as if in prayer, the examinee from whose head those saving vines had emerged opined. "I must apologize, my vines do not make the most comfortable landing pad." Finishing her apology with a bow, she straightened up and offered everyone a sparkling smile.

"Don't worry!" Heidi cheered, standing up and picking strands of plant matter from her uniform. As she did so, she also picked Kohï up off the floor, where he stood next to her on shaky legs. "We're ok, right?"

"I'm alive!" The blonde shouted again, his eyes wildly searching around the area as if to confirm he hadn't found himself in the afterlife.

With a nod, Heidi smiled towards her. "We both are, thanks to Kendo! I appreciate the helping hand Itsuka-chan!"

As Kendo cringed in humility and equal parts embarrassment at the pun, she couldn't help but match a smile as bright as the vine-haired girl. Still, she was smiling through the pain that coursed up her arms.

"And here I thought I was the comedian!" The speedster who had been her own saving grace quipped, with a comical tilt of his head. His gym uniform, with bright yellow stripes and a red undertone was something of an eyesore, but then again what middle school gym uniform wasn't? Casually the boy leant on his crutches, but still offered Kendo an arm to assist her in standing. Waving him off, Itsuka opted instead for continuing to catch her breath.

"Sorry, I get it from my mom." Heidi admitted, bunching up her shoulders in embarrassment.

"Hey, it's fine with me." The comedian responded with a wink at the other female member of their little gathering. She merely blinked back at him, the mass of greenery having fully detached itself to leave her with a modest head of emerald locks, even tying itself off into the shape of a cross upon her forehead.

Not taking the lack of laughter as any indication not to keep on going, the boy shot another wink at Kendo, saying. "As long as these puns don't get out of hand."

There was an awkward silence, no one, not even Heidi seemingly in the right mindset. Not that the jokes were laugh out loud funny either. Looking into the middle distance, seemingly talking to an invisible audience somewhere, the comedian concluded. "You know they say sarcasm is the lowest form of comedy… those p-p-people haven't heard my puns."

Another judgmental silence, wherein everyone, even the hyperactive Kohï stared at their compatriot with a disbelieving kind of wonder.

"Wow, what a terrific audience." The final statement, of all things, sent Kendo into a bout of uncontrollable giggles. The others followed in varying degrees, Heidi shaking with silent chuckles, Kohï laughing in sporadic bursts, and the vine-girl hiding a giggle behind her hand. The super-speed jokester merely accepted the response with an open mouth grin, eyes drifting lazily off to the side to look at no one in particular. With casual effortlessness, he added. "Anyway, my name's Jimii, and boy is it great to meet such f-f-fantastic people!"

"Hi, Jimii-san." She smiled back, getting to her feet finally and offering a small bow. Given her martial arts upbringing and the fact he had saved her twice in the exam, the formality came somewhat naturally to her. "I'm Kendo Itsuka."

"I'm Heidi!" The ashy-haired greenette waved, thumbing some dust and debris from her smiley face hair clip.

"Shiozaki Ibara, a pleasure to greet you." The other green-haired girl said, another polite bow with clasped hands offered to them all.

When their gaze turned on him as one, instead of answer, Kohï jolted as if stuck with a cattle prod and yelped. "Agh?!"

A crunch of shoes on broken concrete heralded the arrival of another examinee. Though with where he'd emerged from, it was clear this was the figure Kohî had reacted to. Even if the pressure of introducing himself was likely enough to set the neurotic boy off. With an exhausted drone, a dull monotone voice interjected. "He's Kohî Kohei."

"Koraigu!" The blonde in question shouted out, trying to dart over to his boyfriend, but instead stumbling and having to grab on to Heidi for balance.

Kendo, along with the other examinees turned to regard the newcomer. In doing so they saw a mostly shirtless, red-faced, Ginza Koraigu. His hat fallen askew and the black hair beneath looking dusty and bedraggled, the flat-toned boy looked by far the worse for wear of them all. "Sup." Was his singular response, as if he wasn't dressed half in rags and practically dragging himself along.

"You look… uh…" Itsuka began, but couldn't find a polite way to say, 'like shit.' Plus, she did not quite have Ginza's bluntness to help her voice the fact.

"I am fine." With the way he pronounced every word like it was a physical hurdle, it did not seem that way. By now though he had made his way to stand by Kohï, who latched on to him. Rather than the blonde being the one who needed propping up however, it seemed Koraigu was the one who required some sort of reassurance. The two leant on each other, a perfect balance of two young men who were about to fall apart but couldn't because the other one was in the way. When the two boys clasped hands, Kendo and Heidi were as one when they mouthed the words 'so cute!' Mainly to each other from across the space.

"Are y-y-yuh… are you s-s-s-suh… suh… Are you sure?" Jimii voiced, and despite his stutter causing him to take some considerable time to say it, there was an unspoken pact between everyone that they would not interrupt. Something about the humorous guy made her think that interrupting him might be a bad idea, just an imperceptible intensity and intention he had when speaking, as if he was going to get through every sentence no matter what.

"Yeah." Ginza responded, eyes bloodshot and listless.

Turning to take in the destruction around them, Jimii asked. "I guess that's the day over then?"

"Yeah." Heidi said, scratching her chin and looking around. "I suppose all we have to do now is wait."

"We will all pass; I can feel it." Ibara encouraged, her light and airy voice feeling comforting even outside of her kind words. As one they all started a slow walk back towards the starting area, having finally gathered up enough stamina to do so.

"I sure h-hope so." Jimii added, shooting Kendo a wide smile and a thumbs up.

It was after they had all been through the nurse's station, receiving instant treatment from the retired pro-hero Recovery Girl, that the impromptu group found themselves standing together again. Sun beating down on the grass quad of UA campus's main walk, it felt so strange for it all to be over just like that.

"So… what's everyone doing after this?" Heidi asked, following a peaceful span of silence.

As one they all made noncommittal shrugs, none of them seemingly having much to do with the rest of the day. A few of them mentioned something about their parents waiting for a text, or having to catch a train at some point, but no one was immediately pressed. With this, the brightly smiling Aizawa Heidi made a suggestion.

"Anyone want to go get some okonomiyaki?"

The response was heartfelt and immediate, and the flock of newfound friends headed off and away from UA. Stomachs rumbling and smiles on their faces.

—CHAOS—

"Butters?!"

Mãgarin had sat up in his infirmary bed, the flat pillow and thin sheets beneath him feeling papery and crisp. He'd been sat there, gazing morosely out the window with no one else currently in the room to tell him what had happened since he lost lucidity. So, to be interrupted by that all too familiar voice was perhaps the most frightening thing he could have imagined.

In the doorway between the main patient area and the nurse's office stood a short rotund boy. His shrewd round face was scrunched up in anger and bald confusion. Covering his mousy brown hair was a light blue hat with yellow puffball, and bunched up under his arms was a red coat. The grip on his jacket had tightened upon spying Butters, and now with one pudgy finger the boy pointed directly at him.

Recoiling, the blonde examinee exclaimed, also in shock. "Bh-Buh-Bulrog?!"

"Butters!" Cãtoman Bulrog retorted, but before they could get caught in a loop, the fat kid shook his head and demanded. "What are you doing here?!" His shrill whiny voice rising in alarm.

"He's recovering, you little devil!" A reedy woman's voice called out from within the nurse's office. "I've dismissed you, so if you're not going to keep quiet you can leave." The old lady who emerged from the door had a face that was at once kindly, and also rather shriveled. Her wrinkles and age had somewhat caused her face to squint in on itself, not an entirely ugly appearance, rather sweet in a way. Still, it gave her a perhaps unintentionally intense expression as default. Which actually seemed to suit her rather well, Butters thought, as she stomped into the infirmary and whacked her syringe-shaped cane on the ground in front of Bulrog. "You've gone and eaten all my gummies, you're lucky I don't charge you."

"Alright, alright!" Bulrog waved his hands and scooted away from her.

"I'll be right with you, dear. Just need to finish up a few things." She turned to Butters, giving him a warm smile before adding. "If this one gives you any trouble just call, and I'll come and throw him out if I need to."

"Crazy old bitch." Cãtoman muttered under his breath once the nurse had secluded herself back inside the office. As soon as the door had fully closed however, he rounded on butters. "You better not have tried out for the hero course, asshole!" His voice was intense, but still kept at a low enough volume to not draw the nurse's attention. With the more well-used profanity, Bulrog's quirk gave off a lesser charge, little sparks leaping up and slapping the boy in his face but causing nothing more than a flinch. "First Sutam, Kai, and Kenny, now you?!"

Jolting in realization Butters asked. "Those guys were here today as well?"

"Yeah, assholes were in my battle center kill stealing all the robots." The profane middle schooler shook his head vigorously, as if to dislodge a particularly clingy thought. "It doesn't make sense, why would you all want to be heroes, don't you realize how dangerous it is?" Bulrog's tone took on a pleading, beseeching whine. "Kenny doesn't have a quirk, Sutam should be on the Support course, Jews can't be heroes, and you—" After rambling his own deluded thoughts to himself, Bulrog jabbed another finger at Butters. "-You're going to get someone killed!"

Unable to properly respond, knowing that what Cãtoman said was far from the truth, but still grazed past his deepest fears and the events of the day, Butters could only stutter an answer. "N-no, I-I, you don't, that's wha—that's not true! I can be a hero!"

"Oh, Butters." Cãtoman feigned sympathy, adopting the closest thing he could approximate to a genuine expression of concern. "It's honourable that you want to live up to my legacy, but you don't have a quirk as sweet and cool as me."

Despite the obvious disingenuous tone, Butters couldn't help but flash back to the exam centre, to the toppling zero-pointer. To the silhouette of another examinee, directly in the path of its crushing weight. He shrank visibly in his seat.

Cãtoman, incapable of sympathy, continued his speech. "How many times have I told you, it's best you just lock yourself away to avoid causing destruction." Butters mind went to the days upon days spent grounded, confined to his room because he had lost control. "Hey, look at me pal." Involuntarily Butters eyes drifted up to meet Bulrog's. Lips pinched up and beady eyes staring seriously, Cãtoman tried to look reassuring and inspiring, but all that time practicing in the mirror didn't seem like it had helped any. "You can run my fan club! Plus, I might need someone to do my accounts once I achieve my dream and make…" The fat boy almost salivated as his mind drifted to a number, a number he'd spent many years chasing, one that Butters knew himself from all the times Cãtoman had confided in him. "One billion yen."

That mockery of an uplifting expression falling away from his face - a look Butters personally knew Bulrog had tried to ape off of All Might and Endeavour - his childhood tormentor turned to leave. Casting one final parting phrase over his shoulder, Cãtoman chuckled. "And hey, if you go nuts and become a villain, you can be my nemesis or something."

"Thanks, Bulrog." He mumbled, eyes downcast. Butters heard the door open and close, but all he could do was fixate on his hands, clasped over his lap.

—DEATH—

"Yeah well… can't be helped. You don't know what it's like having a quirk like this, it doesn't work on any clothes! I can't turn it off, it's a real pain in my butt!"

The invisible girl's good-natured tirade brought her voice down off the carcass of the three pointers, and right beside where he himself stood. Ken was usually an expert at picking up on body language, but that didn't help him here, since all he had was the sound of her light cheery voice.

"Seems really useful though, bet you took down a shitload of robots." He shrugged, stuffing his gloved hands into the pockets of his gym jacket. "Plus, you can sneak out to the movies without anyone noticing." Perhaps the girl realized he had nothing to pick up on with regards to her face or body language, because she offered several sounds of understanding which ended with a genuine chuckle.

"I wish!" She giggled. "My mom and dad have gotten real smart since the first few times I pulled that off." She gave a contented hum and then continued. "We should head back to the starting area, I guess. My name's Hagakure Tooru by the way, but you can call me Tooru, I don't like it when people get all formal." Flipping from one area of conversation to another Ken started to get a wider picture of who Hagakure, or Tooru, was. Even though she was invisible he felt like he was starting to see her. Friendly, talkative, quick to flare up.

"Sure. I'm Korosareta Ken, but just call me Kenny, everyone does." He replied, turning and beginning their walk back to the starting area.

"So, Kenny, what's your quirk? Is it some kind of super reflexes or something, you were like kachaa! And then phwoozsh, super ninja style!" He could definitely see her, the karate stances, the head duck, the arm swoop. A lot of it was conveyed through her voice, how it moved with her ducking and making the fight sounds, but most of it just made sense. This was the kind of person she was.

"I can't die."

"Huh!?" Her excitement and action didn't die, but it hit such a stumbling block that he could hear her actually stop on their walk.

For his part he chuckled. "Eh… my quirk isn't anything special, doesn't really help me out much." He supplied. It was an easier answer really, plus when making a first impression he didn't want to sidetrack their nice conversation into something so wild. Quirks could do many things, they behaved almost like magic. They could do a great deal… but not that. At least as far as the rest of the world was willing to believe.

By answering that his quirk was nothing special, he also played on a real social discomfort people had around quirks. It was a strange juxtaposition between rampant curiosity about others and a massive self-consciousness about one's own that made it a weird topic. It was so often the first port of call forgetting to know someone. 'So, what's your quirk?' Had usurped the age-old questions of 'what do you do?' And 'what music do you like? Among others as instinctive icebreakers. But given that quirks could be so varied and given that a percentage of people didn't have one, it meant that the question hit just as many roadblocks as those old favourites. To the question 'what do you do?' For example, someone might answer that they had a wonderful, fulfilling job that paid well, or they might say they shoveled shit out back of a garbage dump, or that they were unemployed. The range of answers was so wide that it made the topic of conversation a minefield. Yet that awkwardness could not circumvent the curiosity. 'What's your quirk' was a question Kenny had several answers for, the honest one; I can't die. The comfortable one; it's nothing special. And the one for days when he'd just had enough; mind your own fucking business. Tooru was nice enough that he afforded her the former two, though admittedly he had to back off of the truth. Answering that his quirk was immortality was like answering that your job was King of the Moon.

To segue further away from the explanation that he might have made for someone he'd known for longer, Ken joked. "But I've trained at martial arts for like, my whole life."

"Woah that's so cool!" Tooru cheered, before giving a gasp of realization. Ken felt a dainty finger prod him quite undaintily in the chest as she crowed. "So, you are a super ninja!"

Ken shrugged as if to say, 'what can you do' and they both rounded the corner into the main thoroughfare. He let out a low whistle as the destruction came into view. "Damn… guess I was right to steer clear of the big open areas."

"Yeah, oh god, I don't want to think what would've happened if I'd got caught in the collateral." Tooru added from his side, her voice sobered somewhat at the realization of what some stray rubble or an errant missile could've done.

"Guess playing this like a ninja worked out for us both, huh?" He added as they picked their way towards the entrance. Other students were emerging from side streets, and even more had found their way back to the start line already. There was a medical tent set up, and Ken could even see some stretchers with occupants laying atop them.

"Uh-huh. Oh, I hope no one got badly hurt." Tooru added, the nervous wringing of hands present in her expressive voice.

Humming in consideration, Kenny measured a response. "I'm sure they've got the best nurses. They'd have to, I don't think the school would have many students if they didn't."

"Once I've got my clothes back on, I'll pay a visit." The admission brought two strange thoughts back to the front of his mind, and to other parts of him as well. Firstly, that Tooru was actually naked. Secondly, that he'd inadvertently caused her some harm.

Stopping to look at her, then realizing he couldn't very well appraise the state of an invisible person, he muffled out. "Oh shit, you're leg! Are you walking, okay?"

"I…" She started, but the bright tone she had been speaking with, her natural enthusiasm, wavered with a shaky breath and she confessed. "It does hurt a bit…"

"I'm an asshole, sorry." He groaned, before offering his left side and saying. "Lean on me, okay?"

"Thanks." Tooru shined, whereupon Ken felt a thin shoulder lean itself carefully against him, one small hand grabbing around his upper arm. "It's no problem…" The invisible girl still waved his concern away. "It's easy to miss because…" The was a beat of silence as they hobbled on, until Tooru laughed suddenly and added. "Oh! I'm gesturing at myself, and my… invisibleness."

"Got it…" He nodded with a chuckle, before joking. "I promise I won't grab your boob again."

"Oh my god!" She cried with a giggle. "If you do, I'll kick you so hard that you won't even know what hit you!"

It was halfway down the street that Ken felt her tug on his arm and speak. "Can we stop here? I stashed my clothes inside this building." Helping her over to the nearest doorway, Ken felt her detach from him, her voice moving inside and out of sight. Well, geographically out of sight. "Wait there please!"

A rather short amount of time passed, before she reemerged. "Ta-da!" Tooru declared, gingerly but theatrically stepping out from behind the grey concrete doorframe. Clad in a white and grey gym uniform, the effect of her entire body being invisible but still able to wear clothes was certainly something to get used to looking at. For example, looking reflexively at her chest he could see through the unbuttoned top of her jacket the inside lining of the garment. Beyond that she also wore white gloves, evidently to give her more range of expression. Which she demonstrated fully by flicking the brim of his hat with a finger, before wrapping one arm around his again. "Why the whole 'style' anyway? The hat, shades and scarf I mean."

Now able to better approximate the position of her face, thanks in part to a pair of white hair clips she had placed to frame the edges of an invisible fringe, Ken stumbled over an answer. "Oh, uh, it's a quirk thing."

"Don't tell me you're invisible too!" She gasped, though there was no genuine belief in her voice. Two quirks were never identical.

Bobbing his head from side to side, Ken essayed his response. "My quirk has an aspect to it that I can… effect. The less that people can see of me." The truth was quite grim in that the less people realized he was injured, the longer he seemed to be able to persist beyond the reasonable limits of the human body. Punctured lungs, displaced spine, massive blood loss; through all these things and more Kenny had discovered that the level of observation upon him effected his quirk's outer limits. It wasn't just that he couldn't die, it's that people didn't remember him dying, that he respawned seemingly at random sometime after death, that he could carry on well past the point where other people would have collapsed. All this of course he couldn't exactly tell Tooru, unless he wanted the cute bubbly girl to think he was fully crazy.

"Huh… cool." Her answer was predictably uncertain, but by this time they had reached the gathering of students about the medical tents. It also happened that Kenny had noticed something which drew his immediate attention and pulled from him a tired sigh.

"What the fuck…?"

Leaning across him Tooru stared in the same direction, beholding two stretchers that bore upon them two examinees. One was the spiky haired blonde who had shouted at him and his three friends on the bus, and the other was one of those friends. Walking over, Kenny looked down on Cãtoman, covered in sooty burn marks, hair frazzled and wild from overuse of his quirk. He looked like someone had applied a million volts to him, while also setting off a kiloton of TNT in his face. Despite this he was still conscious, and as Ken looked his old friend in the eye and spoke. "Dude, you look like shit." Cãtoman could only respond with disoriented grumbling.

His wounded neighbor did not fare any better, and both of them seemed to be mumbling the same sort of thing. Disconnected swear words, mixed in with groans of 'weak' and 'damn it.'

"Friend of yours?" Tooru asked from his side, her voice skeptical.

"Yeah." Kenny admitted to his chagrin. "You could say that."

—MIGHT—

Sunlight streamed in through the window, as Izuku, along with his mother Inko, sat in their lounge. It had been a matter of seconds since she had flustered into the room, waving her hands and holding an envelope addressed from UA. After they had both calmed down enough to open up the letter, they had spent another few seconds examining the strange flat metal circle that had slipped out. Not waiting for his nerves to get the better of him, Izuku had hit the button on the side.

"I am here!"

He immediately regretted it. The flat disc fired up with a blast of fanfare music and a familiar voice shouting out a familiar catchphrase. From the object's centre a beam of light had risen, quickly widening and projecting a holographic figure onto the coffee table.

"As a hologram!"

The glowing miniature All might was a sight for sore eyes, so much so that Izuku began to weep on the spot. It felt like so long since he'd heard from his hero, that he had convinced himself that everything was over. That he'd disappointed Yagi so much that the man would never want to see him ever again.

"I know it's been a while, but I've been very busy."

The small speakers made All Might's booming voice buzz and flicker a little bit, like his natural volume was clipping the upper end of the recording hardware. However, the fact that he was seeing the man at all gave way to the confusion at seeing him here, like this.

"I'll get to why later, but for now let us go over your UA entrance exam scores!" Thumbing the side of his nose conspiratorially, All Might puffed up his chest even more and sprang into a speech.

"You passed the written exam, your hero essays in particular setting you apart as someone with a - uh - super crazy in-depth, almost fanatical knowledge of heroism! Very impressive, if a little creepy." The compliments were heartwarming and relieving for him, but Izuku wished that Yagi-sensei could've made it through without awkwardly laughing and glancing off to the side. "Anyway!"

"You unfortunately scored zero villain points during the practical portion of the exam." All at once he started to regret letting his mother see the results with him. He'd been anticipating the rejection, but even so, it hurt so much that he couldn't even bare to look at her. "With your written scores we would be happy to offer you a place on the general education track at UA!" He heard a pleased noise from Inko and felt a warm reassuring hand touch him on the shoulder. Still, Izuku could hardly register it. The sound of his failure ringing in his ears.

"And you can certainly accept that place…" All Might paused, a long, drawn out, painful, theatrical beat. "If you choose to deny your position on the Hero Course that is!" Izuku fell over sideways, even as a holographic thumbs up jutted out at him. He felt like he'd literally been punched.

Clutching at his heart, his mother's excited shriek ringing in his ears, Izuku mumbled out some garbled, shocked words. "I can't take this suspense."

"Indeed!" His idol boomed, seeming to have predicted Izuku's response down to the millisecond. "If we scored applicants based solely on villain points, why, we would miss out a great deal of what makes a hero!" He blinked his teary green eyes, staring into the glowing holographic one's of All Might. "This is where Hero points come in. Points awarded based on your willingness to help others, and you, young Midoriya… ran into danger without a seconds thought, used your quirk when it was most needed, and saved the life of a fellow examinee." He found himself parroting words back at the projection, unable to fully process the information, but two in particular kept forming in his mind. Hero Points.

"Because of your bravery and valour, the judges awarded you 60 Hero points!" The hologram switched to show a section of leaderboard, with four columns marked by name, villain points, hero points, and finally total score. There was his name, below a Chaku Torikun and above a Mãgarin Batã. All Might's voice continued to play, a cheeky winking tone present, knowing the man Izuku could picture the elbow jabbing sideways look he would be giving the camera. "I wasn't one of those judges either, so you know your score is the real deal!"

"Not only did the judges recognize your worth as a hero, but so did a certain examinee!" The view changed again, switching to a recording of that girl from the exam, the one with the gravity quirk who had saved him twice in one day. "That kid with the green scraggly hair?" She asked someone off-screen, footage appearing to have been captured from a security camera. "I don't really know how to describe him, uh, he was kind of plain? But he saved my life, and I don't think he scored many points in the exam otherwise so… if it's possible, could I give him some of my points? If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even have finished the exam."

The projection cut back to All Might once again, the man's tending there in his bright blue costume, the Y-like symbol on its chest standing out a bright white and becoming larger than life. Despite the whole ensemble currently being small enough to fit on their coffee table. "So, with your exemplary score, you placed 10th in the rankings of students. Therefore, we here at UA are happy to offer you a place on the Hero course!"

"Izuku!" His mother's arms crushed around him, and he hugged her back, babbling incoherently as the recorded message played on.

"That's right, you did hear me correctly… We. For indeed I am here! Teaching at UA for the upcoming semester."

"Wait what?!" He practically screamed, flying off the couch to kneel in front of the hologram, looking the tiny Symbol of Peace right in the face, trying to discern any hint of joking or deception. Izuku was close enough to see the wrinkle in the corner of All Might's eyes as he warmly said. "See you in September Midoriya! Plus, ultra!" Then finally, just before the hologram zapped off, Yagi looked askance and asked someone. "So how many more of these are there?"

—CHAOS—

Butters gazed at the holographic display with watery eyes, for what must have been the fiftieth time tonight.

He had made it, but that feeling of victory and validation was polluted by something else. He had scored a total of 59 villain points, quite high and easily enough to place him in the course. However, the existence of heretofore unheard-of Hero points was sitting in his stomach like a concrete butterfly.

He had zero of those.

The points which measured how much you had helped others, had aided your fellow examinees and averted potential disasters. In that obviously important category, he had scored nothing. His value to the school came solely from his ability to destroy.

Scrubbing through the recording the device had shone forth, Butters paused at the short snapshot showing his placement.

11th place. Just below him in 12th, was an Aasa Aka, with 41 villain and 17 hero points. On the lower end of hero points overall, but compared to him far and away the better, more altruistic person. Above him, however, was his complete opposite, someone who had managed to accrue 60 hero points and a round intimidating zero villain points. This person, this Midoriya Izuku, was so incredible, so undeniably amazing, to have passed with flying colours on the basis of his heroic nature alone. What kind of person were they? What kind of quirk did they have? How could Butters hope to stand alongside such a person in any respect.

He looked out his window at the drizzly twilight street, mountainside Sausupaku having grown quite long before the sun began to set. His shoulders sagged, he wouldn't be going out into that crisp slush and dreary thin air for a few days yet. Considering the weather some might have considered it a good thing. Not Butters, any chance to get out of the house and away from his parents would be a welcome one.

His father had grounded him, of course. Sitting in the lounge together, the three of them had watched the holographic projection as it first played out, his mother and father sat side by side as he himself knelt before the coffee table as if it were some kind of shrine. Once the miniature light-form of Present Mic had announced his acceptance and more importantly explain the points system, his father had been outraged.

What kind of hero can't even earn one hero point. Even by accident.

The answer was sitting alone in his room, looking outside at the rain with longing in his eyes.

—PUNCH—

"It's to be expected, Itsuka-chan."

Kendo Morihei stood, feet bare, on the tatami mat that Itsuka herself currently lay on. Switching her hands beneath her, she pushed her body back up, taking a neutral stance across from her grandfather. Worry played on her face as the anxieties about her entrance exam score had weighed on her.

Of course, she had been overjoyed, once the holographic projector had shown her success. Once Midnight had explained the obscured scoring method, and Kendo's family had filled her head with congratulations. It was an impressive result, a great deal of hero points, third highest out of all examinees. Yet as the days kept passing by, her days at school slowly becoming awash with both excitement and melancholy, Kendo had felt doubts plaguing her.

If she hadn't failed herself during the exam, if she hadn't overextended her quirk, how much better would she have done? Her villain points, in comparison to most of the other top ten examinees, were paltry. Barring one outlier with - of all things - zero villain points, the big handed warrior was roughly ten points behind the other top ten participants. It made her think about what else was holding her back, in the exam had she been playing it safe avoiding the three-point robots. If it hadn't been for that last minute rescue she had made at the end, would she have made it in?

Those doubts were crushed and swept aside by her family and friends, but even so they remained. It had led to her asking her grandfather to push her training regimen in the dojo. Which in turn had led to her falling flat on her butt repeatedly for the last two hours. Contrary to her family name, she did not practice kendo, neither as it happened did the Kendo family. Their dojo taught specifically Aikido; a martial practice focused on soft takedowns that kept both parties as uninjured as possible. An excellent form for a hero, where safety was always a concern. Still, no matter how softly you are thrown, when you're put on the mat thirty times in a row you start to feel the sting.

"I just… Feel like I could've done better." She managed to reply, voice catching as she wrestled the emotions in her down to the metaphorical tatami mat.

"Life is growth." The uneven and crackling voice of her grandfather assured. "Part of that is always looking back on where we were, comparing it to our present."

"You are at a point in your life where you will always look back and ask, could I have done better…? Myself… I am at a point in my life where I look back and ask, why am I not as good as I was?" His hairless face but bushy eyebrows stared at her impassively. "We both need to listen to that inner voice, the voice of the fighter that lives in our hara. The voice of growth, the voice of aikido." He smiled, a warm but deeply thoughtful expression on his wrinkled face. "Then we can forget about the part, the future, and focus on the now. What are you doing now?"

"You're telling me to forget all my anxieties, ojiisan?" She groused back, shoulders slumping out of her ready stance. "That's… kind of hard to do."

"I know." He nodded in understanding. "Like I said, I have nervous thoughts that come from the same place." He too relaxed his stance, the bright light of the otherwise empty dojo washing all around them. "But dealing with them is not something that can be done instantly… so notice in yourself when those anxieties cannot be handled in the span of a single training session."

She could grasp the lesson he was giving her, no one could improve instantaneously, so why worry about that. As long as she was trying, making improvements every day then she was growing. "I think I'm going to take a break, jiji." She smiled, an expression he mirrored.

Sitting at the side of the room, her bare heels cold against the wooden floor, Itsuka distracted herself from those incessant thoughts of self-improvement by taking out her phone. Flicking over to a new group chat that had recently been blowing up, she found the excited chatter of her fellow examinees in the chat which Jimii had called 'Battle Centre Pals. Where it pleased her to see that the last one of them to receive their response from UA - Heidi - had been accepted into the hero course.

The distraction proved an instant success, as Kendo put into the chat, where all of them were excitedly babbling about how they would all be reunited and might even be put into the same class. With a beaming smile, Itsuka tapped away at the screen, oblivious to her grandfather's watchful eye, as he too bore a smile at seeing his most dear student so happy.

—ERASE—

"Up next is Korosareta Ken, from Nazono Middle in Tokyo." Principal Nezu continued, moving on to the next student as ranked by the villain point total. It was a vital process, Aizawa knew, and one that demanded rigorous attention to detail since they were effectively choosing a future generation of heroes. That didn't make it any less dull, however. Hours of combing over every single examinee, none of whom they could dismiss out of hand, as he expected would be proven later with a certain student. But before they discussed that particular anomaly - seriously, how did a kid with a quirk that strong score zero villain points? - they had to work through the rest in the normal way.

The work consisted of appraising examinees with the highest villain point total first, analysing and attributing any hero points that they warranted, followed up by addressing any outlying factors. Outlying factors they had mentioned thus far included things like temper, abrasiveness, cooperation, come to think of it anything that fell under personality. Then, after deliberating the sum total of both hero and villain points, they would move on to the next student and do the whole thing again.

It was not here that the classes would be decided, no, Nezu took that task upon himself for some unknown reason. Sure, any teacher could offer alternatives, but the mammalian principal remained the final arbiter.

Realizing he'd been drifting off to sleep, Aizawa screwed his eyes shut and forced them back open. Shifting a lock of long dark hair out of his face, he focused in on what Ishiyama was saying "Not the most villain points, but from what I can tell, one of the most well-trained combatants we've seen so far." The literally stone-faced Cementoss's voice was as steady and flat as ever. The afternoon sun shining through the floor to ceiling windows smacked a big blocky shadow onto the table, Ishiyama's metamorphic head-shape carving out his place at the table. Joining them were the rest of UA's main faculty, barring their two new teachers, both of whom had been exempted from this arduous task so that they might continue to prepare their syllabus. Squinting tired eyes against the brightly lit room, his colleague's comment made him pay attention to the video playing out before the assembled staff.

"He kinda reminds me of you, dude!" Hizashi quipped, leaning over to jab him in the ribs with an insistent elbow. The eyebrows of his old friend and colleague were waggling in amusement. Long ago Aizawwa had come to terms with the fact that Hizashi's Present Mic persona was just his real personality. Eyeing at the footage the erasure hero couldn't help but admit that Mic had a point. The boy was merciless in his search for villain bots. Even his martial form was familiar, not dissimilar to his own in fact. Glancing at the readout Aizawa hid a small smile behind his scarf.

"40 villain points. That's above the usual upper limit for someone without an applicable quirk. How many did you get in your entrance exam, Shota?" Midnight did not hide her smile, though it was a smirk born less out of anticipation and more out of teasing. From beneath her dark bangs, he could see her permanently lascivious eyes twinkling. As a married man and long-time colleague of the 'R18 Hero' he knew better than to misconstrue her behaviour as flirting. Like Hizashi she seemed to have adhered to her hero persona somewhat irreversibly, though her prognosis was nowhere near as terminal as Present Mic's was, at least she didn't blow out his eardrums.

His expression flat, he answered back, giving nothing away. "I passed." Leaning heavily on the conference table and levelling her with a blank stare Aizawa Shota was the picture of uncaring stoicism. Come to think of it, was he as warped by his hero persona as the others were? Worth a thought.

"Outfit him with some support gear and he'll go far." Power Loader mused; the head of their support department having taken off his usually ever-present helmet. The stylized digger scoop sat on the conference table, as if he was waiting for someone to complement the rather esoteric modern art he had brought along.

"Is he using his quirk?" Aizawa questioned, scrutinizing the wall projected footage even further.

"I took the liberty… of printing this out." Nezu inserted with a deliberate pause, dramatically producing a small stack of papers, about five or six in total.

"What's that?" Chewing on one of the many different chocolatey snacks he'd brought along, the rotund Chef leant in, eyes squinting at the papers.

Mr. Blimp piped up, having been the one to hand their boss the bundle at the opportune moment. With nothing more than an uncomfortable adjustment of his giant spectacles, their school counsellor said. "It's his quirk counselling documents… M"kay."

At the revelation that such a collection was said document, all staff turned their eyes on Maki, blank disbelieving faces to the last. Most quirk counselling bureaucracy filled out one sheet, maybe two if things were especially complicated. Elementary and middle school quirk assessment was not a very in-depth part of the Japanese educational system. It was something Shota had railed against when he had the occasion to drink.

"It's quite interesting!" Cackling, his shrill laugh biting at their ears, Nezu span in his chair like a violently mischievous child.

Summarizing, Maki elaborated. "The consensus is that he doesn't have one."

"He's quirkless?" Snipe queried, the man having rarely piped up until now. It was at this point that the gun-hero chose to remove his mask as well, giving up to the ever-growing feeling of a long night as it drew in. Bristling moustache freed from its confines, he placed the gas mask on the table next to their construction ornament.

"He shows the medical signs of having a quirk, m'kay. But it's never been proven what it actually is…" Mackey looked down at the table, a despondent expression growing on his face. "He says, or, uh, rather he's claimed in the past… to uh…"

"To be immortal!" Nezu yelled at the top of his tiny lungs, throwing his clawed little paws up in the air with exuberant delight.

"Chunibyõ nonsense." Shota couldn't help but scoff.

"He's very consistent in his claims." Nezu practically purred, ceasing his spin to level them all with a glinting beady eyed stare. With the timbre of a villain laying out a despotic plan for world domination, their fearless leader continued, white fur bristling. "Yearly quirk counselling sessions at his elementary school, always the same thing. Middle school he stops going, like most kids. Since they're optional and all. I took the liberty of glancing through the reports, several times he's quoted as saying 'I've died a thousand times, but no one ever remembers.' Very intriguing."

"M'kay… We'll have to set something up once he starts!" Mackey hummed, making a note on his already overfull note paper.

"He easily makes enough villain points for acceptance, then we have this." Pointing back at the screen the principal drew their attention to an extended display of teamwork between Korosareta and… someone. Nezu, anticipating this confusion, hit a button on his computer, whereupon the footage flickered into infrared, another body outlined by the heat vision.

"They work well as a team, skills and quirk complemented each other." Cementoss interjected once the video had been playing for a few seconds, again, a hum of appreciation in his tone. "Points for that, additional for medium threat level."

"That's… Hagakure Tooru." Maki supplied after searching his files, more of a formality to lodge the name in their collective mind for later judging. With an approving nod, the big-headed counsellor indicated the invisible girl's limping form moving around the outside of the battle area. "She's injured here as well, m'kay. Very determine performance."

"Look at that Krav Maga insanity!" Mic yelled, hands chopping the air with excitement, as Korosareta performed a leaping spin into the guard of a three-pointer.

"Taido." Aizawa had corrected before he could stop himself. Seeing his old friends confused expression, he sighed and explained. "Martial art that focuses on acrobatics, brutal takedowns, and getting inside an enemy's attacks." The beginner explanation would have to do, but still, the grasp of the art this Korosareta had was something to be acknowledged. Even if he had delusions about his quirk, his skills and determination were plain to see.

"Right, given this, how many hero points are we looking at?" Midnight asked, and with that the rest of their assessment continued on, coffee being poured, snacks delivered, and minds numbed by the repetitive work.

A buzz from his pocket caused Aizawa to draw out his phone. Upon the screen the first few lines of a text stared up at him.

'How did she do? Xx :D'

With a smile of a different tone than his characteristic grimace, Shota deliberated his response before quickly unlocking his phone and typing back.

'Can't say yet.'

The following reply was swift and predictable.

'Noooooooooooooooooo! So, mean. Don't keep me in suspense!'

Glancing back up to interject in the continuing discussions, he soon fired off another response.

'Haven't gotten to mark her yet, so couldn't tell you, even if I was allowed to assess her.'

The next response came in the form of a photograph. Two round laughing faces looking into the camera, both sticking out their tongues in exaggerated mockery of him. Two heads of green hair, one seafoam the other ashen. Used to be that particular brand of teasing would annoy him to no end. Now it made each day just a little more bearable. Was that Stockholm Syndrome, he often wondered… Then he looked at those smiling faces again and knew that even if it was, he didn't mind. Side by side the resemblances still shook him. He was descending into wan happiness, when a dreaded sound forced Shota to practically destroy his phone with how hard he locked the screen.

"D'aww! So cute!" Hizashi bellowed from right beside him, where the spiky haired voice hero had been snooping over his shoulder.

—MIGHT—

Midoriya hadn't been able to stop himself. Late one night, smile still on his face from the good news, he had brought up the UA website. The results of the entrance exam were made public, at least those who had made it into the course. So right now, Izuku was reading down the list of names and faces who he would be studying alongside.

It was curiosity, maybe only slightly creepy. Still, he was consumed by wonder. Would any of the people he saw on the day have made it in, what kind of scores did everyone else get? The page shone out at him in the dark of his room, the plain white of the screen causing him to wince.

Hachikage Sutamu - Villain Points: 55 - Hero Points: 21 - Total: 76

His quirk was called DIY-Touch. Tactile industrial techno-kinesis, Izuku couldn't help but analyze. One hand idly scratching out his musings in a new notebook. Such a perfect quirk for the exam. With decent hero points as well, a natural fit for the top of the results.

Kirishima Eijiro - Villain Points: 39 - Hero Points: 35 - Total: 74

Quirk; hardening. A stone-like body alteration quirk, perfect for up close combat, able to take a lot of damage. That must have made the exam a lot more fun with the reduced threat of injury.

Uraraka Ochaco - Villain Points: 38 - Hero Points: 45 - Total: 73

Izuku couldn't wipe the stupid grin that was splitting his face, his eyes sparkled as he took in the small profile picture of the girl who had saved him, who had come forward to offer to give him some of her own points. She was so wonderful, he kept thinking, as his eyes lingered on her exam breakdown a little longer than the others.

Kankyaku Jimii - Villain Points: 34 - Hero Points: 35 - Total: 69

Direct Route; a speed quirk, not dissimilar to that engine legged guy. The one who'd shouted at him in the orientation, and who Izuku had spent the rest of his exam trying to avoid. Midoriya spent a long few seconds considering how two speed quirks might differ, their conditions and drawbacks. Would this student have used the same kick-focused approach to combat as that tall, rather scary examinee?

Ibara Shiozaki - Villain Points: 36 - Hero Points: 32 - Total: 68

Vine. The name of the quirk didn't give him much, but from the look of her hair this examinee had a plant-control power. Could she be similar in some way to Kamui Woods, he thought, mind travelling back to the time or two he'd seen the hero in action.

It was at this point in his reading, that Midoriya was struck by a thought. Eyes going wide, he scoured the list of soon-to-be students until he found the name he was searching for. It's place in the second-to-last spot shocked him maybe even more than his own acceptance. Just below a Minoru Mineta and just above a Catõman Bulrog, there he was. Unbelievably.

Bakugou Katsuki - Villain Points 37 - Hero Points: 0 - Total: 37

What the hell had happened.

—DEATH—

With the school day promising to begin in an hour or so, Ken made his way through the crowd of umbrellas and deeper into the urban sprawl. Decidedly not in the direction of Nazono Middle School, where he was supposed to be a student.

April showers fell all over Tokyo, and while he would have loved nothing more than to sit and study for exams he wouldn't even have to take, Ken had other things on his mind. Every other Monday he would skip the first few classes, taking the detentions and reprimands in stride, all so he could make one perfunctory visit. It wasn't even something he enjoyed doing, it had become more of a duty.

The mob of school kids taking the train was massive, a torrent of uniforms, their wave broken up by an occasional adult or outstanding metamorph. Even as the salaryman morning rush worked in concert with the school rush, the uniformed middle and high schoolers dominated their own carriages on trains. An unspoken divide between old and young.

Ken disentangled himself from the herd at Shimbashi, long since having left the route to Nazono, and even the Sanya lines behind. As he walked through the cold and the mist, the crowds thinned, the landscape changing from that of officious businessmen and chattering school kids to something decidedly different. Ken stepped to the side as a forklift whizzed by, crates of fish stacked on its two prongs. Up ahead he could hear the shouts of fishermen and dock workers, an auctioneer patter of prices and weights.

Tsukiji Fish Market, at this early hour, became something feverish. One of the busiest fishing ports in the world, and not somewhere you'd expect to see a middle schooler. Which made Ken stand out as he moved through the aisles of crates, having transitioned from the outside rain to the interior freeze without even realizing it. The rain had been exchanged for a high-ceilinged warehouse, where the smell was rancid, as heaps of shrimp, octopi, trout, squid, clams, mussels, and all manner of unidentifiable sea-life lay dead-on pallets.

Ignoring the sidelong glances he got from the labourers, Ken scanned the crowd for a familiar figure. The main thoroughfare of the market, at this time of morning, was nearly impossible to parse. Right now, workers stood on top of huge tuna fish, extolling the virtues of their specimen to a small gathering of cooks and restauranteurs.

They called it tuna-hell.

Frankly he could see why. The wet eyes of death that stared out from the massive fish, numbers daubed on their sides in red marker. No doubt asking themselves what sin they had committed in their life to have deserved this fate. A few minutes of searching and Ken found his own quarry, because he sure as hell wasn't here for the fish.

"Yo! Keibin." He threw out the casual greeting as he approached his brother through the bitter cold. Korosareta Keibin was standing against a mountain of crates. Both hands in the pockets of his dark jacket, collar pulled up to fend off the chill, he looked nothing less than shady. His unkempt brown hair was tangled atop his head but kept short around the sides, and the numerous blemishes and scars on his unpleasant face completed the look.

"Kenny?" The elder Korosareta retorted, annoyance plain in his voice once he recognized who had called his name. "I told you not to come around here, stupid."

"Am I not allowed to come checkup bon my oniisan?" Ken grinned beneath his hood, eyes twinkling with mockery.

"Not when he keeps telling you to fuck off." Keibin shot back with a roll of the eyes. Not angry, just done with the conversation that hadn't even begun yet.

"I got this." Ken ignored the slight, taking a paper bag from within his coat and slinging it over to his brother. Inside was a still warm breakfast wrap he'd snagged from a hole-in-the-wall place on his way here. Nothing fancy, but then again, that was practically their family motto.

"Yeah." Keibin responded reluctantly, the one word taking the place of a thanks which might have left the mouth of any sibling from any normal family. The acknowledgement still contained some of the intention that a word of appreciation might have had however, and that was all they had ever been able to manage.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets again, Ken abruptly uttered a phrase he'd spoken to his brother many mornings before. "So… you should come see Kãrin more often." Listing his head carelessly to the side Keibin was about to respond before Ken cut him off. "Since I got into UA and everything."

Keibin looked at him dubiously. "Oh." Was all he could manage.

"Yeah." The two of them locked eyes for a second. "I'll be moving to Shizuoka in September. So, she won't have anyone. I thought I would be able to commute, but… it's too far, too expensive as well."

"I don't have the time." Keibin said after a few seconds of silence. A silence that only existed between them, the shouts of fisherman flying through the air around them, along with the clatter and crash f crates and industrial machinery.

"You know I should be in school right now? I found the time." Ken shot back, a twinge of irritation colouring his voice.

"Yeah…? You miss school, the fuck are they going to do?" Keibin answered, anger rising in his tone. "I'm doing important shit, right?"

Ken looked around, making sure to highlight the action for his brother's sake. "Sure." He dragged the word out sarcastically. "This looks like real important shit."

"Shut up, Kenny. I send you two some money, that's fucking enough, right?" Keibin creased his brow, giving his younger sibling the stink eye. Ken's older brother employed a certain verbal tick, whenever he was feeling put-out, he inflected the word 'right' at the end of questions. The implicit meaning of the word becoming an indicator that the conversation was going to be over if you didn't get the picture. Accompanying it, the twitching eyebrow, involuntarily raised, could make him look quite threatening. Ken had the advantage of being Keibin's little brother however, and therefore immune to such things.

Sighing, the younger Korosareta had to admit. "We appreciate it." His tone becoming once more serious, he said. "We do. Still, Kãrin needs more than that."

Before he could answer, Keibin's phone started to ring, a shrill factory setting ringtone chiming out from within his shabby jeans. Taking the device out, his brother spared him one last look before leaving. "Whatever. Stay out of trouble." Then Keibin lifted the phone to his ear and vanished off into the stacks of dead fish.

Ken did not follow.

—AUTHOR'S NOTE—

Did not anticipate this chapter becoming so big! Lots of little snippets that make up quite a lot of writing. It's really fun getting to ping pong back and forth, not really worrying too much about chronology, since we can pick up the thread as the chapter goes along.

Love people getting hype in the reviews! Always eager to read theories, ideas and so forth. As I write more of this fic unfolds in my mind's eye, and I'm just as excited! Hinting at various things to come, starting to establish those friendships that arise from the influx of new characters, expanding on the source material. Also seeing how things start to change. Sorry Bakugou, you might be super strong, but you failed to account for Eric Cartman. I'm keeping a bit of a lid on those two, because I really want that to build up before we see the two really go at it. You've got little hints so far, only a matter of time before it comes to a head!

I'd be interested to hear which main perspective people are enjoying the most? I picked all four as protagonists for many reasons, both individually and for how they play off each other. I wonder if they're coming across in the writing. I also try to make up for my lack of knowledge on martial arts and Japanese culture by doing what I am very good at, copious amounts of research. Hopefully it's all bearing fruit.

Thanks for reading, leave a review with your thoughts, and I'll catch you in the next one!

- Faff