The next day he narrowly makes it to the homeroom, while everyone stares at him with varying emotions across their faces, because he ran into All Might on the way.

Well, that was an awkward conversation.

All Might patted him on the head and asked if he is managing alright with this whole villain thing, and he replied 'never better' and proceeded to choke on his words for three minutes straight afterwards, then mutter something about homeroom starting soon and escaped.

Oh Kami, he'll have to find All Might after classes and apologise. And explain that he has never been better because he actively changed the rules… Ah, he's a mess.

Before homeroom can start and save him from his thoughts however, he is approached by Uraraka.

"Deku-kun, I'm sorry," she says in a small voice, and he's instantly worried. What could she be sorry about? "I— I wasn't thinking when I said that thing about excluding whoever the villain is, and that was before I knew it was you! And now you stopped sitting with us during lunch and you avoid us after school too and, and— I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that!" she bends in half with how far she bows, and her voice sounds suspiciously wet.

"Nononono! You misunderstood Uraraka-san!" he waves his hands frantically even though she can't see it from her position. "It's not because of what you said, I didn't even take it personally! I was just busy!"

"B-But," she sniffles and straightens, and Izuku feels ten times worse. He made a girl cry, he made Uraraka-san cry. "Then why did you stop spending time with us!?"

"I was gathering people for the exercise," he replies truthfully. "I had to meet up with them, go from class to class, gather signatures for a petition—"

"Petition?" she asks, blinking at him without understanding. "For what?"

Before Izuku can answer, Aizawa-sensei enters the class, and Uraraka's eyes go wide as she skitters towards her seat at top speed. Aizawa just looks at her with an unimpressed gaze, before taking his place behind the lectern and clearing his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Hello class, because of the Problem Child the exam is being changed." Well that is… a blunt way to put it. Several people gasp and turn his way. Kacchan chuckles.

"Oh? Did the wimp not do well under pressure?"

Aizawa elects to ignore him.

"Yesterday, a petition was brought to the principal, asking for a change in how the exam would look like, and it was accepted."

"But sir," Yaoyorozu interrupts, her eyes going wide with worry, "Wouldn't such a petition need at least sixty signatures alongside a signature of at least one member of each course?"

"Yes Yaoyorozu, thank you for stating the obvious," Aizawa-sensei mutters snarkily. "The petition, obviously, amassed that many signatures. Now, the exam is being changed so I'll ask you and Iida to give everyone an addendum to their packets. And an entirely new packet for you—the Team A leader, and Midoriya—the Team B leader." The change of names throws everyone in for the loop for a few seconds, but after Aizawa pointedly clears his throat again, Iida and Yaoyorozu get to their work. Izuku wonders what exactly changed. It already sounds better than it did before, with the names changed from Heroes and Villains to simply Team A and B. His hopes are high, even higher as he receives as equally thick packet as before, but this time without a black calling card with a 'Villain' written on it like before. He can't help but smirk at Yaoyorozu as she passes the packet to him, thinking about a nasty surprise she'll receive in her packet. She narrows her eyes at him, but doesn't say anything.

"Yaoyorozu," Once all the packets are in the students' hands, Aizawa addresses the Team A leader, "The three students from the higher grades were decided to be an unfair advantage to the Hero— To the Team A, therefore from now on they can only provide you with training, expertise and medical help while the exam starts. They cannot help you fight your battles."

Izuku's eyes widen. So the three students from different grades weren't an advantage to the villain team only? Uh oh. He just missed a bullet.

"Midoriya," this time Aizawa-sensei addresses him, and he tenses, awaiting the verdict. Would his choice also get nerfed? "As a handicap your upper grades trio can now only include one Hero Course member, the rest has to be from different courses." Ah… Welp. "And to both of you, recruiting them will become a lot harder." The teacher smirks. "They won't receive any additional points on their exams. If they're gonna help it's gonna be volunteer work." Izuku feels his brain fall to pieces. Oh no… "The rest of the information is in your packets. Read them carefully and wake me up when it's time for classes," he says, already zipping himself in his sleeping bag. "Oh, and Bakugou?" he gets the blond's attention, "You can't use your gauntlets on your opponents, or your teammates for that matter but I think that one's obvious."

"WHAT!?" Kacchan rages, "SINCE WHEN!?"

"Since Midoriya talked to the principal, of course." Aizawa smirks, and gets on the floor to nap.

Kacchan turns towards Izuku with a horrifyingly slow speed, smoke rising from his palms, and his sweat dripping from them as its production gets accelerated.

"What. Did. You. DO!?" Kacchan throws himself at him with an explosion.

However, the next explosion doesn't come.

"Bakugou, detention." Aizawa informs him in an almost bored tone. "And do that again and I'll just make sure you can't take the exam at all, got it?"

Kacchan grumbles something, but gets back to his seat. Aizawa gets back into the cocoon, and Izuku… Izuku realises he has fallen from his chair in a hurry to get away from Kacchan, and that he's now sitting on his ass on the floor, breathing heavily.

Thank Kami for Aizawa-sensei, really.

Before he can get up on his own, Uraraka and Iida are next to him, helping him up. He smiles gratefully at his friends and thanks them, and catches them looking a little ashamed.

"Are you sure you weren't avoiding us because you hate us for what I said, or think we hate you?" Uraraka asks, still holding onto his hand.

He can only give them both a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'd ask you to tag along to our training today so you can see I was telling the truth, but I kinda want to surprise you with the effects." He winks at them. "We're going to be rivals during the exam, don't forget that. But no hard feelings, alright?"

Uraraka throws herself at him and hugs him, and he awkwardly raises his arms to pat her on the back.

"There, there…" He nearly melts into the hug, even more so when Iida joins it.

"So, is everything alright between us?" the boy asks.

"Yes." Izuku smiles brightly. "Yes it is."

Izuku reads his packet and marvels at how quickly the principal restructured the entire exam. In the packet there's a list of things they can and cannot do, updated to heroic standard, and no longer stating obvious things like 'do not murder your opponents'. Another thing is a chart stating every single infraction they can not make or they'll get reduced points. He's pleased to see excessive force as the first on the list. Not listening to the teacher's commands is another. The list goes on and on, taking off a certain amount of points for the smallest mistake they can make.
But when he turns the page, he finds a list of things they can get additional points for. The list is short, but among the objectives is gathering intel, capturing an enemy without making a 'mistake' such as letting a captive person get away, planting a mole in the opponent's base, finding the opponents' base (and he makes a note on that. the new packet didn't have a map so it means that the location has changed) and taking over the opponents' base.

His mind is already running new plans. He can do this. He'll make a flawless run.

…okay maybe not flawless, there's a chance someone makes a mistake, and that someone could be even him, but… with that many people on his side, some of the objectives seem trivially easy.

Now, the biggest challenge will be recruiting a third year Hero Course student.

He takes out his phone and opens the server.

UNION
#general

Midoriya Izuku
Does anyone have any idea how to recruit a third year from Hero Course without an offer on additional exam points?
Because that just got nerfed.

Kezuro Kunimi
I implore you to not use your phone during homeroom!

Midoriya Izuku
you're using your phone during homeroom what's your excuse
also Aizawa-sensei is chill with us using our phones as long as we're silent

Kezuro Kunimi
ah I apologise
well I'm using mine to record today's announcements
as I do

Midoriya Izuku
as you do

Kezuro Kunimi
Well… about your problem… I could ask my cousin?

Midoriya Izuku
You have a cousin in the Hero Course and you said nothing?
Dude please, please ask him when you can.

Kezuro Kunimi
I will during lunch, is that alright?

Midoriya Izuku
Yes! It would be great.

Luz Solare
I could also ask my sister ig

Midoriya Izuku
Oh? Is she also in the hero course?

Luz Solare
nope, Support
but she's a third year

Midoriya Izuku
that's perfect actually
we got nerfed to one person from hero course

Luz Solare
sucks
but I'll let her know now

Midoriya Izuku
thanks!

Asoshina Fumiko
I guess we could ask our senpai?
From second year
she's got a nice quirk for espionage

Midoriya Izuku
go for it!

Asoshina Fumiko
lunch

Midoriya Izuku
ok

Miyagi Chisato
question

Midoriya Izuku
ye?

Miyagi Chisato
can I bring my cat?
he has a quirk

Midoriya Izuku
I-
I mean
there's nothing against it in the rules
so
I guess
yes?
I don't know
I'll ask sensei when he wakes up

Miyagi Chisato
cool
wait
when he wakes up?
does your teacher sleep during homeroom?

Midoriya Izuku
yeah?

Miyagi Chisato
wild

Izuku anxiously awaits his teacher's awakening. When the bell eventually rings, he jumps from his seat and makes a beeline towards Aizawa.

"What do you want, Problem Child?" he asks and yawns.

"I have a technical question about the exam." The teacher makes a go-on gesture, so he does just that. "Can we bring a cat to the exam?"

"Yes," Aizawa replies, staring him down in an unnervingly unblinking way.

"Oh… That's great! Thank you." He bows slightly and legs it back to his seat. Kacchan looks at him incredulously.

"A cat?" he hisses out as he turns around. "What, did you run out of willing students to fight us? You wanna distract us with animals now?"

"You'll see Kacchan, you'll see," he replies absentmindedly, as he sends Miyagi-san an 'a-ok'.

"I don't know what games are you playing, but know we'll win," Kacchan says through gritted teeth, and then turns back as Cementoss enters the classroom.

Izuku can only smile slyly. Oh, he's playing many games.

The lunch arrives fast since he's having a good time plotting Kacchan's early demise. Okay, maybe not demise, but a beatdown, that's for sure. He's going to sic the best of the best of his new teammates on him. And he's going to regret his words about Hatsume's inventions, that's for sure.

He doesn't have anything planned for the lunch period, so he grabs something to eat from Lunch Rush and goes to sit at his usual spot, waiting for his usual squad to sit by him. When Uraraka spots him she nearly trips over her legs in an attempt to get to him first, and so Iida follows slightly behind telling her to not run as it's against the rules. Soon enough they're joined by Todoroki and Asui, and he feels right at home.

They eat, chatter, joke, and everything is fine, right until Uraraka-san utters those cursed words.

"So, what are you planning, Deku-kun?"

"Hmm?" he hums through a mouthful of his katsudon, then once he gulps it down, he asks properly. "What do you mean?"

"For the exam, like, it must be so hard to plan to fight all of us with the other students that don't have fight-orientated quirks."

"But… some of them do." He says automatically, and she frowns.

"Even if yes, they didn't make it in the entrance exam, so they can't be particularly strong. Also we had training and they didn't."

"Uraraka-san, not every single one of them is someone who failed the entrance exam for the hero course," he informs her sharply, "Besides, it's not like you to be… like that. Cut it out."

"We're just worried about you," she says gently. "Being in an exam that first forces you to be a villain, and even now after the change is so unbalanced and against you, can't be easy and we want to talk to you about it."

"Exactly, kero. It can't be easy to be in such a situation."

He feels completely out of the loop.

"What situation, what are you talking about?"

"In a situation where you can't win," Uraraka says, like it's undeniably true, like he's really doomed to fail.

Suddenly he loses the appetite.

"The other courses are filled with amazing, great, selfless, skilled and confident people, who don't care what quirks they have, or don't have for the matter. They are ready to fight," he says, putting force in every single word.

It doesn't have the effect he wants it to have.

Because they all gasp. "You're letting quirkless people fight us?" Iida sounds appalled.

Uraraka makes a face, "I'm going to be sick. You're not making them, are you? That's so…" she doesn't finish her thoughts, but Izuku can hear them well enough.

The silent accusation that he's using useless people, that he's allowing the ones that don't have something as amazing and normal as quirks exist in the same scope as everyone else.

"Did you even hear me? I didn't even focus what I said on quirkless people but that's all you've heard from it! There's only three of them, and all three of them are ready to fight alongside all others, with quirks: useful and useless, physical and non-physical. Because it's not the quirk that makes for a win or lose, it's people."

"Okay, I understand that, but what if I won't be able to discern between a quirkless person and a quirked person? I wouldn't want to roughen them up more than—" Iida starts, and Izuku sees red.

"We're not fragile!" the 'we' slips up unbidden. "We're not fragile and we're not weak and we're not lesser than you so kindly shut up!"

He takes his tray, stands up and leaves.

He spends the lunch with the business course, and they welcome him with pleasant silence and lack of questions. They see the anger burning in his eyes, and they only offer him tissues when that anger threatens to overflow into tears.

It's a welcome change.

He always knew that being in a class with strong quirks he would find quirkist opinions but… he expected better from his classmates, his friends.

With a heavy sigh he finishes his katsudon. He'll…

He'll just have to show them, alongside his team, that neither of them is fragile, that neither of them is weak. That they won't be able to 'discern' a quirkless from a quirked. That they should be afraid of what rightful anger means.

That will have to do.