One thing Nico did not miss about school (or what he could remember of it anyway) was having to wake up early. Thus he wasn't in a very good mood and couldn't be bothered to move from where he'd ended up flopping over on the floor.

Yamada-sensei had ended up dragging both him and Aizawa-sensei out of the door. Fortunately he was saved from hitting the ground via scarf, but this meant that the rest of the class had witnessed him wrapped up in Aizawa-sensei's scarf, snoring on the way to the bus.

He was reassured that it was funny and helped calm down a lot of their nerves to see someone who wasn't that worried.

..But still very embarrassing.

Well, they'd see other sides of him eventually. And he had a bigger willingness to try to get along with them, now that he could see .

( "novice eggs… chicks… hatching into semi-pros")

The out of context words startled him out of his thoughts.

He focused back on Aizawa-sensei's inspirational speech in confusion, "...Do your best."

Huh? What was with the chickens?

" Yosh! (All right!) I'll become a chick!" Kaminari yelled excitedly.

What?

..He felt oddly disappointed that there were no chickens to see.

Kirishima started saying something, when another guy who Nico was faintly aware of in the back of his mind, walked up.

"Sei-no! (Ready, set) Plus.. ULTRA!"

He flinched away from the now-trio.

Nico noted the uniform caps that likely signified whose school they were from, while.. Inasa was scolded by his classmates.

The demigod inched farther away from where the guy was yelling quite loudly. ..'extremely?' Shudder.

He resigned himself to zoning out until important stuff would pop up. (It felt like he'd already met his social quota, and thus needed to recharge. Alone.)

"Yuuei in the east, Shiketsu in the west…" Bakugo commented.

Rival schools?

Nico proceeded to ignore literally everything coming out of Inasa's mouth after that (if he tried, he'd have no choice but to give up because it would be so overwhelming) .

"-... Yoarashi got the top scores of those admitted through recommendations," Aizawa-sensei was informing them.

Yoarashi? Er, it was probably Inasa.

..Probably.

Maybe he'll avoid him just so he doesn't have to deal with the issue of trying to figure out how to refer to the student (well, logically, if his classmates called him Inasa, and Aizawa called him Yoarashi, it's more likely Inasa is his first name? So he'd say Yoarashi. ..Who was he kidding, he'd probably forget when the stress of the exam hits him.) . Totally, that's the reason why entirely.

He saw an obviously extroverted green-haired lady with what he assumed was her hero costume on, and internally groaned.

No, nope, he was moving farther away.

…

Di immortales, were those her students heading this way? Nooo!

...Ket-su-but-su…? He was already overwhelmed by the long name.

..So many people. Already..?

Aizawa-sensei called them to attention, "Change into your costumes and go to the orientation. Don't waste time."

"Hai!" The class all spoke.

Right. Hero costumes.

His costume was simply just his usual outfit. An aviator jacket, paired with a black shirt and jeans. For awhile back then , he'd started wearing a bomber jacket since his old aviator jacket was shredded, but man Yuuei had a lot of cash to spend.

..He may or may not have used it though to get those special patches on the otherwise plain jacket, using the beads on the camp necklace he would've gotten if he was there (he knew what they looked like though because he's seen the others) .

(...There wasn't one for the quest for Artemis because it was the same year as the fleece and pine tree thing.)

A dark green patch with an intricate almost blueprint-like design of a maze, showing its layout for Daedelus' Labyrinth.

A lighter but tan-ish, almost skin-colored brown to contrast against the darkness of the aviator jacket, with the Empire State Building. (The inside of his jacket was where he had the names of those who lost their lives in Ancient Greek. As if to hold them close to his chest and say, 'you will be remembered'. ..Additionally, he'd added those he most cherished. Annabeth, Percy, Bianca, Hazel, Will, Jason— …and he knew Jason hadn't survived as long as the others did. His heritage told him, even if it broke his heart that he wasn't there. Couldn't be there for his last moments…)

..For the Romans, he (even though he already had the tattoo– or well, since it was a burn, technically a brand? In hindsight, perhaps the doctors who treated him back in the hospital would've noticed. ..Huh.) had it in black in the area where the breast pocket would've been.

A black glyph like a cross with curved arms and a 'head', which resembled the astrological sign for the planet Pluto. Underneath it the words SPQR, for Senatus Populusque Romanus (or something like 'for the people'?). Additionally, underneath, a line for every year of service.

The Romans might be a little too militaristic for his tastes, but he still had fond memories of that camp.

In a way, they were his badges of honor.

Anyway at least it made him look a little cooler. Probably. It was too bland otherwise he supposed, and he didn't think it would be a good idea to be wearing anything with skulls, no matter if he were the Son of Hades. Too on the nose, and also probably not very.. 'Hero-like'. Eugh.

He had one of those sheaths clipped to his belt for his sword. Not that he needed to use it but, for one, be underestimated. An enemy's eyes will naturally fall to where the weapon is most likely, that being his sheath. And then he could simply summon it away, so in that split second where they panic, or lose focus, it gives him an upperhand.

In any case, he could also end up being too drained to keep manipulating the shadows without harming himself, so it would be helpful anyway.

The belt contained a bunch of other little goodies like Ambrosia, those pomegranate seeds, and various other things like that. Helpful.

If he understood it right though, people could become Underground Heroes, without having to be media-friendly, and having to deal with them in the first place. It was unfortunate that his stunt in Kamino might've made him a little recognizable? Although he did also just look like any other exhausted.. Emo teen. ( He could almost hear Percy laughing at him) , so maybe he could sneak under the radar?

..His goal though was to, ultimately, stop All For One. Could he really do that in a space where he didn't know anyone? No one who knew what he wanted, no one who would trust him because they haven't interacted with him… It was the ones in the limelight who got noticed and then used for that purpose.

(He wasn't an idiot. He did rese– Okay, well, he triedto research but he didn't know how to use technology! He'd never had a reason to because in the past they'd sent out an alert to every monster that, 'hey, free food is here!' ..He needed to have some help with it, especially with reading. Midoriya was nice like that, and from what he heard of his whole hero word vomit, Mt. Lady was still technically a rookie, even if she'd been on the scene for at least maybe a year or so, she was still pretty new! In his eyes at least. ..Midoriya had actually mentioned he'd seen her debut. But apparently she was one of the people on the raid on the building he'd appeared in, so… Eugh..)

In any case, he needed to figure out how to socialize! Will would be such a godsend to have here. The pretty and charming half of his he could direct anyone's attention to instead.

He wished he was here with him.

Nico shrunk in on himself in the huge crowd, feeling the panic rise in his chest.

' For fucks sake. You've faced literal monsters, life-or-death scenarios, and this is what gets you?'

Certainly didn't stop his tear ducts from reacting to the distress.

("Listen to my voice," Will's smooth voice flowed gently into his ears, like a lazy stream of water.

His warm hand grasped Nico's shaky one, placing it against his calm chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Do you hear that? Can you match it with me?"

All he could do was produce a low whine. His own heart felt too loud, as if anyone could hear it.

"That's okay. "

A hand raised past their held ones, and gently cupped his cheek.

Nico leaned into the warmth that invaded his otherwise cold being.

Warm like after a blanket gets washed and you dive right back into it.

..Warm like that bubbly feeling in his chest that threatened to overflow with gooey warmness.

Slowly the world refocused, and Nico melted into Will's hold.

"There, there, I'm right here, Tesoro."

('darling/treasure')

His heart felt like it was bursting at the Italian endearment.

"..Will, I–" )

Nico was abruptly yanked out of his memory, flinching at the volume, but feeling marginally better.

("–..Sei speciale per me," He whispered, flustered.) ("–..You are special to me.")

An exhausted guy spoke above a podium, "I'm Mera from the Heroes Public Safety Commission. ..The kind of sleep I like is non-REM sleep…"

..Ah.

"...With that conviction, I will give you the orientation. About the content of the provisional license thing…"

( A free-for-all exercise…

The first hundred… will pass…

The examinee will put three of these targets on his or her body.

They can go anywhere as long as it's an exposed area. (You can't put them on the soles of your feet or in your armpits.)

You will also have six of these balls. The targets are made to only light up if they're hit by these balls, and if all three of your targets light up, then you're out.

The person who lights up your third target will have it count as their defeat.

You get through this round by defeating two people.)

Well it wasn't as if he had to pass. It seemed stressful, and he wasn't aiming on becoming a hero in a full capacity anyway. However… There could be a lot of roadblocks if he chose not to pursue heroics, but still try to reach his goal.

He watched wide-eyed as the walls entirely collapsed, giving view to a huge dome of various terrain.

Holy shit, the budget on this place!

If he squinted, he could see what he assumed were some of the teachers in the stands around it.

"Everyone, don't get too separated! Let's move as a group!" Midoriya called out, sounding like he had a plan.

Go figures.

He spoke up this time, "Be careful! I have a bad feeling about this."

Some people split off, but it was when the test started that he noted that the whole class was being targeted.

He huffed and split off before he could get roped in. He'd seen their practice anyway. Although they might not be prepared to face off the enemies a demigod has, they had basically lived in peacetime. No threat to worry about, until All For One of course.

He felt confident, in any case, that they could handle themselves.

…

Most of his powers were meant for lethal use, so it handicapped him a bit. His first instinct would be to kill then to incapacitate anyway, and unless he wanted to change it, which hell no, then he'd have to hold himself back in some way.

This meant that sometimes he had to do things that made his inner self cringe, but there was nothing he could really do. Plus this was just the first round, it wouldn't be good if he tired himself out so easily.

So.

..Okay, well, he'd already lost one target on his chest.

It was when he was traveling around however that he noticed Uraraka being ambushed by a bunch of others.

"Hey!"

Nico frowned, his demigod senses tingling with red flags.

Why wasn't she doing anything?

She tripped down the rocks, and he rushed in to save her anyway. (Maybe she's hesitant about using her quirk?)

He summoned a few skeletons, tossing some of his balls over for them to possibly get some targets while he rushed to bring Uraraka and him to somewhere hidden.

"Thanks. Sorry, I messed up."

Nico frowned at her, but just as everyone got nervous during their first quest, it was only natural that she'd get stressed out in a professional setting where their abilities would get graded for the first actual time. (Even he didn't think he'd last if he was in her shoes.)

"No worries." He glanced away, making sure that nobody was nearby (you never knew), before his demigod intuition (..instinct?) spiked up, and the next thing he was whacking a ball away.

Time seemed to freeze. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"Eh?"

"Why didn't you use your quirk? You certainly didn't seem eager to do anything once you'd shown yourself either. What were you, bait? But you couldn't have been certain I would've helped. No one's nearby to ambush me either."

'Uraraka' smiled, "If you saved me even though you noticed, does that mean you were trying to use me instead?"

Nico shuddered at the creepy image it was to see 'Uraraka'''s form melting into a horrible gray sludge.

"I merely saw a classmate in danger. Is there any more reason? Even so, that would've been a nasty fall. What would you have done if I didn't move to help?"

She sighed, and chocolate eyes stared back at him, "Ah, I want you to tell me more about yourself."

He cringed when he realized that underneath the sludge was not clothes, and looked away. "Did you not-? No, that's a dumb question. Er."

Nico waited for her to leave, but she didn't. "I could give you my jacket? It won't cover that much but it probably isn't very comfortable to be walking around like that…"

It didn't matter if he treasured his jacket, what he would treasure is if it was something given to him by one of his precious people. Hero costumes were made to be replaceable over and over again, it didn't matter .

The demigod took off his aviator jacket, holding it out in her direction. (It felt weird for his arms to be bare)

"So kind!" She took it, "But I have something I need to do."

Alarm bells rang, and he ducked underneath her lunging hand, "Hey! What are you even planning to do!?"

She didn't have any balls on her.

No targets either considering his brief glance.

It took a few more moments of confused dodging before something clicked, "Who are you?!"

"Who else would I be?"

His eyes narrowed, before with a burst, he shot up, grasping her wrists and holding her in place, cautious of any movement made by her legs.

She remained pliant in his grasp however, seeming almost amused.

..He understood now, why there was something so off about her–

It was pinging his monster alert. It felt like one of those shapeshifting ones. Well, considering it recalibrated to the smallest of hints of one in a world with barely any.

"I will ask you again. Who the hell are you?"

"Oh no, the big bad hero has me in his grasp!" She cried dramatically.

That wasn't earning her any mercy points however. His eyes darkened. "What happened to the girl whose form you took? Can't you imagine how violating it is to be showing off her body like that without her consent? You're not a student of either of the schools, are you? That look in your eyes. It's manic, and as if you wouldn't care if a life were to end in front of your eyes. No, you'd adore it wouldn't you?"

His grip tightened, "If she's dead…"

This time she started to recognize the threat, although seemed overjoyed at the same time.

He cut her off, "I'm not afraid to do 'unheroic' things so think carefully about what your response is. Me turning you in will be the least worst thing I'll do to you. Got that?"

She faltered, before struggling futilely, even swinging her legs in a show of flexibility to try to kick him off, but he tossed her, keeping himself cautiously far while she landed smoothly.

"If you run, I will follow you." This time, he pulled out his sword, something he couldn't have done while he restrained her. "Even a graze from this and you're dead."

A long moment passed while she thought long and hard about what to do, before seeming to pull a red capsule out of nowhere and swallowing it.

He tensed, taking a step back in preparation of what it would do.

Smoke appeared, and before he knew it, a familiar curly blond head of hair captured his attention—

–and Will Solace stared back at him.

His heart stuttered and he froze, eyes widening in genuine shock.

Logically, he, he knew it wasn't him , but it—

She ran.

He felt.. so cold.

…

He clenched his firsts and cursed loudly, gritting his teeth.

That, that coward!

All For One was old, and he knew shit– He. He knew..

Because there was no way that shapeshifter would've known on her own. If her quirk could do something like, shapeshifting into someone the person knew, and probably valued, it wouldn't have been Uraraka. Not to mention she'd swallowed something, so it was likely it required some sort of DNA from the person. But Will was long since dead so there was no way it could've happened by chance.

Nico felt so very angry.

And he…

He pulled on something he'd never had before, (something inhuman, almost godly), and slammed his fist into the rock wall, crumbling it into bits.

The demigod didn't pay it any mind.

Instead, he was seething .

'All For One! I'll fucking kill you!'

The rest of the exam, he felt numb, not paying anyone attention. His body moved on his own while he just… checked out.

(good thing it listened to and registered commands without him having to do anything, haha..)

He still stood no match. He couldn't do anything, and he certainly hadn't gotten any stronger…

..

His arm was tapped, and he flinched, before meeting Midoriya's gaze, who had recoiled.

(He was later told that his eyes had looked like 'shattered glass'. ..Not the first time it did. He really wasn't okay.)

"A-Ah, are you alright? I couldn't help but notice you looked out of it."

"Mm."

Midoriya stared at him for a long moment, but didn't push. "The names of those who passed are about to be put on the board ahead."

"..Okay."

"–Please check the list keeping those words in mind."

Nico scanned the list for one long moment, before seeing it.

[ Nico di Angelo・ニコ ディ アンジェロ ]

"Di Anjero."

Nico blinked as he was handed a paper. It wouldn't not feel weird to hear his name with a Japanese accent.

"Huh."

63 points. Competent and helpful with teamwork, but didn't entirely feel all there. Probably could've done better, but they'd felt that he would bring his act together so they didn't need to hold him back.

Basically, he'd seemed lost, but otherwise everything else was alright. ..Was it really that obvious?

He frowned. They were still pretty generous though. He had faint memories of his body going through the motions, and..

..repeating what Will has said to him before. Reassurances. Both to him and to the actors in the second phase.

...Hm.

Later he'd gotten his card.

For a long moment, he stared at it.

"The Pluto Hero: Ombra della Morte", or "Shadow of Death" in Italian. It'd be shortened to Ombra in the field, or Shadow/Shade/Obscurity. Pluto symbolized regeneration, transformation and rebirth..

Progress. He was making progress.

It felt both so fast and so slow at the same time..

…

It would be awhile before he'd be laying down in his bed, reflecting back on the exam. And he'd think back on that.. Thing. deep in his chest that he'd pulled on.

Something he'd never had before.

…It shouldn't have been possible. He was never one of the stronger demigods. Weak as a twig actually. But he'd decimated that rock wall.

It hadn't even hurt his hand.

..Maybe if it did he would've been startled out of his numb episode.

..What was that?