Another chapter down in only a few days... What can I say? The inspiration flows for new stories. If only my muse would return for my OP story as thoroughly as she has appeared for this.

Chapter 4:

Start of School

Izuku's first day at UA thundered toward him, the three weeks he had vanishing under an endless wave of Assassin training and his mother's worrying. Still, even having insider knowledge with Masters Aizawa and Kayama as teachers, the morning of his first day sent butterflies fluttering through Izuku's stomach. They churned it into knots the whole train ride to campus, several passengers recognizing his uniform and congratulating him on getting into such a prestigious school.

One factor, however, put a damper on his nervous excitement. Katsuki Bakugo had also been admitted to UA, and his learning of Izuku's acceptance had been far from pretty to put it mildly. It had taken the full extent of Izuku's stealth training and quite a bit of parkour to avoid the explosive teen for the last few weeks of junior high, but now he would not be able to stay away from his life-long bully.

Despite training to kill, he feared the meeting. Or, more specifically, he feared the fallout it would have on his school life.

Luckily for the Assassin recruit, his trip to campus and the subsequent walk through the halls to classroom 1-A were peaceful. He checked his watch, finding that he still had five minutes before homeroom was to start. He breathed, trying to calm his nerves and praying to whatever deities were out there that Bakugo was in the other class. He opened the door.

"THERE YOU ARE, YOU GODDAMN DEKU!"

Evidently, the deities did not listen.

"Hello, Bakugo," Izuku sighed, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. The class was nearly full based on the student-to-desk ratio. Bakugo was still standing, his bag in his grip. He glared at the verdet, sparks popping between his fingers.

"That's all you have to say, you fucking turd‽" the blond demanded, throwing his bag down and stomping over to Izuku while the class was still reeling at the sudden confrontation. Bakugo reached forward, grabbing the front of Izuku's uniform and dragging the other boy forward. "The fuck‽ You managed to avoid me for three goddamn weeks after having the gall to ruin my origin story?"

"That is not the sort of language or temperament a hero student should have!" a boy Izuku recognized from the entrance exam chastised. It was the one with engines in his legs, the boy's hand chopping the air. "It is expressly against the rules to assault your fellow students!"

"Fuck off, Rich Boy!" Bakugo yelled. "This doesn't concern you!"

"But it does concern me," Izuku said, venom leaking into his voice. One hand rose, grabbing the blond's wrist. He squeezed, forcing Bakugo's fingers to loosen. "I trained my ass off to get into UA, just like you did. Unlike you, my Quirk isn't destructive and I needed to find other ways to prove myself."

"You don't have a Quirk, Deku," the aggressor growled.

"I do," Izuku shot back, peeling Bakugo's hand from his collar. Unbeknownst to him, the door opened to reveal two girls who were familiar with the verdet. "Empathetic Eye. It lets me see the malice or goodwill inside of others, and let me tell you, Katsuki Bakugo, you burn as red as the goddamn sun. You have stomped all over me for too long and I'm done with that. We are now both students of UA, so you can either grow up or get lost, because as you are now, you aren't worth my time to deal with."

He pushed past the other boy while the blond was still reeling at his rebuttal. Izuku stepped to the front of the class and gave a small bow.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

"You worthless, Quirkless piece of—"

"I believe he just said he was not Quirkless, ribbit," a bland voice interrupted, Tsuyu Asui stepping into the room. "I don't know what history you and Midoriya have, but it seems like you are out of line."

"She's right!" the brunette at her side agreed. "We're all students now, so back off."

"And how the fuck do you two know this loser?" Bakugo demanded, rounding on the frog-girl while pointing over his shoulder with a thumb. Tsuyu did not flinch.

"We met during the entrance exam," she lied. "I accidently scared him, ribbit."

"He helped me during the practical," the brunette answered. "We worked together to take down that giant robot."

"You expect me to believe that?" the belligerent teen demanded. "Scaring him I can see since he's a goddamn wimp, but you and him taking down that giant fuckin' robot? As if."

"She is telling the truth," the boy with the engine legs put in, several of their classmates nodding. "I witnessed the act myself. It was quite impressive. To learn now that his Quirk does not affect his body in any way makes many of his feats all the more impressive." He stepped over to Izuku, bowing. "You managed to uncover the true meaning of the entrance exam when I could not. You truly deserve your spot here more than I do."

"Th-That's not the case," Izuku stuttered, waving his hands at the bowing teen. "My body moved on its own before I could think."

"Then you simply have better, purer instincts than I do. Still, it is nice to make your acquaintance, Midoriya. I am Tenya Iida."

"Izuku Midoriya," the verdet replied, taking an offered hand.

"I didn't get to introduce myself, either!" the brunette added. "I'm Ochako Uraraka. Let's be friends!"

"If you lot are here to make friends, then leave." Nearly everyone jumped at the voice, Tsuyu and Ochako stepping away from the door to show what looked like a giant, yellow caterpillar. Izuku felt his eyes widen as he saw a side (or an act, he couldn't be sure) of his Master and teacher. "It took most of you eight seconds to quiet down. This shows that you are foolish. Time is a precious commodity that we cannot waste."

Aizawa extracted himself from what turned out to be a sleeping bag, revealing himself to be clad in a black jumpsuit very much like his Assassin robes, his Capture Scarf wrapped around his neck. He reached into the bag, pulling several UA gym outfits from within.

"I am your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa, and as of this moment, your hero careers rest in my hands. Put these on and meet me outside on the testing fields."

"But sir!" Tenya protested, earning him a tired look from the teacher. "What about orientation? Is that not mandatory?"

"As teachers at UA, we are allowed to run our classes however we deem fit as long as we don't break any laws. Now stop wasting time and get moving!"

The UA gym uniforms were surprisingly breathable, Izuku noted, as he stepped out onto the pavement. Several students were already there, Tsuyu, Tenya Iida, and Bakugo most notably. Izuku did not know the names of the rest, though their Quirks certainly looked unique and he looked forward to getting to know them.

The students. Getting to know the students, though he looked forward to getting to know their Quirks as well.

Izuku joined the line beside Tsuyu and Iida, the three waiting quietly as the rest of the students exited the changing rooms. Aizawa checked a pocket watch, closing it just as quickly.

"We have lost ten minutes of valuable time," he announced. "In that time, hundreds of civilians could have died. Learn to change faster or learn to not talk. As for what we will be doing, I have decided we will be testing the limits of your Quirks and your creativity. Currently, the school systems want to pretend that all humans are still created equal and do not allow the use of Quirks during their physical testing of students. This is illogical because, in doing so, they do not get a real representation of the students' true capabilities. You," —he pointed at Bakugo— "You scored the highest on the entrance exam. What was your furthest distance on the ball throw?"

"65 meters."

"Here." Aizawa threw him a device the size and shape of a baseball. "Throw this ball as far as you can. You are allowed to use your Quirk however you wish. The only rule is that you may not leave this circle."

"Perfect," the blond smirked, stepping into the circle. Izuku took a step away as his childhood bully reeled back, releasing the ball with an explosion and a pronounced "DIE!"

"Woah," a boy with red hair gasped as the smoke cleared, Bakugo's smirk widening as a screen in Aizawa's hand beeped. He turned it to the students, the number 706.4 shining brightly.

"Now this is a true representation of what he can do, but public-school systems are not capable of pushing you to your best because they cling to their old way of thinking."

'Don't we do the same thing?' Izuku thought to himself. 'The Brotherhood is almost as old as human history. If that's not an old way of thinking, then nothing is.'

"I will run you each though a series of eight tests, the same tests junior high had you do, but I expect you to push yourselves to your limits."

"This'll be so fun," a girl with pink skin and hair, yellow horns, and black sclera whispered. Aizawa's eyes snapped to her and Izuku felt an instinctual shiver run down his spine. The man's Capture Scarf came to life, dancing around his upper body to reveal a pair of yellow goggles that had been hiding underneath.

"Fun?" he demanded. "Well, if you think this is so fun, why don't we add a condition. The one of you who scores the lowest will be deemed to have no talent and be expelled, opening a spot one of the other students from Gen Ed can take. I will remove you from the grounds personally."

"You can't do that!" Ochako gasped. "We all worked so hard to get in here! That's unfair!"

"Life is unfair," Aizawa responded. "Do you think villains and natural disasters care about fairness? What about disease or poverty? The world is filled with unfairness and the only way to better yourself is to put in work. I refuse to teach those who will not take this training seriously. I will not send you kids into dangerous situations unless I know you can handle it, otherwise your blood might as well be on my own hands. If I don't think you can take it, then expulsion is a kindness. Welcome to the hero course of UA."

Izuku clenched his fist at the sight of his new classmates now second-guessing themselves. He stepped forward, offering a smirk.

'Assassins might not inspire hope,' he thought to himself, 'but heroes sure do, and I can be both!'

"In that case, we just need to go Plus Ultra. Isn't that right, Aizawa-sensei?"

'This kid,' the pro mentally chuckled. 'Well, he was trained by me for a month.'

The first test was the 50-meter dash. As the name implied, the students needed to run 50 meters as quickly as they could. In this case, however, running was not the only option students had. Iida excelled with his engines, but Tsuyu hopped her way in right behind him. A sparkly boy used his Quirk Navel Lazer to propel him backwards (despite falling halfway), tying with the pink-skinned girl. A tall girl with black hair used her Quirk to create roller-skates, and Ochako used her Quirk to erase the gravity of her clothing. Not all Quirks were helpful, but Izuku felt his excitement rise as he watched the others in action.

And then came his turn, paired with Bakugo, of course.

'I doubt Master Aizawa would expel me,' the officially-not-Quirkless-via-paperwork Assassin recruit thought to himself as the start countdown ran. 'That said, it would dishonor the Brotherhood for me to come in last. I need to show them how hard I worked.'

Heat washed over his left side as Bakugo took off, explosions from his palms blasting him forward. Izuku was not far behind, however, his head low to reduce wind resistance. He came in just behind the blond. Aizawa did not look up from his tablet, but the recruit recognized the smallest curve at the edges of his mouth.

Though Izuku did not excel at any of the tests compared to his classmates (Ochako scored an infinity on the ball throw and the creation girl created a bicycle to do the distance run) and despite the constant ribbing from Bakugo's taunts about his performance, Izuku consistently scored in the upper percentiles. Surprisingly, he best score was tied with Tsuyu on the seated toe touch, the two of them just beaten out by the invisible girl and closely followed by some of the others.

As the final ranking were calculated and shown, Izuku felt proud that he came in seventh overall, with Tsuyu earning fifth. Last place was a name listed as Minoru Mineta, a short boy with purple, spherical balls for hair crying.

"I can't have come in last!" he cried. "I don't want to be expelled! I need to be a hero for the ladies!"

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say, several of the female students stepping away from him in disgust. Aizawa glared.

"To enter the hero course for such a petty reason," he muttered, his Capture Scarf waving. "You don't have the mindset for the strain of this course. Pack your things and report to Principal Nezu, Minoru Mineta. You're expelled from the hero course and, if I have my way, from this school."

About half of the class looked shocked that he followed through on his promise, Mineta breaking down in tears. The girl with the creation Quirk in particular looked poleaxed. Aizawa only acknowledged the class long enough to wave them off before he grabbed Mineta by the arm and started dragging the shorter boy away.

"The rest of you are done for the day," Aizawa called over his shoulder. "Our serious training will begin tomorrow. I suggest finding time to go over your requested costumes since you'll need them. The support course loves when hero students come in with questions."

"That's good advice, ribbit," Tsuyu commented with a finger on her chin as Aizawa and Mineta disappeared indoors. Izuku noted for the first time that her frog-like tongue stuck out a little bit as she thought. "It might be bad for us if our combat training came around and we weren't familiar with our outfit."

"Are we not going to talk about how one of our classmates just got kicked out on the first day‽" a boy with tape dispensers for elbows questioned.

"T'was a harsh move from our teacher," a bird-headed teen commented. "His final words, however, revealed his sinful revelry. Dark as my emotions may be, I am thankful he is gone."

"It explains why I felt like someone was staring at me," Ochako shivered. "I mean, I know you all were watching me, but his look just felt… wrong."

"I quite agree," the sparkly blond nodded. "His gaze was très mauvais."

"Speaking of the tests, that was so manly!" the red-haired boy grinned. "By the way, I'm Eijiro Kirishima, nice to meet you all."

What followed was a string of introductions, each member of the class introducing themselves and, if they felt like it, their Quirk. Neither Bakugo or the boy with the two-toned red and white hair gave their names, both of whom had left as soon as they were dismissed. This was fine with Izuku as he quickly started to fill a new notebook.

"—True invisibility or a form of light refraction?" Izuku muttered as his pencil sped across the page labeled Toru Hagakure. "Invisibility alone would be incredibly useful for infiltration and information gathering but discounts any form of weapon usage. If controllable light refraction is a possibility, that ups the combat potential by seven-fold…"

"What are you muttering, Midori?" the girl named Mina Ashido asked, sneaking over to glace at his notes. "Holy cow. Talk about detailed!"

"What?" Izuku jumped, finding the girl looking over his shoulder. He instinctively pulled the notebook to his chest. "O-Oh, Ashido, right?"

"That's me. Do you have all of our names in that book?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I should've asked first. Quirk analysis has always been a hobby of mine."

While he spoke, Toru snuck over, her invisible hand taking hold of the book before running off with it. Izuku was just a might too slow, the girl already skimming through his analysis of her Quirk by the look of the pages.

"Wha— Hey!"

"Light refraction," Toru mused. "I hadn't even thought about it."

"What does it say about me?" Kirishima asked, Toru thumbing through the pages at his request. Several others drifted over, eager to see what had the invisible girl so interested. Izuku rubbed an arm, shuffling his feet at how much attention was on his work, work that had always earned him ridicule and insults in public. Tsuyu gave a ribbiting chuckle as she skirted the crowd to stand beside her fellow recruit.

"So…" she began. "Have you got a page for me, too, ribbit?"

"Ah…" Izuku shifted, whispering. "It's in my other notebook. I suppose I should put an entry for you in this one, too, if they're going to keep taking it. I-If that's ok?"

"No, please do. Ribbit, Intelli had nothing but good things to say about your analysis. I'd love to pick your brain later."

"Man, Midori!" Ashido laughed. "You're awesome at this! You just learned our Quirks today and only saw us using them in the tests and you've already got this much! I'm glad you're on our side; you'd be a terrifying villain!"

"Thanks?" Izuku blinked. "None… None of you are upset?"

"Why would we be?" a tall, white-haired student with a mask over his lower face and six arms, each with something like a patagium between them named Mezo Shoji said. He spoke from a mouth that formed on the end of one of his tentacle-like arms. "We're all hero students striving to help the world. If you can help us get stronger, we should take the help."

"Oui," Yuga Aoyama nodded, striking a fabulous pose. "Together, our light will pierce the darkness of villainy to protect the people!"

"They are correct," Momo Yaoyorozu agreed. "Yours is a skill we should cultivate. In bettering you and ourselves, we will better society."

"All that said, I do wish you had asked us beforehand," Iida commented. "This could be construed as an invasion of privacy."

"Technically, by taking his notebook, ribbit, that was also an invasion of privacy," Tsuyu said. Toru and Mina drooped at the remark, the invisible girl shuffling over to offer the notebook back.

"Sorry for taking it," she apologized. "I was just curious since I heard you muttering about my Quirk. I'm not use to people noticing me."

"No, it's ok," Izuku insisted. "Iida's right. I should've asked before starting entries for you all."

"Well, you've got my permission!" Ochako said, most of the rest of the class giving variations of the same statement. Izuku felt tears prickle his eyes, but he held them in. "Speaking of, we should all share contacts. We're gonna be together for at least this year, so we might as well."

Somehow, Izuku new his school life was looking up.

Between all the excitement of their first day and the early out Aizawa gave them, the class of 1-A decided that they needed some time to relax. More than a few of them were surprisingly introverted and those who weren't agreed that they shouldn't overwhelm the support students by traveling as a giant group to that wing of the school. Even if they weren't talking, the movements of ten or more students could be loud enough to disrupt other classes. Tsuyu, Izuku, and Ochako took the first "shift" with following Aizawa's suggestion, promising to be the guineapigs and to message the group if and when they could meet the students.

Currently, the trio was nearing the support department, his and Tsuyu's footsteps quieter than Ochako's. Their whispered conversation kept the Zero Gravity girl from noticing this, but that came to an end when they found the classroom labeled Design Studio. Izuku stepped forward, his hand on the handle, when a noise rumbled from inside.

"Not those wires, Hatsume!"

In a moment, he found Tsuyu's tongue wrapped around his waist, the frog-girl pulling him away just before an explosion blew the metal door off its hinges. Smoke filled the hallway, fire drill training leading the three hero students to duck down underneath it as a bang echoed. Izuku and Tsuyu instinctively flexed their arms, but neither could wear their hidden blades in the school building, so nothing happened.

"Ow ow ow," a female voice muttered as the smoke dissipated. Pink was the first thing to come to the trio's attention, said color turning out to be the hair of a girl their age getting up from the floor.

"Are you ok?" Izuku asked, the boy leading Tsuyu and Ochako toward their fellow student. She looked at then, her eyes yellow with crosshairs over the pupils. The crosshairs spun as she focused on the hero students. "That was a big explosion."

"Oh, I'm fine!" the girl smiled. "My babies aren't perfect yet, but you can't make an omelet without an explosion or ten!"

"Dammit, Hatsume!" her teacher barked, the pro hero Power Loader appearing in the doorway. "That's your third explosion today!"

"And I managed to angle it away from the other students this time!" the pink-haired girl rebuffed, wiping ash and soot off her clothing. She only really managed to smear the soot across her cheek, Izuku and the other girls noting that her overalls —which covered her UA uniform— had similar burns, scratches, and scuffs.

"That's cold comfort! You need to be more careful!"

"So, who are you?" Hatsume asked, ignoring her teacher in favor of eyeing the hero students.

"Don't ignore me, Hatsume!"

"We're sorry for the interruption, sir," Tsuyu croaked. "We're hero course students, ribbit, and we wanted to check in about our costumes at our teacher's suggestion."

"Hero course, you say?" Hatsume questioned, grabbing Izuku by the arm since he was the closest one to her and dragging him inside. "Come in! Let me show you all my amazing babies!"

"That girl," Power Loader sighed, rubbing the front of his helmet since he couldn't reach his face. He turned to the other students. "Sorry about her. She had the top scores on the support entrance exam, almost breaking the record, so she's got a lot of potential. She's just… a bit out there. Are you all from Eraserhead's class?"

"Eraserhead?" Ochako questioned with a tilt of her head.

"We are," Tsuyu nodded. "We're just the first group, ribbit. We didn't want to overwhelm the support students or interrupt class by coming all at once."

"Honestly, that's a relief," Power Loader sighed. "I'm about at my wit's end for the day with Hatsume. If you all can get her drawing schematics and working toward something specific instead of tinkering with whatever she can find, that would make things a lot easier."

"Ochako, could you text the rest of the class, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked. "I'll check on Izuku. I'm afraid this Hatsume girl might have a screw loose, ribbit."

Seeing her new friend nod, the frog-girl followed Power Loader through the now-doorless doorway. Hatsume had dragged Izuku to a corner away from the other students, several of them looking at the pair funny as the girl all but molested him physically and conversationally.

"—don't have many babies yet, but I can make anything you can dream of! If I can't now, I'll find out how!"

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-" Izuku stammered, unable to get a word in even when Hatsume stopped to breathe.

"So anyway, I've got some babies I'd love to have a hero course student try out—"

"Ribbit." Tsuyu cleared her throat, making Hatsume turn around as the third of the hero trio entered. "Sorry to interrupt, but we actually wanted to talk ideas with you."

"We did?" Izuku blinked.

"You do?" Hatsume all but parroted. Tsuyu nodded. "Oh, this is great! Mei Hatsume, soon-to-be CEO of Hatsume Industries, your number one inventor of all things conceivable and inconceivable alike! There's nothing I can't learn to build!"

"I like your confidence," Tsuyu said. "So, each of us has a weakness we need to compensate for, ribbit. Do you think you could have an invention for each of us come our first heroics class tomorrow?"

"What's the problem to be solved?" Hatsume questioned.

"I'm essentially cold-blooded," Tsuyu began. "My Quirk, Frog, gives me all the abilities and weaknesses of most frogs, including going into brumation if I get too cold. I'd also like something to help me stick to and climb smooth walls."

The support student nodded, scratching notes on a torn piece of paper. Izuku noted that the top of the page simply said Frog. Assuming that Tsuyu was finished, she rounded on Izuku.

"What about you, Freckles?"

"Uh…" Izuku stammered. "My Quirk doesn't help me in any physical way. It only lets me see the goodwill or malice of people, so I can find allies, enemies, or targets. Because of that, I'll need plenty of gear and tools to help me."

"Tools, huh? I've got—"

"I fight with a collapsible bo and a rope-dart," the boy said, cutting her off before she could offer something he'd just have to refuse. She nodded, scribbling down the information before turning to Ochako.

"And what about you, Blushes?"

"Blushes?" the girl demanded. She quickly straightened herself out and shook her momentary indignation off. "My Quirk is Zero Gravity, allowing me to remove the gravity of anything I touch with all five of my fingers. If I use it on myself, though, I start getting nauseous and it can be hard to move around."

"So, a full-body heater and sticking gloves, incapacitation tools and useful mods to a bo and/or rope-dart, and gyroscopic additions useful for astronauts," Hatsume listed off. "Oh, I'm already getting ideas for some new babies! They'll be great! Perfect! I'll minimize the risk of exploding to only 15% or so!"

"…Yay?"

Over the top and wild Hatsume may be, but Izuku had a feeling the student inventor would be a useful friend to have in the support department. And, in the far future, if he could convince her to build for the Brotherhood, then maybe —just maybe— she could help keep more than just pro heroes alive.

Izuku waved goodbye to Ochako and Iida as both boarded separate trains. The three had, coincidentally, had similar routes heading home until the last stop, so they had traveled together. Instead of going home, though, Izuku climbed the stairs out of the subway and walked down toward the beach. He had promised to update Nekoi-sensei and Keeper-sensei about how his first day of UA went when it was over and now was the time to do that.

He jogged to the trash-laden shore and vanished into the refuse, stalking in the shadows until he reached the pickup that hid the Dagoba portal. Casting a final look around, he slid his bag under the old vehicle before rolling under it himself. Landing on his feet, Izuku moved to the changing room where his robe waited.

"I thought I heard someone say they saw you come in," Keeper said as Izuku stepped out in his robe, the plain-looking man in red smiling. "How was your first day, kid?"

"Chaotic," Izuku answered. "Master Aizawa tested our limits before expelling one of my classmates. If I hadn't trained with him already, I would've been scared stiff."

"He takes after Mentor a lot," Keeper grinned, joining Izuku as they walked down the hallway. "It's how they show they care. If there's a chance you'll come back in a body bag, they want that chance to be as small as possible, even if that makes you upset."

"No, I get that," Izuku replied with a sigh. "It's just… It didn't really score him many points with those of us left. And Asui and I can't explain his reasoning to the others, so we have to play dumb."

"He takes his duties seriously. You know, he expelled his whole class last year."

"What?" the recruit gasped, stopping in his tracks. Keeper had to also stop, turning to face the verdet.

"Oh yeah. Luckily, our one recruit in that grade was in 1-B, but every one of Aizawa's students either transferred to another hero school or was forced into Gen Ed and had to earn their way back in through the Sports Festival."

"We got off lucky."

"Luck's got nothing to do with it," Keeper rebuffed, patting Izuku on the shoulder. "Sure, maybe you and Asui had a leg up in staying in, but Aizawa would've kicked you into Gen Ed if you didn't prove you could handle the hero course."

"Ah, there they are," the voice of Nekoi said, Izuku looking up to see her perched in the rafters. "How's my cute little hero recruit doing after his first day?"

"Really?" Izuku questioned, a scarlet blush over his face at the title.

"I'm just teasing you." She shifted her weight, locking her knees to the beam so she hung upside down before the two males. "So, how was your day?"

"Like I told Keeper-sensei, chaotic," Izuku answered, recounting the events of the day again. Nekoi listened silently, nodding along. She needed to right herself halfway through, the blood rushing to her head making her dizzy, but she whistled as Izuku reached his meeting with the single-minded support student.

"Keep networking with that Hatsume girl," the cat-woman said. "If we can sway her to our side, this Hatsume Industries she plans on building could become a new Assassin cell and a bastion of Quirk-assisting equipment for us. We always need more cells just in case the Templars find one of ours and it's so hard to make complex gear without the government poking their noses around."

"There are multiple cells in Japan?" Izuku asked.

"Of course, there are," Keeper said with a roll of his eyes. "Thing is, we keep their locations secret even from other members of the Brotherhood. If one of us goes rogue or is captured by the Templars… We say we will never compromise the Brotherhood, but, well, Quirks can do a lot of things. Better for only one or two cells to be compromised than the whole."

"By the way, Shota wants to speak to you, Izuku," Nekoi put in. "He's gonna be annoyed I waited this long to find and tell you, but he's had you all day, so he can stand to wait a few minutes. Follow me."

"I'll see you around!" Keeper called behind them as Izuku followed the first Assassin he ever met deeper into the base.

"Do you know what Master Aizawa wants to talk about?" Izuku asked as they rounded a corner. Assassins hopped along overhead through the rafters and Izuku was tempted to ask if he and Nekoi could do so as well.

"Probably something about today," the woman shrugged. "Who knows how his mind works?"

Too soon, they reached Izuku's destination. He gave Nekoi a respectful bow as she ruffled his hair before he knocked on and opened the door. Master Aizawa and recruit Tsuyu were already waiting for him, both seated on stools.

"Master," Izuku bowed.

"Enter, recruit Midoriya." Izuku did as bid, seating himself on the remaining stool. "Thank you for coming, both of you. I wanted to discuss the day and warn you for the future."

"I heard you expelled your entire class last year," Izuku commented. "Does that mean our class was exceptional, or were they just that unprepared?"

"Honestly, both," the Assassin answered. "Most of you managed to impress me and the rest show the potential for greatness, especially with you two among their number. That said, I wish for you to be wary. Some of your classmates have ties to the Templar Order."

Tsuyu raised her hand. "Was Mineta one of them, ribbit?"

"He was," Aizawa nodded. "He took the entrance exam like you two, but his mother sits on UA's board, along with having many relatives spread over various other boards. I suspect he was given the answers to the written test and squeezed by, so I used today to gage his attitude and remove him. Unfortunately, I could not get him expelled completely and he has been demoted to the Gen Ed course."

"Master, you said 'classmates' as in plural. Who among our number do you know are Templars?"

"They are not Templars yet," Aizawa stressed. "Like us, they work and train secretly until they deem their children old enough, or indoctrinated enough, to believe their ends justify their means. I am not telling you to eliminate them or to find ways to undermine their educations. They are training to be pro heroes just as you two are and their careers can be a net positive for Japan. That said, I have traced their families to the Order, as closely as at least one parent of each. One is the son of French diplomats: Yuga Aoyama. His parents act as a go-between for the High French Templars and those here in our government."

Izuku considered this, the sparkly teen coming to mind. He was flamboyant and proud nearly to the point of egotism, but he didn't seem like a bad person. Not compared to Mineta, anyway.

"And the other, ribbit?"

"Funding at least half of the Templars' activities is the Yaoyorozu Group, and the daughter of their head is your classmate Momo."

End of Chapter 4

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-SwordOfTheGods