After that whole embarrassing display, both Izuku and Katsuki ended up taking the subway back home alone, with both of the blonde's new "friends" having to go home their separate ways. Thankfully, this time it wasn't nearly as cramped as in the morning, only a handful of people were inside, making it so that there were still seats available and there was plenty of space inside.

Which meant he could easily cast his judgemental glare onto his childhood friend as punishment for embarrassing him like that. To the nerd's credit, he seemed pretty ashamed of essentially imitating his own mom by accident, looking down at the floor.

"I already said sorry… Don't know what came over me. Can you please stop with the evil eye stare?"

"Tch. Fine, but you better not pull off that shit again in front of me. I'll seriously kill you."

"Sure, sure…" Izuku sighed, sinking closer to the floor.

"Wait… Come to think of it," Katsuki said, getting his friend's attention away from the floor. "You were really loud about me making friends. But what about you? I didn't see anyone with you or anything. Actually, you haven't said anything about how you did on the exam."

"Ah," Izuku let out, thinking for a moment before continuing to talk. "Well, uhh… I don't know if I actually made any friends. I don't think so… Before the exam started, I started thinking what everyone's Quirks could be, and that caused some guy with glasses to berate me about being a distraction to the ones taking the exam seriously.

The exam started before I could even apologize. I went around the city flying and breaking bots until I got sixty points. After that, I stopped wrecking them and helped some people who were struggling with the remaining ones… Then the 0-pointer appeared, a girl got stuck under some rubble, I lifted it up, got her to safety, and then dealt with the 0-pointer. I kinda was too focused on-"

"You what!? No, no, you motherfucker! You can't just say that and expect me not to notice it! How!?"

"Oh, well… I kinda launched rubble at it from below until it stopped moving."

There were few things that Katsuki felt he could do as a response to that. He chose to just accept it and realize that there was a reason that even with his strength, Izuku's Quirk still easily immobilized him.

"The girl, what about her? Any reason she didn't end up a friend?"

"Oh, n-no… not really. I kinda just made sure she was fine and could walk away before moving onto the robot."

"You didn't talk with her after that?"

"I went to help injured people get to the gate so Recovery Girl would be able to treat them sooner, after that we ended up on opposite sides of the bus, I think."

"... And you're the one who kept telling me I don't make an effort to talk with other people?"

"Hey, out of the two of us, I'm the introvert," Izuku said as he averted his gaze.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, "Was it because she was a girl?"

Izuku visibly tensed. "I… N-No?"

"Oh my fucking god…" He just had to facepalm, he had to. "You're an idiot."

"I don't know!" Izuku let out, "The most I've talked with girls is when classmates asked for my notes."

"Just, fucking talk to them, there's nothing special to it," he actually couldn't believe he was having this conversation, "You say it a lot: People are people, or some bullshit like that. If that's really true, you shouldn't have any problems talking with anyone."

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone, another passenger on the subway, a girl their age currently looking at her phone.

The best way to teach someone to swim is to throw them in a lake.

Izuku caught on to what his friend was thinking. "Please no… I know what you're saying is true logically, but-"

"I'll consider trading that debut figure if you do it."

The consideration was visible in the other boy's eyes. "I mean… She's listening to music now, I wouldn't want to bother… her…"

The sudden pause was intriguing and caused Katsuki to take another second to look at the girl, wondering what could have caused that. She didn't have any strange appearance, it's not like it was the first time either of them saw someone wearing punk. Probably what she was listening to with her earpho- Oh. Those were no earphones, that was her Quirk.

That explained the pause, the nerd was curious about it.

"You could ask her to explain it to you," he tried persuading his friend. "Would be better than staring."

Izuku blinked, and did so again, before taking a deep breath, standing up and slowly walking towards her.

Alright, this goes one of two ways, he either just has a normal chat with her and starts to overcome his dumb fucking panic, or he fumbles and I get to laugh at him. Either way, I win.

Leaning back on his seat, he began to look through his phone, but keeping an ear out to hear the conversation.

"Uhm, h-hey," Izuku said.

Oh, how I wish I had popcorn.

The girl stared at him, pausing whatever song she was listening to to stare at him. She wore an expression that clearly said "What?".

"What Quirk are you listening to?"

It was a good thing that Katsuki had a solid poker face, otherwise he'd be laughing already.

"I-... Can you, uh, please repeat that?" She clearly was having trouble deciding whether or not she misunderstood what Izuku said or not.

A stiff Izuku once again took a deep sigh and replied, albeit more slowly, "Sorry, I-I just… uh, wanted to ask about your Quirk, but, well… Y'know, it's kind of an odd question to say out of nowhere, I think, so I thought I could ask you about what you were listening to… Those two got mixed somehow and… I ended up asking what Quirk you were listening to."

"Pfft," She laughed, holding her sides as she did so.

The nerd blushed at the results of his fumbling, but still, he didn't move. Eventually she wiped a tear from her face as she calmed down, looking at an embarrassed Izuku who was still standing there.

"Sorry, sorry, I just… heh, I thought that might have been it… But, damn, didn't expect you to actually admit it." She glanced at the empty seat next to her, "C'mon, take a seat, I think it's fair I answer you some questions as a reward for letting me laugh at you like that."

"T-Thank you. The thing is I'm, uh, bad at lying s-so I didn't see the point in trying to save face." Izuku said as he sat next to the girl, who chucked at his response.

"So, anything you wanted to ask about them, Green?" She said, fiddling with her earlobes.

"A-A lot of things, actually." He was already beginning to take notes. "Like, how does it actually connect to your phone?"

"That one is weird," she began, deciding not to question how quickly Izuku pulled out his notebook. "Apparently it's turning the electricity into vibrations which let me hear what would normally play, I can even make another person listen to it if I put the other jack next to their ear."

"Really? So it's like bone conduction!" His pencil was pretty much a blur. "So that also means that it must also be able to let you hear whatever vibrations are going through your jacks! That's really cool! "

"It is, but I think channeling my heartbeat through them is cooler." She allowed herself to brag a little, "Even used it to destroy some robots today."

"You did…?" It didn't take him long to put two and two together. "So you also took the entrance exam at U.A?"

"Oh, yeah. Huh… I guess it makes sense that I'd find other people from there. How did it go for you, dude?"

"I, I think I did pretty well, I got sixty points, after all."

She did a double take. "Sixty…? Six and zero? Holy shit, that's a lot. Kinda makes my twenty-two not look that good."

Once again, Katsuki thanked his poker face, otherwise he'd have let out an annoyed tsk over her beating him by a couple of points.

"I mean," Izuku "I don't think that's bad at all, the average score on my testing site was around seventeen."

"You kept track of all of them…?"

"I-I mean, I did use most of the latter half of the exam to help the others. I heard the final tallies of their scores and, uh, well, remember them."

She stared, in awe of both the feat of memory, of how quickly he acquired his points, and by the way in which the boy spoke of it, almost as if it wasn't that important. "That's… I don't even know how to describe that."

"I… T-Thank you, I suppose," fearing that that answer might bring an awkward silence, Izuku decided to continue speaking, "Uh, h-hey, now that I think of it… Uhm, do you have enhanced hearing?"

"Oh, yeah, it's… Well, it's great for the most part, but it can get annoying at times. Hearing every single thing that happens around you isn't nice when you're out in public. I've had to learn how to tune out background noise a lot."

"Like…" He nervously glanced to the sides, "uh, conversations others might have on the subway?"

This time, Katsuki's poker face helped him suppress the need to groan and facepalm. It was beyond obvious that the nerd was thinking of their previous conversation, but to an outsider, it looked far more suspicious.

The girl clearly caught onto that, her expression turning into a glare as she was trying to ascertain what exactly the boy meant by that.

"Why, were you speaking of something before that you wouldn't want me to hear?" There was a bit of an edge on her tone.

"A-ah, well, y-yeah…" He admitted with clear shame, "I-I kinda approached you because I'm usually nervous when talking to girls, and… My friend spotted you and, uh, y'know, suggested I try talking with you. I just don't want you to think that I'm, like, only here because I was dared to talk to a pretty girl out of my league or something. I-I actually was curious about your Quirk, and, well, you're nice to talk with so I'd like to keep doing it. Uh, well, i-if you don't mind."

"I… That's it?" She said with a raised eyebrow and an expression that at least Izuku couldn't quite place down.

"Y-Yeah, I'm sorry if-"

"Ah, ah, ah," she interrupted, "No, dude, that's literally nothing bad. Don't you dare apologize." When it was clear that her words got to him, she continued, averting her gaze a little bit, "You were right about not being good at lying, though, it seems like you say a lot more stuff that you intend to when you're put on the spot."

"I… Yes? Uhm, i-is that bad?"

She let out a small laugh, "No, don't worry about it. Oh, hey, you were actually going to ask about what I was listening to, right?"

He nodded, "I mean, yeah, I do kinda listen to everything so maybe it's something I like."

She offered one of her jacks with a smile, "Wanna take a listen yourself?"

"Oh, ah, s-sure." He went to take it, but was stopped by one of the girl's hands.

"Not so fast, Green. Before that, I need something to call you other than Green. Unless you want me to keep calling you nicknames."

"O-oh, Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya."

"Well, Midoriya-Izuku-Midoriya," She teased, "I'm Kyoka Jirou, nice to meet ya."

Katsuki glanced at the two from his seat as they both began to listen to music, commenting on certain tracks and what they thought of them. Seeing that they would be doing that for a while, he decided to actually focus on his phone now, waiting for them to arrive at the station they needed to arrive at instead of eavesdropping.

It didn't take that long, and once they did step out of the station, he saw that Izuku was a bit stupefied by something, staring into his open notebook he saw the reason why.

A phone number.

Katsuki slapped the back of the nerd's head to bring him back to reality.

"Ow," Izuku said, not that hurt by it, but it still stung him. "Sorry, zoned out."

"No shit. I've heard of people failing upwards but I've never believed it until now."

"...What?"

"You were constantly fumbling at first. How that chat of yours went well at all is beyond me."

"I honestly think I was just saying whatever was coming to my head at one point." He rubbed his head. "The whole beginning of that actually seems foggy."

"Again, how the fuck did that go well?"

"I wasn't that bad, was I?"

He decided silence was a more apt response than anything he could come up with.

"Kacchan…? Kacchan? Hey, don't ignore me!"

The following week was one of relaxation for the two boys. Given that technically their acceptance was not guaranteed, Katsuki proposed they momentarily switch to a lighter version of their shared workouts as they wait for their letters to arrive.

Letters. Not acceptance letters, just letters. I swear, he acts confident a lot of times, but those slips worry me sometimes.

Izuku thought as he waited inside the living room of his home, his mom gleefully preparing some snacks because she overheard that Katsuki would be coming over to hang out. What were they gonna do? It wasn't decided, they could try to break their tie in that fighting game, or just hang around in the room, talking about whatever came up while they watched a TV show. Those usually were the things they did while hanging at his house . Otherwise they'd be going to the arcade or something.

I wonder if we'll even have time for those when we start classes at U.A… I haven't managed to find much on how classes operate other than they're vaguely tough.

His musing was interrupted by a knock at the door, standing up, he said an "I'll get it" and opened the door, not surprised to see his childhood friend on the other side, however, what did surprise him was the white envelope that he was holding, more so given that it said that it came from U.A.

"Did you check your mailbox?" was the first thing Katsuki asked.

After a bit of a rush to do just that, he found pretty much the same envelope.

The letters arrived. Izuku smiled, while Katsuki just stared at them.

"Wanna open them here?"

"The-" Katsuki glanced at his auntie, who was looking at the two from the kitchen, eager to hear how both of them did, "heck's the difference?"

"Very well, let's see who has to open them first," Izuku raised his hand in the form of a first while his friend did the same, though rolling his eyes.

Both of them swung them down into nothing and Izuku's first turned into scissors, while Katsuki's turned into rock.

"Awww, man." Izuku looked a little disappointed.

"Why are you even disappointed? If I pass, it's obvious you pass."

"Hm? Oh, I don't feel that intrigue, I just wanted to see what mine had to say first. Since it's from U.A I'm sure it's way more personal than a copy-paste paragraph."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes once again, Katsuki opened the envelope and inside he saw a piece of paper. Curious, he grabbed the disk first and not long after that, it began to show an holographic display.

Izuku, seeing that, went to the windows and closed the curtains, allowing the hologram to be seen more clearly. It looked like a screen, and inside it, it showed Present Mic, wearing his usual hero costume.

"Greetings, Katsuki Bakugou! You might remember yours truly from the entrance exam!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, get to the point."

"Now, I'll be brief, your performance in the written portion was superb! Certainly up to U.A's standards. The practical, however, is another story. With eighteen points, you're below forty-three other applicants."

There was a silence permeating the room as Katsuki glared at the hologram. Izuku was about to try and comfort his friend when Present Mic kept talking.

"Luckily for you, you didn't score eighteen points…" With a snap of his fingers, footage of his approach to the zero pointer played.

"That thing is destroying the building around it by just walking, would you let that [bleep] slide if you were an actual hero!?"

Izuku could help but smile at hearing his friend's words, even if a bit censured.

"Feisty! I like it! Of course, there were the villain points, but we had a different, secret point system for helping others! The Rescue Points! While not technically a rescue, that sort of thinking ought to be rewarded, I say. So congrats! With eighteen villain points, and twenty-seven rescue points, you entered the threshold of acceptance in heroics! Welcome to U.A, yeah!"

Entered the threshold…? Izuku thought, So, if he had scored a couple points less… Good thing he didn't.

"Had you scared for a moment there, eh, little listener? But here's a secret, only the ones accepted get the cool hologram message!"

With that, the footage ended, which led Izuku to say:

"Hey, don't spoil it!" He pouted as he held the disk inside his own letter before sighing, "I guess I'll see how many of those rescue points I got…"

"Considering you said you spend half of the exam helping people… Probably a lot."

"Possibly… Oh, by the way," he turned to his friend with a smile, "I told you so."

"Oh, fu-", he then remembered auntie was still in the room, "-nny. Really funny. Just open your letter."

His own message was… similar, he also got Present Mic telling him how he did, except…

"You got yourself a fan here, little listener! Deciding that you had enough points and that your time was better spent helping others!? That's what I like to see! For such actions, we decided to give you the maximum amount of rescue points we can give! A clean sixty in both villain and rescue points. Making your total an amazing one hundred and twenty! That's a top score right there!"

…way more enthusiastic.

His mom couldn't contain her tears at that, and he did the best he could to calm her down before she dehydrated too much. She had to leave to recompose herself in her bedroom.

"Hey, nerd…" Katsuki said, while looking at the piece of paper that came in the envelope. "What class did you get in…?"

"Oh, uh, let me see." He went to pick up and unfold the letter, skimming through its contents until he found what class he had been assigned to. "1-A. How about you…?"

"Tch…" Rather than say it, he showed it, pointing his finger toward the part that said 1-B in black bold letters.

"I… Shoot. I guess that was a possibility…" Izuku didn't try to hide his disappointment.

"Yeah, yeah… Lament the lost opportunity all you want."

"Huh…? What do you-?"

"The fact that we're in separate classes means that by the time we'll have to compete, I'll leave you in the dust." Katsuki smirked, "You won't be able to take advantage of our current gap before I close it."

Ah, of course… That's a nice thing to focus on instead of not being able to spend as much time with a friend.

With a smile, Izuku decided to play along, "I guess now that we got into U.A, I can stop pestering you during your training."

"Damn straight. Wouldn't want you to see how much I improve before it's too late."

Your mask is paper thin, Kacchan. Or maybe I just know you too well. We both know that it's a shame that this is the year the streak of us sharing classes ends but… It's nothing major, we'll still go to the same school.

Besides, in a way, this is what he wants, to prove himself.

"I'll take you up on that."

The day of classes arrived, and the duo found themselves once again in front of U.A's gates.

In Katsuki's eyes, he could still compare it to a mountain he had yet to fully climb. Izuku, meanwhile, wasn't even looking at it well. He was more occupied glancing to the sides as if searching for something.

"Alright, what's gotten into you?"

"Oh, nothing much, just… Trying to see if I spot some of the people we've met. I, uh, know at least one of them also got into 1-A."

"Right, you've been talking to Earsl, you're looking for Popeye, Birdhead."

"Alright, I get you not remembering Jirou's name, but... Please tell me you actually know the names of the two you've met. And try to avoid using those kinds of names in front of them."

"If I said their names you'd have been confused as to who was who."

"I… Can't really argue with that. But, that little effort would have been nice?"

"Nah, besides, if you're meeting them, they'll tell you their names on their own," Katsuki said while putting his hands on his pockets. "Also, we came here early for once, so I don't think they'll show up soon. And I ain't waiting out here."

"See? This is why we shouldn't be trying to be the first ones to arrive."

"Bitch, I'm not giving up first place like that."

They both continued the little back and forth until their paths had to split to look for their classrooms, which was a lot sooner than both of them were expecting.

Why the hell is 1-A so separated from 1-B…? Shit, what is up with the entire fucking distribution of the rooms in this place? I swear I went past two hallways who both only had one room in them!

Choosing not to question out loud the architecture of the school, he opened the door, finding the room to be empty. Smiling, he took one of the seats, and leaned back on it, closing his eyes and putting his feet atop the desk just to allow himself to relax while he waited. It didn't last long.

"Excuse me," somebody said in a soft-spoken voice, "May you please remove your feet from the desk? You look too much like a ruffian."

"Huh…?" Opening one of his eyes, he noticed that someone else arrived, a girl with vines for hair and a serious look on her face. "Nah, too comfortable."

"I see, one of my classmates lacks discipline." She held her hands in prayer. "I do hope that you correct your ways before the sin of sloth completely claims you."

Religious type, huh…?

"I'm more suited for wrath, anyways." He said as he closed his eye once again, "Don't worry, I'm a good swimmer, won't drown in the Styx."

"Not only do you make a mockery of my good intentions, you also seem to be referencing the works of Dante." She was now glaring at him with judgemental eyes, not that he could see it. "I'll have you know that while his exploration of the afterlife is an interesting one, it is not one to place belief in. Far too vile."

A bit intrigued, he corrected his posture and stared at her. "So you think that if it was nicer it would be alright to believe in it, eh?"

"Absolutely. Our world is too unjust to put faith into something like that. It is far better to believe in ideals. Something so pure that you want to protect it, to spread it and make others believe in it, to make it a reality."

Before he could talk further, more people began to arrive, some talking with each other, probably due to the fact that they either knew each other from before or because they noticed they were heading the same way and so decided to chat.

The girl took that opportunity to find herself a seat. Katsuki didn't pay it any mind, it was clear that she didn't like him that much, so at most he could get an argument out of her if the conversation kept going. Not that he minded.

He instead decided to focus on his other classmates, a bunch of strangers, naturally. He was wondering if that's what they'll ever be. He has tried befriending people before, despite what the nerd would seem to believe, it didn't work. Whether it be because they didn't like his quirklessness and his brash attitude, or because he didn't like their personality.

Suddenly, movement directly in front of him made him focus more on exactly who it was that took the seat right in front of his own.

"Oh, hey!" Itsuka said gleefully as she turned around to look at him, "Nice to see you got here, Bakugou!"

"What, were you doubting me, Popeye?"

"I thought I told you not to call me that."

"You told me your name, and that it was not Popeye. Nicknames are still an option."

"You're being a jerk on purpose, aren't you?" She considered her options for a moment, "I'll start calling you Spikey, then."

"Fuck no."

"Then don't call me Popeye."

"Hm," he faked to be in thought, "Not worth it."

"Oh, gee, I wonder, what was the nickname that friend of yours used…?" She said, in a tone that clearly indicated that she remembered it quite clearly.

Katsuki's stare sharpened, "Alright, fine. Kendo. You fucking happy? And you better not tell that to anyone!"

She grinned, "Very and don't worry, I can keep secrets. Hey, so how many total points did you get at the end?"

Forty-five… That puts me a bit on the low end. Ugh, fuck it, if they underestimate me because of it that''s their fucking problem.

"Forty-five."

"That's nice, I scored sixty-eight."

He glared, "Are you trying to show off…?"

"Not really, I was just telling you. Why? Were you gonna do something about it?"

"Not much, just would have made sure to beat you a little too hard on combat exercises."

"You develop grudges quickly, don't you…?" She said, amused.

Katsuki merely tsked and then glanced at the door as he noticed how a white haired, muscular man stepped inside. It was obvious from the costume the guy wore that he was a hero. The blonde wasn't the only one who noticed his presence, as whispers from the others told him that apparently this guy was Vlad King.

Haven't heard of him.

"Alright, class, settle down." He said as he got in front of the whiteboard. "My name is Sekijiro Kan, I'm known on the field as Vlad King, use whichever of those two you find more comfortable to refer to me with. I'll be your homeroom teacher.

Now," he continued after a small pause, "This first day is going to be a short one, there's a welcoming ceremony about to be held, for which you'll get to know more about U.A, its facilities and its staff, as well as some important rules that you should always keep in mind. So, follow me, in an orderly manner. Understood?"

About half of the class replied verbally, some saying "Yes", others "Understood" or something along those lines. Clearly unsynchronized. After that, they did as told, in silence as they all took their time to get more acquainted with the layout of the school.

Upon arriving at the auditorium they saw that other first year classes were there, not only the heroics classes, however, there was something that Katsuki noticed pretty much right away.

Where the fuck is the nerd's class? I don't see him, Birdhead or Ears anywhere.

Apparently, he was not the only one to notice 1-A's absence. As Vlad King let out a sigh while staring at a vacant spot. "Aizawa at it again…"

So, apparently that Aizawa has something to do with it, and it's normal enough that this guy only lets out a sigh at it. God damn it, if I have to sit through though one of this fucking ceremonies while the nerd is doing something interesting, I'm gonna actually kill him.

Some time earlier, Izuku was experiencing his own introduction to class 1-A, right when he opened the door and noticed that he actually wasn't the first one to arrive.

"You!" A spectacled student exclaimed as he made his way to the door where Izuku was standing, "Let me introduce myself, my name is Tenya Iida, I'm glad to have the luck to share a class with you so I can apologize."

"... What?" There was little way to react when an apparent apology was sprung upon you and you didn't know why.

"I presumed that you were some sort of distraction during the entrance exam, but your actions spoke more clearly of your character," he bowed. "Not only did you show to be the bigger person by helping others as much as you could, you also didn't let the premise of the exam dissuade you from doing the right thing."

"I..." Izuku took a deep breath as he thought a bit about Tenya's words before replying. "It's nothing, I know my mumbling can get distracting. At least you didn't smack me like my friend does." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you, Iida."

"Huh, no stutter," another voice said behind him, "You weren't lying about the talking to girls problem."

"J-Jirou, did you really need to say, uh, that out loud?"

"Yup," she said, accentuating it with a pop, "It was uncanny reading your texts being grammatically correct and all. Need to bring some normalcy."

"I-I'll get used to it!"

"I know, but I still gotta tease you."

"Ahem," Tenya cleared his throat, worried that his presence might have been forgotten. "I'm sorry, Jirou, was it? I don't believe we've met I'm-"

"Iida. I know, I heard from the hallway," she turned towards the door, "And soon enough we're not gonna be the only ones here."

True enough, many others shortly arrived. It made sense, this was actually closer to a reasonable hour to arrive, instead of what Katsuki actually considered to be on time. And Tenya as well, for that matter.

It was pretty nice, as each one of them passed through the door, they all gave short greetings and introductions to each other. Izuku thanked his good memory, otherwise he'd feel pretty awkward trying his best to remember each and every name immediately. He really didn't want to disappoint others by forgetting their names.

They were already either beginning to form small little groups for conversation or just sitting on their seats doing nothing. For his part, Izuku was surprised to be part of the former, in a small group composed of Kyoka, himself, Tenya.. All of them standing near the door.

"Ah, you!" The last member of the class said upon her arrival, pointing straight towards Izuku, who was having a slight sense of deja-vu. "Thank you for saving me at the exam, I really wanted to tell you that to you the same day but you were flying all over the place!"

"I, uh, I-I… no p-problem. I mean, d-don't thank me for t-that… It is what w-we're here to do." That was the best he could manage, and he could just hear Kyoka snickering next to him.

"Not entirely right," someone said behind the girl, a man encased inside a bright yellow sleeping bag. "You're here to learn to be heroes, not to pretend you already are."

His voice managed to get the attention of the entirety of the class, who slowly but surely began to quiet down. Once silence took reign, the man stood up from his sleeping bag cocoon, and he didn't look pleased.

"Eight whole seconds wasted, you've much to learn," he said tiredly, regarding the whole class. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. A pleasure."

Without waiting for any sort of response he pulled out some gym uniforms from his sleeping bag, "You are to change into this and then go to the P.E Grounds. Now."

Without wanting to argue with their teacher (he had to be, there was no reason someone with the appearance of a homeless man managed to get past U.A's security), the class did exactly as told, and not even one second after they got there they were told the purpose of gathering them like that.

A so-called Quirk Apprehension test.

Despite the fact that they were supposed to be having a welcoming ceremony at this very moment. Apparently, in the eyes of their teacher, such frivolities weren't needed and therefore he was using the time that would be spent on it to do this.

That explains why I haven't been able to learn much about the curriculum here… The teachers can shape it however they see fit, and so it might be completely different based on arbitrary reasons.

"Midoriya," the teacher called, "How far could you pitch a softball in middle school?"

"Oh, ah, about seventy-one meters." Kacchan did manage to beat him in that, even with their training.

Aizawa lazily tossed him a ball and pointed towards a circle, clearly and silently telling him to stand there for the test, "Try with your Quirk now. Everything goes as long as you don't leave the circle."

"Alright," he said as he got into position, tossing the ball up and down in his hand to get a feel for weight before doing anything.

Reeling his arm back, he threw the ball with his normal strength, however, as it was nearing its apex, he pointed at it with his index finger, mimicking a gun, and then pushed, aiming a little bit below its center of mass. That caused the ball to practically be shot at from its position, at almost a forty-five degree angle, flying through the air for quite some distance at a much faster rate.

He kept an eye on the ball, still pointing at it, and repeated the process once he saw that it began losing altitude. He couldn't quite manage to get a precise hit on it due to distance, but he managed to keep it going. He tried going for it again, however, it looked like it was far out of his reach already.

The device Aizawa was holding beeped not long after, showing the results. Eight hundred and fifty-six meters.

That means the range of my Quirk should be around eight hundred meters… That's… I knew it was large, but that's way more than I expected.

As he thought about it, some of his classmates were excited to participate, something that quite upset their teacher.

"I thought we established this earlier…" Aizawa began, quite a frustrated tone in his voice, "But you're here to be heroes, if you're thinking that this next three years is going to be like spending time with your friends at the arcade, then you're not taking this seriously enough, so… Whoever places last at the end gets expelled immediately."

That's… quite drastic.

Izuku felt worried, as he looked around at his classmates, most of them now significantly more afraid of these tests. He in a sense felt bad that he wasn't feeling that way, praise that he got growing up and his own performance in life let him know that he wasn't in danger of being expelled because of this. They didn't.

Most of the class got here with a dream and the belief that they had what it takes to achieve it, he could feel it. But he could also get an idea of how it must feel to have that questioned when you're grouped with a bunch of strangers and being told that if you're the weakest, you're out.

Despite the worries, the test progressed all the same, and much like he thought, he wasn't in any danger himself, he consistently scored among the top three in most of the tests. His Quirk was helpful for a good chunk of them, and even for those that he couldn't find a way to use it, he still had the physique he gained from training.

Luckily his friends also managed to score consistently well, however, every competition must have its loser. In this case it was a ball-haired boy, who was already starting to cry upon seeing his name being the one on the last place.

"Mineta," Aizawa said while he was staring at the boy, "Go to the principal's office and tell him you're being transferred to General Studies."

"What…? You were serious?" A pony-tail wearing girl spoke in disbelief, "I thought you said that to make sure we took this seriously."

"Then you'd know that an empty threat scares no one."

The boy began to shake his head as tears continued to run down his face. Izuku didn't even notice he was starting to walk forwards, but once he did, he knew what he was doing.

"Sensei," he said, "Would you be willing to give him another chance…?"

Aizawa stared at him, not impressed. "I already told you, he's deemed hopeless. What good would it do to keep him here?"

"I don't believe that anything is hopeless, much less a person." Izuku did his best to not waver under Aizawa's gaze, "He can improve, I'm sure."

Surprisingly, it seemed his words resonated with some of his classmates, who began to back him up.

"Moving, but my stance on this doesn't change," he said with finality, already turning back.

"Do you think Eraserhead is hopeless, sensei?"

At that, the man stopped to look at him with a sideways glance. It took a lot of effort to not waver at that stare.

"I, it's hard to get much of a reliable source on this, Eraserhead doesn't do interviews and because he's an underground hero there isn't much information about him. However, I do listen to Present Mic's radio show frequently, and he said that he was a classmate of Eraserhead, but it turns out that he didn't actually get past the entrance exam and had to get transferred to heroics at the beginning of the second semester."

"Despite all of that, he managed to become a successful enough hero to be known even as someone who avoids attention. If you're calling Mineta hopeless, then you're dismissing the struggle of a hero who also graduated right here so-"

He heard a groan coming from the man, "Did you actually notice or do I have such bad luck that I am the example you're using?"

"Wha… Wait, you are-!"

"So, just bad luck. I'll have to have a talk with Mic about what he says on his little show later." It didn't sound like that was going to be a pleasant talk for the voice hero. "One chance, a single one he's getting." He turned towards Mineta, "So, start improving, or you're gonna find out that there must be others like me, who are looking to get into heroics, and that there are only twenty spots."

"That goes for all of you, don't think for a second that this trick is going to work a second time, if I see any of you aren't making any progress, it's straight to General Studies, no second chances. Now, don't stay too long here, there are sheets describing your curriculum back in the classroom. I recommend you give them a read."

With that, the teacher began to leave, and once he was far enough, Izuku found himself surrounded by some of his classmates, who were celebrating for having changed the teacher's mind. Being the complete center of attention made him feel a little awkward, but he supposed he made a good first impression with his class.

A/N:

Hello, hello!

Man, I spent too much time delibering whether or not to put Katsuki in 1-B. It was a tough choice, not only because of the stuff that I could do with him being there, but the stuff I'd have to do.

I don't know if it was obvious or not, but this story divides its attention between Izuku and Katsuki, they're kind of the catalyst of change in this little AU, so to speak. I'm trying to have the two of them be protagonist, though there are sometimes where I just have to have a chapter focused mainly in one of them. That'll be more obvious later on because events in MHA tend to revolve around what happens to 1-A. Yeah, that's going to be tough when I get to those parts, but I think I have a good plan going.

Anyways, that's enough of that, hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll see you later.

Bye!