A/N: Thanks so much everyone for your kind reviews! Here's the chapter.

Even before I copied All Might's Quirk and got strong enough to become a hero, even while I was being mocked and teased by my classmates for my quirk's uselessness, I was always firmly convinced that my quirk had a lot of potential. There are a surprising number of quirks that, if weakly copied, can still be quite useful. Before the Tatooin incident, I made a habit of trying to find quirks like that, and some of the fractional quirks that I developed from those efforts are so useful that I would never trade them away, even for pro-level quirks. Anyway, with 108 slots available for me to choose from, keeping a few 'Lifestyle' quirks around wasn't exactly a hassle.

In addition to the Quirk I had that guaranteed me a good night's sleep, I also had an 'efficient digestion' quirk that was the downgraded version of an 'eat anything' ability, a downgraded version of a 'telescopic vision' quirk that was useful for *ahem* innocuous reasons, and a radio broadcasting quirk that when copied could only send out infrared waves - useless for transmitting data over long distances, but priceless for changing channels on the TV across the room.

Right now, I was using a quirk that heated up the skin to red-hot levels, a useful offensive and defensive quirk that made its wielder a very difficult opponent in close combat. At 1/108 strength, it was useless in combat, heating up the skin only by a couple of degrees. In other words, it was perfect for pretending to be sick.

My parents didn't question my sudden turn of sickness that night. Why should they have? It's only natural to want to believe the best of your loved ones, and for all of my parents' faults, the fact that they love me was never really in question. The fact is, given a convenient excuse to avoid thinking uncomfortable thoughts, most people will take it, nine times out of ten. Stopping to wonder whether my hot forehead was genuine would have forced them to stop thinking all those shiny happy thoughts about how successful their son was, so they didn't, as selfishly and predictably as that. Also predictably, Komachi came in a couple of times during the evening, just watching me from the doorframe. Every time, I almost opened my mouth to say something, but in the end I just kept my eyes closed and my head down until finally I abused my Quirk to force myself to sleep.

I woke the next day with a clearer head and an empty house. With my parents gone to work, and my sister off to school, I could finally sit and try to figure out just what the heck I was going to do next. My admission notice stared balefully at me from the coffee table, the official paper copies having been thoughtfully arranged in a tidy pile for me by my parents underneath the … video message doohickey, which was holding them down like a paperweight. There it was, in black and white.

Name: Hikigaya Hachiman. Quirk: 108 Skills. Villain points: 7. Rescue Points: 28. Total Points: 35. Practical Exam Rank: 36th. Written Exam Score: 319/400.

Admission status: ACCEPTED.

Arrrrrgh, what was I going to do?! Collapsing dramatically on the couch, I clasped my hands to my face and barely resisted the urge to scream into a pillow. After a few seconds of intense self-pity, I finally got a little bit of a grip.

Calm down, Hachiman, I thought to myself. Think about it logically. What are my options? Turn down the admission offer and go to Sobu? Eurgh. My parents would freak, Komachi would be disappointed, and U.A.'s admission records are public information, which means that I'd almost certainly be 'the guy who turned down U.A.' by the end of the first week. No way. Not unless there's no choice.

Go to U.A. and try to go pro? … Pfffahahaha no. I failed that entrance exam. I broke my leg just rescuing a stupid dog. I only made it in because a couple of girls thought they were doing me a favor by pitying me. No, even I - especially I - know I'd make a pretty lousy hero.

So then, what? Go to U.A., but ask to be switched to the General Education track? That could work. I'm sure I'm not the only student who realizes part-way through that they're not cut out to be a pro. Even All Might said at first they weren't sure I was cut out to be a hero… actually, wait. Why did All Might say that, and not, say, a teacher at U.A.? Is it just that he's popular and an alumnus, so they had him record the messages for fanservice?

Maybe it says in the video, I thought, and I reached out to turn the hologram doohickey back on. I cringed my way through the overly hokey message, but with forewarning and in the cold light of day, it wasn't quite as awful as it had been the night before. To my surprise, however, the recording continued after the point that I had left it at the night before. "Welcome to the Heroics course at U.A.! The number one program for pro heroics in the country! Where you will receive a world-class education in both traditional subjects and the art of heroism from an all-star cast of pro heroes - and for the first time ever this year, from yours truly, ALL MIGHT! Yes, that is correct, I will be one of your teachers as well! I look forward to seeing you here young man, so study hard, and I'll see you in April!"

What.

Why was All Might, the number one pro in Japan, a man who had fan clubs that recorded sightings of his everywhere from Hokkaido to Kyushu, suddenly settling down at U.A. to teach? He's not doing it because of me, right? No, that's stupid. If the most powerful man in Japan wants to do something about me stealing his quirk, he has lots of ways to do it that don't involve becoming a high school teacher.

Your essay on your heroic motivations did give us some pause, I heard again in my head, and frowned. That wasn't really the sort of thing you'd normally put in a message like this, was it?

Onii-chan, what the heck did you write?

Well, let's see… I argued that society was stealing from heroes, which is certainly an opinion that's valid to be concerned about coming from an aspiring hero. I pointed out that All Might would make more money as a warlord than a hero, also not something an idealistic youth would normally point out. I called the majority of heroes fame-obsessed celebrities, with the most powerful being the most obsessed. Which since it was going to be scored by heroes, specifically the most powerful hero in Japan, does come off as a little specifically insulting. It's not like I knew All Might would be reading it! And then I…

I made some jokes about granting quirks to people, didn't I?

All Might's quirk could hypothetically be used to grant a quirk to someone, couldn't it?

The details of All Might's quirk are a secret, aren't they?

And right after I made an offhand reference to knowing All Might's secret, I then implied that I was desperate for fame and fortune… which strikes me as the sort of thing that a celebrity with secrets to keep might feel paranoid about.

Did I accidentally blackmail All Might so I could get admitted to U.A.? What did he say, 'our team of judges voted on whether to award you rescue points - and how many of those points to give you'. That sounds like the sort of thing that would be easy to fudge, if I were the sort of person who was inclined for some reason to do that. And that paper said that I came in thirty-sixth place, out of how many?

Almost in a panic, I grabbed for my laptop and looked up U.A.'s official results page. Sure enough, my name was on the list in thirty-sixth place - PASS. Right below me in thirty-seventh place was some kid named Minoru Mineta, with thirty-four total points, one less than mine. And next to his name was the word FAIL.

Out of forty students admitted this year, four were admitted through recommendations, and thirty-six were admitted via the practical, which meant that I was in last place. And had maybe, possibly, stolen that place from Minoru Mineta, someone who probably actually wanted to be a hero, all because I had blackmailed the person who saved my life.

What did the message say? "Your actions were more than enough to ease whatever doubts we had as to your character?" Does that mean that he's okay with it, but only because I looked like I wanted to be a hero so bad that I was willing to do anything for it? Did that mean that if I stopped looking like a wannabe hero, he'd raise a fuss?

Or on the other hand, maybe everything was fine, and he didn't interpret my offhand comments as blackmail, and the only reason he said anything at all was because of all of the legitimate reasons he would have had to be concerned about that stupid essay. Maybe there was a perfectly logical reason for All Might to be teaching at U.A., and it had nothing to do with keeping me on the straight and narrow, or making sure that I was actually someone 'heroic' enough not to share his secret. Really, how paranoid and self-centered could I be?

All things considered, though, I was going to pretend to be a hero until I found out one way or the other. Just in case.

The next few weeks passed in in an uncomfortable haze of backhanded congratulations and confused looks. No-one around me had any idea how to adjust their expectations of me from 'embarrassing loser' to 'guy in the top 0.5% of U.A. applicants'. Let me tell you, there was a certain amount of private satisfaction that I got from seeing everyone's faces. I didn't quite get to rub my victory in Orimoto's face like I had planned; somehow, she had gotten in as well, but I did win a very satisfactory consolation prize.

Teenagers being the naturally jealous creatures that they are, someone took the fact that I had rather publicly confessed to Orimoto in the past and put it together with the fact that we were both going to be attending U.A. in the fall, and had concocted a rumor that Orimoto and I were some kind of Destined Couple that had sworn to get in together with each other or some such nonsense. I denied the rumors of course, but rather than giving people a flat denial and explaining that I wasn't even interested in her anymore, my denials somehow wound up being full of blushes and had me unable to meet anyone's eyes. Somehow, people took this as a confirmation of the rumors. It was petty of me, probably. Okay, it was certainly petty of me. But there were only two weeks until graduation, and I had been the butt of jokes and rumors because of her for nearly a year, so upon further reflection I didn't really feel that guilty about it.

Other than that, though, not much changed about my everyday life. I didn't magically become more popular, Orimoto didn't magically fall in love with me (though she did switch from covertly sneering in my direction when she saw me in the hallways to faking brittle smiles), and I was still more or less left alone. Getting into U.A. was the sort of thing that should have had some sort of impact, but with roughly two weeks left before the end of the school year, one of which would just be final exams that I was now exempt from since I had already passed U.A.'s written test, pretty much nobody was in the mood to be making new friends. All of that time and work that I had put into proving that my quirk was actually useful, and the only measurable benefit it had on my middle school life was that when my usual gym partner skipped class, someone else actually buddied up with me for the exercise instead of leaving me to awkwardly play against the wall like usual.

And so my middle school days ended, leaving me just as unpopular as I had been when they began. As Komachi would have put it, maybe I should have put all of that time and effort into my personality instead. Well, it wasn't like it really mattered. In a couple more weeks, I'd be at U.A., where hopefully I wouldn't have to put up with teenage drama or petty bullshit.

Not that there was any chance of that, of course, but it was a nice daydream while it lasted.

After experiencing that car accident the first time I biked to U.A., I left myself plenty of extra time to get to school on the first day. This time my bike was brand new, a congratulatory present from my parents that they probably spent way too much money on. Between the lightweight composite frame and the reinforced drivetrain suitable for riders with superhuman strength, I felt like I was practically flying down the road. In the winter or in bad weather I would probably want to take a train, but on a nice day like this one a half-hour ride wasn't too terrible.

The closer I got to U.A., though, the more nervous I got. I was worried about All Might, about whether or not I would do well in the pro-hero classes, about whether I would get along with people in my classes. Most of all, I was hoping that they would do what they did for the entrance exams and split people from the same high schools apart into different classes, because I was really not looking forward to being stuck in a class with Orimoto Kaori.

So as I walked up to the enormous door to Classroom 1-A, I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers before pulling the handle, saying a silent prayer that I would be able to get to know my new classmates without middle school rumors or drama tainting their first impressions of me. The answer to my prayers was a mixed bag. Although I didn't have class with Orimoto, there were a lot of faces that I somehow recognized.

"Ah! It's you!" The first person I noticed was the girl who was currently shouting and staring directly at me. She had orange hair tied up in a side bun, sparkling red eyes, and a surprised smile on her face that grew even wider as I looked at her. Without knowing why, I felt myself start to blush. "Mou, geez, you should have said you were taking the hero test too! My parents would totally have given you a ride! I felt so guilty when I realized you biked all the way here from Funabashi even after you got hit by a car!"

I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. "Ah, well…" Aaaah! A pretty girl is talking to me! My life of lonerdom has not prepared me for this! "Thanks for saying something. You know, to the teachers. It helped. Really."

"Whoa, dude, you got hit by a car on exam day and took the test anyway?" A guy with spikey red-dyed hair and a muscular build asked. "That's super manly!"

"He jumped right in front of a speeding car to save my dog," the orangette said enthusiastically, "Broke his leg and everything. If he hadn't had a regeneration quirk, well… thank goodness you did!" she said, beaming at me once again. "I'm so sorry, if I'd realized you were going to be here I would have brought chocolates or cookies or something… ah! I never even got your name!"

"It's fine," I said, "Really. You told the teachers about it before you even knew if you got in, so… you don't really owe me anything." All of a sudden, I was the center of attention for the entire classroom, and it was making me profoundly uncomfortable. More than a few people were crowding around the orangette and I, some of whom I recognized; I was pretty sure that I had assisted both the pink-skinned girl and the blonde girl with ringlets in her hair during my entrance exam, and had probably seen both the bird-headed boy and the tall blonde there as well. The two most recognizable people in the room to me, however, were both sitting. Sitting in the back row was the long-haired traditional Japanese beauty who had rescued me from the Zero-Pointer, while one row from the front with his feet up on his desk was the spiky, blond-haired asshole who had been used as a human shield with me by a lunatic villain with an Ooze quirk.

Man, what a small world, I thought. "Hikigaya Hachiman," I said, "Nice to meet you again."

"Yuigahama Yui," she replied. "Nice to meet you too."

That opened the floodgates for a barrage of names as everyone else came to introduce themselves as well. Kirishima Eijirou, Miura Yumiko, Hayama Hayate, Tobe Kakeru, Tohru Hagakure, Mina Ashido - I felt bad, knowing that I was going to forget all of them within minutes, but this sort of popularity was way outside of my experience. It wouldn't last, of course, but for a few minutes… I admit, it was kind of cool.

Naturally, someone ruined it almost immediately. "You said your name was Hikigaya, right?" I turned to see the blonde kid with the spiky hair looking at me. He gave me kind of a shit-eating grin, and I braced myself inwardly.

"That's me." I replied cautiously. "And you are…"

"Bakugo Katsuki," he said with a cocky grin. "The first-place finisher on the exam. And since you're Hikigaya, I think that makes you... last place."

Really? You made a point of remembering who came in last, just so that you could talk down to them? And you remembered the name of the guy in last place, but not the face of the guy who got kidnapped by a villain with you? I bit down on my instinctive response - several of them - and finally just shrugged. "Just means I've got nowhere to go but up," I said.

"Hmph." With a self satisfied smirk, he settled back down into his chair. "There's always out the door, you know. What'd I score, eleven times more villain points than you? Seriously, with scores like that, can you really call yourself a hero?"

The tall blonde-haired guy - Hayama? Sayama? Saitama? No, that can't be it, he's not bald - stepped in to intervene. "Hey, hey, come on, guys. No sense picking fights on our first day, right?"

You know what? Fine. Enough playing nice. I raised a hand to ward Hayama off. "It's fine." I said, a sneer creeping onto my face. "Hey Bakugo, speaking of calling yourself a hero, do you still mug little kids at the Tatooin arcade for their pocket money?"

"What the -" Bakugo said, suddenly disarmed by the direction the conversation had taken. "- No! I don't do kiddy shit like that anymore!"

"Because it'd look bad on your resume when you went pro, right?" I asked, enjoying the feeling of having a conceited bastard on the back foot. "Not because you suddenly decided to become a nicer person or anything like that."

All of a sudden, the classroom was filled with a familiar sound, the sound of accusing whispers and muffled sounds of condemnation, the sound of social exclusion - and for once, it wasn't aimed at me!

"You don't know anything about me," Bakugo said, "So shut up before I blow you to smithereens!"

"Tsk, tsk. Violent threats, very heroic," I drawled. "Between that and the history of petty crime, so far, to me it looks like the person in this classroom who'd have the hardest time going pro… that's probably you, isn't it?" Bakugo's scowl deepened, and he looked about ready to bite back before a third voice intervened.

"You're wrong!" Both of us turned towards the entrance to the classroom to see a shortish kid with green hair, someone who I immediately recognized as the third member of the 'Tatooin Trio', the kid who thought he could rescue us by throwing his backpack at the villain. "Kacchan is - K-K-Katsuki is a little rough around the edges, b-b-but he's going to be a great hero one day!"

"Shut the fuck up, Deku! I didn't ask for your help!" Bakugo shouted, turning towards the green-haired kid with at least double the anger he'd had while talking to me.

Taking the chance while he was distracted yelling at his friend, I slipped away to find my seat and offload my backpack. It's a lot easier to get the last word in a conversation when you leave halfway through! I was in a pretty decent spot, one row from the back and up against the wall. Not quite an Anime Protagonist Seat right by the window, but it still beat having a spot in the middle of everything. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the people who had been looking at me previously because of Yuigahama's story were still looking at me, now more curiously than before. I shifted uncomfortably under the attention.

Almost as soon as I had gotten situated, a dour voice spoke out from the front of the classroom. "If you're here to socialize, then get out. This is the hero course." Almost instantaneously, everyone in the class quieted down. From the doorway, a man wearing a full sleeping bag hopped into the room and then began to unzip himself… or phrased another way, began to slip the sleeping bag off of his shoulders.

This was our teacher? He looked like a bum! Slowly, all conversation in the room came to a halt at the sight of this figure, a tall, scruffy-looking man in black clothes and a long white scarf.

"It took you all ten seconds to quiet down," he said, a slight frown on his face. "First rule of being a pro, time is a precious resource, so don't waste it on idle chatter. I'm Aizawa Shota, your homeroom teacher. All of you, get your gym clothes on and head outside."

"But what about the entrance ceremony? Or our guidance sessions?" A brown-haired, rosy-cheeked girl asked.

"They're a waste of time." Well, sure, everyone knew that, but this is the first time I've ever seen someone treat that problem with the seriousness it deserved! "Gym uniforms, on the grounds, ten minutes. Be there on time or go home. We're doing a quirk assessment test."

A quirk assessment test, huh? Looks like I'll be getting some new quirks to copy earlier than expected.