"Are you sure you're all set?" asked Inko, standing behind her son as he prepared for school. The woman's hands were clenched together in worry. "You didn't just back action figures, did you?"

Izuku said nothing at first, hiding a small smile as he tied his shoes. Today was the day, his first day at his dream school: U.A. Now dressed in his grey uniform and red tie, the teen felt almost giddy with excitement just to be wearing it. So much so that there wasn't a trace of nervousness within him. That or it was pushed to the back of his mind. His mother on the other hand, well, she seemed to have challenged all the anxiety they both should have been feeling. Ever since last night, she had been fretting over every little thing. Was his uniform ironed properly? Had all the right forms been sent to U.A.? Did he have everything he needed? Would the school provide the right lunch?

"Yep, I'm all set." There was confidence in the Sacred Gear user's voice as he said this, standing up while slinging his backpack onto his back. For a moment, no one said anything as the teen made his way toward the door. It was only when his hand touched the handle that his mother called out his name. Turning to look at his mother, Izuku saw that the worried look she had was gone. Now, in its place, was a smile as well as some tears.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm proud of you," she said, hands pumping upward in an encouraging manner. "You're really cool."

At that, Izuku felt his own smile grow as he slowly began to open the door.

"Thanks, mom. Well, I'd better be off," he said.

"There you are!" came a familiar girl's voice. "We were waiting for you. Oh, hi Mrs. Midoriya."

"Come on, come on!" came a second girl's voice along with the sound of hooves clopping on the ground. "We're going to be super, duper late if we don't hurry."

In his mind, Izuku heard glass shattering as he looked at the pair waiting for him at his doorway. Dressed in their own U.A. uniforms were Itsuka Kendo and Pony Tsunotori waiting for him. Two girls were at his door waiting for him to walk to school together. With his mother standing right behind. Slowly, very slowly, Izuku turned his head to look at his mother only to have his fears confirmed. The older Midoriya now had her hands clasped together as if in prayer while her tear ducts held all the usual signs that they were about to explode.

"M-My little Izuku is becoming a man!" cried Inko. "He really is becoming cool."

Knowing what was to follow, Izuku quickly stepped out of his apartment before quickly closing the door behind him while pressing his back against it for good measure. The door then bulged slightly as it bent outwards due to a massive stream of tears that nearly knocked all of the teens off their feet. As the girls watched in surprise at what was happening, they could hear the cries of the mother inside the apartment. At least she was crying because she was happy.

While the stream of tears never really stopped, Izuku felt some of the pressure leave the door causing him to move away from it. At the same time, he fished out his phone from his pocket to send a text message to his neighbors, asking them to keep an eye on his mom and keep her hydrated. That and to apologize for any water damage caused…again.

As he did so, both girls just stared at the door as well as tears flowing under the crack. Then, Pony looked at him excitedly as she pumped her fists into the air.

"Wow Izuku, you're mom's quirk is super cool," exclaimed the American girl. "It's like Superman's eye lasers from those old pre-quirk comics! Only with water!"

"Ah, that's not her quirk," exclaimed Izuku awkwardly. "That's more of a…family trait. Her real quirk is levitating small objects."

Pony just blinked at that. She then looked at Izuku, followed by the door, and then at Itsuka who simply nodded to confirm. Yeah, Itsuka had seen the Divine Divider tear up once or twice when he became overly emotional so she had been there to witness it firsthand. Not as powerful as his mother though.

"A-Are you sure she doesn't have two quirks?" Pony asked.

Shaking his head, Izuku put away his phone as the group began to quickly make their way to the train station. As the three of them leaped down multiple stairs at a time, the teenage boy glanced over at his two new best friends as their hair flowed behind them. And thinking about how the American girl had become a good friend to both of them.

Shortly after they had received their acceptance letters, Pony had tracked Izuku down. It had been 'super easy, barely an inconvenience' as she put it since all she had done was politely ask U.A. for his phone number. As for why she wanted to talk to him, Tsunotori wanted to thank him once again for helping her find her way to the school. That and she wanted to spend her time working on her Japanese until school started. While a little embarrassed that she thought so highly of his skills the forest-haired teen had agreed. Thus over the course of a couple of months, the pair spent time at the local libraries to help with Pony's language issue after she had found a place to stay in Japan. Not only that, but Izuku went to a Manga Café for the first time along with both Tsunotori and Itsuka so that the American girl could practice what she had learned by reading the manga aloud.

Naturally, Midoriya also spent a great deal of time continuing to train at the Kendo Dojo. There, he and Itsuka continued to train their bodies while Pony watched with wide-eyed excitement. And sometimes Mr. Kendo would be in such a good mood that he would allow Pony to train with them for free!

Back in the present, the trip to U.A. seemed to have occurred in the blink of an eye. One moment they were racing to catch their train, managing to squeeze through the doors right as they were closing and the next the three of them were making their way through the halls of the illustrious hero school. None of them could hide the excitement they were feeling as they marveled at everything they saw, ready to begin their journey to become the very best heroes they could be.

The only thing that they found an issue with came from a classroom. They, along with other students walking down the hall, couldn't help but turn their heads to look at the door marked 1-A. This was due to all the noise coming from the room as two people whose voices Izuku recognized. The first, and loudest, came from Bakugo as he yelled his usual threats of violence and murder. The other one belonged to that blue-haired boy from the exams who had called out Izuku for him mumbling as well as chastising Pony. While he was not as loud as Bakugo, the blue-haired teen could be heard trying to reprimand the ashen-haired boy for something.

"Glad we don't have to deal with that," said Itsuka, shaking her head in embarrassment as she eyed the door one last time.

Izuku nodded in agreement, noticing as he did that several of the other students in the hallway were giving the heroics classroom similar disapproving looks. Now as he walked there a bit more of a skip to his step. His time here at U.A. was truly going to be a fresh start for the young man. He was going to be away from the teens who had an issue with him, surrounded by people who at best were already his friends and at worst held a neutral impression of him. A new start for the next part of his journey to becoming a hero!

Not too long after passing 1-A, the three friends entered their own classroom. 1-B was by no means silent with everyone sitting at their desks and staring at the board in front of them like mannequins. Nor were they as loud as their sister class. Instead, there was a light murmur going around as the students chatted politely with each other, some talking with a bit more energy yet smiling all the same. Only a few seemed to be sitting peacefully on their own, either reading a book or scrolling on their smartphone.

Entering the room, Izuku noticed several heads turn to look at the group entering. One of them, a girl with shoulder-length green hair and a shark-toothed grin, raised an eyebrow at this but seemed to say nothing about it. She just went back to talking to another student whose head reminded Izuku of a comic bubble. However, there was another teen in the room who kept his focus on Midoriya: a bespectacled teen whose quirk gave him the appearance of a beast-man of sorts.

Then, just as Izuku found an empty desk, the hairy teen spoke up. "Ah, I remember you," in a polite tone. "You were the one that got called out during the entrance exam."

A few teens stopped talking, turning their attention towards Izuku who was beginning to sink into his seat. Already he was fearing for the worst, that that instance could have given some of his classmates a poor impression of him already.

"Y-Yeah. That was me," Izuku admitted, hoping to remedy any negative thoughts that people here had of him with an honest apology. "Sorry if my mumbling bothered you. I, ah, it's sort of a habit I have when I'm deep in thought."

The beast-man simply shook his head.

"Oh no, no, no. I was hardly bothered at all, my good sir," replied the teen, dismissively waving his hand as he spoke. "To be perfectly frank, I barely heard a thing. Rather, I found our fellow examinee's actions rather disagreeable. He had every right to ask Sir Present Mic his question, yet there was no reason to assume that it was a misprint. At least not until the end of the explanation. And he certainly had no grounds to single you out in such a manner. At least not for something so minor. If your mumbling bothered him that much, the proper way he should have handled it would have been to seek you out afterward to have words in private."

The teen then paused, giving Izuku a friendly smile that showed off some of his sharpened canines. "Oh, where are my manners today? Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jurota Shishida. It is a pleasure to see you here."

Izuku, only slightly surprised by the teen's overly polite manner of speaking, returned the smile as he reached out to shake the teen's hand. Which Jurota accepted.

"Thank you," said the green-haired teen. I'm Izuku Midoriya."

Just then, another student in the room spoke up. One wearing a bandanna. "Yeah, I remember that guy," he said. "Kind of hard to forget such a stuck-up jerk. I bet it's because someone rammed a stick right up his God dam-" Before he could finish, a vine from one of Izuku's female classmates reached out to smack the boy right across the cheek. "Woman! What the heck is your problem?!"

"First of all, please refrain from using the Lord's name in vain," said the girl whose hair was literally made out of thorny vines. "It is disrespectful towards the Creator. Second, never again refer to me as 'Woman' again. My name is Ibara Shiozaki."

"I don't care who you are! Just don't slap me again God dam-" Izuku watched as this time several vines were sent flying toward the face of the bandanna-wearing teen, one to stop less than an inch away from his face. All of them were positioned so that they could, if Shiozaki wanted to, strike him from multiple directions at once. And it seemed that the teen realized this as well as he gulped loudly before raising his hands in a surrendering manner. "Ok, ok. We're all good here. We're all friends. So how about you put away the thorny vines? Ok? Ok."

The vine-haired girl said nothing in response, only giving her fellow classmate a slightly irritated look as he began to push one of the tendrils away from him. After a moment or two, the various thorn-covered vines retreated.

As the class let out a sigh of relief, another teen with oval-shaped eyes and brown hair spoke up. "Yeah, that guy was pretty intense. I just remember thinking at the time: if he gets that annoyed now, what's he going to do when he becomes a sidekick or a pro? But he has nothing on the dude that was in my testing zone. Guy goes flying out of the gate, explosions coming out of his palms, and gets right to destroying all the robots fast. All while screaming 'Die' at the top of his lungs and looking like he was raised by feral wolves."

"I think I met that guy, shroom," said one of the girls in his class. Like the girl he had saved at the entrance exam, she had brown hair but the bangs were longer so that they covered her eyes. It was also interesting as, now that Izuku was really looking at it, her hair reminded him of a mushroom. "Did he have blonde hair, red eyes, and a face that seemed stuck on angry? Shroom?"

"That or someone smeared dog droppings under his nose," said the oval-eyed teen with a nod. "But, yeah, that sounds like the guy."

Hearing that caused the mushroom-haired girl to groan as she sank in her seat. "I nearly bumped into him right before the entrance exam. He was calling everyone 'extra's' and telling us if we got in his way he'd murder us. Shroom, I was hoping he was just full of hot air and would fail but from the sounds of it, he got in. Shroom."

Before the conversation could go on any further, the bell rang as the door opened once more to reveal a rather tall white-haired man dressed in a red hero costume. As he made his way toward the front of the classroom, the students became quiet while giving him their full attention.

"Alright," said the man after giving the class a once over. "Seems like everyone is here. That's good. Allow me to be the first to welcome you in person to the hero course here at U.A. Starting today, I will be assisting you on your journey to becoming the next generation of heroes as your homeroom instructor. My name is Sekijiro Kan, but I would prefer it if you just called me by my hero name: Vlad King. Now, we have a busy day today. The opening ceremony will be starting soon and I don't want us to be late."

A few minutes later, 1-B made their way out into the hallway. Almost as soon as he was outside Izuku could almost feel a hateful stare directed at him. Turning around, he noticed that the students of 1-A were milling their way out into the halls albeit heading off in the opposite direction. And, standing in the middle of the hallway with eyes filled with the fury of hell itself, was Bakugo. The ashen blonde's teeth gritted tightly as he clutched at a gym uniform. As for the boy's stance, it was one Midoriya was painfully familiar with. One that said that any moment the red-eye teen would come charging at him, using his explosion to close to the distance.

For a moment, Izuku's body twitched in fear as their eyes locked. He had been aware of Bakugo's ever-increasing anger towards him since the day they had received their test results. How could he not when the explosive blonde did nothing to hide it? Oh yes, Izuku was still afraid of this one. Even after all the leaps and bounds he had done to improve his body, to hone a fighting style that would make him a hero, and even managing to knock him done once that fear still remained. The memories of pain that Bakugo had inflicted on him seemed to be imprinted onto his very soul.

Seeing that he was falling behind the rest of his class, the Sacred Gear user took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Then, Izuku turned and walked away.

"DEKU!" screamed Bakugo, his voice easily being carried down the halls and over the students. In fact, several students and teachers turned to look at the deranged-looking teen who was frothing at the mouth. "DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK ON ME YOU FREAK!"

Biting his lower lip, Midoriya continued to walk without turning around. Though he remained tense and ready for a possible explosion right to his back.

Thankfully, Izuku made it to the welcoming ceremony without incident. There, all the students stood at attention save for one class. Out of the corner of his eye, the green-haired youth noticed some of the other hero course students glancing over at the spot where 1-A was supposed to be with pity. Others, well, seemed like they were taking bets. And he heard a few whispers that sounded like 'one student expulsion' and 'five students expelled max'. What kind of reputation did 1-A have?

Before the teen could begin to ponder this, mumbling under his breath the entire time, the opening ceremony began. It was there that Izuku saw the principal for the first time. He had heard that Nezu was an animal that had been experimented on and that he was a mixture of several different animals. Yet it was another thing to see the bear-dog-mouse walking to the podium in a suit with a scar over one of his eyes.

"To our new and old students, I welcome all of you to U.A." said Nezu in a cheerful tone. "I hope you are all ready for another exciting year of learning! Before we begin the ceremony proper, I would like to make a sad announcement as one of our veteran staff members shall be stepping down. After her many years of healing both students and pros alike, Recovery Girl has decided that she shall be retiring to live out the rest of her days with her friends and family in peace. While she will be remaining here for the next week or two so that she can get her affairs in order, I would like to say now that she shall be sorely missed. That she is a reminder to us all that you don't need a powerful and destructive quirk to be a true hero."

Izuku found himself shocked by this announcement. THE Recovery Girl was retiring? The youthful heroine who had saved countless lives with her quirk was leaving U.A.? Looking up at the stage, he saw the old woman with a cane tear up slightly at the comment. But she wiped the tear away before lightly waving to a crowd that all voiced their gratitude for all she had done.

"Thankfully, we have managed to find another hero with a powerful healing quirk to take her place," continued Nezu. "Meaning that the teachers won't have to hold back due to fear of excessive injuries!" At that, the small animal began to laugh wildly as he threw back his head. And he continued to do that until Recovery Girl whacked him on the head with her cane while also giving him a disapproving look. "Oh, I'm going to miss those. Now, while our new nurse has yet to arrive, we do have another teacher that is here ready to teach. Please welcome Japan's number one hero: ALL MIGHT!"

With that, the Symbol of Peace walked onto the stage dressed in a pin-stripped suit. He smiled brightly as he walked onto the stage, causing the entire crowd to explode with excitement. In one case that was literal as one student exploded into a cloud of confetti before reforming himself. As for Izuku, he was beside himself as he pulled out his notebook from…somewhere and held it tight to his chest. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he would get All Might to sign it. He may have found his own path to becoming a hero and had stopped trying to imitate the great hero that was All Might, but that didn't mean the man wasn't his all-time favorite hero!

From there, things proceeded as normal. A few speeches, singing the school's anthem, and so forth. When it was over, Vlad told his class to get changed in the locker room and then to meet him outside. While he didn't give them a time limit, he did stress not to take too long.

Fifteen minutes later, Izuku stood in a line with the rest of his class in the vast fields behind the school. To his right was Itsuka while Pony bounced on her hooves to his left excited about what else they were going to be doing today. Thankfully they didn't need to wait long as Vlad came out, rolling a large chart full of balls. He looked at them, nodding in approval.

"Good, you all made it out here in a decent amount of time," said the pro hero with a slight smirk. "For first years of course. Now then, today we're going to have a little bit of fun: Quirk Dodgeball!"

With that, the large man grabbed one of the balls from the cart before flinging it at Itsuka. Thinking quickly, the orange-haired girl activated her quirk to enlarge her hand to its full size. Just in the nick of time as she easily caught the ball before wrapping it up in a fist. Everyone else looked on in surprise at what the man had done before excitement took over. Almost as one, the group let out a cheer, some even jumping in the air at the prospect of being given permission to use their quirks.

"Before you get too excited, there are a few ground rules," Vlad King continued. "First and foremost, I don't want to see anyone throwing the balls with the intent to cause harm. I know that accidents happen, but if I see any of you doing anything that would intentionally cause one of your classmates harm then we're going to be having a problem. And trust me, I'll know when you've done something like that. Second, standard rules of dodgeball apply here. See that line over there that divides the field in half? Neither team can cross it nor can you leave the field unless you are out. You're out if you get hit by the ball or if your opponent catches the ball you threw at them. Now, if you have a ball, you can use it to deflect incoming attacks. Once you are out, please leave the area and sit down on the side. This should go without saying, but if you are out you are forbidden to use your quirks to help your team."

Shishida then raised his hand. "Sir Vlad, how will we be deciding the teams?"

"I don't want us wasting too much time on this so we'll go by seat numbers," replied the homeroom teacher with a small shrug. "Evens on the right side with odds on the other."

Excited, Izuku rushed over to the right side of the field. Soon, he was greeted by a teen with skin with black skin and white hair who introduced himself as Shihai Kuroiro. Moments later, two more walked over to them. One of them was the green-haired girl who playfully introduced herself as Setsuna Tokage while the other, a pale teen without lips, said his name was Juzo Honenuki. Quickly joining them after that was a dark-haired teen named Hiryu Rin. Next came Sen Kaibara who seemed more than a little laid back about the whole thing followed by Shiozaki. The final three made their way to the group: a teen that was a bit on the smaller side named Nirengeki Shoda, a quiet dark-haired girl named Yui Kodai, and the oval-eyed Kosei Tsuburaba.

It was a little upsetting to not be with people he knew like Pony or Itsuka. Heck, he wasn't even with Shishida who was the only one in the class besides the girls he had an actual conversation with. Yet those feelings were pushed to the side as he told himself that this was the beginning of his journey here at U.A. A brand new start for him! So he was going to use this as a chance to make new friends.

"Ok so how do we want to do this?" asked Tsuburaba once they had all gathered around. "Just go in and everyone for themselves? That's how we always did it back in middle school."

"I guess. To be honest, this really isn't my game," said Kuroiro as he dug his hands into his pockets.

Izuku nervously raised his hand, instantly getting an eye roll from Setsuna.

"Dude, if you have something to say then spit it out," she said, slightly annoyed. "We're all equal here so you don't need permission."

"O-Oh, ok," said Izuku before he paused to take a deep breath. This seemed to calm his nerves, allowing him to speak with far more confidence than he really felt. "I think that's a bad idea. Since quirks will be involved, we should have a strategy in place to prevent our quirks from interfering with each other. Plus it would allow us to take down the other team more effectively."

Tokage hummed slightly as she nodded, clearly agreeing with the idea. "Did you have something in mind?"

"Well, in order to make a proper plan, we need to know what we can all do," began Izuku. "I'll go first. My quirk is called Divine Dividing. It allows me to steal half of the strength and power of whoever I'm touching once every ten seconds. It also gives me wings to store the excess energy I can't handle with my own body and allows me to fly. Oh, and I have some training in martial arts."

Everyone looked at Izuku with wide eyes, barely blinking as Izuku quickly spoke. Then, finally, Tokage broke out into a wide grin.

"Well dang," she said as she revealed all for her sharp teeth. "That sounds really awesome. Well check this out, my quirk is called Lizard Tail Splitter."

From there, everyone gave out their quirks one after another along with any other detail they could come up with that might help. Izuku adopted a thinking pose, hand on his chin as he mentally processed everything that he heard. With each new quirk and skill he heard, a plan was being created. When they finished explaining everything, Izuku wasted no time explaining what he had come up with. Most took it at face value except Tokage and Honenuki, who pointed out areas where they had issues with. Of course, Izuku had no issue with this as he welcomed their criticisms and opinions.

Finally, a few minutes later, Kan had finished placing several balls along the line that divided the teams. Izuku had one foot on the edge of the back section of the field, his eyes locked on a smirking Istuka who seemed eager for this match.

"And BEGIN!" yelled Kan

As the odd's team ran forward to grab the balls, Honenuki placed both hands on the ground with a wicked grin. Instantly, the ground underneath their opponent's feet began to soften causing them to sink as if in quicksand. At the same time, Tokage and Shiozaki began to use their quirks to get the balls, with Setsuna separating her body apart into small masses and flying over to grab the orbs while the Christian girl used her vines to do the same. Sure it was simple and straightforward, but it did the trick.

While the odd team had been taken aback by this, they by no means were willing to give up. Pony had been the first to act, using her Horn Cannon quirk to launch the horns out of her head and sent them to collect one of the balls. Meanwhile, a silver-haired girl reached out a hand before a couple of the balls began to levitate toward her. Yet, despite this, Izuku's team had managed to collect more balls.

Once all the balls were collected, it became an all-out war! Honenuki deactivated his quirk, the opposing team half stuck in now very solid ground making it harder to move. Shoda was first to act, punching the ball at his opponents before using his Double Impact quirk to give it a boost. The attack hit its target while another ball thrown by Rin was flung forward only to be caught by one of Kendo's massive hands. With the Dragon Scale user out, Kendo chucked the captured ball right at Tsuburaba who used his Solid Air quirk to block.

While this was going on, Izuku took flight into the air as the next part of their plan was ready. A few members of the opposite team noticed this, their eyes wide in surprise at the wings that had appeared on their green-haired classmate's back. However, they quickly dismissed him upon noticing that he held no ball in either hand. Was he supposed to get a bird's eye view or something?

Once Midoriya was high enough he looked down into his hand to see several marble-sized objects within his palm. Smiling to himself, Izuku quickly looked down at where Kodai stood who responded with a nod. Seeing this, Izuku flung the 'marbles' down at the opposite team while his own began to throw the remaining balls they had at their disposal. Given the size of the objects Izuku had flung at them, it was not surprising that the evens team didn't see them or recognize them as a threat as they instead prepared for the incoming ground assault. That was their mistake as Kodai began to press her fingertips together, returning the size of the balls she had shrunk and given to Izuku back to their normal size. Balls rained down on the Itsuka's team, taking out over two-thirds of the students there.

Yet, despite how many had gotten hit, one person had seen it coming: Itsuka! The girl had kept her eye on Izuku the entire time, wondering what he was up to. And while she had been too late to put the pieces together, she had reacted quickly enough to grab one of the balls he had thrown at them and using it to block an attack from Kuroiro. As Vlad called out that Izuku was out, the two gave each other a look and a nod before the flying teen left the field to watch the rest of the match which they eventually won.

Class 1-B played two more matches of dodgeball that day. Who won after that, nobody really cared as they were all having way too much fun to care about little things like that. And, when they left, the class felt more like a group of friends than anything else.