Chapter 2. A TOTALLY Normal Day at UA

The girl ran, terror on her face as she tore through the back alleys like a cornered mouse fleeing from a prowling cat. Said cat happened to be three small-time villains. Not even considered villains really by the standards of Japanese heroism, just thugs. Thugs fortuitous enough not to cause trouble in the vicinity of any Hero Agencies, unfortunately for the poor girl.

She screamed as an oversized pistol shrimp claw came right for her head, and braced herself to be knocked silly.

"It's ok now. You're safe!"

A voice… a reassuring voice had come out and scooped her off the ground at lightning speed. Lightning speed and… green sparks?

She didn't care. All she knew was that the arms holding her now would not let her go, and she fell against a strong chest, sobbing into the green fabric.

The villains were not having a good day at all, as despite them lashing out with their quirks, their opponent was just relentless.

Explosions rocked the street, and buildings had their windows blown out as the scowling teen poured forth his righteous wrath against the three thugs.

Handy-Man, who had multiple arms with which to grab purses and damsels, was hard-pressed to land a decent blow as his target kept jumping around.

Scorps, a scorpion anthromorph, had his tail full as he could stick to walls but still could not get a decent hit in because the target kept blowing his tail away.

And Pistol Shrimp, the leader, was too busy trying to land an attack with his deadly claw generated air bubbles to really pay attention to his two comrades, and even made the mistake of shooting Scorps in the arm, severing it at the elbow.

The scorpion grew it back instantly… but it still hurt!

The hero was a demon apparently! An absolute demon!

"DIE!"

The shrimp flew up suddenly in the air painfully, and came crashing down on his comrades, who ended up in a heap on the ground at the booted feet of one Katsuki Bakugo, one Explosion Murder God Dynamite: terror of UA and merciless being of destruction. He looked down at them and smirked wildly, palms sparking as he blew them up one last time.

After they hit the ground for the final time, the villains barely had legroom to move an inch before they were encased in ice by an unseen hero. Unseen, until he came out and smirked at them. He, Shoto Todoroki, then turned to the green-clad hero and said reassuringly, in a calm voice, "It's over, Deku."

"Yes!" Izuku Midoriya, AKA Deku, replied,unhanding the girl, "You're safe now, so go on home, ok?"

The girl hugged him one last time, thanked him immensely, and then skipped away, looking over her shoulder and smiling big.

Todoroki turned to Bakugo, and the blond snarled at him and turned away, spouting in disgust and annoyance, "You were late, half cold, half hot bastard. We coulda used you ten minutes ago. I hope Aizawa-sensai docks you points for this!"

Midoriya waved his hands between the two of them. "Kacchan! Don't say things like that! Todoroki did his best! Besides, he had another purse snatcher to deal with and–"

"-Shut up, damn Deku! No one asked your opinion!" Bakugo interrupted loudly, getting in the younger boy's face and clenching his fists as they sparked threateningly.

"Eep! Kacchan!" Izuku said as his eyes went wide and he looked rather nervous, putting his hands in front of himself, palms up as if to shield himself from the other teen's wrath.

Todoroki just stood by and shook his head, then after observing the two for ten more seconds, he silently turned and walked away.

Izuku noticed and followed suit, and Bakugo snarled and took up the rear before sneering and pushing Izuku out of his way, "Get behind me, Nerd!"

The three rejoined the others of Class 1A at Dagobah Station, the full group walking back to the school in a buzz. Everyone knew something was happening, but nobody knew exactly what it was going to be. However, for the moment, their buzz was concerning the day's experimental trial of what it was like to go on an actual patrol as Pro Heroes, without the supervision of said pros interfering with their work.

Asui Tsuyu, or Froppy as she had chosen as her hero name, put a finger to her bottom lip as she remarked in her froggy voice, "I never knew there were so many lost cats in the sewers. Maybe there's an epidemic going on… but the children who own the cats don't need to be down there. We should tell someone… Giro!"

Uravity, Ochaco Uraraka, giggled, "I know, right? We'll tell the chief of Police and he'll figure everything out." She took a glance at Izuku and blushed, then chastised herself internally. 'Stop it! Now's not the time! Though… I do want to know…' "Deku… how was your guys' patrol?"

Deku immediately got nervous and put a hand behind his neck, rubbing vigorously. 'She is talking to me again! She is talking directly to me! I know we've been working together for a while but it's still… She's TALKING to ME!'

"Deku?"

"YES! Um… it went well, Urarakasan," Midoriya finally said with his fingers pressed and pointers wiggling. "We had a successful patrol."

As the students entered the facility, they were nervous. Aizawa was not an easy teacher to please, and several of the class individuals (mainly Mineta) were afraid that they had underperformed. That was a bad situation to deal with when you're being judged on ability and skills at the same time by the pro hero who had a reputation of failing those who he felt lacked potential…

"Stop gawking and get in the door."

Everyone jumped to do exactly that, rushing to their assigned seats before Aizawa slowly came in after them, looking exhausted as usual. The raggedy teacher with the microfilament bandage cloth for a scarf narrowed his piercing eyes and sighed heavily.

"Now then, I'm sure by now you've heard the buzz around campus. We are getting some foreign exchange students from America for a while in three days time." He closed his eyes and muttered audibly, "Much to my annoyance, some of them will be assigned to this class." He opened his eyes again and seemed to somehow stare in the souls of all the students simultaneously. "I want each and every one of you to conduct yourselves properly. Any disruptions and there will be consequences. Understood?"

Half the class, especially Mineta, gulped.

Aizawa looked one step away from activating his quirk and shutting them all up for their audible insolence.

After that half of the class forced themselves to toughen up and straighten out, they along with the rest looked suddenly attentive, all the students saying in an enthusiastic unison, "Yes, Aizawa-Sensei!"

"Good. Now as for your performances today..."

The students held their breaths collectively, the tension so thick All-Might couldn't punch through it at 50 percent. Not in a single blow, anyways.

Iida, the representative, was holding his breath the most. Everything depended on his classmates, but the always-responsible leader was nervous even so!

The teacher sighed and finally made his assessment, his tired eyes lidded but piercing as he outlined in detail everything the groups did wrong and how they could improve.

To Midoriya, however, he added an extra critique.

"Be quicker to get the rescue done, then back up your team. It's all well and good for you to comfort the citizen. However, once they are out of danger, it's your job to keep them that way by taking out the threat as quickly as possible."

The green-haired prodigy nodded silently, determination burning in his wide eyes. He would not make the same mistake again. However, how to avoid it? He thought and pondered, taking out a notebook and furiously scribbling out a battle plan, not noticing the ensuing stares as his mind raced, and came out his mouth.

"MIDORIYA!"

A painful smack was administered to the skull of the teen, and he jumped up and quickly ceased mumbling with an embarrassed, "YES SENSEI!"

"Good. Now, I don't really have the energy or time to really analyze the rest of your failures, so I'll summarize them by saying, 'Do better,' because if you don't: I will fail you. That goes for you, and you, and you, and ESPECIALLY–" He pointed his nose towards Mineta who sweat dropped profusely. "You." Addressing the entire class again, he went, "Now hurry along because you now have less than five minutes to gather your stuff before English. Present Mike is tired of late arrivals and he won't shut up pestering me about it. Please just come right back to class. That is all."

The students migrated to the hallway of UA, some of them looking out the windows before heading to the English class. Of course, no one actually went anywhere. While in the States, High Schoolers were forced to transition from room to room, in Japan, there was only one classroom per actual class, which is why they were divided into classes A-E. The only movement involved really was going to get their stuff and their next teacher, Present Mic in this case, moving to them. The only exceptions to this were in the hero course when they migrated outside or to USJ or to the training facilities.

That being said, while this saved a lot of foot pain, that also meant the classic, 'I got lost on my way to class' would not ever work as an excuse. Sometimes though, the equally as classic, 'My dog ate my homework,' did, especially for those whose dogs had quirks of their own.

Soon, Present Mic arrived, and English class commenced with all the fun and intentional and unintentional hilarity that went with it. Today, it was diagramming sentences and everyone had to write one sentence on the board that they wanted classified.

Mineta, of course, was excluded from this, much to his ocular gushing. This was of course due to the fact that his 'sentences' would make a Shounen-ai mangaka blush, if what Present Mic said was true, English master that he was.

Ironically enough, though, perhaps the single most innocent person and as far away from a Mineta as a person could be in the class, Tsuyu, accidentally wound up presenting the sentence most inappropriate and Mineta like in the entire class.

"Please give me coke."

Not because she had intended it to be so, but her attempt to pronounce it ended up sounding like something else entirely and Present Mic overreacted to what she had said. This led to a sequence of other students trying to correct her yet still winding up in the same place leading to MORE overreacting from Present Mic which led to more epic failures of pronunciation in a never ending feedback loop only stopped by Present Mic using his quirk to shut everyone up. He then told them all never to attempt to say coke again until they pronounced it well like he did, 'COKE-AYE!'. The class then proceeded, yet with minimal learning being attempted.

Especially by Mineta, who was constantly struggling to maintain his giggling at what just happened from there on out.

Though even more academically and mind-out-of-the-gutter minded people like Tsuyu were clearly distracted, the amphibious teen constantly looking down at her desk, her face doing its best tomato cosplay it was so red from embarrassment.

"It's okay, Tsuyu," Izuku comforted the froggy girl with a pat on the shoulder. "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. These kinds of things just happen when learning a new language."

"It happened to me a bunch when I first attempted French," said Momo Yaoyorozu, patting her on her other shoulder.

"Giro! I just wish it could've happened to somebody else today. Giro!"

She covered her face in shame from then on out for the rest of the class.

Which thankfully wasn't long before the school chime rang.

"OKAy!" Present Mic hollered over the general ruckus of the class still ensuing from the fallout of what from then on would always be known as the coke fiasco. "LET'S GO! CLASS DISMISSED YEAAAAAAH!"

MHA-MHA-MAH

"Well, Midoriya," Iida said in conversation as the students were taking their time eating. "These new students are rumored to be exceptional." The tension and excitement of the news was reaching its peak, and the kids from 1A were excited to meet some Americans. Or at least ones that weren't just cheerleaders if your name wasn't Mineta.

"Do you think their quirks will be compatible with most of ours?" Asui asked, daintily placing a piece of her curry in her mouth.

"I just hope they won't drag U.A.'s name through the mud! We must make sure we teach them the proper way of conducting themselves as UA students!" Iida said firmly, gesturing one hand in the air and looking stern and serious.

"Whatever their lame quirks, I'll outshine them all!" Bakugo snarled, "I'll kill them with how amazing my quirk is!"

"New American students…" Midoriya said softly, gazing down at his bento. "Like All-Might was when he went studying overseas… I wonder if they also have potential. Like him."

"Midoriya-chan, you're doing it again… giro. You're scaring me," Asui said right in his ear.

"Regardless, we need to treat these newcomers with respect," Momo said. "Americans may not be big as us on that front, but Mom says they are people too, and people deserve respect."

"That's a given," Iida said. "Now, as students of UA, we are the best of the best, so let us conduct ourselves as such!"

"Baka…" Bakugo sneered, "Like those extras are even fit to grace the same stage as me, not to mention breathe the same air! As long as they stay out of my way, I could care less about them."

Midoriya fell silent, his mind going over what little he had heard about the incoming students in the interim between now and homeroom. "Hmmmm… all we know for certain is that they're from the United States and that at least some of them will be here for the hero course. A test run, perhaps, to see if the model could work in and be adopted by America. But that hardly paints a complete picture in my mind about what the newcomers will look and act like given the relative vastness and diversity of the US compared to Japan, even after the widespread explosion of quirks in Asia. Are they east coasters, west coasters, gulf coasters, or just live near roller coasters? Southrons or Northerners? Rural or Urban? Do they all hail predominantly from the South East, North East, Mid West, South West, or North West? No. That can't be it. Surely the American officials want a more even, representative spread for something so potentially pivotal in their education system, so the newcomers must be all different in their own ways to reflect this."

"Midoriya-kun, you're doing it again. It's very scary. Gero!"

Izuku yelled, "AH! Sorry sorry! I'm just really contemplative right now, you know… Sorry!"

"They need to pass the hero course entrance exams to get in here right?" Mineta asked thoughtfully (a rare thing for him). "So odds are a lot of them will wash out before getting to our class or 1B. I just hope the ones that make it have racks."

"Giro!" Tsu said, smacking him upside his head with her tongue hard enough to knock him out of his chair, red mark on his cheek and stars in his eyes. "That's gross Mineta-san. Don't do it again. Giro!" the frog said, tongue still hanging out a bit.

Izuku, of course, paid little heed to Mineta's words (as all right thinking individuals should) and thus barely noticed Tsu's righteous punishment. The redundant nerd was too busy figuring it was a good time to invest in a separate hero notebook and already thinking about how to format the relevant material once he got it. He was going to learn all he could about these new students, and maybe one day the information would be useful.

Alone on a separate table, though this was due to the current one being full, Todoroki sat contentedly. However, something bugged him about the timing. 'Is it really a good idea to bring in foreigners right now? We have confirmation that the League is beginning to move again. To bring in new blood and inexperienced students… what are the teachers thinking? UA can't handle any more bad publicity… and these newcomers don't know the rules. Plus, what if one of them, or several, is a plant? I'll keep my eyes open, however unlikely it may be that the League has reached foreign shores…"

"Midoriya. I need a word." Todoroki called out, getting up from his seat.

"Huh? What about?" Midoriya looked up, having already gotten another notebook and gameplanning out his future hero journal entries for the exchange students.

"Come on. I'll tell you by the–"

"I AM HERE!" Woooosh! "TOOOOO… pick up young Midoriya for lunch!"

Deku's eyes went wide. His hair went on end. The adrenalin began pumping as his heart raced in pure unsolicited joy. All-Might was bowing to him with a sack lunch, and he was all too happy to oblige.

Once they retreated to the teacher's lounge, Izuku sat with his knees knocking slightly in anxious abandon, hands on them squeezing tightly. Toshinori Yagi sat across from him, deflated, his thin physique jarring to anyone in any other circumstance. His ice-blues though still sparked, clearly maintaining the same strength as in his muscle form.

Izuku gulped because today, the Symbol of Peace seemed tense and INtense.

"Young Midoriya, I wanted to talk to you about the new arrivals. They will be more than meets the eye, and your greatest allies in the days to come. I implore you to take heed, and watch out for them. Teach them well, embrace their strengths and carry their weaknesses. Do you understand?"

Izuku thought for a minute, and nodded, making eye contact with his idol. "I do. I'll make sure that they have a chance."

"That's my boy!" All-Might said with a smile. The smile then faded a bit. "Now… you know what we're dealing with now. Make sure you are ready… when the time comes."

"I will be. All Might… the vestiges… did they ever talk to you?" Izuku asked softly, looking at his hands, feeling the scars from his past and contemplating the odd dreams he'd been having lately.

"I've only heard of them doing that once or twice," his mentor said, "But I never was lucky enough to ever experience it. Perhaps One For All senses the time is near. I don't know." He put a hand to his very pointy chin. "You really ought to embrace the visions they give you. Perhaps they will reveal to you their purpose."

Izuku looked into his tea and contemplated this wisdom. He smiled a bit, excited that something at last was being revealed concerning this most unexpected aspect of his quirk.

All-Might cocked his head and gave a sad kind of grin. He knew that he was running out of time, but he was glad that his protege was as whip smart as any crazed hero fan could be. This would indeed give him an advantage and would help him mingle and step up as the strategic leader to the American heroes that he knew the young man could be.

Speaking of… the Symbol of Peace really did miss the odd coffee meetings he'd participated in during his stay in Metropolis. He wondered how one-half of his inspiration was doing right now, considering all those villains that the strange bat-creature brought into his city. Although knowing the bright colored hero, those villains would prove more of an annoyance than anything especially compared to his usual gallery of unscrupulous rogues, especially compared to the little funny man with the purple suit and tophat who dropped by on occasion solely to annoy him.

As the two finished their bentos, they switched topics every now and again to more mundane matters, and between All-Might spewing blood every ten minutes, they formed another knot in their already tight relationship.

Unfortunately, the school chime ended lunch way too soon, and the young Symbol in training had to bid farewell to his mentor, promising that they would meet up again the next day, if not sooner on the beach.