Welp, this took a bit longer than anticipated, but here it is. For all the people curious, I can't say for certain how long I'll be in between updates going forward, but just know it could be anything lol. I'll aim for every week or two, but that may slip away from me in the future. Regardless, hope you all enjoy.

Special thanks to kylekatarn77 for beta reading this chapter

Chapter 7: Doubt

Izuku woke up groggily to the sound of his phone's alarm screeching painfully into his sensitive ears. Normally, the device was placed away from his head and on his nightstand while he slept, but last night had not been a normal night.

"Ughh," the boy groaned as he picked up his phone and shut off the alarm, his eyes shooting open all the way as he checked the time as well.

"Shit! That was my backup alarm!" He yelled out in realization, quickly getting up from his messy workbench and looking for his uniform.

See, since the super-powered teen had just gotten a shiny new set of chemicals from the U.A support department, he had immediately begun mass producing as much web fluid as humanly possible right when he got home yesterday. Which in all honesty, he loved doing, no matter how time consuming it could be. Mixing the chemicals and synthesizing the fluid mixture was easy enough, but actually getting the stuff into the tiny little capsules, now that took both time and finesse.

The only place that the green-haired boy miscalculated was in his estimated time of quitting and going to bed. In which he obviously pushed it a little too far and overslept his first alarm for school.

Now fully dressed in his grey U.A uniform, Izuku rushed out of his room and quickly said goodbye to his mom. Once he was outside his apartment, he quickly finished snapping on his web shooters before perching onto the railing of the building's stairs.

I don't have a choice, I have to web swing to school. The train is already long gone, and class starts in fifteen minutes! The teen thought rapidly as he checked his phone one more time.

Izuku knew the risks of getting caught for quirk usage in public, but frankly, he didn't care anymore. He had gone out web swinging plenty of times before, back when he was still learning how to do it. Sure, he'd had a few close calls here and there where he had to speed up and hide to get a pro hero off his tail, but that ended up being more fun and thrilling to him than scary and cautioning.

It's not a big deal, after all, Peter breaks the law all the time just by being a hero in his world. What would he think of me if I was too scared to just web swing? Izuku thought comically to himself, a somewhat cocky smirk making its way onto his lips.

However fictional Peter Parker may have been, he was still like a mentor to the young green haired boy, and he wasn't about to shy away from something that the comic book character made look easy.

Making up his mind, Izuku turned around on his perch to face his apartment building, not wasting another second in jumping up and clinging to the wall above his door.

Once the boy had crawled up to the roof of his building, he immediately started sprinting. Giving himself a running start before leaping off the building and beginning his swing.

This would never get old.


Walking through the gates of U.A at a steady pace, Itsuka Kendo was silent as a plethora of thoughts swam around in her mind. Most of which were centered around a plain-looking green haired boy and his second absence in a row.

Not only was he not on the train this morning on the way to school, but yesterday when she had waited after orientation to walk home with him, he was nowhere to be found. It wasn't the biggest deal in the world to her, she just found it odd. The only reason she had even waited in the first place was because he was one of the only people in her class that she felt somewhat familiar with. Well that, and the fact that they took the same train to get home…

Maybe he took a different train today?

Before long though, the girl's thoughts evaporated as she heard an all too familiar sound come from behind her.

*Thwip*

Yep, just as she expected, when she turned around, there he was, the person she was just thinking about.

Detaching from his final web line, Izuku kicked off the arc and flew forward as fast as he could, riding this last bit of momentum for as long as possible.

Seeing that he was gonna end up a bit short of the campus, the green haired boy entered a headfirst dive and landed hands first onto the blue outline of U.A's main gate, pushing off with his arms and landing in a steady perch crouch right in front of the orange haired girl.

"Oh, hey Kendo-san," Izuku said casually with a bit of sweat on his face.

The girl on the other hand, was not so casual, looking around frantically and sighing in relief when she noticed they were alone.

"Midoriya!? What the hell was that!? Are you trying to get in trouble!?"

Slowly unclipping and taking off his web shooters, Izuku's smile only grew, riding out the wave of adrenaline and confidence to the fullest. "Heh, can't get in trouble if I don't get caught."

Again, this only seemed to further confuse the girl as his demeanor did another sudden one-eighty. What is with this guy? It's almost like he's two different people!

Wasting no time however, Kendo matched his smirk, almost challenging the boy as she tried to one up him. "Hmph, fine, that's fair. I guess I'll just stop waiting for you after school if you're just gonna swing home every day now."

Instantly widening his eyes, Izuku's brave face faltered as nerves hit him like a truck. "W-what!? Y-you waited for me!? When? What are you talking about? Why did-"

"Haha! You should see your face right now!" Kendo laughed seeing his panicked expression.

"Huh?" Izuku responded, completely lost at the moment.

Rolling her teal eyes at the boy, Kendo quickly began walking towards the school again, motioning to the boy with her hand to join her. "C'mon, lets walk and talk, I'm already late enough thanks to that stupid train delay."

"Aw what!? The train had a delay!? I could've made it!" Izuku complained as he caught up with the girl.

"Haha! Is that why you swung to school? Gotta hand it to ya, that's gutsy."

"Yeah, I overslept a little. Got caught up making web fluid all night since the school gave me all the chemicals I needed."

"Oh wow! They're supplying you with chemicals? For free?" The girl inquired as they walked into the school.

"Yeah! Isn't it great? I used to burn through cash all the time on just raw chemicals, but the school said since it was for a support item, they would give me anything I needed. That's actually where I was after orientation yesterday, the support department. Sorry if I kept you waiting." Izuku said sheepishly while scratching his head.

"Oh wow, that's awesome dude. And don't worry about it, I'm just glad you didn't ditch me on purpose," she jabbed playfully.

"Of course not! I'll be there today, I promise!"

"Haha! Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it."

Just as the two wrapped up their friendly conversation, they arrived at the large door of class 1-A and stepped inside.

Still bustling around with chatter and background noise, no one in the class really took notice when the pair walked in together. There were still a couple minutes left until the bell, and everyone was pretty much out and about, so it was impossible to know which seats were taken.

"Oh good, looks like we weren't too late," Kendo remarked happily, earning a small nod from Izuku as he met a pair of red eyes from across the class.

Not backing down, the green haired teen matched the rival blonde's intense glare. Holding it for quite a while without so much as blinking.

After a while, Kendo noticed the boy's silence and looked over at him, growing curious when she saw that he was sharing a dirty look with Bakugo again. She was about to stomp out her curiosity once and for all and ask the boy what his relation to the blonde was, but just like yesterday, Aizawa-sensei came out of nowhere.

"Alright, settle down everyone, take your seats," he said in his normal monotone voice.

Itsuka shook her head in frustration before walking away from Izuku and finding the seat she had sat in briefly yesterday. She wasn't gonna forget about this- she was getting her answers, one way or another.

Izuku froze when he heard the voice of his instructor from behind him, breaking eye contact with Bakugo and looking around the room. It looked like even Kendo had already found a seat closer to the middle of the classroom, when did that happen?

"Well Midoriya? You want me to repeat myself? Take a seat. Look at that, there's an open one right behind your friend Bakugo there."

Of course the only open seat is near Kacchan, crap…

Class 1-A's first homeroom class passed by with very minimal commotion. The only thing that stood out to the students, was a promise made by Aizawa-sensei saying that their hero studies class after lunch would be quite eventful.

With that in mind, it was obvious that most of the class was on edge, especially with the dark and unreadable nature of their homeroom teacher. To them, anything was possible at this point.

Plus, it didn't help that their last class before lunch today was something dull in the form of math. But here they were, bored out of their minds as their math teacher gave out instructions.

"Alright class, I'm gonna keep things simple," the low and foggy voice of the pro hero Ectoplasm began in an even tone. "I know you all have already done that meet and greet crap in other classes, so let's skip that part. I'm Ectoplasm. I don't care if you call me sensei or not, just as long as you all shut up and pay attention."

The majority of the students nodded at the man's straightforward approach. They had already spent most of the day just messing around and learning each other's names and other types of first day nonsense. So, it was nice to have a small break from that.

This was the collective thought among most 1-A students… That is, until the prosthetic wearing hero revealed what they were doing today.

Dropping a stack of papers on his desk, Ectoplasm opened his mouth and dispensed out clones in order to pass out the packets in a quick and orderly fashion. Effectively impressing and confusing the students receiving them.

"As you can all see, my clones are passing out your preliminary math exams. You may begin as soon as you receive them, and you may leave as soon as you complete them. So hurry it up, I'm sure you all want some extra lunch time right?"

Most of the class didn't even bother showing emotion at the instructor's final question, still reeling from the fact that they were taking a test so soon.

"W-what!? A test!? On the first day!? What the hell man!?" A yellow and black-haired teen known as Kaminari thought out loud.

"Yeah! We haven't even learned anything yet! This is unfair!" Mineta complained alongside him.

Sighing deeply, the pro hero resisted the urge to grab the bridge of his nose, already seeing that some of these kids weren't so bright.

"Correct, you haven't learned anything yet, which is why this is a PRELIMINARY exam. It's supposed to show me where everyone is at in terms of knowledge in mathematics, which in turn will help me determine a proper pace to teach everyone effectively."

However, while many sighs of relief came out around the class, Kaminari was still looking totally clueless as to what the teacher was getting at.

"Uh, what?"

Getting promptly smacked across the head by one purple haired Kyoka Jiro, the yellow and black-haired teen cried out in pain. "It's not for a grade lightning-butt, now stop being a dumbass!"

Seeing this, the prosthetic using teacher could help but chuckle at the antics of his new class. This was certainly guaranteed to be an interesting year.

"Very well then, please quiet down and begin."

As the class collectively put their heads down and began working, Ectoplasm looked around to try and observe what he could. For one, he saw the yellow-haired boy from before practically pull his hair out while looking at a problem. This made the man chuckle a bit as he also noticed a red-haired boy and an invisible girl show some signs of struggle as well.

The test wasn't designed to be impossible, but it sure as heck wasn't easy. He had made sure to put in a couple of problems that even a college level math graduate would have some trouble with.

Which was why he was so taken aback when the first exam was handed back to him only fifteen minutes into class…

The pro hero read the name at the top of the page and looked up to make eye contact with the boy. Was he serious?

Izuku Midoriya, Ectoplasm thought to himself as the boy took a bow and walked out the door.

Looking deeper through the test, the pro hero made sure that he wasn't being pranked by being handed a blank test. But every problem that he looked through on any given page only left him more and more stunned. He didn't know for sure until he graded it fully later, but this boy was at least close to a perfect score!

With shock still obvious on his face, Ectoplasm brought his eyes back up to the class where most students were still focused on their tests. This was incredible, it looked like he already had a star pupil.

Only a couple pairs of eyes stayed up and looked at the door that Izuku just walked out of. One from an angry Bakugo. And one from an unsure Yaoyorozu.


Izuku sat quietly on the edge of his seat alone at his lunch table. He was, of course, very grateful to Ectoplasm-sensei for giving his class the opportunity to have extra time at lunch, but he didn't expect for the test to be so rudimentary.

So now, here he was- sitting alone in a half empty lunch room reading comics with an empty bowl of finished katsudon off to the side.

Shaking away the insignificant thoughts, the green haired boy focused back up on the piece of literature in his hands.

Currently, he was flipping through Amazing Spider-Man #122, and re-reading this one always managed to get him to feel bad for Peter. In this specific issue, Peter had failed to save his girlfriend at the time, and as a result, she was killed by a villain out of pure spite.

The first time he had read this story, the boy had cried for hours. This of course, was back when he was still doing his spider training and burning through comics like nobody's business. The mysterious box he'd found had come with exactly 300 Spider-Man comics, counting Amazing Fantasy #15. Which really annoyed Izuku, because that made it to where the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man that was in the box was #299. And #299 left him on a HUGE cliffhanger regarding an alien symbiote breaking into Peter's home and scaring his wife, Mary Jane.

Halting his thoughts immediately, Izuku shook his head at his frustrations with the comics. Ok, I need to calm down before I become some kind of super-nerd.

Anyways, now he just re-read all of the comics so he could possibly try to catch anything he might've missed through his first run. That, and he obviously loved seeing Peter's amazing adventures as well.

There was also the mystery of the three VHS tapes marked 1, 2 and 3 that were also inside the strange box. But those had just been sitting in his room collecting dust these past ten months, because much to his disappointment, nowhere he went had a single VHS player in stock. He understood of course that it was dead hardware, but it still didn't make it any less crappy knowing there was something he was missing.

Either way though, he didn't get much more reading done, because his classmates were beginning to show up in the lunchroom at a steady pace, and more specifically, Kendo was now making her way over to him with a tray of food in hand.

Widening his eyes, Izuku scrambled to put away the delicate comic book, doing his best to look as casual as possible when the orange-haired girl arrived.

"Sup, Midoriya, mind if I sit here?"

This caught the green haired boy completely off guard, leaving him staring blankly for a solid few seconds. He had assumed that she was just coming over here to ask him something, why did she want to sit with him? No one ever wanted to sit with him! Ever! Lunch had always just been his 'fantasize about heroes by yourself for an hour' time.

"Uhh, what?" Izuku squeaked out.

Looking at the boy oddly, Kendo spoke again. "Uh, do you mind if I sit with you?"

"N-no, sorry, I heard you. I'm just not used to anyone sitting with me at lunch… Are you sure?"

Giving the boy a blank look, Kendo sat down without another word, staring her teal eyes straight into his emerald ones for a few moments, as if trying to read him. He really could be confusing sometimes, but she was determined to figure him out. And she was sure that a big piece of that would come from information about a certain red-eyed blonde boy.

Starting to feel uncomfortable from the silent staring, Izuku opened his mouth to try and break the silence. "Uh, Kendo-san? Is something wrong?"

Not missing a beat, the orange haired teen replied. "Nope," she said casually, placing some food in her mouth and chewing before talking again. "I was just wondering how you knew Bakugo, you two are always giving each other dirty looks."

"Oh…" Izuku choked out dryly, not really knowing how to respond to the sudden question.

Slightly surprised at how long the boy was taking, Kendo looked at him worriedly as he eyed the floor with a frown. "Forget I said anything, I understand if it's personal."

Making eye contact with her once again, Izuku felt remorse set in at his cowardice to tell the truth. Why was this so hard? It wasn't like it was some huge secret or something.

"N-no, it's ok Kendo-san, it's not that big a deal. I went to middle school with Kacchan, that's how I know him."

Kacchan? Deku? So are they friends? That's the only explanation for the nicknames right? Unless Midoriya is calling him that because of an inside joke or something.

Not able to hold in her curiosity, Kendo continued with her questioning. "Ok, but then why does he call you Deku? He seems way too angry when he says it for it to just be a cute little nickname."

This time, Izuku saw the question coming, pausing for a moment before scratching the back of his head to try and play things off. "Oh, that? Heh, it's not a big deal, he's always called me that since we were kids. He just says it to make fun of me and call me useless."

This revelation made the orange haired teen stop everything for a moment, widening her eyes and putting her food down at the thought. "Wait, what? He meant that as an insult? He was just messing around with you though, right? Aren't you friends?"

When Izuku just stared down at his empty bowl in utter silence, Kendo slowly matched his expression, a frown making its way onto her lips. She understood now, loud and clear. But the big unanswered question now was how. How did someone as strong as Izuku let himself get bullied? She was very much on the verge of asking him and satisfying her curiosity, but she thought better of it. She had already asked enough about his private life, and she didn't wanna dig up any more bad memories for the boy.

"Ok, good," Itsuka began again after a long pause. This time sporting a big smile and a thumbs up as the green haired boy looked back up at her. "Because he seems like a massive asshole," she finished with a hefty laugh. In reality, she wouldn't have said anything if he had ended up being Izuku's friend, but now that she knew better, she didn't have to hold back any feelings whatsoever.

This brought a small trace of a smile back to the super-powered teen's lips, even pulling a small chuckle from him at the girl's choice of words. "Yeah, I guess he really is huh?"

Happy to see that the boy was feeling a bit better, Kendo derailed everything and changed the topic of conversation. Hoping to see the boy fully forget about her previous nosiness. "So, what did you think of that math test we just took? I saw that you were the first to finish it."

"It was easy."

"Oh uh, well… Yeah, it wasn't that bad, I guess. A couple of those questions at the end though had me clueless. Those definitely weren't made for first years, don't ya think?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

Narrowing her eyes at the boy, Kendo saw that he was still staring down his finished bowl of food. He obviously still wasn't feeling too great, either that or he hated talking about math. What was something else she could say that could pull him out of his funk?

"Oh yeah!" Itsuka beamed, remembering something very important that was coming up. "What do you think the big surprise is for hero studies next period? Aizawa-sensei made it sound like it was serious."

This seemed to almost instantly perk Izuku up, allowing him to forget about his unknown mental dilemma and make eye contact with the girl. "Oh yeah, I was wondering about that too. It'll probably be intense. Like you said, Aizawa-sensei doesn't mess around, and he specifically told us that we would be surprised by who would be teaching us."

"Yeah, but don't get caught up on that too much," Kendo warned, stopping the boy's train of thought in its tracks. "Aizawa-sensei could just be lying to us like yesterday. For all we know, he could come back and be the hero studies teacher himself. I'll never trust what he says again."

This made him bust out completely in laughter, earning a beaming smile from the redhead across from him. "Yeah, that's a good point, I guess we'll see what happens. We just have to be ready for anything."

Sure, they were ready. Ready for an unknown teacher to come through the door and start ruffling some feathers. Ready for the most unexpected of scenarios that U.A could throw at them. Hell, they were even ready for Aizawa to come trudging in and declaring that what he said before was another rational deception…

But what they weren't ready for, was exactly what ended up happening.

"I AM HERE!" A large and flashy man yelled as he burst through the class doors with an even flashier costume to boot.

"Woah! It's All Might!" Kirishima yelled enthusiastically, stating the obvious.

"No way! All Might is a teacher at this school!?"

"I knew it! So the rumors were true!"

"This is gonna be so cool!"

A year ago, Izuku would have been just as, if not more excited than his classmates around him to see the symbol of peace. But now, he wasn't feeling the excitement at all, even with the man wearing his iconic silver age costume.

In fact, the green haired teen was feeling something more along the lines of dread at having to face All Might again.

He's my hero studies teacher!? What are the odds! I hope he doesn't recognize me, that would be an awkward conversation.

Aw who was he kidding, All Might probably saw hundreds of faces a day, there was no way he would remember some kid who claimed to be his biggest fan. That's probably what every kid told him.

Having cleared up the thoughts going off in his head to a degree, Izuku looked up again and listened closely. He still planned on acing whatever All Might had in store for them.

"AHAHAHA, settle down now my young students. Yes, it is I, All Might, and I will be your hero studies teacher this year."

The symbol of peace paused as the class cheered once again, waiting for it to die back down before speaking again in his signature booming voice. "I'm glad you are all as enthusiastic about that as I am. I will be doing the best I can this year to teach each and every one of you all that I can. But that's enough of an introduction, don't you think?" The pro hero asked rhetorically, lifting his hand and pressing a button on some sort of remote.

Everyone watched in awe as whirring noises began to emit from the wall of the classroom, opening up compartments holding an array of metal briefcases numbered one to twenty.

"On the wall to your right you will all find your hero costumes for today's class. Please collect the satchel with your corresponding class number and change in the locker rooms. We're going to Training Ground Beta!"

The entire class got up in an excited frenzy to collect their beloved hero costumes. Something that even Izuku joined in on as he collected his briefcase and joined a smiling Kendo, walking out of the classroom in a par behind everyone else.

What the super-powered teen didn't notice however, was the intense stare that was on him the entire time, courtesy of a certain number one hero…


Izuku finished up the adjusting of his web shooters as quickly as he could- he was already one of the last boys in the locker room after changing. It seemed that everyone was extremely eager to get started.

Fidgeting with the devices on his hands while he walked, the green haired teen began making his way out to Training Ground Beta, figuring he could finish up while he made his way out.

He was already clad in his hero costume, a very accurate representation of his fictional mentor's, with a few key differences.

The first, and most obvious, was the completely different color scheme.

Izuku had opted for two contrasting shades of green in favor of the classic red and blue. With a light cyan green replacing the red, and a darker green replacing the blue.

Another change that he couldn't really avoid were his two support items, clearly in view on his wrists. They were now fully adjusted, but still in plain sight. He would have preferred to keep them hidden underneath his costume like Peter did, but that wasn't in the cards for him until he figured out how to make them smaller on his wrists.

Other than those small changes however, Izuku's costume was true to its comic counterpart, even if it did look a bit raggedy on behalf of his novice sewing ability.

Quickly doing his best to catch up to the rest of the class, Izuku was one of the last ones to gather around All Might, instantly spotting Kendo's distinguishable orange hair.

"Kendo-san!" Izuku called as he walked up behind her, making her turn to face him. The look on her face said it all as she looked him up and down and inspected his costume closely.

"Uhh, Midoriya? Is that really your costume?" She asked somewhat perplexed.

"Yeah! Isn't it awesome!? I made it myself!" He exclaimed happily, putting his mask on and posing in front of her.

Itsuka on the other hand had her head tilted to the side in a bit of confusion. She supposed that him making it himself was the reason it looked so… Patchy. But still, it did look a bit ridiculous.

Ehh, I guess with the mask on it does look a little cooler.

"Made it yourself, huh? Well, that's pretty neat, I definitely don't think I'm skilled enough for that," she said, gesturing down to her own costume.

Taking his mask off again and observing the girl's attire, Izuku couldn't help but think that it was the perfect embodiment of both simplicity and complexity all at the same time.

Draped over her body was a turquoise qipao that stopped down at her knees along with a black corset tightened firmly around her waist. She also wore a black domino mask over her eyes and turquoise flats that matched the rest of her costume.

Overall it looked very "Martial-artsy."

"Wow, your costume is awesome Kendo-san! It really fits y-"

"Alright! Now that everyone is here, let us begin the Battle Trial!" The symbol of peace boomed excitedly, interrupting the green haired teen and gaining everyone's attention.

Izuku locked his eyes with Kendo's, feeling better when he saw her smiling at him in understanding.

Once he had complete and utter silence again, All Might spoke again while throwing out a signature thumbs up. "Listen carefully young heroes, because today, we will be practicing something that every hero must know how to do correctly. Battling indoors!"

Many sounds of elation, confusion and even dread were heard from the class, but All Might continued his explanation nonetheless.

"Today's Battle Trial will have a bit of an American twist to it, with a search and rescue operation to secure a nuclear weapon!" The number one hero shouted flamboyantly. Striking a pose and waiting for his students to be impressed.

Unfortunately, only crickets were heard from the audience, causing All Might to clear his throat and carry on. "Ehem, uh, you will all be going head-to-head in pairs of two, one team as heroes and one team as villains. The heroes must either defeat the villains in combat and secure them with capture tape, or simply secure the nuclear weapon. Naturally, the villains will be doing the opposite, defending the nuclear weapon and taking down the heroes. Any questions?"

Now that everything was explained properly, everyone in class 1-A was showing pure enthusiasm at their coming trial. Even Mineta was pumped up, already going around asking girls to partner with him.

In fact, everyone was going around partnering up. Even Izuku found himself looking directly to his right at the orange haired girl with hope on his face.

Before he could open his mouth to ask her, however, the loud voice of the symbol of peace shut everyone's partner hunt down instantly.

"No questions? Good. Then we will begin drawing numbers in order to determine the pairs and the roles."

A collective groan rang across the street at the instructor's words as All Might reached in and began the drawing.

Not hearing his name for the first few draws, Izuku saw Kendo begin to listen for her name and turned away from her. He might as well use this moment to think about the coming assignment. In theory, this was the perfect test for someone like him. His powers weren't all that destructive to an indoor environment, and his well roundedness gave him the option to be both sneaky and loud when faced with the task of securing an objective. As a matter of fact, if he didn't know any better, this could've been a scenario right out of Peter's adventures, this was tailor made for him!

Now all he needed was some luck. He'd prefer to be on the hero team for obvious reasons. And he was confident that he could work with anyone in the class barring Bakugo, but since that was only a one in twenty chance, the green haired teen felt pretty good about his odds.

His timing was impeccable as well, because right as he finished wrapping up his thoughts, he heard his name boom from the symbol of peace.

"Next up is Team E, consisting of Izuku Midoriya and Itsuka Kendo. You two will be the hero team."

Hearing this, Izuku's neutral face immediately jumped up into a smile as he met her eyes, it looked like luck was finally going his way!

"And the villain team going up against them will be Katsuki Bakugo and Neito Monoma!"

And just like that, the super-powered teen's smile faltered…

Seriously!? I'm going up against Kacchan already!?

Quickly diving back into his head, Izuku took this new development in stride, calming his nerves and taking a deep breath. Realistically, he should be ok now, he already laid everything out to his former friend, and he had even beaten him yesterday several times in the quirk apprehension test, so why would this be any different?

Oh, who was he kidding, that answer was obvious- this time he'd have ten months of pent up rage coming at him in actual combat!

Can I beat Kacchan in a direct fight? I handled him in that little skirmish in front of our middle school a few days back, but this is different, he didn't use his quirk back then. What if I-

Izuku was shaken out of his thoughts by a hand touching his shoulder. Looking up, he saw the familiar teal eyes of his orange haired classmate right as she began speaking.

"Come on Midoriya, didn't you hear All Might? We're up first, let's go kick some ass!" She said enthusiastically, without a care in the world.

"Uh, yeah, let's uh, do it." Izuku replied softly, following her to the entrance of the building.


"Alright, what's the plan, Midoriya? I know you've got something."

Izuku once again shook out of his thoughts and tried to get his head in the game, why was this bugging him so much?

Come on! Stop thinking so much! I thought I was over this!

"Uhh, Midoriya? Are you ok?" Kendo asked with some concern after his elongated silence.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine! Lets uh, let's get to planning! We don't have much time left!"

The orange haired teen narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously at his poor attempt to change the subject. But seeing as he was right about them having a limited amount of planning time, she let it slide. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Right!" Izuku began, bringing a finger up to his chin in thought. "Ok, well let's look at the obvious first. We're going up against Kacchan and Monoma-san, so this already isn't gonna be easy. Do you know if Monoma-san has already touched anyone?"

Going deep in thought for a moment, Kendo shook her head after a while. "No, I don't, he wasn't next to us when the teams were being picked."

"Hmm, well that's ok, that doesn't change much, because regardless of who Kacchan has as a teammate, I'm pretty confident he's gonna come down after me right away."

This got the girl's attention instantly. "You really think he would risk his mission like that just to settle the score with you?"

"Hah, are you kidding? He probably won't even think about the mission at all. I can almost guarantee we'll see him within five minutes of entering the building."

This made Itsuka pause for a moment while she digested this surprising information. What was up with these two?

"So, what's the plan? I'm sure we can take him down together pretty easily, don't you think?" Kendo asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know about that, Kacchan is really strong, we shouldn't underestimate him. Can you give me a full rundown of your quirk?"

The orange haired teen smiled at something familiar being asked of her, and responded without hesitation. "Of course! It's called Big Fist. It's pretty much exactly what you've already seen. I can grow my hands and increase my strength with them a lot. Really straightforward and boring, heh."

Izuku on the other hand was thinking the opposite as he analyzed and brainstormed ideas involving her abilities. "Hmm, alright then, so I'm guessing you prioritize fighting over everything?"

"Yep, exactly. I'm even a blackbelt in karate, so I work at my best in close range."

Izuku nodded, happy with that response as he formed a plan in his head. Seeing as she was a battle hero, he dismissed the idea of splitting up and sending her for the nuclear weapon alone. She could be a valuable asset against Bakugo if they double teamed him. This was perfect!

"Alright, I've got something. Here's what we're gonna do…"


"Alright you shitty extra, listen up cause I'm only gonna say this once! I'm going down there and taking down that shitty Deku once and for all! Got it!? I don't give a shit what you do, just don't get in the way!" Bakugo yelled with his back turned to his teammate. He was almost the whole way to the exit of the room when he felt a hand on his shoulder stop him momentarily.

"Relax tough guy, you misunderstand me completely. What do you say I join you? I've got a bone to pick with Midoriya as well. We can crush him together!"

Despite not wanting any help at all in his personal endeavor, Katsuki couldn't help but smile a bit at the slyness in the boy's voice.


Back with Kendo and Izuku, the pair were both sitting in silence as the last of the fifteen-minute preparation period drained away. They were both already aware of what the plan was, having just gone over it twice to make sure they were ready. Now they just had to wait.

But while Itsuka was waiting calmly and eagerly, Izuku was a slightly different story. And the orange haired teen couldn't help but worry when the boy started mumbling incoherently again.

Ok, just calm down, I've gotten past this already. I'm not scared of Kacchan, I'm stronger than him now. There's no reason to be thinking about this so much. Everything is gonna go exactly according to plan. Just like I told him

before, I'm done being his punching bag…

Looking like he had gotten his mind in order, Izuku looked forward with fire in his emerald eyes, ready for the battle ahead.

However, the quick change in demeanor was not enough to stop Kendo from voicing her concerns.

"Alright, Midoriya, what's wrong? I know somethings up; you've been mumbling to yourself this whole time."

Izuku barely caught what she said before she kept going.

"Is this about facing Bakugo? You can tell me. I'll understand if you're nervous."

"Well, kinda, but I think I'm ok now, I just needed to get my head straight. I thought I was done with this crap after I beat him in all those tests yesterday, but it looks like there's still some doubt there still."

Itsuka broke into a small smile at the boy's words. Happy that he was finally venting this stuff to her. She was expert on this type of stuff thanks to a certain third-year, so she already had the perfect encouragement on deck for him.

"Good, just remember to believe in yourself, ok? He's just an asshole. Who c-"

"Who cares what someone else thinks, yeah I remember. Thanks Kendo-san!" Izuku finished for her and looked forward with brand new hunger. It was as if he had just been reminded of something important, so important in fact, that he didn't even realize what he said until it was too late.

After the girl stayed silent for a while, Izuku slowly crept his wide eyes over her, only to see an emotion that he hoped he was reading wrong.

Realization.

"How… How did you know I was gonna say that?"

Izuku scrambled as he looked back and forth between the starting line and the orange haired girl.

Crap!

"Uhh…"

Suddenly though, the loudspeaker came to life and the familiar voice of All Might sounded through them.

"Alright teams! Your fifteen minutes are up! Enter the building and begin!"