Rei had better mornings than today, for three months now she had gotten her youngest to visit her in the hospital after a six-year absence in the child's life, and in a few more weeks she would be sharing a home with her daughters after almost seven years. Seven years that had been taken from her by the man that was visiting her now, a visit that only came when he needed something, or he was ordered by their oldest daughter. "You seem to forget something, Enji... I love our daughters, I love our sons... But you Enji, but with you there was no such thing. When we got engaged it was a business arrangement so I could take care of my father when he was sick and you got your child. That was all that was to it. I don't care that you were so twisted to think what we became was anything but that." She was done, every time that she had put up with Enji's bullshit coming back to her, every time he had blamed her when something happened. No wonder she was in here. "I have tried to love you Enji, gods know how much over the last twenty-five years. I even tried to see if I could have some form of affection for you."

Enji watched as she went over the papers for the new housing for her and their daughters, him trying to make her reconsider the move, and her needing a guarantor after being in a hospital for six years and now being separated. No matter what she said he did truly care for her in his own way despite what their original arrangement was. "So there's nothing I can say that can make you reconsider? Rei, please don't do this."

"Enji..." Rei looked at him under her pink thick-framed reading glasses. "I never wanted my children to hate their father, but you forced this outcome… not me. Touya is gone, Fuyu had to take care of her sister when her own parents couldn't, Natsu can't stand the sight of you and is living abroad, and Sho is barely hanging on. I can see it in her eyes and you two have not spoken in years. So please Enji let's end this…" She paused to pass him the documents. "Like you, I don't want to lose another one. Let me be there for the ones that are left. They need us to be there for them."

"I will sign this, but please consider it." He looked at the documents, using the nightstand near her bed as a backing surface as he signed in the provided spaces.

Rei sighed frowning, no matter what their relationship became they were married and they had four children together, and she did have to make concessions when he had wronged her in the past, but now that was a thing of the past and she was not giving in. "Enji I don't know what else to say, let's say I did back down from this. What would happen then, is what we are ever going to change? Or are you going to make me give you another child at my age? Have you considered what Sho and Natsu would think if we did work this out? Natsu is coming home, Fuyu is close to getting her teacher's degree, and Sho is starting at U.A. tomorrow. We can't let history repeat itself." She finished.

Enji understood what she was trying to say but still… he wasn't ready to give up yet, not on her, and not on their family. He had to do whatever it took to fix it, no matter what it took. He was the number two hero for a reason, and what would that look like if he couldn't rehab this situation.

(…)

"Izuku, do you have tissues?"

The voice of Inko Midoriya entered Izuku's ears as he was tying his shoes at the entrance of the small apartment he shared with his mother, her slim frame hovering over him. "Yeah..." he replied, letting out a grunt in affirmation.

"And Your handkerchief? What about your handkerchief? Your hanky?" There was something comical about her tone when she asked him in a barrage.

"I have it too, Mom." He paused what he was doing to look up at her. "I promised Ochako-san and Todoroki-san that I would walk with them from the station and I am going to be late." Izuku spoke in an annoyed tone. "I have to hurry." He said getting up and leaning in to kiss the taller woman on the cheek. Izuku then picked up the same backpack from the slime incident from a year ago before turning to leave.

"Izuku..." Inko called out to him shyly.

"Yes, Mom." The boy answered, their door half open.

Inko closed the distance between them as she turned her attention to the tie of his U.A. uniform, fixing the crooked red accessory, brushing off the gray blazer, and smiling down at the uniform as she did so. "You look really cool, go knock them dead." She said, unable to keep her eyes from watering, for the first time since he was four years old Inko could see the excitement in Izuku's eyes about going to school, and it hit her all at once. For the first time, he had friends who were going to treat him like an equal. For the first time, she wasn't worried that his teachers were going to treat him like a pariah, and she did not have to worry, he was going to have Toshinori with him. She could not help but start the waterworks, overcome with emotion.

Izuku, seeing his mom cry tears of happiness, closed the door and surprised his mother with an embrace, holding on to her tightly. This is how he would start his first day of high school, with an unbelievable high. Letting go of her he offered her his see you later. "I'm off." Izuku spoke with a grin that Inko never thought she would see again.

(...)

The trip to the station that Shoko had to take was surprisingly rough being the first time in nearly a year she had to take the train during the morning rush, it did not help that she almost got lost, but now she was at the station she was supposed to meet Ochako and Izuku at, being the first one at the spot near the entrance as they agreed upon. Being here early afforded her the time she needed to make sure she was presentable. She made sure that the cream cardigan of her school uniform was neatly worn, the red tie straight, and the pleated skirt even and straightened. Izuku was the first of the two of them to show up, causing Shoko to light up at the event. "Midoriya!" She waved him over, looking him up and down.

The boy looked smart and both teens could not help but admire each other's uniform. Izuku could not help but think how pretty she looked in hers. His eyes traveled to the cardigan down to the dark green plaid mini-skirt over her long legs in a pair of black pantyhose. Something about seeing her wear them drew his attention to her legs, and he couldn't help but admire them, his face growing red.

"This is the first time I have seen you in your uniform, Midoriya, you look good."

Izuku was knocked out of his stupor looking at the genuine smile on Shoko's face. With his face still red he looked away embarrassed, complimenting her as well. "Uhh... Y-y-you look good too... Todoroki-san." Izuku spoke, not able to look her in the face.

"Thank you, Midoriya." She said pulling a phone from her school bag to check the time, they both had an hour to get to school and had plenty of time for Ochako to arrive, her living the furthest away from U.A. and the two being rather early. "So what do you want to do while we wait for Uraraka?" Shoko said, placing her phone back in its place.

"I-I-I guess we can talk about what we have been doing in the last two months." Izuku said. The three of them have been busy and unable to hang out with each other since February.

"Yeah sounds nice, did you get in touch with All Might about..." Shoko looked around conspiratorially, making sure that no one would overhear them. "The second Quirk." She finished, intrigued by the black tendrils that came from a Quirk that wasn't One for All. That and the fact that he was the only other person she knew who basically had more than one Quirk.

Izuku thought back to the conversation with Toshinori, he had asked him a bunch of questions about the tendril Quirk and got an I don't know in return, but what he did get from the man was a promise that he would look into it for later. Now, however, the pair are going to act as if the second Quirk was always his to begin with and One For All was the catalyst needed to awaken it. "Toshinori-san said that we should work on the assumption that the Quirk is mine for the time being until we can look into every user of One For All." He said, glad that he had someone to talk to about all of this. Even if they avoided talking about the Quirk unless they saw each other in person to avoid a paper trail.

Shoko nodded, getting the gist of the situation, with her father being a hero she knew all too well that it was common for heroes to keep the full extent of their abilities from each other. She also understood that there could be situations where a One for All user would need to pass on the Quirk without fully explaining what the Quirk could do, She just hoped that would not happen to Izuku if she was being honest. "So did he say if Shimura-san would know?" She asked, thinking of their shared Hero's mentor.

"I don't know, it's not like we can ask her either." Izuku spoke, remembering what Toshinori had said about his mentor, and he could not help but worry that the same might happen to him and Toshinori. It was clear that the man held a lot of resentment from that time, and he could not help but wish that history would not repeat itself for his and his mother's sake. He did not want to lose another father figure. "Yeah... That's that for now I guess." Izuku confirmed. "So what have you been up to, Todoroki-san?"

Shoko looked up at the sky with a smile on her face. She and her sister have started moving their things to their new home with their mother, and Natsuo, her older brother, is going to spend his summer vacation with them, and her parents are getting a divorce. All things that she was more than happy about, though she couldn't tell Izuku that knowing that he lost his father at a young age. "Well... Uhh... Mom is going to be leaving the hospital as soon as they clear all of their paperwork. And we are moving closer to U.A., I am going to be a Musutafu native from now on like you, Midoriya."

"Wow, I am happy for you Todoroki-san. Uhhh I would say that I could give you a tour but... Umm, you know my situation." The boy cursed himself for being the only local in their group and not being able to show the girls around his hometown because of his own social awkwardness. If he had tried he would have had a couple of friends like Ayaka, a Quirkless from his school around him by now.

"Don't worry, Midoriya. We have a lot of time to explore once my family gets settled, you know?" Shoko said, chuckling. "Plus with Uraraka around there are going to be no stoppages to what we will be able to do together, lucky you." That last crack nearly went over the boy's head when his face turned a bright red. "Besides the three of us are great as a team together if our time training was anything to go by... Speaking of which... Midoriya." She turned to him to examine him. "Have you been keeping up with your training?" She said, looking him over head to toe.

Izuku looked at her mock offended, he knew that she intended it as a joke so he was going to respond similarly. "Of course, Todoroki-san. You know that there was no way I can slack off now." He put the black tendrils on display. "I can use them as if they are my own hands now." Izuku said removing his backpack and putting it back on with his Quirk like it was second nature. "And they are several times stronger than my hands so there is a lot more that I can pick up too." He wanted to pick her up to demonstrate but he reframed at the implication getting the back of his ears to become red from embarrassment. "What about you? I remember you telling All Might that you did not know much about your Quirk, and your Coma last year... Uhhh I guess what I am trying to say is how are you doing on that front? If you want to talk about that, that is."

"Yeah it's fine, actually my sister had to stop me from overdoing it, I think with my growth spurt I got stronger as well as my Quirk, Dr. Mori said that what happened last year might not happen again. But with a stronger Quirk, she wasn't sure... She wasn't willing to let me push myself to my new limit just yet, with my family's history." She looked over to see Izuku cock his head at her words. "She means with the fire users in my family we have a chance to overheat or even burn ourselves if we are not careful... And with how hot and cold I can get being totally fine she was not willing to risk it."

If the color of her flames were anything to go by then Izuku could surmise that her flames could get to about 3000 degrees Fahrenheit and she would be totally fine, which was a crazy thought, she was a teenager and she was already halfway to producing something as hot as the surface of the son, and that was not her limit either. "Wow... That's super cool, Todoroki-san!" Izuku exclaimed with a large smile. "And with how old we are that means you have room for your Quirk to grow even stronger! Honestly, I am jealous, if I was born with a Quirk from my dad we could have tested it out. He had a fire Quirk too!" He continued excitedly. "I mean there's still a chance I can get one considering everything, oh man I wonder if there was someone who had One For All that had a fire Quirk."

Shoko could do nothing but blush as Izuku went on animatedly about the subject, he was the first person her age to not only compliment her for Supernovae, but he did not compare it to her father's Quirk, which seems silly with how much stronger she was to her father, but it was appreciated all the same. She had to intervene once it was clear he wasn't going to stop, and they moved on to other topics as they waited for Ochako.

About thirty minutes later Ochako arrived out of breath with the blazer of her uniform under one arm while her bag hung over her opposite shoulder. "Sorry... Sorry, I am late." She said using her hands at her knees to support herself. "I was helping my parents sort out some material for a job in Sapporo." She paused to catch her breath. "Anyway, ready to go... Izuku-kun... Todoroki-san?"

'What the hell?' Shoko felt her chest start to tighten.

"Yeah, we were just waiting on you, Ochako-san. You ready Todoroki-san" Izuku asked Shoko.

'Hang on a minute.' She was pissed and she didn't know why. Her mind landed on 'it's not fair', something changed and she was left behind. "Wait a minute since when did you two start calling each other by your given names." Shoko said, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms under her chest.

Izuku flinched at the suddenness of the shift in mood and Ochako was taken aback by it. "I have had chats with Izuku-kun's mother before. And it would have been awkward to have called them both by their family names." Ochako explained only now realizing that the pair might be closer than she thought, Shoko did not mind it when Izuku accidentally touched her, she even made a joke about it when they first met. Plus she did not want to lose her first female friend in their class so she explained it as what it was on the surface.

"I have a mother too, and so do you..." She paused to point at herself. "So here's what we are going to do... Shoko." She pointed at "Ochako," then at "Izuku," saying their names as she pointed to the corresponding person. "And none of that honorific bull, we are friends after all, right?" Shoko finished with a smug smile, it was only fair after all.

Ochako was pleasantly surprised, she thought that Shoko was jealous because of Izuku but she was just worried about the name thing, and she could not help but agree with her. They should all be on equal footing, missing the very fact that her original assumption was right. "I don't have a problem with it, Izuku?"

Izuku froze being put on the spot, but he was all for it although he did not know how to vocalize it. So Izuku just dropped his head to hide his developing blush.

The two girls noticed and Shoko was the first to speak. "You don't have to rush yourself if you are not comfortable with it."

"She is right, you know. We all do things at our own pace so take your time. You can call me whatever makes you comfortable." Ochako added.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku finally spoke. "No, it's fine S-s-Shoko, O-o-Ochacko." This was going to take time to get used to. "I don't mind, it's just weird for me, you know. I want to do it though." He finished getting an eyeful of both girls' gentle expressions.

Awkward, a few awkward moments passed and the three of them switched gears until they were talking like they were just together yesterday, joking around, and Ochako explaining what she had been doing lately. Apparently, Ochako was helping her parents manage their construction company, she was good with bookkeeping, and like Izuku and Shoko she did not slack off in her training. As they started to walk to U.A., she was candid about the fact she was quickly catching up to Shoko as far as her fitness went.

(...)

The three of them found themselves at the door of their shared classroom, 1-A, the giant doorway being the only barrier. "Woah... Hugh." Shoko said, looking up at the giant 1-A painted on its surface.

"You can say that again." Ochako replied.

"I think it's an accessibility thing, but honestly this campus was way too big." Izuku added, the trio only coming to a quarter of the door's height.

Shoko could not help but agree, the three of them had to run to make sure that neither of them was late. Ochako had apologized profusely as they ran. "Well, why don't we go in?" Shoko said, opening the sliding door.

Shoko stiffened, and Izuku narrowed his eyes when the trio's ears were assaulted by the voice of examinee 7111. "Well, someone is energetic." Ochako commented with a nervous chuckle.

"Don't put your feet on the desk!" 7111 said to a spiky-headed blonde that Izuku knew all too well.

'Great… Katsuki.' Izuku thought as he did not care for either 7111 or Katsuki.

"Huh?" Katsuki began, his feet not leaving the desk's surface, making clear that he did not care for 7111's protest.

"Don't you think that's rude to the U.A. senpai before us and the people who made the desk?" The boy said, nearly shouting, and pointing at the desk.

"Nope. What junior high did you go to, you side character?" Katsuki retorted, clear in his delinquent play. Shoko frowned, she remembered him and if it wasn't for her meeting Izuku she would have regretted helping in the blonde boy's rescue. His attitude was a reminder of the existence of her old man, the whole 'I'm above everyone else' act pissed her off.

7111 seemed to be taken aback by the question before he answered it anyway. "I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Tenya Iida." Tenya introduced himself, with a hand to his chest.

"Somei? So you're a damn elite, huh? Looks like I'll have fun crushing you."

'It's like he lives in his own world, not that I blame him.' Izuku thought, thinking of every time that he had been in the same class as his childhood friend, how the teachers and other students treated him all because of how strong his Quirk was. Though that was the case then Izuku quickly found out that despite Explosion's pure firepower it did not hold a candle to the versatility of his tendrils or Ochako's zero gravity, and lacked the power of One For All or have the ability to cremate someone like Shoko's Supernovae in an instant at that if he was right about her being nowhere near her peak. It was only in the last three months did he realized that Katsuki Bakugo was a big fish in a small pond so to speak.

"'Crushing'? That's cruel. Do you truly aim to be a hero?" Tenya asked Katsuki. About that Izuku was sure, despite how he might act around others Katsuki was 100% serious about becoming a hero, that was the one thing the two of them shared, that for better or for worse it kept them around each other. It was at that moment the pair noticed the trio. "You're." As he said that the heads of the class all turned towards them, seeming like they were the last to come. "Good Morning!" Tenya especially walked up to Izuku. "I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is…"

"…Yeah we heard." Shoko interjected in a dismissive tone, with a hand at her waist. Even Ochako was tense remembering how Tenya insulted Izuku in front of the other examinees.

Tenya froze in mid-stride as he was not sure how to react. Izuku nervously chuckled and waved him off. "You don't have to worry, we kinda overheard you talking to him." Izuku said with a pointed glance at Katsuki. "Umm… I'm Midoriya. Nice to meet you, Iida-san."

"Todoroki…"

"Uraraka…"

The girls both introduced themselves without much fanfare. "Midoriya-kun… you realized there was something more to that exam, didn't you?"

Izuku had no clue what he was on about, of course, he knew with how Quirks manifest he would be able to disable the robots without using One For All to destroy them. Was that what he meant? Then his mind went to the hero points to the exam, and Toshinori's explanation of them, and Izuku had an imaginary lightbulb pop over his head.

"I had no Idea." Tenya bowed his head in shame. "I misjudged you! I hate to admit it, but you are better than me."

Izuku felt bad, he did not realize that was part of the exam either. And the girls were offering Tenya narrowed glances as they watched the interaction. "I mean this is a hero school, right? It's not like they were going to grade you on just how much you can destroy, think about it, the hero points were probably not the only other thing they looked at." Shoko spoke to Tenya with a condescending tone and Ochako backed her nodding along.

"Well, aren't you the sharp one…" Both Shoko and Ochako had a chill run down their spines as the tired voice of an older man came from behind them, and without a word they both hid behind Izuku with a hand at their skirts eying a tired-looking man in a sleeping bag suspiciously while he laid on the floor under a meter from were they stood. "At least you are not noisy and you are a cautious group that's good for the hero course." The man yawned, getting up from the floor and out of his sleeping bag.

"A Teacher?" Izuku asked with a tense posture his arms semi-extended to cover the girls on instinct.

"Bingo." The man thought, looking the trio over. 'So these three know each other.' he thought as Izuku relaxed his stance but not enough to suggest he fully trusted the man's answer. "Now then." The man took out his eye drop bottle from a stiff scarf around his neck and used it on his own eyes putting two drops of the solution in each eye. "If you please find your seats I am about to take role." The man spoke quietly at the four teens in his line of sight. The four of them scattered to the four empty seats out of eighteen. Izuku sat next to a bored-looking girl with short black hair in the front row next to the window overlooking the hallway, Shoko sat in between a spiky redhead boy and a pink-haired girl, and Ochako sat near the middle behind Shoko and in between a tall muscular boy with big lips and short boy with what looked like greased up balls for hair. Their teacher took his place in front of the classroom behind a podium. "I am Shouta Aizawa, I am your homeroom teacher." He said. "It's kind of sudden, but put these on and go to the field. Since everyone seems to be here." The class was mystified when Aizawa pulled a PE uniform from the sleeping bag he was dragging around.

(…)

"A Quirk Assessment test?!" The entire class spoke in unison as they were all in the PE gear, and on the school's track field.

"What about the entrance ceremony? Shouldn't we be there too?" An energetic PE uniform in the form of a girl asked, clear that they were missing it.

"If you're going to become a hero, you don't have time for leisurely events." Aizawa spoke from experience, turning away from the eighteen students. "U.A.'s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are." He turned to look at his students facing the field. "That's also how the teachers run their classes." There were various expressions from the class among them Izuku, Tenya, the bored-looking girl, a girl that had a tight ponytail, Ochako, and Shoko did not have much of a reaction. Which Aizawa took note of, it is clear that they expected some form of this. 'This was going to be an interesting year.' He thought to himself. "You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right?" He continued as he walked through the field stopping at markings that were clearly made for the shot put event producing a ball and a small device, showing the device to his class.

"Physical fitness test where you weren't allowed to use your Quirks." The device showed a list of several track events, among other tests. "The country still uses averages taken from results from students not using their Quirks. It's not rational. Well, the Ministry of Education is procrastinating," and it was on purpose. He wasn't going to tell them that it was to keep the status quo with the Quirkless. He then pulled out a list on his device. "If I say your name I want you to line up behind me facing your classmates. Midoriya, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Kodai."

The class was surprised as the two recommendation students and three others were called with them moving to be on either side of Aizawa. Shoko and Izuku were joined by the girl with the ponytail 'Yaoyorozu', the boy with the flesh-colored tail from the exams 'Ojiro', and the bored-looking girl 'Kodai'. "These five scored the highest on the exams among their peers in both the practical and written. So their scores in the Assessment will not be held against them… Midoriya." Aizawa said, looking over his shoulder to Izuku behind him, passing him the small weighted ball that the boy nearly dropped.

"Y-yes, sir."

"Since you scored the highest on the exams you should demonstrate this next test for me." Aizawa spoke motioning for the others to return to where they stood with the rest of the class. "What was your best score in the softball test without your Quirk?"

"47 meters…" Izuku answered nervously looking at Katsuki staring a hole in him, Izuku knew what he might be thinking despite knowing that the other boy's mother celebrated the fact that Izuku had a Quirk.

"Then, try it using your Quirk." Aizawa said as the class was interested in what the boy's quirk might be.

Izuku looked at the ball before testing its weight, turning to Aizawa in the process. "Can I throw it however I want?"

"That is the test alright. Hurry up. Give it all you've got." Aizawa retorted, moving to stand with his class, all the while Katsuki was stewing in the background.

Izuku nodded at the black tendrils coming from the arm holding the ball. They wrapped around his forearm then the ball extended themselves to be half an arm's length from his hand. With a deep breath, he got in position, beginning to spin on his heels. After a couple of spins, he released the tendrils from the ball, launching it as the boy reached the apex of his spin. The ball broke the sound barrier before disappearing into the morning sky.

"Know your own maximum first." the ball fell a great distance away as Aizawa began his lecture. "That is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero. Say Midoriya?"

"Uhhh, yes sir."

"You were holding back weren't you?"

"Umm… yes, if I had thrown that normally with my full strength then I would have broken something in my arm." As soon as the words left Izuku's mouth there was light gossip among the crowd.

Aizawa revealed the results of Izuku's test, grinning. 803 meters was displayed on the screen, getting even louder gasps from the crowd. "What is the meaning of this?" A very angry voice pierced through the crowd, Izuku's senses screaming to him to be on guard, and a trail of explosions complimenting the voice. "Hey! Tell me what's going on Deku, you bastard!"

Izuku readied himself for a fight immediately, watching his childhood friend push past Ochako straight for him. Before he could get anywhere close to Izuku, two pieces of fabric wrapped themselves around Katsuki's head and torso, stopping him dead.

"What the…? These cloths are hard…!" Katsuki spoke struggling against the cloth

"They're weapons for capture made out of carbon fiber woven together with metal wire made of a special alloy… Stand down all of you." Aizawa spoke as looked he from Izuku with several tendrils swimming in the air around him, to Ochako hovering in place with a death grip on Shoko's shoulder with a glare trained on Katsuki, and Shoko herself with a blank stare of her own while the ice that covered her arms fell off in waves as her blue flames broke through the surface it. "Jeez… I am not going to be using my Quirk over and over… just because you can't get along with your peers bakugo…" Aizawa spoke in an angry tone that elicited fearful glances between the five of them. "I HAVE DRY EYE."