Ghosted

Midoriya was having a hard time sitting still on the train. How could anyone stick to their seat in his position? He had made it. He'd passed the entrance exam by the skin of his teeth and was now enrolled in the school his idol had graduated from.

'The first step towards my dream.' Midoriya thought to himself as he reflected on the effort it took for him just to get to this starting line. It wouldn't be easy from here on out, and he was a bit nervous, but this was overshadowed by his sheer determination. The teen couldn't stave the adrenaline in his veins, he felt equal parts excitement and anxiety for his inevitable first day in the hero course.

It was approaching him faster than he could mentally prepare for. How did his hair look? Did he have everything he needed for his first day? He had to double and triple check that he was wearing pants before walking out the door this morning, one could never be too careful.

Midoriya was particularly nervous about meeting his new classmates, he was going to be among the most promising prospective heroes in Japan! His excitement overtook his anxiety once again as he thought about the many new quirks he was going to get to see in action today. His notebook was out before the thought of new quirks had even fully manifested in his brain. Izuku tapped on his head with a pencil as he recalled the many amazing quirks he had gotten but a glimpse of at the entrance exam.

Once Izuku Midoriya was lost in his own little world, anything outside of it was basically nonexistent. While this helped with his nerves, it was also the reason why he hadn't noticed the train stopping.

Every second of everyday people make unconscious decisions which can alter the course of their lives, for better or worse. It could be something as obvious as deciding which train to take to school, or as miniscule as a thought about interesting quirks. Whatever the case, while Midoriya was off on another planet discussing the perks of a laser coming out of someone's belly button with himself, he was blissfully unaware of the impact this train ride was going to have on his time at U.A.

Most people don't pay any mind to their fellow passengers as they make their daily commute, and for a moment it was the same for a certain purple haired girl on her way to her first day of school. The girl entered the last train car and immediately gravitated towards the seats closest to the back of the commercial vehicle, which had been a routine for her since junior high. She didn't choose to sit in the back because of an aversion to people, she had always just found it to be the most cozy part of the train. It didn't matter how many people were around her anyway, her music helped her when she wanted to keep to herself.

As the purple haired girl sat she put her bag on her lap and pulled out her phone, scrolling through the same songs she always listened to half heartedly. She was wondering what music she was in the mood for today with the same bored expression she always wore on her face. Her thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound coming from her left. The girl started to glance to the side before rolling her eyes and writing the sounds off as just another weirdo on the train. She immediately plugged into her phone and hit shuffle. She'd already had enough on her plate today as is, it was time to do what she did best and shut off the outside world.

Today was going to be her first day at the famous high school, U.A. She had tried her best to bury her nervousness these past few days, she knew those feelings would pass once she had gotten past her first day of classes anyway, but feelings like these were inevitable unfortunately. She was usually pretty good at controlling her emotions, but this time she couldn't fight the growing pit in her stomach as the moment of truth drew closer.

The girl looked up from her phone and blinked a couple of times, she almost hadn't noticed she was only one stop away from U.A. She had a bad habit of spacing out when she got lost in thought, the music wasn't helping either. At least it made the train ride a bit faster.

The girl put her phone down and stretched her arms above her head. She took this moment to glance at the weirdo to her left again, this time getting a better look at him. This was when she started to worry that she might have gotten the wrong idea about this guy. The first thing she noticed was his uniform, it was the same color as hers. He was likely another student at U.A. She wondered if he was another first year, based on how scrawny he looked she doubted he was in the hero course. He seemed to be studying some notes with a strange look on his face, muttering words to himself out loud. At least that explained the whispering from earlier. He looked to be in some kind of trance. Clearly this guy took his studies very seriously, because he looked to be a million miles away mentally.

She unplugged her jack from her phone as she thought about whether or not she should introduce herself to the fellow U.A student. As soon as the music stopped playing though she was bombarded by word vomit which had gone up in volume from a whisper. She could practically see the words leaving his mouth, as though the letters had manifested themselves physically. It was just loud enough to get the attention of several adult passengers on the train who were giving the kid dirty looks. The lady sitting across from her gave her an awkward chuckle and a sympathetic look as she noticed the purple haired girl's sudden discomfort. The train doors opened a moment later, as the girl got up with a sigh of relief she glanced down at the green haired boy who was still lost in his own little world.

"That girl's gravity quirk seemed to work based on touch, but she could deactivate-" Midoriya's tangent was cut short when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder which almost made him jump out of his skin. He let out a soft shriek as he looked away from his notebook and held his arms up instinctively, as though he were trying to defend himself from an attacker.

The last thing Izuku expected was to lock eyes with a pretty girl. He immediately noticed she was wearing the same color uniform as him. She had an eyebrow raised as she gestured towards the door. "I'm guessing this is your stop too?" She asked a dumbfounded Midoriya.

Izuku was never the best at talking to girls, probably because he had never been able to make words come out of his mouth if he was ever approached by one, which was a rare enough occasion in and of itself. In fact, he couldn't even think of the last time he was approached prior to the entrance exam, where he had met the gravity girl. So as he stared up at this girl and tried his best to find his words, he couldn't even remember what language he spoke, let alone find an appropriate response. Literally anything would be better than this awkward silence… right?

"U-uh… Your ears?..." Midoriya squeaked as he pointed up at one of the girls' earphone jacks.

"Huh?" The girl was too stunned to speak. Her eyes widened as she realized he was pointing at her quirk. After another agonizing second the girl narrowed her eyes, the sides of her mouth twitching, she proceeded to leave the train in a hurry.

Midoriya kept pointing at the same spot in the air for a few seconds, even after the purple haired girl had left. He sat there, frozen in despair at the realization of what he had just done. The lady on the train sighed and put a hand on her forehead. Midoriya couldn't blame her really, it was all he could do to get up from his seat and shuffle out the door. He headed for U.A, leaving behind a bit of his remaining self confidence on that train. He felt really bad about offending that girl. Izuku was used to being the butt of every joke, it had made his years in junior high a living hell. If he had made someone else feel insecure like that he knew he screwed up big time. He had to apologize if he ever ran into that girl again, but the odds of them seeing each other again soon was slim, U.A was a pretty big school after all.

Midoriya couldn't stop thinking about the train situation right up until he had gotten to the huge door to Class-1A. He still hoped he hadn't offended the train girl with his remark, wishful thinking for sure. Lost in thought, Midoriya didn't think as he opened the door to the class, completely forgetting he was supposed to be a nervous wreck right about now.

Izuku snapped back to reality as he stood at the open entrance to the classroom, taking in the intimidating sight in front of him. More than a dozen students were already making each other's acquaintance. This sort of reminded him of his first day of junior high school, just another huge group of strangers who would probably look down on him for the next couple years. This thought would only be reinforced when he saw him.

Kacchan.

Midoriya started to feel lightheaded at the idea of spending another school year with him breathing down his neck. Thankfully Kacchan seemed to be preoccupied with an argument he was having with the serious guy from the entrance exam. Midoriya vaguely remembered the student introducing himself as Iida. The green haired boy had written a bit about his quirk after the exams since it had been particularly impressive.

Izuku tried sneaking to his assigned seat before Kacchan could notice him and make a scene. Midoriya had gotten pretty good at avoiding Kacchan over the years. He plopped down onto his seat and breathed a sigh of relief. After regaining his composure Midoriya started scanning the classroom. He was interested in whether he could learn something about his classmates' quirks based on their physical appearance. He remembered a few people from the exam, but then there were a few other people who stood out, particularly the people with distinct mutations. He saw a giant tail, a guy with a bird's head, a pink gi-

Midoriya paused when he spotted a familiar head of purple hair. His face turned bright red and he instinctively turned his head away as he covered his mouth with both hands. 'This is bad! Should I say something to her? Or would that be too weird?' Midoriya's mind raced at a mile a minute as he tried to come up with an appropriate course of action. She wasn't talking to anybody, she was just sitting there, staring off into space. She was holding her phone in one hand and leaning her head on her other hand.

Izuku was stuck on the idea of coming up to her and apologizing. Luckily he was interrupted when their homeroom teacher entered the classroom for the first time wearing a yellow sleeping bag. Midoriya put his hands on his forehead as he breathed a sigh of relief. There was no need to embarrass the purple haired girl by apologizing in front of everyone! What was he thinking?! It would have been the first time he'd actually initiated a conversation with a girl anyway, so one could only imagine how much of a disaster that would have been. It didn't help that the girl was seriously pretty. Izuku raised his head as he realized what he had just thought to himself. He shook his head and smacked himself with both hands to wake himself up. 'Get a grip will you?' He told himself

He started paying more attention to his surroundings and noticed he'd missed the introduction of his homeroom teacher. Now he was going down the list of students based on their assigned seats. "Rikido Sato, Mezo Shoji, Kyouka Jiro…" At that last name the purple haired girl raised a hand lazily as she continued staring ahead.

'Jiro…' Midoriya was glad that he knew her name now at least, and he was hopeful that he would get a chance to meet her properly and apologize.

"Izuku Midoriya…" The green haired boy was caught off guard by the mention of his name as his arm shot up like a flag pole.

"U-uh, here!" Midoriya kept his arm up for a little too long as the teacher scoffed at him.

The whole class giggled silently as Izuku could feel his face burning up. He quickly put his arm down and tried to make himself smaller. He had already made a fool of himself, and the semester had only just started… great…

Midoriya's embarrassing moment had caught the attention of someone else. Jiro knew she recognized that stutter, it was the same guy from earlier on the train. She remembered needing to get out of that train in a hurry, before she started laughing at the socially awkward weirdo.

She didn't care if people thought her quirk was weird, usually people were pretty nosy about it, so she had learned to tune them out. This guy was different though, she was trying to do him a favor and the first thing he did was ask her about her quirk? She had to leave so he didn't think she was laughing at him in a rude way, when in fact it was quite the opposite. She actually found it a bit silly, in an innocent, maybe cute kind of way.

'So the weirdo has a name huh?...'

—-

The students sat in their homeroom class at the end of the day, exhausted both emotionally and physically. Izuku felt like he needed to catch his breath. He didn't think he would be put under so much pressure during his first day of classes. Their homeroom teacher Mr Aizawa had thought it would be a good idea to threaten the weakest student with expulsion if they couldn't prove their worth in a series of apprehension tests. Thank goodness it was all just a trick or he would have sent Midoriya home packing.

Classes were pretty much over at this point, with Aizawa telling the students they should reflect on the results when they got home. If they scored low, they should use it as a teaching tool to gauge the current gap between them and their classmates, and work to close that gap this semester. If they scored high they shouldn't let it get to their heads, every hero has strengths and weaknesses, including pride. The stronger students needed to find the events they performed worst in, and work to improve in those areas in their training. Unfortunately for Midoriya the gap between him and his classmates was vast, and he performed sub-par in pretty much every event except one…

The U.A student's brain was in full recovery mode. One of the other students, a short kid named Mineta, was venting to Izuku about how they both almost got kicked out of school. Mineta got second to last in the quirk apprehension test, only avoiding last place because Midoriya had performed worse than him.

"It was so scary! I thought I would be last for sure! But I don't know what I would have done in your position Midoriya!" Mineta went on and on like this for a few minutes, but it was in one ear and out the other for Izuku. He was standing in a trance-like state for a majority of the conversation.

Someone did break him out of it though. A certain purple haired girl approached the duo with a stoic look on her face.

'Now's my chance!' Thought the green haired boy.

Izuku had been thinking about his game plan, he wanted the apology to be earnest, but he also didn't want to seem like a dork for just saying he was sorry out of the blue. He decided he would try making the first move, initiating a one-on-one conversation and casually bringing up the incident and apologizing for it in a more earnest manner. He hoped this wouldn't make her more uncomfortable, the last thing Izuku wanted was for someone to feel insecure about their quirk.

Jiro was within earshot. It was now or never.

Continuing to ignore Mineta's ramblings, Izuku mustered as much courage as he could. He stood as straight as an arrow and tried his best to smile without showing how petrified he really was.

"J-Jiro! This was an interesting way for our new teacher to introduce the hero course, don't you t-think?!" He vainly tried to make his voice sound as natural as he could. At the very least his awkward demeanor would get her attention, right?

It didn't.

Midoriya watched in disbelief as Jiro walked past him, not even acknowledging his existence. The green haired young man could feel his confidence completely drain for him as she disappeared out the door of the classroom.

The brief moment of silence was broken by Mineta, "Wow, rejected… That's rough pal."

His short classmate patted Midoriya on the back, he didn't feel it though. 'Did I make her feel worse by not apologizing right away?! She must hate my guts now!' His mind was spinning, had he really ruined a relationship with one of his classmates before classes even started? At least with Kacchan, Izuku didn't know why he was so hated by him. To make Jiro feel like this made Midoriya feel worse than all those years he had been bullied combined.

Midoriya supposed he had two choices now; he could try to force a conversation so he could properly apologize, or he could just let it go and hope she eventually does too.

'Gosh.' Izuku thought, "I really screwed up…"

—-

'Rational deception…' Jiro had been walking with clenched fists ever since she had gotten off the last train from school. 'What kind of teacher thinks something like that is a good idea anyway?'

Whenever Jiro felt her emotions getting the better of her she plugged into her phone and started playing aggressive music at full blast. Her quirk made it so no one but her could hear it, and she'd also become pretty good at hiding it. She didn't like people knowing her business so she hid her earphone jack's wire inside of her shirt, the other end connecting to her phone in her pocket. People always liked to make fun of her for 'always being plugged in,' so she'd made it a habit to listen to music this way, so no one would ask questions.

Her first school day had been going fine until near the end, when Mr Aizawa decided they needed to do some physical tests to weed out the weakest student and threaten to kick them out. Worse yet, that 'weakest student' turned out to be that weird kid, Midoriya…

Jiro blinked for a few seconds, forgetting why she was so mad in the first place. She then got flashbacks to one of the events in particular. The ball throwing event…

Most of the class looked pretty impressed when Midoriya threw the ball with his quirk, which surprised Jiro. The purple haired girl was horrified. The fact that he had to mutilate his own finger because of a threat that turned out to be a lie? She knew it was the hero course, but for some reason that guy injuring himself… and still ending up in last place… 'rational deception.'

Jiro ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. She turned the music up aggressively, scrolling through her angry playlist to find a more appropriate song to complement her fury.

Whatever the case she hoped Midoriya was doing okay, thank goodness for recovery girl's quirk. If it wasn't for that train ride she probably wouldn't feel as strongly about this student in particular being injured. He was the only one with even a bit of a familiar face so she guessed that's why he stood out so much today. She wasn't sure what she would think of any of her classmates before her first day at U.A, but she was glad that the green haired boy had made a memorable first impression. It had really helped ease her tension before class better than any song could.

Jiro had finally made it to the front door of her house. She made a mental note to thank Midoriya if she ever got the chance, she doubted he even remembered that moment on the train though. She shrugged to herself, probably best not to remind him then. With that she shut the door on her first day at U.A.