A/N

Thank you to Luciendar for pointing out a few mistakes in the story, since I didn't even realize they were there. I will try to rewrite the chapters when I have time, but for now, please enjoy!

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: GOD OF HIGHSCHOOL

1 year ago…

"Principal Nezu, I think you should accept my offer." Aizawa had tested his class and came to a single conclusion: they were not worthy of becoming heroes. Sure, they had some pretty strong quirks, but that alone did not prove them as good hero candidates in Aizawa's mind. They needed to be taught a lesson, and so Aizawa had come to Principal Nezu with an offer.

"So, you want permission to expel, and then re-enroll the students in your class? But for what purpose?"

"They all have good quirks that will be reliable to the battlefield. However, they seem to be stuck in the notion that the world is gonna wait for them to be ready. If I expel them, they'll learn what it's like to lose the only chance they have. Then, I'll re-enroll them to make sure they still become heroes."

Nezu thought over this proposition. The main purpose of UA is to train the next generation of heroes to the best they can be. To that end, UA was not tied down by traditional sentiments. The teachers were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the class, as long as it was reasonable and not cruel. While Nezu believed expelling these children might be bordering that line, he had absolute faith that Aizawa was considering what was best for these students. And so, Nezu agreed. That year, Aizawa expelled an entire class of fledgling heroes, only to re-enroll them after they started crying. He had no problem expelling anybody he needed to in order to craft the perfect heroes.

Present Day…

With that said, Aizawa couldn't deny it. While he had believed Katsuo was no good as a hero, the young boy had proven him in the best way possible: by using actions instead of words. Katsuo had managed control over the ball so well that he was able to make it spin enough to come back to him, despite using 100% of his strength. "Heh. Okay then. You got last place for this test because you threw the ball 0 meters."

Aizawa smugly held up the screen. Katsuo read the number: 0 meters. He looked down at the ball, which was resting in his hand. Just as he thought, there was a tracking device in the ball that measured being 0 meters away from the starting line. 'Son of a bitch, he duped me!' "Alright everybody, the scores have been calculated. Gather around and see who's getting expelled."

Despite his laughable score of zero on the softball test, Katsuo excelled in all the others, earning him a rightful first place. Bakugou was in second, with Midoriya not far behind him in third. "WHAT THE CRAP?! HOW ARE YOU BETTER THAN ME?!" Katsuo covered his sensitive ears to try and protect them from Bakugou's stupidly loud voice. Normally, Katsuo would have just said something witty to shut him up, but he had a funny idea. Katsuo was nowhere near being a sadist, but he enjoyed taunting assholes from time to time.

"I don't know Baka-gou, maybe you should ask my 56,000 fans?" Katsuo held his phone up to Bakugou who read the title: Hiroki Katsuo Fanclub.

"I dunno, I guess the people just love me." Katsuo was really enjoying putting on airs. "WHY THE CRAP?!"

Midoriya stepped up to the plate and read the screen. "Hey, Katsuo? Says you have 100,000 fans now." Katsuo quickly turned the phone back around and looked at it. Just as Midoriya said, Katsuo's fan count had nearly doubled since the last time he checked. To be fair, he didn't check it often. Unfortunately, Midoriya's interjection caught Bakugou's attention, and he looked like he was even angrier than before. Katsuo readied himself for a fight as Bakugou turned to Midoriya, who in turn flinched in fear, seemingly out of instinct.

"AND YOU. TELL ME WHAT YOU DID YOU DAMN NERD! WHEN THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT QUIRK?! WERE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME?!" Bakugou launched forward with his hand primed to explode in Midoriya's face. Katsuo nearly tackled him to the ground to save Midoriya, only to be caught off guard by Aizawa's scarf launching at Bakugou, wrapping itself around him and keeping him still. "What the hell?! How is your damn scarf so tough?!" Katsuo tried to wriggle out of its grasp, or snap the binding, but it didn't work. He was simply too weak to break out of the restraint.

"That's because it's a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. Stand down." Just as Katsuo had already believed, Aizawa's voice commanded respect and exuded authority. Midoriya flinched again and Bakugou reluctantly stopped trying to fight back, halting his advance. "It would be wise to not make me use my quirk so often. It gives me serious dry eye." Katsuo didn't notice it before because he had his eyes on Bakugou, but Aizawa's hair had lifted upwards, like a bolt of lightning was about to strike him. His eyes were glowing red too. Apparently, Aizawa was using his quirk to cancel Bakugou's explosions just in case the capture weapon didn't work.

After that was settled, Katsuo examined the rest of the board. Everybody else fell in the placement Katsuo was expecting, especially last place. Katsuo had noticed a strange presence ever since he joined the class. Others might have a hard time realizing she's there, but her presence was picked up by Katsuo's mana spread. Toru Hagakure had the quirk: invisibility. If she wasn't caught by Katsuo's mana, he would have totally missed her since all she was wearing was… gloves. And shoes. 'Holy crap, is she totally naked over there?!' Katsuo could feel Hagakure shaking, probably in fear and despair. Aizawa said last place was going home (like UA was some kind of game show), but Katsuo figured that was just a rational deception.

Suddenly, Aizawa shut off the scoreboard. "And I was lying, nobody's going home. That was just a rational deception!" Aizawa smiled again as the class went silent. Katsuo felt Hagakure stop shaking. 'I called it!'

"I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure that out. I'm sorry, I guess I probably should have said something?" The class looked at her like she had two heads. Katsuo could figure out what they were thinking: 'Yeah, you should have.'

"Okay everybody, that's it for orientation. Go pick up a syllabus in class and go home already." As Aizawa walked away, he met Katsuo's gaze and smiled again. His eyes said: Get ready for hell. Katsuo met his challenge with a grin, ready for whatever was thrown at him.

"Man… I'm so tired." Katsuo was walking with Midoriya down the mountain path after they got back from the nurse. Katsuo knew what that fatigue felt like, but he had the stamina potions to get him through. He offered one to Midoriya, but Midoriya said he wanted to get through on his own strength. Katsuo could respect that. However, Midoriya's cool moment was totally shattered when a hand on his shoulder scared the freckles off of him. "Hello Midoriya. Katsuo." Katsuo waved his hand with a friendly smile.

"You were very impressive during the assessment test, I was in awe of your raw power, as well as your control over it. You will surely make a great hero someday." Being the humble man he was, Katsuo nearly brushed off the comment, saying he "wasn't that good". Iida joined the two boys in their trip down the mountain, giving his assessment on Aizawa's way of teaching.

"I was a bit concerned by Mr. Aizawa's approach to class, but I trust the school's judgment. UA is the top program, after all. Even so, lying is downright immoral." Iida's assessment seemed to be on par with what Katsuo was thinking. Aizawa might have been a little rough on the edges… or very rough around the edges, but he seemed to have his head on straight when it came to teaching the next generation of pro heroes. Katsuo could see that Aizawa cared about them to some degree, so he decided to go along for now. Katsuo's chain of thought came to an abrupt halt when a high-pitched voice from behind caught his attention,

"Heeeeey! Wait up, guys! Are you going to the station? I'll join you guys!" It was the brown-haired girl named Uraraka. She had gotten a score of infinity on the softball throw test due to her anti-gravity quirk. Katsuo had also heard that she saved Midoriya's life, so she was a-okay in his book. "Let's see, you're Iida, you're Katsuo, and you're Deku, right?" Midoriya seemed to take a blow to the heart with the word "Deku". Katsuo had heard Bakugou call him that earlier. And knowing Bakugou's trash can attitude, it probably wasn't something good.

Uraraka was confused by Midoriya's apparent heart break, so he explained it. Apparently, that blonde asshole used to be friends with the green-haired cinnamon roll, but he began getting a big head after his quirk. He got cocky and arrogant, and his attitude toward Midoriya worsened after it was revealed to the class that he didn't have a quirk. Then yada yada yada, something about a superiority complex, yada yada yada. They stopped being friends when Bakugou hurt another kid and Midoriya stopped him, before promptly blasting Midoriya in the face for it. It wasn't a big explosion, just enough to "put Midoriya in his place". After the story was finished, Katsuo couldn't help but wonder why this idiot wasn't rotting in Tartarus already, much less being in hero school.

"Hey, Katsuo, right? Could I talk with you?" The four of them turned around to see a pink skinned girl with pink hair and black eyes behind them. It was Mina Ashido, from their class. After excusing himself from the conversation and allowing his friends to go to the station together, Katsuo was led to a more private area by Ashido. Just when he thought it might be a confession, the girl stopped and turned around to face him.

"You probably don't remember this, but a few months ago you saved me and my friends from a dangerous man. He was super tall and asking where the springer agency was? I was about to step in, but then you came along and led him away. I asked Kirishima about you when we got to school the next day, and he said you were hurt pretty badly. I just… I wanted to say thank you."

Ashido bowed in gratitude, eager to make it known that she appreciated everything Katsuo went through just to save a couple strangers. After piecing it together that this wasn't a confession (thank god, his heart belonged to another), Katsuo smiled. "Lift your head Ashido, it was nothing. I may have been beat up, but at least the books didn't get dirty!" Ashido was initially surprised by his modesty, but soon they started laughing. After thanking him one more time, Ashido walked back to the main road to join her friends, and Katsuo found himself walking back to UA. He had planned to tell Midoriya and the others, but Ashido had pulled him away before he could.

Aizawa had told Katsuo that the Principal wanted to see him in his office…

Katsuo knocked on the door to the principal's office, quickly being told to come in by the person inside. After shutting the door and approaching the desk, he noticed that the chair was turned toward the window, trying to keep Katsuo from knowing who they were. Using mana spread however, Katsuo could see from the shape of the person that it was Principal Nezu. "Principal Nezu, I know that's you, sir." Katsuo couldn't believe the situation he found himself in. Nezu was NOT a James Bond villain.

"Oh dear, it seems I've been caught! How did you do that?" Nezu turned his chair around to face Katsuo as he asked this.

"Uh… a magician never reveals his secrets?" Katsuo didn't know why, but he hated the idea of anyone else finding out about the system. Besides, you always keep your cards close to your chest.

"Fine then, if you insist. The reason I called you here is because of your quirk: Full Body Strengthening. If I'm not mistaken, your quirk also strengthens your mind and memory, correct?" Katsuo nodded his head, taking the seat in front of the desk. While he didn't want to reveal the system, he also didn't think it was smart to lie about something so obvious.

"There are two topics of discussion I have planned for today, but the second one will come later. First of all, I want you to take an IQ test." Principal Nezu opened the drawer to his desk and pulled out a small stack of papers that were stapled together.

"The test is 50 questions long and will determine your problem solving ability. The last 20 questions will measure your memory capabilities. Do you agree to taking this test?" Katsuo could sense that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter, so he took the papers and began going through the questions one by one. Nezu had some paperwork of his own, although he would glance at Katsuo here and there to judge how he was doing. Suffice it to say, Katsuo wasn't holding back on this test. He practically sped through the questions and had already completed the first 30 questions within 10 minutes. The last 20 were also fairly simple for Katsuo, although interesting to say the least.

Each question was asking about the city Katsuo was taken to for the standard entrance exam. They were free response questions too, so Katsuo had to come up with the answer himself instead of being given 4 possible answers. The questions ranged from the sign on the building on this specific street corner, or what number was on the inner thigh of the zero pointer that Katsuo had defeated so easily. In the end, Nezu looked at the test in astonishment. Katsuo had once again gotten a perfect score of 50/50. "My my, you did even better than I expected you to."

Katsuo had no idea where this was going. Nezu had just gotten a good idea of Katsuo's brain power, and was now judging him for it. And depending on the results, the second topic that Nezu had mentioned could either be good or bad. "It seems you have a measured IQ of 500! That's very impressive Mr. Katsuo!" Katsuo was… befuddled. '500?! WHO THE HELL HAS AN IQ OF 500?!' As it turns out, Katsuo's IQ was in fact 500. He could have been a super genius, if it weren't for the fact that he's super immature. His excitement to start his new life caused him to think… less… when it came to making decisions. Fortunately however, this immaturity also kept him from losing his emotions as he grew smarter, so that's a plus.

"Katsuo, I believe you already possess the knowledge required to pass the first year of highschool at UA, as well as most college courses, which means you don't need to be in class during the core subjects." Nezu's proposal was as follows: Katsuo would be allowed to skip the core classes (math, science, literature, etc.). However, he would still have to attend the hero course classes such as hero history, hero laws, etc. This freed up Katsuo's schedule for half the day, with the exception of one favor from Nezu:

"Katsuo, I would like you to spend at least one class period a day in the support course workshop. Your intelligence could be used to create amazing support items to aid heroes in their fight against villainy. Power Loader personally assures me that with the right time and equipment, you can do something amazing. So, what do you say to this proposition?" Katsuo thought for a moment. He weighed the pros and cons. 'More time to level up is good, and I'm sorely in need of information about heroics. Hmmmm….'

"Sure."

The next morning, Katsuo made his way down to the UA Workshop. From what he heard from Nezu, the room was a laboratory built for the sole purpose of training the skills of UA's top support course students. They would brainstorm, plan, and eventually build whatever device they wanted, as long as it wasn't too dangerous. Of course, that didn't stop Katsuo from getting a face-full of smoke from an explosion. As he approached the workshop, he noted the giant metal door. 'What the hell am I getting myself into?' Katsuo grabbed the handle and pulled to the right, opening the door just wide enough for a person to fly out of the room and crash into him. When Katsuo opened his eyes, Mei's chest was burying his face. "Okay, what the heck, man."

"Oh, sorry about that!" Mei took a second to realize what she had landed on before promptly getting up and apologizing. "Oh, it's you! I remember you from the competition a little while back!"

Once he got a good look, Katsuo recognized the girl as well. Judging from the thick pink dreadlocks and unique yellow eyes, Katsuo judged that it was Mei Hatsume, the girl he had become friends with during the Young Builders Competition. Katsuo had used the competition as a way to get recommendations for his plan, but had unexpectedly met a genius engineer.

After greeting each other, Mei excitedly ran into the lab, where Power Loader was waiting to greet Katsuo. "Hey kid, nice to see you again! I was happy when Principal Nezu told me you were coming around!" The resident support course teacher showed Katsuo around the lab, showing him tools he had only seen in the engineering books from the library. The entire time he was touring the room, Katsuo was searching for parts he could use for the GEAR Glove. He found a few parts, but he didn't find enough. That is, until he spotted a scrap heap in the corner of the room. "Ah, I see you've found my failed babies!"

Even when gazing upon her failures, Mei kept the same child-like fervor she always had. Did she ever calm down? "If you're not using these, do you mind if I use them for spare parts? No offense, of course!" Katsuo hurriedly threw his hands up as a sign of no disrespect. Mei struck him as the type to get angry over something like that, even if he didn't mean it that way. "Of course you can! I use them for spare parts all the time, so help yourself!"

After getting the green light, he found himself just as giddy as Mei always is. Like a child in a candy store, Katsuo dug through the pile of failed creations, searching for the specific parts he would need to create a fully working invention. 'Huh. I can see where Mei was going with all this, but it seems like she made a few mistakes. I wonder if I could teach her a thing or two about engineering?' Katsuo put that thought to the side for now and gathered up the correct parts before bringing them over to a special workbench with his name on it. "Okay, let's do this!"

It was now the final class of the day. Katsuo had been so engrossed in his "baby" as Mei had called it, that he didn't realize when half the day had passed. After being reminded by Power Loader, Katsuo ran back to class, just in time to take his seat behind Midoriya before class began. They still had a few more minutes, which allowed for some small gossip to hit Katsuo's ears. Hanta Sero leaned over towards Katsuo from his desk. "Hey Katsuo, you weren't here, but I heard something crazy went down during orientation!"

Apparently, a kid in Class 1B named Mineta had done something… despicable, to a girl in one of the other classes. Nothing extremely bad or life changing for the girl, just slightly traumatizing because Mineta had attempted to spy on her in the locker room. He was promptly arrested and taken to court over it, and is now serving half a year in jail. In Katsuo's opinion, the little bastard got what he deserved. Suddenly, a small sound caught Katsuo's attention. It appeared that only he and Jiro could hear it, the sound of a light wind outside the classroom door. "I am here!" A familiar voice alerted Katsuo to who it was. And unsurprisingly, Midoriya as well. The little cinnamon bun was practically shaking with excitement.

"Coming through the door like a hero!" All Might opened the door and leaned out into the classroom, using his bulky arms to keep himself from falling any further. Katsuo couldn't see it from the angle of the door, but he suspected somebody was holding a fan back there. Katsuo learned from Midoriya's nonstop muttering that All Might was wearing his silver age costume, a complete throwback from a decade ago at least.

"Welcome to the most important class at UA! Think of it as heroing 101! Here, you will learn the basics of being a pro, and what it means to fight in the name of justice! Let's get into it!" All Might began "heroically" flexing his muscles, accentuating his muscle form. 'What, is he showing off?' All Might quickly turned around and held a card out in front of him with big red letters spelling out: BATTLE. Katsuo could see the corners of Bakugou's mouth twist upwards.

"But, one of the keys of being a hero is being a symbol!" All Might pointed towards the far wall next to the door, where panels labeled by number came out. "These outfits were made via the requests on your quirk registration forms!" Everyone cheered in excitement, and Katsuo couldn't lie: he was feeling the hype himself. "Get yourselves suited up, and then meet me at ground training beta!"

Everyone rushed over to the wall and grabbed their briefcase before running out towards the locker rooms. Katsuo walked alongside Kirishima, excited to see what his hero costume would look like in the flesh…

A/N

I'm finally done! Sorry it took so long on this chapter, I was feeling an intense writer's block for the original scenes and couldn't move on until those were completed. In the meantime, I've been organizing my thoughts on a future arc that I'm very excited to get working on, but that'll be at the end of season two unfortunately.

On the topic of Mineta, I always thought he served ZERO purpose in progressing the story, and I needed someone from Class 1A to take the fall for Katsuo to join in, and who better than the person sitting right behind Midoriya? Also, I made Mineta's sentence based off of North Carolina's "peeping tom" law, which says 6 months with a 1000 dollar fine, so tough shit, Mineta.

Finally, I'm going on vacation for the next week, which means no new chapters until at least next Saturday/Sunday. I'll try to make the revisions for the previous chapters while I'm gone, but don't expect any new updates until next week. Until then, have an amazing week!