It was a new day. Izuku had just gotten off the train and was heading to UA to start his third day at hero school. It had been an… eventful first couple of days, for sure. Not really quite what he'd expected, but hopefully these were just growing pains. The Battle Trial yesterday was fun and satisfying, so long as he ignored how it ended.

With that said, it had only been two days, and he was already starting to make friends. At least a little bit. That alone made it a million times better than the last ten years of schooling combined!

Izuku walked along, lost in thought, when suddenly someone poked him on the shoulder. He whipped his head around, but no one was there! Wha—?!

He heard soft giggling to his left. Oh! "git grep hagakure-toru." Hagakure was there skipping alongside him. "How long have you been walking with me?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased. Her school uniform then materialized, visible to the naked eye once again.

While it was nice to see Hagakure looking chipper, Izuku didn't feel ready to face her again so soon. The imagery of the girl begging him to revert her yesterday stayed with him all last night. Even after he warned her that he might be killing her by using it, she asked to die. That was… Izuku didn't want to think too hard about it.

Truthfully, despite his warning, Izuku didn't really believe that his quirk worked by killing people and replacing them with a newly created clone. If he sincerely thought it did, he'd never have suggested using his quirk in the first place. He justified his belief based on how his quirk consistently seemed to be incapable of creating anything new. It only ever reused things that already existed, or existed at one point in the past. It shifted things.

Like, even when he used "git rm" on an object to delete it, he had to commit the object first, which saved it. Was he really deleting objects, or was he just temporarily shifting them into pocket dimensions or something? The fact that he couldn't delete uncommitted objects implied that his quirk couldn't destroy things. So far, every application of his quirk involved shifting things through time and space, not creation and destruction.

It had to work like that, because the alternative was unacceptable.

Anyway, Hagakure was still walking beside him. He couldn't let memories of yesterday deter him. C'mon, Izuku! He tried to hype himself up. Your classmate wants to talk to you! A girl wants to talk to you! Speak with her like a normal person!

Izuku shoved down his anxieties and made sure to smile brightly at Hagakure. "I'm glad you're in high spirits after yesterday! I was kind of worried about that."

She shrugged. "Well, it won't lie, it was pretty weird. Like, I was shaking your hand, and then you and everyone disappeared! I was so confused at first. But it was pretty cool too! I'm literally the girl who leapt through time!" She mimed zipping forward with her arms. "Not many people could say that!"

"That's a cool way of looking at it. I'm sorry about everything, regardless. I hope you're not too upset about losing those memories."

Hagakure shrugged. "Eh, it's not like I missed much, and the principal showed me a video of everything that happened, so I basically got the gist of it." She turned to face him directly. "Also, don't say sorry, it sounds like you really saved my bacon! I'm here because I wanted to thank you. So yeah, thank you."

"You're welcome! I kinda wanted to talk to you about our battle yesterday." Izuku felt pretty bad that the memories Hagakure lost were of her first-ever hero exercise at UA. Sure, he understood why Hagakure wanted to forget the pain of her shattered arm, but personally, he would've hated to lose a memory of his accomplishments. He felt awful for stealing away the pride of her very first victory. "It's too bad that you've forgotten it. You don't have the memories anymore of you kicking my ass!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really!" he exclaimed. "Didn't you say you watched the video? I'm bruised all over from the beating you gave me. I hope that someday I'm as good as you."

Hagakure hummed. "You seemed to hold your own pretty well from what I saw."

"Eh, I was kind of cheating," Izuku said dismissively. "Well, using my quirk isn't 'cheating', obviously, but… hold on, let me describe this better." His quirk was always so difficult to try to explain. "When I use my quirk on something, I can also then track its exact position. It's not like a vague feeling, it's extremely precise. So if I use it on a person, then I can feel where they are, the direction they're looking, I can feel the muscles tensing in their body, everything. I can generally tell what they're going to do before they do it."

"That's handy." She was impressed.

"It is, and it was doubly effective on you," he continued. "I can tell you're not used to people being able to see you, so your movements are pretty obvious. No offense. I'm usually able to win sparring matches by using my quirk to predict my opponents, but I was totally out of my league when it came to you. Like, you're so good. I was floored."

"I am a pretty damn good fighter, yeah," she said, pleased by his praise. "I wouldn't count yourself out, though. We're all in school to help each other out, so maybe we could get together sometime and practice sparring. I could show you my skills and teach you some stuff."

"I'd love that!" Izuku beamed. "Thank you so much! You're a lot better than me, so I'm not sure what I can bring to the table in return." He paused. "Well, you don't have much practice fighting against people who can see you, right? So I guess fighting me would be useful for you. Even if our skill levels aren't really comparable, I'm sure I could help."

"Sounds great!" she chirped. "It's a date, then."

Izuku's cheeks reddened a little bit. "You just had to put it like that, didn't you?" She laughed at him in return. "Har har. Anyway, I'm not sure when would be the best time—wait, what the heck is going on?"

The two had reached the gates of UA only to find a huge group of reporters crowding the entranceway and accosting any poor soul brave enough to try to squeeze past them.

"Hey, you! How are All Might's classes?"

"Will you tell us about what the Symbol of Peace is like as a teacher?!"

"I would like to speak directly with All Might!"

"How would you rate All Might compared to your other teachers at UA?!"

"Just a little time is fine! Just let me see All Might—"

Oh, jeez. It was going to be a nightmare to try to get through this. They were going to be late for class, weren't they?

He sighed and turned to Hagakure. "Do you think there might be a back entrance we could take—" He stopped mid-sentence. Hagakure was grinning cheekily at him. "What's that look on your face? Do you have an idea?"

Hagakure looked surprised for a moment, then schooled her features. Oh right, she probably wasn't used to Izuku being able to see her. "I have an idea, yeah." Her school uniform turned invisible once again, and she offered her hand to him. "Take my hand."

Um, okay. Izuku grabbed her hand and then was shocked to see his arm vanish. He whipped his head around. It wasn't just his arm, his whole body was invisible, clothes and backpack and all!

"Wow! You can make other things invisible too? Wait, of course you can, you've been doing it with your clothes. But you can extend it to other people?"

"Yup!" she said smugly. "I just learned how to do it recently. When I was younger I couldn't extend my invisibility at all. It's a good thing, too. Otherwise, I couldn't use a hero costume and I'd have to do all my heroics in the nude."

Izuku mentally scoffed at the thought. As if. "I'm sure UA could've made you an invisible costume. A lot of heroes have costumes made with DNA-infused fabrics so that it works with their quirks."

She shrugged. "Sure, but then it would be invisible all the time, like me. This way I can turn it on and off. Anyway, we're wasting time. Let's go!"

"Right!"

Izuku expected Hagakure to circle the perimeter of the crowd, but instead she dragged him right into the middle of it! The heck? He was about to ask her what she was doing, but the words died on his lips when he saw Hagakure weave through the crowd like it was nothing.

With astonishing grace and dexterity, Hagakure slipped through gaps seemingly way too small for her, dipping and pivoting around the reporters without even grazing them. It was hypnotizing to watch. In contrast, Izuku was a giant klutz bumping into everyone as he tried his best to copy Hagakure's movements. Several reporters looked around confused when he bumped into them, but since they didn't see anything they dismissed it.

No wonder Hagakure was able to escape his grip in the Battle Trial yesterday. She was incredible. This was what a real hero was like. This was the caliber of skill expected from students of UA. He had to step it up if he wanted to keep pace with his classmates!

Breaking through the crowd, the two passed the gates and officially entered the grounds of UA. They could walk normally again. Izuku reddened a bit when he realized they were still holding hands. Uh oh, this would be a delicate procedure! If he let go of her hand too fast then it'd be rude, like he was a boy who still believed in cooties. He let go as gingerly and naturally as he could, and he became visible again.

Hagakure was strutting along obviously pleased with herself. She should be! "That was crazy back there! I'd compare you to a ninja, but frankly, I think ninjas have nothing on you!" he gushed. "You're amazing, Hagakure! How'd you even learn to do that?"

She puffed out her chest a little. "I've had a lot of practice! I've always wanted to be a hero, but there's only so much you can do with just invisibility. I've had to make it count!"

With just invisibility? "Sorry, um, I've kind of been avoiding the topic because of what happened yesterday," Izuku said cautiously, "but what do you mean by 'just invisibility'? You're like ridiculously strong. You blew a hole in the ceiling! I mean, you hurt yourself doing it, but still. Do you have two quirks? I've never heard of anybody with two quirks."

"Ah, um…!" She was a bit flustered. "…That part of my quirk came later. A lot later. Just recently. That's why I don't know how to use it without hurting myself yet. I don't have two quirks, it's part of my invisibility."

Izuku was flummoxed. "It's part of your invisibility? Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" She pulled herself together. "It turns out I actually have a stockpiler quirk. My invisibility is caused by my body absorbing light into itself. Basically, all through my life, all of the light that touched me was being collected by my quirk and stored as a well of energy. I'm a solar-powered hero!" She pumped her fist. "Problem is, I have a lifetime's worth of power stored within me, so it's dangerous for me to use right now."

"Oh, wow! That's so cool! Yeah, I see why you need to be careful with it. But that's an incredible quirk!" Izuku's eyes gleamed. "Heh, in the future you'll have a built-in excuse to take vacations in tropical resorts: 'I need to recharge my quirk!' That's a nice benefit."

Hagakure chuckled politely at his lame joke.

Izuku's brain was running wild with the possibilities. Was there any energy loss over time, or was her stockpile only drained when using her super strength? Did she have to convert it to strength, or could she emit it back into the world as light, like a laser beam? How far was she from her max capacity? And how long would her current stockpile last, anyway? He supposed it would depend on the efficiency of the solar conversion and how much she used at a time…

"…Hold on, I don't get it," Izuku said. "How is your quirk extracting energy from light without affecting the light itself? Like, when light is absorbed, it makes things darker. But for you, it seems like light is passing straight through you, or maybe bending around you? I don't see how your quirk is collecting energy from light without compromising your invisibility."

Hagakure froze. "W-well, uh. T-that's… it's what the doctors told me, so it's probably true, right? I-I mean, quirks are bullshit, y'know?"

Izuku thought about it for another moment. "Wait, sorry, I'm being dumb," he groaned. "Visible light is only a tiny, tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We're exposed to a lot more light than what we see. Like, the sun emits a bunch of ultraviolet light. Your quirk is probably absorbing the spectrums we can't see while letting visible light pass through or something."

"Y-yeah, that makes sense. Look, um, at the moment, I'm more worried about not blowing myself up than the exact mechanisms of it all. Okay?"

"Yeah, that's fair." Izuku nodded and continued on anyway. "I think you should look into it in the future. Normal quirk counselors don't have the facilities to test for exotic quirk effects, but UA sure does. The teachers could set you up for some quirk testing where you get exposed to different electromagnetic frequencies and see how they affect you. Who knows, you might find out something crazy like you're immune to gamma radiation or whatever."

"…Huh." Hagakure paused and seemed to think about it. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I think I will do that. Thank you." She relaxed a bit and smirked at him. "You're really into this sort of thing, aren't you?"

He grinned. "Guilty as charged! My own quirk is stupidly complicated and it's taken a lot of time and effort to figure it out. You should see the multiple notebooks I've written on it!"

"Hmm. I think I'll take you up on that."

At last, the two of them arrived at the doors of Class 1-A. If there was one downside to how massive the school was, it was that it took a while to get anywhere. Izuku pushed open the doors and smiled. Day 3 at UA, and he was sure this day would be a good one! Third time's the charm!

—

"Let's get down to homeroom business," Aizawa drawled. "You will be taking part in an important activity this morning, one that will impact your school life for the rest of your time at UA…"

Izuku squeezed his fists in dread. The suspense in the room was palpable.

"…Choosing a class representative."

Oh, come on! The tension released like air from a balloon. Then the chatter began in earnest.

"I want to be class rep! Pick me!"

"Me too!"

"I want to do it!"

"It's a job made for moi!"

"I'll be the leader!"

"Let me do it! Me!"

Aizawa used the distraction to collapse to the floor and zip up his sleeping bag.

"Silence, please!" Iida thundered over the din, vigorous arm movements punctuating his command. "The class representative's responsibility is to lead others! It is not a job for just anyone who wants to do it! It is a calling that requires the trust of those around you!" He swept his gaze across the room. "I propose we hold an election!"

"We haven't known each other for that long, so how could we have trust or anything?" Kirishima pointed out the obvious issue. "Won't everyone just vote for themselves?"

"Hold on, before that, are we sure everyone actually wants to be class rep?" Honenuki asked. "You need to be really organized, and you'll have to go to a lot of meetings, and it's just a whole bunch of extra work in general. Who here has, like, the aptitude and spare time needed to take on the job while also keeping up with our hero work?"

That put a real damper on things. Students looked at each other awkwardly as they realized the responsibility they'd have to take on if they got the role. Was it really worth it?

"Yes, we should still all want to do it, ribbit," Asui proclaimed confidently into the silence of the classroom. "That extra work is proof of your capability. It proves that you're a leader and that you won't shirk from responsibility. It shows that you have the trust of other soon-to-be heroes, ribbit. When we graduate, it's the type of thing hero agencies will look for that distinguishes you from everyone else." She looked around the class, meeting everyone's eyes with her own. "We're all students of UA. If you're not striving to go Plus Ultra, then why are you here?"

A beat of silence. And then the room erupted again.

"Pick me!"

"I'll be a great leader!"

"You can all trust me!"

"I can do it!"

Izuku noticed that Honenuki looked annoyed. His comment was a ploy to try to lessen the competition, but Asui cut through the bullshit. Ha, nice try, man. That kind of hustle wasn't Izuku's thing, but he could respect the strategy behind it.

Izuku raised his hand. "Hey, everyone!" People continued shouting over each other. "Excuse me! Guys!" It eventually got quiet enough that Izuku could say his piece. "How about we just make it a rule that we can't vote for ourselves? Someone could check the votes to make sure no one cheats."

"I am opposed to that!" Iida bellowed. "The secret ballot is an essential aspect of democracy! Absent the privacy of a secret ballot, voters can be influenced by intimidation, bribery, and blackmail. As heroes, we must uphold the social pillars of our nation at all times!"

"Dude, it's a class election," Jirou deadpanned.

"That is entirely besides the point!"

"Um!" Uraraka spoke up. "It would work if we had someone neutral to count the votes, right? Maybe Sensei could—"

Aizawa interrupted with a loud, exaggerated snore.

"…Okay, maybe not." She shrunk back down in her seat.

"This is going nowhere."

"Just give the role to me! I can do it!"

"No way! I'd do a way better job!"

"As if!"

Asui raised her hand. "I have a suggestion." The whole class quieted to listen to her. "We can combine both approaches, ribbit. First, we can choose to publicly nominate someone other than ourselves, and then at the end, we all anonymously vote for one of the nominated candidates. Does that work for everyone?"

There was a wave of murmured agreement. It was probably the best that they were going to get, and Iida didn't make a fuss about it either. Silence settled over the classroom as everyone waited to see who would be the first person to speak up and nominate someone.

"Um," Izuku said. "I guess I'll get the kind of obvious one out of the way? I nominate Asui. She seems to know what she's doing."

She ribbitted softly. "Thank you, Midoriya."

"Also," Izuku continued. "Uh, are we allowed to nominate more than one person?"

The class pondered the question. "I don't think so," Yaoyorozu eventually said. "That leaves open the opportunity for some joker to nominate the whole class, and then we'd be right back to where we started."

Kaminari leaned back in his chair and smirked. "Yep, I'd totally do that."

"We're looking for someone smart and organized, right?" Hagakure spoke up. "All right, so I nominate Midoriya!"

Izuku was startled. "Me?"

"Yup! When I looked through your notebook earlier, it was literally just checklist after checklist! Pages and pages of it! I don't know anyone who writes checklists for fun. You'll be perfect for the job!"

Izuku was caught up on her first sentence. "Wait, when did you look through my notebook?!"

"You told me I should look at your notebooks," she said playfully. "That was less than ten minutes ago!"

Augh! It was true! Curse her invisibility!

"Let me see!" Sero said next to him, grabbing Izuku's notebook off his desk.

"Hey!"

"Oh damn, it's true! It really is all checklists!" Sero marveled, flipping through the pages. He stopped and read some of it. "Huh, what the heck are you writing in here? This one just says 'rerere'."

Izuku's face burned. "Give it back!"

"Rererererere!" Sero mocked. "I dunno, guys. Maybe Midoriya is organized, but all he's writing is nonsense. Does that really count?"

Izuku snatched his notebook back from Sero and hurriedly shoved it in his backpack.

Ashido giggled and then spoke up. "Hey, so if we're going for someone smart and organized, then I nominate Yaomomo! She got first place on the written exam and she's a recommended student, so she's the smartest of anyone here!"

Yaoyorozu blushed. "I wouldn't say that. Knowledge is not the same as intelligence. I appreciate your endorsement, however."

"I'm a recommended student too," Honenuki mumbled, but nobody paid attention to him.

"Excuse me," Kodai said quietly, raising her hand. She had a very soft voice. "I would like to nominate Rin Hiryu. He escorted me through the crowd of reporters earlier by making himself all spiky."

"O-oh!" Rin scratched the back of his head nervously. "I-I mean, it's what anyone would have done, right?"

"But you were the one who did it," she insisted. "Rin was very sweet and considerate, and he helped me feel safe. That's what we all should want from a leader."

Rin spluttered and his face turned entirely red. It didn't look like he'd be capable of coherent speech for a bit.

"I nominate myself!" Katsuki boomed, interrupting the sweet moment. "I'll do a better job than any of these losers!"

"You can't nominate yourself, you moron," Hagakure said.

"Sure I can! I know I'm the best person here! Just because you guys don't recognize greatness doesn't change the facts!"

"Bakugou has a bit of a point," Honenuki mused. "…Hey, no, stop looking at me like that, you guys! Listen! What I mean is that none of us really know each other, so someone fit for the role might not be nominated because none of us know about them. Maybe we can do speeches or something to try to persuade someone to nominate us?"

"That is a very perceptive observation! I completely agree!" Iida bellowed. "I shall begin! My esteemed classmates, I humbly request your support as your potential class representative! I offer a steadfast dedication to upholding the rules and principles that define this great institution! I believe that—"

"No way, Iida. Not gonna happen," interrupted Jirou. "You're bad enough already. I don't want you to have actual authority over us."

Oof. It was true, but she shouldn't say it!

Iida deflated and sat back down. The classroom was quiet as everyone awkwardly looked at each other waiting for the next person to make their speech.

It seemed that Jirou had killed the initiative. No one was willing to ask to be nominated and risk being mocked for it.

Yaoyorozu spoke up. "Is that everyone, then? Our four nominees are Asui, Midoriya, Rin, and myself?"

There were indistinct murmurs around the classroom, but nobody seemed to disagree.

"All right, then." Yaoyorozu used her quirk to create a ballot box and twenty identical blank voting cards which were then handed around the class. "Everyone, please write down the name of the person you're voting for and add your card to the box when you're done."

Upon receiving his card, Izuku wrote down his own name and inserted it into the voting box. The box was passed around the class until everyone had voted, and then it was collected by Yaoyorozu at the front of the class.

"Hold on, why is Yaoyorozu counting the votes?" Rin said. "She's a candidate. Isn't that a conflict of interest?"

"Indeed!" Iida declared. "I shall tally the—"

"Kirishima will count the votes!" Ashido said brightly.

"Huh? Me?" Kirishima was startled. "Why me?"

"Why not you?" Ashido retorted, still smiling.

"Uh…" He looked around aimlessly. "Okay…?"

Iida fumed in his seat as Kirishima went up to the front of the class and emptied the box of votes. He wrote the names of the four candidates on the whiteboard and started adding tally marks after the names for each vote.

He paused upon reaching one of the votes, then rolled his eyes. "Bakugou, dude, you weren't nominated, you can't vote for yourself."

"Don't tell me what I can't do, shitty hair!"

Kirishima brushed him off and asked the class at large, "So, do we make him vote again or just ignore his vote?"

"I'm not voting for any of those losers!"

"Hey, how about this," Kaminari said. "Give his vote to one of the other four at random. Y'know, spice up the election with a little RNG."

"Fuck no!" Katsuki shouted. "There's no fucking way that I'll let my vote go to Deku!"

"Who's 'Deku'…?" someone in the class wondered quietly.

Katsuki growled. "Fine! Fuck, whatever. I vote for frogger."

Asui turned to look at him. "My name is Asui Tsuyu."

"Does it look like I care, frogger?!"

Asui stared at Katsuki for a few moments, her wide eyes gazing into him. She then turned back to the front of the class and looked at Kirishima. "I don't want his vote."

"I don't think you need it anyway," Kirishima said. He'd continued tallying up the votes while Katsuki was busy bickering with the class. He stepped away from the whiteboard and revealed the results.

Asui: 8
Mido: 4
Rin: 2
Yao: 5

"All right, so, Asui is class rep no matter who gets Bakugou's vote," Kirishima said. "I guess Yaoyorozu is vice-rep unless Bakugou creates a tie by voting for Midoriya."

"I already told you, I'm not voting for fucking Deku!"

"…No, seriously, who's 'Deku'…?"

Katsuki facepalmed and groaned into his hand. "I'm not voting for fucking Izuku!"

"Right, cool, so we're done here," Kirishima said in relief. "Our class rep is Asui and our vice-rep is Yaoyorozu."

"Woo, woo, woo! Go, Tsu! I was rooting for you to win!" Ashido cheered.

"Didn't you nominate Yaoyorozu?"

"Eh, does it matter?"

There was scattered applause as Asui and Yaoyorozu walked to the front and turned to face the class. "Thank you all for putting your trust in us, ribbit." Asui bowed.

"We promise to live up to your expectations." Yaoyorozu bowed as well.

"God, you kids are so noisy," Aizawa grumbled.