When Izuku was asked to attend his first day of school an hour early, he assumed it would have something to do with the methods in which he passed the exam. But the moment the towering figure of Vlad King stepped into the room, his hulking frame looming, blood-red eyes glaring, and his razor-sharp fangs flashing in the light, Izuku felt a chill run down his spine. For a brief second, he thought this meeting might have more to do with his secret double life than with his exam results.

Therefore he couldn't be blamed for quietly slipping a knife from his sleeve into his hand, hiding it beneath the desk.

"Good, you're here." The beast of a man said, closing the door behind him. "My name is Sekijiro Kan, also known as The Blood Hero: Vlad King."

That did little to alleviate Izuku's suspicions, though he concealed the knife, stood up and bowed all the same. "Izuku Midoriya, thank you for the opportunity to–"

Vlad held up a hand, cutting him off. "Spare me the formalities," he said sharply, his eyes narrowing as he sized up the boy before him. "Frankly, I don't think you should be in my class."

Internally, Izuku sighed in relief. He wasn't here to kill him, at least not yet. But the prospect of being expelled on his very first day felt even more terrifying. He could handle a fight with a vampire, but how could he battle against authority?

"I understand, sir," Izuku mumbled quietly, lowering his head.

Vlad's gaze didn't soften. He stood like an impenetrable wall, his posture straight and disciplined. "However," he continued, his voice carrying a particular weight, "Principal Nezu seems to think you have potential. Potential that, thus far, I fail to see."

Izuku frowned, and lifted his head to meet the teacher's eye. "The principal?"

"Mm, he said something along the lines of using initiative or some such." Vlad waved a hand as if to brush away the thought. "If I hadn't been assured the boy you stole from hadn't been given another chance, I wouldn't even be considering your placement at this school." He sighed, and spoke under his breath, "The fact the kid failed anyway is neither here nor there…"

With a grunt, Vlad pulled out a thick stack of papers held together by an array of crooked paper clips and slammed it onto the desk. "This," he growled, "is your middle school record. Detentions. Late arrivals. Missing homework. Frankly, your file is a mess. And there are parts that are… puzzling."

"If this is about my work placements," Izuku began hesitantly. "I made sure my father submitted all the paperwork. I was working with him—"

"It's not about that." Vlad interrupted. His eyes narrowed again as he leaned forward, his voice dropping, as though ensuring nobody could hear them. "You're quirkless, correct?"

"Yes, sir." Izuku kept his voice steady. "I am."

Izuku's skin prickled under the teacher's piercing stare, but he kept his composure. He knew he was walking a tightrope, and one false move could send him hurtling to the ground.

"Quirkless," Vlad King said again, a hint of disbelief in his words. "And yet, you passed the practical exam. An exam which, honestly, is not suited for students without physical quirks. Let alone with no quirk at all. Explain that to me."

Izuku paused. He couldn't exactly say, "Oh right yeah, I was chasing a ghost and it destroyed all the robots for me. By the way, ghosts are real. Also I think you might be a vampire," and then stake him. Well… He could, but it might have negative repercussions for his education.

"I…" Izuku started, trying to think of the best excuse he could. "I used my phone, sir. Technology, I mean. I had to compensate for my lack of a quirk, so I used what I had to my advantage. I used an app that could find the, um…" come on Izuku, you made it this far, bullshit! Bullshit! "Vibrational resonance of the robots and shut down their internal systems."

"Their… Internal systems?" Vlad raised an eyebrow.

Well he'd made it this far, "Yes, sir. I didn't want to say anything because we weren't supposed to bring any additional equipment into the field without permission. I thought that with everything else I'd done to get there, there's no way I'd get accepted."

Vlad King looked him up and down, searching for signs of deceit, "Then why are you admitting to this now?"

"Because, sir," This was it, Izuku, your big moment. Knock 'em dead… "Because it's unfair, sir! Quirkless people such as myself are capable of so much more than others will give us credit for, and I wanted to prove something! And if that meant breaking the rules a little, then so be it. Because damn it…Damn it, what kind of hero would any of us be if we didn't break a few rules for the greater good?!" By the end of his little speech he found himself standing from his chair with a fist on his heart.

He stayed in that position for a few moments, the silence in the room growing thick as Vlad King said nothing. Then, after an agonising few seconds, Vlad exhaled through his nose. Whether it was a sound of annoyance or amusement was hard to tell. "Breaking the rules doesn't exactly build trust."

Izuku swallowed, "I understand, sir. But-"

"But," Vlad interrupted. "You were right about one thing. Sometimes heroes have to make tough decisions and bend the rules if it means saving lives. The question is whether you have the judgement to know when it's worth the risk."

"I do, sir."

Vlad's eyes softened, but only slightly. "That's something we'll find out in time. For now, you've been given a place here at UA, and I won't argue with Nezu's decision. But understand this, Midoriya," He gestured to the stack of papers on the desk, "You're on thin ice and I'm watching you. You mess up even once, and I'll make sure you're out of here faster than you can say plus ultra."

"I won't let you down, sir," Izuku said, determined. He kept his back straight, his gaze locked onto Vlad's, refusing to waver.

Vlad grunted, this time sounding almost like approval! "We'll see," he said. "Your classmates will be arriving soon, I suggest you spend the time until then memorising the curriculum. Welcome to UA, Mr Midoriya. Don't make me regret this."

—

Maybe getting sorted into this particular class was fate? Either that, or the universe was playing a strange joke on him. Izuku was not a naturally paranoid person, rather paranoia had been thrust upon him. The life of a monster hunter meant a lot of looking around corners, noticing little things, being a little more perceptive than others might be. But right now, it felt as though all pretences of monsters hiding in plain sight had been completely lifted, and they were now strutting around without a care in the world.

Vlad King himself was the first bloodred flag, and Izuku still wasn't entirely convinced he wasn't a member of the vampiric forces sent there to kill him. When the teacher stood in a sunbeam and declared, "I love the feel of the sun on my face," Izuku's suspicions eased just a bit. But it was such a weirdly specific thing to say that it might have been a double bluff. Izuku made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

The first student to arrive in the class took Izuku by surprise, both by their presence and by his reaction to their had never thought of himself as a superfan of Sen Kaibara, but when the star of his most-watched Youtube channel casually walked in, it was as if all his social skills went out the window.

"K-Kaibara?!" The name slipped out much louder than he intended, and panic bubbled up inside him as he noticed Kaibara's indifferent expression shift into something resembling annoyance. "I watch all your videos! Well, not the dance ones, they're not really my thing, but your ghost watch series? I've seen those at least three times!" Izuku's grin was so wide, he might as well have been posing for a photo at a comic convention. "I'm Midoriya, by the way! Izuku Midoriya!"

Kaibara shot him a brief, disinterested glance. "Ok. Cool," he muttered before heading to the back of the class and plopping down in a seat without another word.

Izuku's enthusiasm evaporated instantly, leaving behind a feeling of utter embarrassment. He let out a groan and slammed his head onto his desk, silently berating himself for his awkwardness.

The next arrival helped to soothe Izuku's nerves momentarily, when Yui Kodai walked in. She barely made a sound, and had an expression as unreadable as Kaibara's, but as she passed by Izuku's desk, she gave a tiny nod and a soft "Hello," barely more than a whisper.

Izuku wouldn't learn her name until much later, but the brief, genuine greeting from Yui Kodai was enough to pierce through his anxieties. For just a moment, he felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe the people in this new class would be nice and friendly after all. Yui quietly took her seat, and Izuku allowed himself a rare moment of relaxation. Maybe he didn't need to be on high alert all the time.

But that fleeting sense of calm was shattered when the door opened again. In walked Jurota Shishida, and the first thing Izuku noticed was the sheer amount of fur—thick, brown, and wild—covering every inch of him. Izuku had always been taught not to judge a book by its cover, but when someone with fur and sharp teeth strolls into the room, it's hard not to let your monster-hunting instincts take over. One word flashed in his mind like a warning siren: Werewolf.

It wasn't just the fur or the way Shishida moved—unlike any animal Izuku had ever seen, almost as though he was trying to be as un-animalistic as possible. There was something deeper, something Izuku couldn't quite put his finger on, but the feeling was undeniable. He made a mental note to be cautious around this one.

So, so far, Izuku was in a classroom with a vampire, a ghost hunter, and a werewolf. Potentially, anyway. His head was spinning, trying to process all of this, when the door swung open once more. This time, his breath caught in his throat for an entirely different reason.

Ibara Shiozaki entered the room, her long, vine-like hair cascading down her back in graceful, green waves. She moved with an ethereal elegance that seemed almost otherworldly. Her very presence radiated a calm, natural energy, and just like the others, Izuku had the distinct feeling there was more to her than met the eye. Dryad, his mind whispered.

He'd read enough about forest spirits in The Creature Compendium to recognize the signs. When she took a seat near the window, the sunlight filtered through the glass and illuminated her skin in a way that made Izuku unsure whether to feel at ease or more on edge. She was beautiful—unnaturally so—and Izuku couldn't tell if he was being drawn in by some kind of mystical power or if he was just developing a bit of a crush. Either way, he knew he had to stay wary, dryad or not.

After that, most of the class filed in without incident. Izuku only had a brief moment of concern when a girl with a pony mutation entered, his mind jumping to satyrs for a split second. But the worry faded when he heard her American accent. Whoever heard of a satyr with a Midwestern twang? It seemed that things in Class 1B were going to be relatively normal after all.

Then Reiko Yanagi walked in, and any lingering sense of calm Izuku had been clinging to evaporated. The door seemed to creak louder as she entered, almost like it was announcing the arrival of something not quite of this world. A coldness ran through Izuku, more intense than anything he'd felt in weeks. It was like an invisible weight pressing on his chest, making the air thick and heavy. All that oppressive energy seemed to focus directly on Yanagi.

Spirit medium? Onryō? Yūrei? Yuki-Onna?! Hone-Onna?! The names of various spirits and ghosts from his studies flooded his mind. They say a touch from any of these could chill you to the core… Was that what Izuku was feeling now? The thought lodged itself in his brain, refusing to leave. As Yanagi glided silently to her seat, their eyes met for just a moment, and the pressure in the room intensified before vanishing as quickly as it had come. By the time she sat down, it felt like someone had thrown open a window inside Izuku's soul, letting in a gust of cold air.

Izuku inhaled deeply, trying to steady himself. Maybe he was overreacting, letting his monster-hunter instincts get the best of him. After all, he had been trained to be hyper-vigilant, to see danger lurking in every shadow. Maybe these students were just that. Students, nothing more. But as much as he tried to convince himself, the unease wouldn't fully go away. Not after what he'd just felt. Not after Yanagi.

—

"Guys! Pssst! Over here!" Izuku conspiratorially whisper-shouted across the lunchroom the moment he saw Katsuki and Tsuyu enter, then loudly repeated himself when neither of them could hear him. "Guys!"

Katsuki and Tsuyu looked up at the noise and spotted Izuku waving them over from a corner table, and (begrudgingly in Katsuki's case) made their way over to him. Izuku was about to give directly into his theories, but stopped himself when he saw how rundown the two of them looked. School had only been in session for three hours and they both looked as though they'd been running marathons.

"Not to be too direct, but you guys look like shit." Izuku bluntly stated. "How come you weren't at the assembly?"

"That damn Eraser Head…" Katsuki muttered under his breath with a growl.

Upon hearing that familiar name, it was as though everything else on Izuku's mind vanished in favour of hero nerddom, "Eraser Head?! The underground hero? I didn't think he ever made public appearances, let alone teach at a school!"

"You've heard of Mr Aizawa, ribbit?"

"Oh yeah sure! I did some research on him a few years ago–"

Katsuki interrupted with a deadpan stare, "You thought he was a vampire, didn't you?"

"Yeah… yeah kinda…" Izuku sheepishly admitted. Back when he had learned about the existence of the undead, he felt it was his civic duty to ensure nobody had infiltrated heroic society. Unfortunately, at that stage all his knowledge on vampiric traits came entirely from movies, and his suspicions were somewhat cliché. It was a habit he had never quite broken free of.

Tsuyu started eating her bowl of crickets before they went cold, and between mouthfuls said, "Jury is still out on that one, ribbit. But if anything, he's probably an energy vampire."

Izuku gave her a sympathetic look, "That bad, huh?"

She nodded slowly, "He made us do a quirk test to see what we can do, but told us whoever did the worst would get expelled, ribbit. Everyone really pushed themselves after that, and in the end he told us he was lying."

Katsuki scoffed, "It was a waste of time, and he didn't even kick the guy he should have."

"Don't be mean, ribbit. It looked like a really difficult quirk."

His interest piqued, Izuku asked, "What do you mean? What happened?"

"It was this one student, his tests started off pretty normal," Tsuyu began to explain, "He got good scores on the running and strength tests, but then we had to throw a baseball as far as we could, and–"

"He downed a packet of sugar, threw the ball and his fucking arm broke in three places!" Katsuki shouted, slamming his fist on the table and garnering a few stares from other students.

Izuku blinked, trying to process that. "Wait, someone broke their arm… throwing a baseball?"

Her eyes half-lidded with fatigue, Tsuyu replied. "He just kept eating sugar, saying it made him stronger. But I guess it was too much for his body."

Katsuki clicked his tongue. "Dumbass probably thought he was invincible. He's lucky Recovery Girl was around."

"Damn… I wonder if it was the first time he'd taken that much sugar at once?" Izuku wondered aloud.

Katsuki tore into his steak, scraping his knife against the plate. "Tch, who fuckin' cares. He won't be trying it again, that's for damn sure."

"How was your first day, though? Ribbit."

Izuku hesitated, glancing around to make sure no one else was listening, and tried to subtly point over to a particular white haired student seated at another table. "This is gonna sound crazy, but you see that girl over there?"

With all the subtlety of an elephant, Katsuki turned in his chair and stared directly at Yanagi, who was calmly drinking out of a juicebox. "The spooky looking one?" he asked, his voice louder than necessary.

"Don't look directly at her!" Izuku hissed, shooting Katsuki a frantic glance. "But yeah, that's her. Listen... I think she might be…" He leaned in even closer, the others following suit, hanging on his words. "...a ghoul."

Katsuki rolled his eyes, his expression caught between disbelief and annoyance. "Oh, shut the fuck up. She isn't a ghoul, she's just… I don't know. Goth."

Tsuyu was similarly dismissive, "Don't ghouls usually live in the woods and eat corpses? I think she's eating sushi."

Izuku's eyes narrowed as he mumbled "fish corpse…" under his breath, which earned him a smack around the back of the head from Katsuki.

"Stop trying to turn every little thing into a monster hunt!"

Rubbing the back of his head, he shot Katsuki a glare, though he couldn't really argue. He did have a slight habit of jumping to monstrous conclusions… But still, there was something off about this girl.

Sighing, Tsuyu briefly looked over at Yanagi before turning to Izuku, "Look, ribbit, even if she is supernatural, it doesn't mean she's dangerous. She's probably just trying to live her life, like everyone else."

"You're right!" Izuku said, his eyes lighting up.

"Glad you're seeing things my—"

"I should follow her and see what she does! If she doesn't do anything out of the ordinary then I'll know we're safe!"

Tsuyu frowned deeply, "That's not what I meant, ribbit."

"Kacchan, you in?" Izuku asked.

"...Eh, sure. Whatever." Katsuki leaned back in his chair.

"You really shouldn't stalk people, ribbit."

Izuku raised his hands in a placating gesture. "It's not stalking! We're just keeping an eye on her."

Tsuyu sighed, looking from Izuku to Katsuki with a mix of exasperation and concern. "You two are going to get into so much trouble, ribbit."

Izuku waved off her worries, though a tiny voice in the back of his mind echoed Tsuyu's caution. But his curiosity—and maybe a little paranoia—was too strong to ignore. "We'll be careful, Tsu. We're just… investigating. Besides, if she's just a normal student, then there's nothing to worry about, right?"

She didn't look convinced, but knew better than to try and argue with the determined glint in Izuku's eyes. "Just… try not to do anything that'll get you expelled, ribbit."

"No promises," Katsuki muttered.