"Izuku, package!"

He heard Rex let out a chuckle as he leapt up from the couch and darted towards the front door but he honestly didn't care if his mentor found his actions amusing. This was too important.

Because there was only one thing that his mother would be calling him about.

…okay, many things but he wasn't expecting any of the hero merch he had ordered recently to show up so that meant that it had to be his UA letter.

"DUCK!"

It wasn't Rex who shouted that but rather his mother and Izuku instantly ducked… only to yelp and leap in the air as she threw one of the many soft squishy balls that had become a permanent fixture in their apartment right at his feet, tagging him on the ankle.

"You get hit?" Rex called out from his spot in the living room.

Izuku didn't even think about lying, knowing that things would only go worse for him if he did. "Yes but-"

"But what?" Rex asked, his tone making it clear that he would not accept any weak excuses.

"You weren't the one that threw it."

It had been part of their training, to help improve Izuku's situational awareness. At any time, at any point, Rex would throw a ball at him and it was up to him to make sure he didn't get pegged by it. The ball didn't hurt; it was so soft that honestly he could do more damage to it by batting it away too hard than it would ever do to him. But that wasn't the point… Rex didn't want him hurt, he wanted him to understand that an attack could come at any time.

He let out a groan.

"You realize how foolish that comment was?"

"Yeah," Izuku admitted. "Danger can come from any place. From anyone. You never said that you would be the only one throwing the ball." He looked at him mother, flashing her a betrayed look, but she merely smiled, giving a slight smile. "Mom…"

"No, Rex is right," Inko replied. "And while I'll never be happy about you being a hero at least I can make sure that you are ready and can stay safe."

"You told me to duck!" Izuku complained.

"Oh? And villains will always be honest with you?"

Izuku ducked his head at that and sighed. "No."

"You know the rules," Rex said firmly.

Izuku looked back towards the living room, his mentor still not having gotten up. "Rex… but its my UA letter!"

"Yup. And think of how much better you will be there when you have another run under your belt. Especially when you are really pushing to get it done." He could hear the amusement in Rex's words.

Izuku hurried to get his shoes on, not even tying his laces but rather stuffing them into his shoes before he darted out the door, though he did reach down and snag his hip pouch and clip it on before he began to sprint as hard as he could. He felt the wind on his face, the lights flashing past his eyes as he ran under the streetlights that were already coming on, and the feeling of the ground on his feet; not slamming against it like many would have expected. No, that was the mistake so many people made when they ran, thinking they needed to strike the earth hard. A warrior and a fighter knew that you used to ground to drive yourself forever but nothing else. His feet only brushed against the ground as much as they needed to.

He was going to break his record.

"I used to worry about him going out on his own," Inko admitted as she watched her son begin his lap. Pegged by a ball meant one lap around the block. "Was afraid of what would happen even in the daylight. Now?" She looked out at the darkened sky. "I'm not sure how to feel about how I feel."

"You feel grateful that your son is strong enough to handle himself," Rex said, glad that Izuku had been smart enough to grab his hip pouch. If he hadn't Rex would have made him do another lap, saying that the previous one hadn't counted. The pouch held a taser, pepper spray, and a combat knife, all that Izuku could grab in seconds. All he was trained to use. "And you still worry," he added. "But that's why you do things like this… so that you know he'll always be ready."

Inko nodded at that, letting out a soft sigh as Rex came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close. It had been nearly a year since he'd come into her life and she was grateful for him.

In fact…

"Thank you, Rex," she said.

"You're welcome," he said simply.

She smiled, knowing him far too well. "Do you know what I'm thanking you for?"

"No," he admitted. "But I learned that when someone thanks you sometimes its best just to accept. After all, they could be thinking you did something you actually didn't do."

Inko shook her head, not for the first time wondering just what kind of life Rex had lived that he would develop such opinions. "I'm thankful for you, Rex. For what you've done for all of us." She snuggled up into his hold. "Izuku… I've never seen him like this. He's going after his dream, yes, but you've gotten him out of his shell. I was always so worried about him but never knew how to approach him. I… I know things weren't great at his school. That he was hiding how bad the bullying was getting because he didn't want to upset me. But I could tell. His life became his room. Hiding in there, doing nothing that couldn't be done in there. Then you come along and… he's going outside. He's willing to head out on his own. We used to go shopping and if he spotted kids his own age he would duck his head and avoid making eye contact. Now he meets their gaze without fear."

"He's a good kid," Rex said. "I'm not sure about everything there is to know about being a hero… I might have my license but I'm a soldier. But…" he gave her a slight squeeze, "…I think between the two of us we can make him a good hero. A real good one. Someone that doesn't think being a hero merely posing for pictures. Who understands that sometimes things don't go as planned and you have to fight tooth and nail to take a disaster and make it just a bit better."

Inko nodded at that. "I know what that's like," she said. "Maybe I should have been more open with him about what life can be like." She sighed, shaking her head, thinking about her job, her marriage, Izuku's quirkless status… and how she hadn't shown him that there were goods and bad to all of it. Izuku would ask about her day and she'd just tell him it was good, not letting him know about the struggles and the victories. She had a feeling that he knew that his father wasn't in America working and she wished she had been honest with him sooner, as the lie now was a wall that she wasn't sure how she could bring down. And his quirkless status… and how Rex didn't care-

"DONE!" Izuku shouted as he entered the apartment. Inko moved to pull away from Rex but he merely kept holding her and to her surprise her son merely looked at them for a moment before glancing. "The package?"

"On the table," she said finally and Izuku quickly hurried over and pulled out the package that had the UA Logo emblazed on it, ripping open the padded envelope… and frowning as he pulled out a small circular disc. "What is this?"

"Holographic message disc," Rex said.

"I've never heard of that," Inko said only to yelp as the device activated, revealing the glowing blue form of a bearded man in robes.

"Hello there," the man said, Rex smiling at the sight. "I am Obi-Wan Kenobi and this year I will be your Heroics Instructor. But what is important today is that we will be discussing how you did on the Entrance Exam, MIdoriya Izuku."

~MC~MC~MC~

Ochoco nearly quivered as she stared at the hologram. This was proof that she was making the right decision because the little projector was probably the most expensive thing in her family's home. They weren't poor; she knew that some people who had heard about her life thought she lived in a rundown shack where they could only get shoes by stealing them off the feet of homeless people. Her family's life was comfortable and modest… but she wanted it to be so much more. Her parents had done so much, struggled to provide for her… she wanted to do the same for them. And UA produced heroes that got big endorsement deals. After all, the holoproject, tech that would take her parents a year to save up for (not that they would want one, see it as a waste of money) was mailed to students. Purely to deliver a message.

Others would have been angered by such a flaunting of wealth.

Ochoco hungered for the ability to do just that.

(Even if she knew that wasn't the right way to feel and was not how a hero should be)

"As I am sure you remember the exam was broken up into several parts. First was your written exam, where you achieved a score of 85%."

She glanced at her parents and saw they were all smiles. Ochoco wasn't though; she knew she should have done better but there had been sections such as world languages that had given her some problems.

"The next was the Practical Exam. There you defeated 18 One-Point Robots, 8 Two-Point Robots, and 5 Three-Point Robots. This gave you a score of 49."

Ochoco worried her lip at that. It sounded like a decent number… but she had no idea what that was in comparison with. Perhaps she had gotten 49 points when compared to everyone else who had gotten 200! Or was it like the scoring of the test and it had been expected that students get 100? 49 was a failure grade. Was it bad that she had gotten a ton of One-Pointers and not a lot of Two and Three Pointers? She had been focused on just defeating whatever robots she could find but maybe she should have sought out bigger and more powerful ones-

"But that wasn't all you were being judged on."

Her self-chastising thoughts came to a halt at that admission.

~MC~MC~MC~

Tenya frowned as he stared at Mr. Kenobi, wondering what he could mean by that. What else would they have been judged on? Perhaps style… that made a bit of sense but still didn't seem right. Maybe speed? He could see bonuses being given out for how quickly one took down a Villain Bot; after all, a hero that let a villain rampage could lead to civilians being hurt-

"Unbeknownst to you all there were Rescue Points," Mr. Kenobi stated. "These points were awarded based on our observations on how well you assisted your fellow exam takers. While called "Rescue" they were also awards for working with another testee to take down a Villain Bot."

Something people didn't realize was that because he could move faster than most people he could also think faster as well. He had to; it was similar survival. If he wasn't able to react when doing a quick turn or coming up to a stop he was likely to crash. So ever since his quirk had come in he had trained himself to process things faster, to take his senses and tune them so that as soon as something registered he would instantly be able to analyze it and determine what it meant and the best course of action. Of course this led to its own problems as it meant that Tenya could end up thinking quite literally a mile a minute. It was why he cared so much about the rules: they were the guardrails, the boundries of where one could think. Because he knew that without rules it would be far too easy for him to begin thinking about the world around him and question why he should do certain things and not others.

And that was the kind of thinking that led to villains.

So when Mr. Kenobi had mentioned the rescue points Tenya instantly knew what he was getting at and felt great shame. His brother had told him many times that every hero, no matter what role they took in an operation, had to prioritize the rescue. It did no good to defeat a villain if that cost people their lives; why have heroes then to begin with?

He hadn't even thought about that thought during the Practical and he mentally chastised himself for that. He should have thought of that, should have considered that UA would want heroes that served and protected and didn't merely try and hit harder than everyone else. After all, even All Might with his great strength did what he could to save others. His first appearance as a hero had been rushing into a burning building to save innocent people, carrying them on his shoulders to safety. No villains, no enemies, not even a fight. Just a rescue.

And Tenya had forgotten all about that.

~MC~MC~MC~

Eijiro could only watch on, feeling like everything, every moment of his life, had built towards this moment. Much like his own quirk, how he had to focus it and harden it, one step at a time to reach its peak, so too had every instance, every triumph and mistake, led him to the very second he was living.

"You received 35 Rescue Points, 4th best out of all the students who participated. Of special know, young Kirishima, is your work with Momo Yaoyorozu. Your impressive teamwork with her allowed you to take on far stronger and greater villains than you would have faced before."

He nodded at that, even though he knew Kenobi couldn't see him doing it. Working with Yaoyorozu had just felt… right. They had formed a perfect team of offense and defense. She hadn't thought him as weak or merely a shield just as he had never even considered her little more than a weapon to throw at their foes without a care for her safety. They had done well together and he hoped that he would be able to work with her again and perhaps find other students that would fit well with his style.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Well, what do you know, brat! That's the highest score for anyone! And hey, you even got a bunch of Rescue Points!" She slammed her hand down on his shoulder but he was too used to her being so energetic to be rattled by the strike.

"We never doubted you for a second," His father said softly, a smile forming on his lips.

"Well, I doubted him a little but only when it came to him being able to do anything but be a showboat!" She let out a massive laugh that made Katsuki's ears hurt. And that was saying a lot considering how many explosions he'd heard in his life. "So, what weakling did you save?" she asked.

Katsuki though didn't say a word. First and foremost because he'd decided to do a bit of digging about Frog Bitch… purely out of curiosity, of course. And he'd found that she had been one of the top athletes at her old school, having managed to win several trophies despite having to miss a lot of different track and field meets; he wasn't sure what was up with that but from the footage he'd found on line it wasn't because she got the jitters. She was no weakling.

As for the second reason?

Because he knew what was coming next.

"Now, while there was a possibility that you were informed about the Rescue Points from former students of UA… there is simply no possible way you were aware of our final test." Kenobi folded his arms over his chest. "This test, that was implemented just this year, examined how you did in a situation where violence wasn't the answer. Where the usual flashy quirk would not help you. In fact… it would cause harm. Because a hero is more than fancy flourishes. A hero must be able to save people with their brains as well as their brain."

Katsuki sunk down in his seat with a huff… but didn't grumble or dispute what the teacher was saying.

~MC~MC~MC~

"While some may argue that it wasn't fair of us to not tell students of either the Rescue Points or the De-escalation Exam, UA did so because a hero must always remember that it is for the innocents that we exist… and that danger can come at any time. And sometimes that danger is an innocent who just needs a bit of help."

Hitoshi stared at the hologram, feeling his throat seize up. He didn't want to hope… hope was a danger. Hope was a threat. Hope only set you up to be crushed.

…and yet Mr. Kenobi was saying things to him that he had long thought himself. That he had longed to shout to others when they told him he couldn't be a hero because he had a villain's quirk. Or that his quirk wasn't interesting enough to save people.

He had tried out for UA assuming he would, at best, get into the General Education class and work his way towards the Hero Class. He'd thought that was going to be the case for sure when he got done with the practical, having only managed to defeat a few One Pointers and that was only because he'd grabbed a pipe and bashed them. But then he'd encountered that teen…

"Because of your quick thinking you were able to prevent your civilian from harming themselves and others. You managed to do so both through the use of your quirk and your own quick thinking. As such, you have been awarded 60 Deesclation Points, which have been added to your final score."

Hitoshi stared at ranks that tabulated his Villain, Rescue, Exam, and De-escalation Points and fell down onto his bed.

16th place.

There were 20 seats open at UA.

16th…

~MC~MC~MC~

"Congratulations, Ahsoka," the hologram said with a smile. "You took First Place for the entire exam group. You will be receiving soon your school uniform and an information package and in two weeks you will be joining class 1-A. This… is your Hero Academia."

The hologram of Obi Wan paused.

"Now turn around and give me a hug so I can celebrate."

She turned… and blinked to see Obi Wan not standing behind her but instead in the kitchen, struggling with a box of matches, a cake that had been decorated to have the UA logo on it sitting on the counter.

"I know I can get these lit!" he complained as he struck one against the box only for nothing to happen.

"Master, I don't think a celebration cake requires candles," Anakin said as he dished out scoops of ice cream.

"I did the research, Anakin, and it most certainly does! How else is she supposed to blow them out if they aren't lit? It was very clear that she needed to do that."

"And why does she need to blow them out? We can just keep them unlit." Anakin stuck one in the cake. "There. Nice and easy."

Obi Wan thrust his hands out wide. "And how is she supposed to make her wish?!"

"Everyone knows the only way to get a wish is to break a bird's bones!"

"…that is disgusting, Anakin!"

"Its practical!"

"There is my Master and my Heroics Teacher," Ahsoka said with a shake of her head, Padme only able to watch on and sigh as the two grown men argued about candles.