I lean back in my chair just as the first few students enter the classroom. There are only 36 students to a grade here at U.A. High School and the 36 students are divided into two classes of 18. 1-A and 1-B. I have been assigned to 1-A. I have arrived before anyone in the class, having been taught to be punctual to important events, I felt it was necessary to get to class before even the teacher, leaving me to pick a seat wherever I want. I chose to pick a seat in the back center of the room.

My fingers tap the top of the desk and my foot bounces beneath. I have been in classrooms before but I still get shaken up on the first day of school. I have to wonder who knows me because of my adopted father and who doesn't. Who will respect me or who will leave me alone? Will I make friends? I normally don't. Other students don't tend to befriend me for some reason. As the students enter, they pick their seats and converse amongst each other and I am left alone.

I glance up to the door in time for a certain ashy blonde boy to walk in. He wears his uniform a little differently than the rest of the boys. The open part of his outer gray and green uniform jacket shows off the white shirt beneath is slightly unbuttoned and his blue pants are baggy and droop on top of his shoes regardless of his belt. His red eyes turn to me and narrow.

It was safe to say I knew Bakugou would be in this class, to say the least, he had more points than me in the practical exam. He walks to the desk in front of me and places a hand down on it, leaning to my height to look me in the eyes.

"You got lucky."

"Sounds like you were worried."

"Me, worry? About you! Stop kidding yourself," he sits down in the chair and rests a foot on top of the desk and leans back against the chair in a relaxed position.

The muscled student from the testing orientation appears in the doorway but unlike Bakugou, his uniform is in pristine shape and when he sees the blonde he pushes his glasses up and approaches him.

"Take your feet off that desk now!" The muscled student orders.

"Huh?" Bakugou grins.

"It's the first day and you're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property you cretin."

"You're kidding me right? Your old school put a stick up your ass or were you born with it?" Bakugou leans towards the student with a toothy grin.

I watch the two converse with my head resting on my hand with my elbow on the desk.

"Let's start over, I'm Tenya Ida from Somei private academy," the muscled student introduces himself.

"Somei, huh? So you must think you're better than me, I am going to have fun tearing you a new one."

Ida steps back, his blue eyes widening. "You would threaten me? Your own classmate? Are you sure you're in the right place!" I notice Ida's eyebrows for the first time and how unusual they are. They are like two upside down check marks.

"He threatens people often," I try to smile but by the way my hand holds my face, it's hard to pull the expression.

Ida glances at me and then Bakugou, and me again. "What's your name?" He asks.

"Densetsu Aku."

"What school did you come from?"

Before I answer the two of them both notice someone staring at them from the sliding door of the classroom. It's the boy Ida got on for muttering during the meeting. His messy green hair is still unkempt and his green eyes look like he's both afraid but interested. Ida stomps over to him and introduces himself but the boy lifts both hands in surrender.

"I heard you before! Ah…I'm Izuku Midoriya. Pleased to meet you, Ida…"

"Midoriya you perceived the true nature of that practical exam while I did not! I misjudged you! I hate to admit it but you were the superior candidate!" Ida says.

Midoriya has a very expressive face as the look of shock and confusion that crosses it shows easily. He waves his still lifted hands and shakes his head.

"Deku…" Bakugou grumbles under his breath. He's back in his relaxed position but a look of hatred and disdain rests on his face. I wonder what his problem is with the boy; Midoriya seems pitiful and looks like he's scared.

Maybe Bakugou doesn't like weak, scared people? I know a few gangsters who are the same way. Anyone who is weak or scared, they tend to pick on even more than someone who isn't. Easy targets.

A girl appears behind Midoriya, a large smile on her face that has perpetual blush on her cheeks. She is very cute with her auburn hair that frames her face and her larger than life auburn eyes.

"Ah! That messy hair!" She says coming around Midoriya. "The plain-looking boy!" She waves to him. "You got in! Just like Present Mic said! Makes sense though! That punch was awesome!" She throws a punch in the air in excitement.

Midoriya rubs the back of his head with one hand and covers his reddening face with the other.

"So we've got our entrance ceremony and guidance sessions today, yeah?" the girl asks. "Wonder what our teacher will be like? Boy, I'm nervous."

"If you're here to socialize then get out," says a male behind the group. I can't see who it is but the look on their faces shows clear surprise. "This is the hero course. It took eight seconds for you to quiet down. Time is a precious resource. You aren't very rational, are you?"

A tall, slender man with messy shoulder-length black hair enters the room, dragging in a yellow sleeping bag. The students who were in his way stumble back into the classroom to give him the room. His black eyes are half-closed and are bloodshot. His facial hair is stubbly and unkempt. He's supposed to be a pro-hero but his outfit doesn't give away who he is from my knowledge. He's wearing a baggy black outfit that has long-sleeves and pants that tuck into his boots. He also has a utility belt around his waist and a white scarf around his neck.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Pleased to meet you," he says with a bored tone. Mr. Aizawa digs into his sleeping bag and pulls out a uniform suit that is blue and white, holding it up for everyone to see. "Right, let's get to it. Put these on and head outside."

We stand outside next to the main building and in front of a building that looks to be the gym. I keep to myself in the back of the group, my long hair pulled into a pony-tail and my head slightly hanging to the side as I watch Mr. Aizawa walk ahead of the group to a few testing locations.

"What about the entrance ceremony? Or guidance sessions?" Asks the auburn hair girl, who
I learned is named Ochaco Uraraka

"No time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes. U.A. is known for its 'freestyle' educational system. That applies to us teachers as well. Softball throwing. The standing long jump. The 50-meter dash. Endurance running. Grip Strength. Side-to-side stepping. Upper body training, Seated toe did all these in middle school, yes? Your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests. This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating. Bakugou. How far could you throw in middle school?"

Bakugou, who stands in the front, places both hands into his pockets.

"Sixty seven meters," Bakugou says.

"Good, go stand in the circle."

Bakugou shrugs and walks to the white circle that has lines coming out from the edges. It's where the soft ball throwing test is usually administered. He stands centered, looking at Mr. Aizawa for instructions.

"Great. Now try it with your quirk. Do whatever you need to. Just don't leave the circle," Mr. Aizawa throws him a soft ball that has a blue strip around it. I'm assuming it is used to tally how far the ball is thrown.

I wonder if Mr. Aizawa has our old test scores preserved somewhere - or the lack of mine. I chose to skip out of a lot of my classes in middle school but I still did well in the classes I attended. My unusual high scores were because I didn't mind studying when at home. I got lucky though, passing the test to get into U.A..

"Give it all you've got," Mr. Aizawa encourages.

Not like Bakugou needs it.

"Awesome," Bakugou stretches his right arm that holds the ball and gets into a pitcher position to throw. He pulls his arm back and with all his strength, thrusts it forward. "Die!" There is a loud explosion where the ball meets his hand and it throws the ball in an angle into the sky. The explosion doesn't stop there, it continues to follow the path of his hand as it falls back to his side. The blast from the explosion blows wind and dirt into the line of students ahead of me. I shake my head and wonder what I should do - I can't compete with that.

All I can manifest at the moment are rain clouds and lightning. Lightning can destroy anything but it doesn't make things go flying unless the object it's hitting has explosive properties. I might destroy the ball but it won't help with my pitch. My quirk might not help with these tests.

The ball bounces a few times before landing far away, leaving most of the students stunned but I've seen Bakugou's power at the practical exam and it doesn't come as a surprise to me.

"It's important for us to know our limits," Mr. Aizawa says, lifting up his phone to show us how far Bakugou threw. The distance is a startling 705.2 meters. "That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you'll be."

"Whoa! This is awesome!" Someone excitedly says.

"705 meters? Seriously?" Another asks.

"So we can use our quirks for real! Man, the hero course is great!" Another says.

"Awesome…you say? You're hoping to become heroes after three years here…and you think it'll be all fun and games? Right. The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged hopeless and will be expelled. Your fates are in our hands. Welcome this is the hero course at U.A. high!"

'Shit,' I think to myself. 'I'm fucked.'

"The lowest scorer will be expelled…? It's only the first day! I mean, even if it weren't… that's totally unfair!" Uraraka exclaims.

"Natural disasters…highway pileups…rampaging villains…calamity is always right around the corner. I'd say Japan is full of unfair things. Heroes are the ones who correct all that unfairness. If you were hoping to spend your evenings hanging out at Mcdonald's…I'm sorry to tell you…that for the next three years…U.A. will run you through the wringer. That's plus ultra. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it."

I stand in the center of the circle holding the ball in my right hand, my eyes looking over the blue strand that calculates my throw. Even though I skipped gym often, I still was forced into physical training thanks to Kiken. He wanted to make sure I was strong physically to be able to handle my quirk and even added sword-fighting as one of my practices. I might be able to throw a decent distance without a quirk.

"Weather manipulation," Mr. Aizawa says, earning my attention and a few others. "From your practical you used lightning and conjured up rain clouds, is that all you're able to do right now?"

I nod. "I wasn't able to manifest rain clouds before that, though. I did research on how rain clouds form before the practical and was lucky I was able to do it."

"Lightning is dangerous if you can't control it properly, not only to you, as shown in your practical, but to others as well. Try not to use it unless in practice while others aren't around. You can seriously harm someone or even kill them," Mr. Aizawa says nonchalantly.

Majority of the students watching look at one another after this information except for a few that watch me intently for some reason.

"Try to study more on weather formations so you can learn how to manifest other weather patterns. As for right now, try your best."

I nod again and get into position. Like Bakugou, I bring back my right hand with the ball, use all my strength and thrust it forward along with my right leg and throw the ball at its peak. It's not even close to being as impressive as Bakugou's explosive throw but it goes a good distance and lands with a roll.

"Sixty meters. Hopefully you can find a way to use your quirk in some other way during these tests, otherwise you might be ranking low," Mr. Aizawa says before turning to the crowd.

I frown and bow my head as I walk to the back of the crowd. I didn't notice him there until I saw his shoes in my view. Bakugou. Of course he's here to gloat. I look up at him with the frown still plastered on my face in hopes he can read I am not in the mood for this.

"You should have still used your quirk," he says, crossing his arms.

"Mr. Aizawa is right, my quirk is dangerous, I could have seriously injured you when we were doing the practical."

"It looked like you had control over it, why worry?"

"You obviously don't know how lightning works then," I sigh.

I am not the lowest on all the scores of the tests thus far, even without using my quirk but I know I won't pass. Uraraka takes her turn to throw the softball. She takes the center of the circle and throws very weakly. I've overheard her talking to another student that her quirk is zero gravity and even with her weak throw, I expect great things to come from this test for her. The ball goes flying into the sky at the perfect angle, disappearing into the clouds that separate when the ball cuts through and disappears into the sky above.

Mr. Aizawa shows us his phone with the infinity sign on it. I shouldn't have expected anything less from a zero gravity quirk.

Everyone is in awe.

Midoriya is the last person to go to the softball throwing circle and he slumps as he walks to the center. He takes the ball Mr. Aizawa offers him and stands there staring at the ground.

"Midoriya isn't doing very well…" Ida says. He stands next to Bakugou in front of the crowd.

"Well duh. He's a quirkless runt!" Bakugou points at Midoriya without a care if he's heard by him.

"Quirkless? So you haven't heard about his feats during the entrance exam?" Ida asks in shock.

Midoriya pulls his arm back and I can see his eyes. They are wide and full of determination but then I catch a difference in the air. I look around and see Mr. Aizawa's hair is floating, his scarf hovering around his neck and face and his eyes glow a vibrant red.

Midoriya throws the ball and it goes at average strength and speed, landing not too far away. The look on his face screams surprise.

"46 meters," Mr. Aizawa says. "I 'erased' your quirk. That ridiculous entrance exam …completely irrational when you consider someone like you got in."

"I think I've heard of his name before! He's an underground hero! Eraser head!" Someone says in the crowd.

"I saw it…How you can't control your quirk. You'd just be incapacitated again. Were you hoping someone would step in to help afterwards?"

"N-no, it's not like that…" Midoriya starts, barely noticing the white scarf that wraps around his back and pulls him in close to Mr. Aizawa.

"Whatever you were planning…it would have inconvenienced those around you. Way back when, a certain hotblooded hero saved over a thousand people during a disaster. He made himself a legend. You've got the same reckless streak, but…you're totally useless after saving just a single person. Izuku Midoriya. You cannot become a hero with that power of yours," Mr. Aizawa says. His scarf returns back around his neck and his hair falls back down to cover his now regular black eyes. "You've got your quirk back….give it another go. Let's get this over with."

Mr. Aizawa takes a bottle of eyedrops from his utility belt and drips a few drops in each eye before pocketing it. I wonder if they actually work for him given his quirk now that I know who he is. Eraser head.

"Seems like he received some special instruction," Ida says, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah. The instruction to leave this school," Bakugou replies.

Midoriya returns to the center of the circle and stands there muttering for a second. I can't hear what he's saying and I have to stand on my tiptoes to peer over everyone who's crowded in front of me to watch him. When I am able to spot him through the crowd I see he's pulling his arm back in an intense expression on his face. He thrusts forward and throws the ball but at its peak height, the ball goes blasting into the sky.

Much like Bakugou's throw, Midoriya's flies high and far off in the distance and when he turns towards Mr. Aizawa, he's crying with a clenched teeth look on his face.

"Sensei. I…can still move," he says.

"This kid…!"