Izuku's costume was pretty simple. It wasn't as extravagant as some of the outfits he'd seen on the news, but it would protect him and communicate the message he wanted it to.

The base was a black ensemble of cargo pants and a padded, long-sleeved shirt that continued into gloves. These gloves were fingerless, except for the middle finger on each hand, which was plated in metal, a continuation from the metallic knuckles present on the other joints. For the middle finger, there were small plates of striking silver metal that wrapped around the whole digit. The tip of the finger was where it got interesting, though. There was a mechanism built into the gloves, where if Izuku tapped the palm of said glove twice in quick succession with enough pressure, it would trigger a sensor that told the tips of the metallic wrap to flip up and come to rest as an extra armour on the top of those fingers. It then made Izuku able to use his Quirk with all five fingers, as the cap prevented him from using his Quirk on anything by accident when closed. Izuku thought it was pretty clever, as he'd drawn inspiration from the rescue hero Thirteen's costume, which included a similar support item that kept them from using their Quirk by accident by enclosing the fingers until their Quirk was needed. Thirteen's caps were simply the type that they could close and open themselves, but Izuku's were magnetic and snapped open and closed with the press of the sensor. He absolutely didn't spend a few seconds doing just that, pressing the sensor to hear the snapping sound the gauntlet made. It wasn't satisfying.

Next was armour. The shirt padded, but Izuku was a fool to think he could go up against some of the Quirks that were out there without any protection other than his own power. So, armour. For that, he'd had a jacket be made. It was a little joke, but it actually was a jacket. A heavily plated jacket, but a jacket nonetheless. It was meant to be the colour of the dust his Quirk made, but someone must have gotten a picture of him somewhere in the process, because it was actually the same colour of his hair, a kind of dusty, faintly blue-grey as opposed to a deeper shade more to Izuku's liking. It was lined with stronger versions of regular clothing materials, to maintain flexibility while still improving durability, but the main attractions were in the chest and arm areas. On the forearms were lightweight, ultra-dense metal braces, to help him block both melee and long ranged attacks. Then there was the vest that had been combined with the jacket's torso, bulletproof, fireproof and insulated to protect from electrical attacks. The zipper, which Izuku eventually decided to have all the way up, was also made with a non-ferrous material, which meant that most metal-manipulation Quirks wouldn't work on the small amount of metal that was there.

The face mask went on next. It was a breathing apparatus that was primarily put in to not accidentally choke if Izuku Decimated something and the wind was heavy that day, but it would also help with fires and breathing underwater, which made Izuku feel like the development teams for these costumes were paranoid or crazy or something, but he supposed that they were better to be overly cautious than not cautious enough. After the mask went the boots, steel-toed and heavy, but manageable, with the same black colour as his outfit's base.

That was it for clothing items, and Izuku moved onto other tools that he'd gotten with the costume right out of the gate. It was mostly basic stuff, like bandages, gauze and some other basic first-aid kit essentials, as well as a bottle of water that was strapped to his waist as soon as Izuku saw it. He had a sneaking suspicion that Recovery Girl had added that onto the list after their talk after the entrance exam. Izuku's Quirk worked by exciting the cells of the target, just enough that the bonds holding it together came undone. It made the object just crumble into nothing, into formless aether, and that kind of transformation released energy in the form of heat. Not very much heat, but if he used his Quirk for extended periods like at the entrance exam, it tended to cause the water in his body to evaporate. This would be UA both lending a helping hand and putting a limiter on him, then. It would help Izuku keep going once he hit that state, even if for just a little while, but there was also the unspoken implication that if he hit that wall, if he started to dehydrate again, then he needed to be able to stop himself and take a break. The unspoken implication bounced around in Izuku's head as he packed those knick knacks and small tools into the pockets of his cargo pants.

Izuku stepped out into the light of Ground Beta, the training field made to look like a normal city. He could see the gathering of students, as well as the top half of All Might, being much taller than all of them, a block or so away, and he began to jog to keep up. However, he heard the call of his name, and looked over to where it had come from to see Uraraka jogging up to meet him in her costume.

It was … very Uraraka. It had a lot of round shapes and a friendly pink colour to it that Izuku was sure would be soothing to see, if he didn't get so flustered by being face-to-face with her for too long. The huge boots were strange, but it served to give her a recognisable feature, as well as the helmet and visor that came down over her face. Speaking of that visor, Uraraka was still messing with it, as it, along with the helmet she was wearing, covered her head and face in a way that pushed her hair around, giving it the quality of a messy, natural appearance. That messy hair framed the small, sheepish smile that Uraraka was sending his way because of that whole fiasco, and it all gave Izuku butterflies for a moment. Still not quite over the odd way he felt when he looked at Uraraka's face, Izuku was thankful that he at least had his mask on, due to the red flush that came over his face when he noticed that some parts of the costume were particularly … clingy, was probably the best way to phrase it. Izuku didn't really think he was overly conscious of those kinds of things, especially after his conversation with Mineta, but he couldn't help but notice, now that her costume left little to the imagination, that Uraraka was, well, curvy, and Izuku couldn't do anything as he suddenly became short of breath for some reason that he couldn't pinpoint. He'd known that Uraraka was a pretty girl before this moment, but the image that Izuku was getting of her now was completely different, and he felt like he'd been suckerpunched by how much he liked it.

What was this? What was Izuku thinking? He was beginning to sound like Mineta a little bit, and that was worrying, on a few different levels, and it made him intimately aware of what a weirdo he was being at the moment. Was he staring at her too much? It had been a few moments now, and he still hadn't said anything to Uraraka. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable or anything, but he was kind of blown away, and frazzled, so he couldn't really conjure up the will to speak right now. Luckily, Uraraka ended his suffering and struck up a conversation as the two of them began walking toward the distant grouping of students, the last to finish changing.

"You're costume's so cool!" she said, examining the material of Izuku's hood, which he'd decided not to wear up for this particular training exercise.

"You think so?" Izuku asked, once again grateful to his mask for covering how, despite trying his best to smile, he was still overcome by his shock and awe at Uraraka.

"Totally! Y'know, I used to think you were plain-faced, but the hoodie gives you the vibe of the kind of mysterious prettyboy the main character in a manga would fall for!" Uraraka said, calmly giggling at her own joke.

Izuku, on the other hand, was broken out of his mental gridlock. In his frazzled state, his mind whirred to life like an old computer struggling with all its outdated hardware to update to the newest operating system. Was that supposed to mean something? Obviously, on some level, Izuku knew that it was probably just a joke, but the kinds of jokes Izuku was used to were much different than this one, always something to try finally shattering Izuku's sense of self-worth after years of trying. Did this one have some kind of secret, hidden meaning as well. Izuku's mother had warned him that when they got to his age, boys and girls started getting complicated. Was this what she meant? Oh, god, did she really think he was a 'prettyboy', or was it nothing? He wasn't saying anything again.

"Uh, tha—thank you. Your costume is cool, too. It's … cute," Izuku said with great effort. His voice broke on the last word, though, so he wasn't sure how well he managed to hide just what a disaster his brain was right now, but at least he'd been able to say it. It wasn't a platitude or anything he didn't mean, because Izuku really did think that she—that her costume—was cute. He was just breaking down right now, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep his cool around Uraraka if she was going to keep this up. He wasn't sure he could blame her for the way he was feeling right now, either, so that added fuel to his anxious fire.

Uraraka peered at him and, if Izuku's eyes weren't mistaken, the seemingly ever-present flush in her cheeks grew a few shades darker as what should've been a small moment of eye contact was drawn out in silence as Izuku found that he couldn't—wouldn't look away. There was something magnetic in the way Uraraka's eyes looked into his, something that made Izuku forget for a moment what it was that he was supposed to be doing. That was, until a booming, deep voice broke him out of his thoughts and his stride, the two of them having arrived at the gathering of their classmates.

"Glad you could join us, Midoriya, Uraraka. I was just explaining to the class how we'll be conducting urban, indoor battle trials this afternoon," All Might said, his blinding, fake smile and unflinching confidence keeping Izuku from meeting the hero's eyes.

"Battle trial?" Izuku asked, his voice catching in his throat slightly. He wasn't ready to be fighting. Everyone else would be using their Quirks to fight, and he couldn't use his Quirk to fight, and that means he'd lose, and Izuku didn't know what kind of teacher All Might was yet; what if he was like Aizawa, and played mind games, threatening them with punishments to psych them out? Oh, he was screwed.

"Yes, battle trials. You'll fight in teams of two. One team will be heroes, one will be villains. You'll draw lots to determine who you're paired with, and who you'll fight against. Two teams will fight at one time, and the objective is to either protect or capture a mock weapon, or to subdue the other team completely within the allotted time limit. Is that clear?" All Might explained.

Izuku almost facepalmed at seeing that the greatest hero in Japan's history, maybe even the world, was reading from cue cards, even though he'd surely rehearsed this before, if not in preparation for the lesson, then certainly with the class just before, as the students were zoning out and not really paying attention which told Izuku that they'd heard it before. It made Izuku wonder if All Might had even come up with this lesson himself, or if he was just a famous face to throw at them to pacify them and make them think the schoolwork is fun.

"Can we move the weapon? Is it mandatory to use Quirks during the trial? What's the time limit? Is that your Silver Age suit? Is our grade a spectrum, or is it strictly pass or fail?" Izuku asked in quick succession. There was no way to prove that he enjoyed the way that All Might's smile twitched downwards at the rapid questions sent his way without the time to answer them one by one, and having to parse through them afterwards for a moment. He was once again grateful that his mask hid half his face from view.

Then, something that Izuku never thought would happen, happened.

"Are you gonna be mean about this, like Aizawa was?" Uraraka asked. Her voice was shaky, but it was all in her expression. Set like stone on her face was the focus required to be even the littlest bit prickly with the Symbol of Peace. Izuku happily let a massive grin stretch across his face at the question, feeling like he could break out laughing at the display. Izuku knew that she felt guilty about not standing up to Aizawa, and while he'd told her not to worry about it, that thought had clearly stuck with Uraraka. It seemed like she wasn't the type to repeat perceived mistakes.

The look on All Might's face was priceless. He had been about to answer Izuku's questions, but now Uraraka's question had thrown him off, and now he was at a loss. Izuku knew he'd at least watched Aizawa's Quirk apprehension tests from afar, and he suspected that, as the foundational heroics teacher, that All Might had known exactly what had happened during those tests, including Izuku's little flash of opposition with Aizawa. Izuku regretted causing such a scene in front of all his new classmates, but he didn't regret pointing out where Aizawa's logic was lacking, at least to him, and he'd at least come to something of an understanding with the man, but All Might was different. He'd personally insulted Izuku, even if it was unintentionally. He'd shattered Izuku when he'd been at his most fragile. So, Izuku wasn't going to pretend like he was still that starry eyed little kid who'd added at least a thousand views to every video of the hero he could find on the internet. He'd been bullied, ostracised from his peers and psychologically ripped to tatters both by his own Quirk and by others because of said Quirk. He could have a little bit of fun with this, at least. With—no, that was stupid.

"No, Young Uraraka, I am not going to be mean to you. If you must know, I had words with Aizawa about his approach to your first meeting yesterday. I found his attitude unbecoming of a teacher," All Might said, and Izuku couldn't find anything in his tone that betrayed his words, so he had to be earnest about it. Bummer. "As for Young Midoriya's questions — yes, you can move the bomb however you wish to protect it. While it is not mandatory to use your Quirk in this exercise, it is highly suggested in order to achieve the best outcome possible. The time limit is fifteen minutes. Your grade is pass or fail. When you're working as a hero, you don't get a B. And yes, this is my Silver Age costume. I thought that a little throwback would get you newbies into the swing of things!" All Might rambled.

Izuku had to keep himself from lashing out the same way he had with Aizawa. There it was again, that same mentality that was looking more and more prominent at UA the longer he was there. 'When you're heroes', 'as a hero', 'in the field'. They weren't heroes. They were schoolchildren. Middle-schoolers just a month ago. They were here to learn the basics before getting thrown into the chaos of it all. You didn't put a four-year-old into a third year high schooler's final exams. All Might had said it himself; they were newbies to all this. It was cruel, and unfair to leave them out to dry like this. One day, they'd be ready to fight each other with no holds barred, but they were still rookies at even using their Quirks in a serious capacity. Izuku doubted that some of his classmates even had a solid understanding of how their Quirks worked, much less how to use them with any kind of skill. Take the blond one with the black streak; Izuku had overheard that he lost brainpower when he used his Quirk too much, and he had no clue how to counteract that. Izuku had seen it yesterday, just briefly, when the boy with the multicoloured hair passed him — he was shivering. His Quirk, ice from the looks of it, gave him hypothermia, and he didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. They still hadn't completed the tutorial, so why put them on hard mode? Izuku had to clench his fist hard not to make a fuss about it at that very moment, because he knew the others were excited for this, but it was looking like keeping his wits about him and remaining calm was going to be an uphill battle for Izuku while he was here.

"Now, we can get our teams sorted out. Everyone take one ball from this box; there are two of each, and they're all labelled with a letter. Find the person that has the same letter as you, and you're a team. Go!" All Might boomed.

People immediately started moving, but Izuku hung back for a second. He waited for a few moments, until the initial rush of bodies had dispersed and he was free to move in and draw his lot without accidentally touching anyone. He knew he had his costume on, and that it was specifically designed to negate that kind of accident, but he was still a little bit jittery around this big crowd. Must have been one of those things that he'd never really shake, no matter how technically safe he was. Izuku had been about to step forward when those few moments had passed by, the goofy grin on his face at the fact that Uraraka had stayed as well just to choose with him, but he stopped after a single step to look through the group of students and right at Bakugou. He'd not moved either. He was staring daggers at Izuku, not moving even a muscle as the others passed him by talking with each other excitedly about their pairings. The two of them locked eyes, and Izuku understood what this was about.

Bakugou wasn't going to draw his lot until Izuku did the same. He wanted Izuku to be scared, nervous while he'd likely take his sweet time picking, just to see pitiful Deku agonising over the chance that they'd fight each other at the first moment they got. Bakugou would probably see it as fate, destiny that they'd clash so early, but Izuku wasn't buying that. It was unlikely that they'd fight, seeing as it was one of the nine possibilities. It was also a possibility that they'd have to work together, but Izuku was prepared to write that one off as a failure for both of them if that happened. There was no way they were working together, even if it meant they failed the exercise. Izuku knew his limit, and having to cooperate with that shitheel was over that limit. He just hoped that he had a little bit of luck that day, as it was quite literally in his favour to both not have to not have to face Bakugou at all in this combat scenario.

Izuku walked slowly over to All Might, not taking his eyes off Bakugou for a second. Surprising nobody, Bakugou started walking as well. The two of them kept pace with each other, eventually meeting at All Might's outstretched hand, holding the box they'd draw their lots from. Izuku gave Bakugou a dirty sidelong glance, and then reached his hand out to draw from the box. Bakugou reached out and attempted to bat his hand away, but Izuku had already withdrawn it out of pure instinct. He held the hand close to his chest, as he examined Bakugou thoroughly.

His costume was just like the one he'd sketched out eleven years ago. The spiky domino mask, the headguard, the kneepads, it was all the same. The grenade-themed gauntlets were new, though. Did they do something? They probably did something to amplify or reduce the power of his blasts, and if Izuku knew Bakugou, which unfortunately he did, it was definitely the former. He'd have to pay even more attention to avoiding Bakugou's attacks while they were in costumes. Izuku zoned back in on the world as Bakugou drew his lot, holding up a ball with the letter D on it.

"Your move, Deku," Bakugou said, not stepping back or looking away.

Izuku took a deep breath in and hardened his expression. He then reached his hand into the box and immediately removed it as he clutched a ball, not taking the time for the anxiety to get to him and looking at the letter printed on his lot. It was an A.

"Looks like I won't be dragging you down, Bakugou. Now you can be free to bully whoever you want, like you've always dreamed of," Izuku said, not taking another look at the blond boy as he turned around and motioned for Uraraka to draw her own lot.

As he made his way to the back of the group once more, he noticed the composition of the newly formed teams. The ponytail girl was paired up with Mineta, which was certainly something. He saw that she was already looking straight ahead and not interacting with the smaller boy whatsoever, which was probably the right call for her in the moment, but Mineta was looking at her with an expression that made Izuku shiver slightly, and he shot him the same look he'd sent Bakugou's way just before, catching his eye and glaring at him as he passed. Mineta gesticulated, waving his arms around in a silent question asking what he did wrong, but Izuku just furrowed his brow at him and kept walking. There were a few other interesting teams. That ice-user with the boy with multiple arms, the one that had gotten the highest score on grip strength the day before. That was a duo to keep an eye on. Interestingly, Bakugou was actually paired with the rigid, implacable Iida boy. If Izuku's sneaking suspicion was right, that guy had big shoes to fill, but he could still stand to relax. It got a laugh from him to see the unhinged, snarling Bakugou standing next to the perfectly collected boy unironically trying to strategise with him.

Looking around, it seemed like everyone had teamed up. All except … wait. No. That couldn't be right. Oh, shit. Uraraka came bounding toward him, excitedly showing off her lot with the letter A plastered on it. He muttered a broken, squeaky reply that not even he truly knew the meaning of, and died inside for a moment. This was the worst time for them to be paired together. Izuku could barely look at Uraraka right now without losing his train of thought entirely, but asking him to come up with a coherent plan to win against a random enemy and to actually make it work? Izuku might as well just forfeit. He had to focus, though. He had to win this. No matter his enemy, no matter the challenge, he'd rise to the occasion. That was the promise he'd made when All Might, the man issuing him this challenge, had broken his heart all those months ago. Now it was time to show him what his villain Quirk could really do. Even if his heart was all jumbled up right now, he'd do that, at least.

"Alright now, we'll decide the first teams to duke it out! The heroes are … Team D!" All Might yelled as he pulled a white ball with the letter printed on it. Bakugou's ego didn't need any more inflation, but this would probably do it. Especially if his opponent was—"And our villains will be … Team A!"

Fuck.