'Oh, well done you actually got rid of your nails.'

Katsumi rolled her eyes.

The entrance exams had crept up on them insanely fast. It didn't feel like it had been that long since she landed in Japan but perhaps that was due to the insane amount of work she had been doing. Cleaning that stupid beach alongside boxing, gymnastics, aerobic training, quirk training and… studying. She was overwhelmed, not like she hadn't taken plenty of breaks and slacked off a bunch… still, she felt she had done enough to be prepared.

Today UA was holding the open exams, which was what Izuku was attending, and the recommendation exams. That was being held right after the open exam and what Katsumii was taking. On top of the usual written and practical exams, Katsumi would have to do an interview the next day.

Students were expected to wear their school uniforms for the written exam as well as take a change of sports clothes for the physical exam. Katsumi, not having a school uniform, borrowed a white button-up from Izuku. She wore it with a plain black skirt she had in her closet. Seeing as it was cold she pulled on tights and a large black cardigan to keep her warm.

Her Dad planned to drag her out of the house before the sun even rose, they had to meet Izuku soon so he could pass on his quirk to him. Katsumi felt awful, she had noticed a slight sore throat last night. It had not gone away as she had hoped. Her throat felt raw and slimy and she kept coughing. Her head felt foggy too, and her entire body ached. Why did she get ill on the exact damn day of the entrance exam?

Either way, she had to go, so she wrapped herself up in a scarf and a long coat before she left. Her Dad had also forced a wool hat on her head, put a pack of tissues and cough sweets in her pocket as well as made her take ibuprofen to stop any headaches.

'We'll go get a good breakfast after this so you have plenty of energy for the exam.'

Coughing and sniffling Katsumi followed her Dad to the beach. The sun had started rising but its light didn't make the air any less cold. Katsumi wished she had brought gloves, having to settle with shoving her hands as deep into her pockets as possible.

Golden light shone through the clouds as the sun rose from behind the ocean, Katsumi couldn't help but gasp when she saw the beach. It did not look like that the last time she had seen it. Beautiful white sand filled her vision, giving a clear view of the glistening water of the sea. The entire beach had been cleaned.

Suddenly a shout came from the beach, Katsumi's awe quickly evaporated as she spotted the source of the noise.

On top of a pile of trash was Izuku, shirtless and shouting.

'What on earth…' Katsumi croaked- quickly shutting up when she felt her throat throb with pain.

'You made it just in time,' Toshinori marvelled at the empty beach, 'and exceeded my expectations!'

Katsumi swallowed trying to relieve her throat as her father transformed to catch a falling Izuku. She dug around in her pocket to get a cough sweet as her Dad loudly talked at the boy.

'Katsumi, get over here!'

'Ugh…'

She begrudgingly dragged herself over to the two. Izuku looked incredibly tired, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. She smirked at his funny face, but as her eyes automatically drifted down from his face her expression faltered.

'Dude,' she coughed out, turning to the side, 'put on a shirt.'

Izuku blinked, a second passed before his face lit up and he jumped back.

'Sorry! Sorry!'

'Katsumi! Do not make the boy self-conscious! He had worked hard for this!' All Might patted the red-faced boy on the back, pulling out his phone.'

'Look! This is you, ten months ago,' he presented a photo of a crying, skinnier Izuku, 'Now look at you, excellent work. Truly!' All Might turned to Katsumi, 'Right?'

Katsumi glared at her Dad before taking another look at him, she bit down on her cheeks and turned her head away.

'Mhm…' she mumbled, giving a thumbs up.

'Well,' All Might patted Izuku on the shoulder, 'you're a true-blue vessel now!'

The boy smiled softly, ''Feels like… I cheated. Getting all this help from you All Might, and you Katsumi…' he sniffled, tears falling down his cheeks, 'I've been blessed.'

Katsumi shook her head, 'I didn'tcough-do anything.'

'Of course yo-' Izuku stopped at took a better look at her, 'wait are you ill?'

'Great timing right?' She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster, keeping her eye on the ocean.

'No need to worry bout that at the moment,' her Dad pushed Katsumi's woolly hat further down her forehead and over her eyes, 'anyways stop crying it's time for the award ceremony!'

'Okay!' All Might ruffled Izuku's hair while Katsumi groaned as she sorted out her hat.

All Might puffed his chest out, 'There's a big difference between being born with that silver spoon and working your butt off to earn it!'

Katsumi watched as Izuku stared up at her father, eyes full of admiration, 'Take this to heart kid, you've earned this power fair and square.'

She couldn't help but smile a little seeing Izuku's face of awe, how cute. All Might plucked a blond strand from his head and presented it to Izuku.

'Eat this!'

'...What?'

'Hurry up,' He waved the hair in front of Izuku's blank face, 'you gotta get my DNA there's only three hours till the entrance exams.'

'Oh wow…' was all Katsumi could say.

'Hey,' Katsumi stopped Izuku before he headed home to get changed, 'my exam's being held in a different place to yours so I won't see you there.'

'Oh yeah,' Izuku gave her a wiry smile, 'in that case, good luck Katsumi! I know you'll do amazing even while ill!'

'Mhm, I'll try my best.' She mumbled, looking away, 'Good luck to you too, remember what you promised.'

'Promise? Oh yeah, I swear we'll both get in!'

Izuku smiled brightly, though his nervousness was still obvious. Katsumi pursed her lip as she waved him goodbye, watching his figure disappear down the road. Her heart had been beating much faster than normal, she must be really ill.

'C'mon Katsumi,' Toshinori shouted from the driver's seat of his truck, 'let's go get breakfast.'

Katsumi sighed as she sat in the waiting room for the entrance exam. The students who arrived early had been asked to sit in their alphabetically assigned seats.

There was still a while until the written exam started, the recommended exam being held after the open exam. Izuku was in the practical exam right at that moment as she sat bored out of her mind in the almost empty room.

She couldn't help but think about what Izuku was up to at that moment. Shaking her head she let out another lofty sigh, she didn't have time for that, she should be getting ready for the exam.

She skimmed over her memories of all that studying she had done with Izuku. History, she tried to recite some dates in her head but as she did so the memory of Izuku's face as they made a timeline… Whatever she knew the dates.

Japanese, she was pretty confident with that. She had taken a practice test the other day and got a score of ninety per cent. Izuku was really impressed, he was smiling so wide-

Okay, weird. She needed to focus. She tried to recall the equations she had gone over last Saturday, that was when Izuku had gotten a notification that a new All Might scale figure was in production. He was so excited, Katsumi could perfectly remember how cute his face-

What.

Why the hell did she keep thinking about him?

Katsumi glanced around the room, the other students waited seriously and silently in their fancy uniforms. They looked so calm, completely the opposite of what Katsumi was feeling at that moment. As a matter of fact, she was feeling the opposite of calm. Heart beating loudly in her ears she slowly brought a hand up to her face, her cheeks were red hot. She thought back to that morning when he had his shirt off-

'Jesus Christ.'She murmured under her breath as she covered her face with her hand. What an annoying time to have this realisation, wait what realisation? That she likedlikedIzuku? No no no! She did not. Sure he was cute, yeah but anyone would think that! Like a puppy or something. She had always thought that he was cute, but she didn't think about him inthatway.

Well if he asked her on a date she would probably say yes, but, but-

Katsumi groaned, dragging her hands down her face, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. The action somehow spurred on a coughing fit. Next to her, she heard a tut, she whipped her head up. A couple of seats away from her sat a cold-looking boy with white-red hair. He gave her an icy look out of the corner of his grey eye. Katsumi shot back with a disgusted look to which he furrowed his brows before he turned back to the book he was reading.

'That was unnecessary,' she muttered turning back. How rude and what a waste of a pretty face. From that one interaction, she had already assumed what sort of person he was. People who had all the power and money they could want so they turn into little dictators who get pissy at anyone who dares even slightly go against them. She was used to it, after all, she had lived with one for the last fifteen years.

She really hated boring stuck-up people like that. People who had strong convictions that they're not afraid to show were much better. Someone hard-working, someone whose emotions showed on their face, someone who cared a lot. 'Like Izuku' she thought.

Oh damn, she really did like him.

Feeling her head start to ache, she sighed and brought her fingers to her temple, massaging the sides of her head. As she did she heard the seat next to her creak. Looking up she saw a pale girl with a black ponytail next to her. She gave her a smile before taking out a notebook from her bag.

'Hey.'

The girl looked slightly surprised as Katsumi looked up at her from her slouched-over position. She hadn't expected her to talk to her.

'Ah, hello,' she replied a little uncomfortably as she looked at the vaguely delinquent-looking girl next to her. Well- she thought- she had arrived early for the exam, so maybe she shouldn't jump to such conclusions.

Katsumi thought about continuing a conversation but the way her throat felt like a cat had crawled inside and scratched it up dissuaded her. Sighing for the umpteenth time she turned away, resting her chin on her hand as she slouched.

The girl sat next to her blinked, her brow creasing slightly.

Katsumi closed her eyes, trying to ignore the ache of her head. It didn't take long for her to realise she couldn't. Picking her bag off the floor she took out her water bottle, taking a large gulp. The way it slid down her throat made her grimace, god she hated colds.

Now that the time of the exam was drawing closer the room started steadily filling in with students. Soon a man with yellow gravity-defying hair came in and welcomed the students. Assistance handed out a number to each student that they would wear during the practical exam while the man loudly instructed them to leave their bags and coats on their assigned seats and move row by row into the exam room. Katsumi reluctantly took off her coat, shoving it with her hat and scarf into her bag. When her row was called she stood up and walked into the exam room, followed by the girl with the black hair.

The actual exam was… fine. The headache, random spouts of coughing and her recent realisation made it hard to concentrate but it wasn't like she couldn't power through it. The English section was easy, the only thing tripping her up being that some of the English was plain wrong, but she supposed the Spanish she was taught back in America had the same problems. The maths, which had been her biggest worry was… fine. She probably passed it, she was better from the amount of hours with and without Izuku she had spent studying it.

She reasoned that even if she didn't do particularly well on the exam it would be okay. With the amount of dirty looks and sharp inhales she was getting from the loud coughing in the silent room she reckoned she had distracted her competition enough that her score would be perfectly acceptable.

By the time the examiners announced the end of the exam she had convinced herself she had passed. Once the papers were collected they were ordered to collect their bags and head to the changing rooms. Once they were changed they were told to return to the waiting room to be sorted into groups for the practical exam.

Katsumi changed out of her fake uniform switching Izuku's shirt- oh god she was wearing Izuku's shirt- for a tank top and a zip-up sweater that she stuck the number on the front of. As she sat down to put on her sweatpants she noticed the black ponytail girl again. Damn, she probably should have surveyed the competition a bit more, after all, they were all competing for only a couple of spaces in the hero program.

Before going back to the waiting room Katsumi took another painkiller to ease her symptoms. She would be fine. Practical stuff was her strong point, and even if everyone around her was the best of the best she was sure she could keep up with them. But if she didn't have a stupid cold she would have destroyed them. She was lucky her airways weren't that blocked, that would have made it awful to do any exercise. Still, the fatigue was annoying. No, still she would destroy them, surely Izuku had put his absolute all into the exam so she should do the same.

She had been grouped with five other people, including that icy boy from earlier, though now she could see his entire face she felt her disdain for him ease a little. On the red-haired side of his face was a very large red burn mark.

Whatever, she didn't have the privilege of feeling sympathy for her rivals. If anything the burn might help her work out his abilities, fire maybe? If she had to go against fire she could use stone to protect herself or steel, in fact by heating up the steel it could make for an even stronger attack she could use against him.

'Yo yo yo!' The same teacher from before spoke to the group once they had arrived at the exam site. Huge grey walls stretched far on each side of a large doorway that the six students stood in front of.

'I know yall are promising young heroes so I know every one of you will ace this but still! Listen carefully to what you gotta do.'

Katsumi noticed the tall buzz-cut dude next to her nodding fervently, a stark contrast the the cool air emerging from the scarred guy on her other side. He looked strong, she should watch out for him.

'Righty I'm glad someone is excited, well let me explain how this exam is going to go!'

She was still too ill to put up with such a loud guy, seriously they were standing two meters away from him and he was shouting.

'This exam will be a three-kilometre race through an obstacle course, your times will be recorded by me, Present Mic!'

'I'm guessing we can use our quirks?' the maybe-fire-quirk boy asked. His voice was just as cold as his expression, quite unfitting if he did have a fire quirk.

'Of course! That's the main point of the exam, number twenty-three!' President Mic pointed finger guns at the boy.

Katsumi cleared her throat before asking her own question, 'Can we sabotage the other contestants?'

All the other students looked at her, the tall guy to her left laughing heartily.

'Ah,' President Mic scratched his head, 'well, yes there's no rules against that but this is an exam to get into a hero school Miss Yagi!'

'Right,' she decided to ignore the fact he had just called her by her name, her Dad must have mentioned her to him.

'Anyways, if there aren't any more questions then everyone line up at the door and get ready!'

Katsumi walked with the other contestants up to the line in front of the door. An obstacle course, easy. People would be too focused on getting through themselves to obstruct her, the main thing to watch out for would be quirks destabilising the obstacles, potentially blocking her path. That was fine, she thought as she stretched, she just had to be in the front.

'Hey, good luck sick girl!' The buzz-cut guy turned to her and grinned, 'Don't think you can sabotage me easy!'

Katsumi furrowed her brow, 'Sick girl?'

'Yeah, I heard you coughing during the paper!' He laughed brightly, 'I'm Yoarashi- You're Yagi right? That teacher remembered your name, you must be pretty damn strong.'

'It's an easy enough name to remember,' she shrugged, letting the nickname go.

'Alright! Everyone get ready-'

Katsumi dropped into the sprint start position, not intent on starting behind. The rest of the students seemed not to be disrupted by the sudden start either. After all, they were all supposed to be the best candidates in the country.

'Annnnndddd, GO!'