Finally, after months on months of training, it was time for Izuku's first day at UA. As he left to catch his train his mother wished him a teary goodbye. Words couldn't describe how proud she was of her son.

Excitement coursed up and down his veins as he walked along the huge corridors, searching anxiously for his class.

'This place is too big…'

Every year less than one in three hundred examinees are accepted into the UA Hero program. This year thirty-six passed through the open exam and five were accepted through recommendations. Forty students split into two classes with twenty-one and twenty students respectively. Lucky for him he was in the same class as Katsumi. He just hoped Kacchan and the guy from the entrance exam were in the other class. He could do without their presence.

He sucked in a breath as he approached a humongous door labelled in giant letters- '1A'. He slowly opened the door. The sound of shouting from two familiar voices hit him immediately.

'Don't put your legs on the desk! Don't you think that's disrespectful towards your classmates?'

'No, as a matter of fact, I don't think so!'

Well, luck wasn't on his side today. As soon as he had opened the door he was greeted by the sight of Kacchan, sat one leg up on his desk as he smirked at the glasses guy.

'Which middle school are you from anyway, you two-bit extra?!'

'A privat- ahem, I'm from Soumei Junior High School.' He said, seeming to regain some composure, 'The name's Tenya Iida.'

'Soumei? Well, aren't you an elite!' Kacchan laughed, 'Seems I've got reason to fucking end you after all!'

'What nerve! You, want to be a hero?'

The guy Izuku now knew was called 'Iida' suddenly noticed him, and before Izuku could get away he ran over to him.

'Hello, my name is Tenya Iida from sou-'

'Oh yeah haha,' he managed to squeak out, 'I overheard, I'm Midoriya, nice to meet you, Iida.'

'Midoriya, I must hand it to you. You divined the actual nature of the practical exam, didn't you? I…' he clenched his fist, '...was blind to it!' He was talking about the rescue points, but Izuku didn't even realise they existed either.

'And I completely misread you!' Iida continued, gritting his teeth in shame, 'I hate to admit it, but you were the better man!'

Kacchan glared at him from his desk. Izuku tried to ignore him, instead searching the classroom for Katsumi- she wasn't there.

'Ah, it's you! Curly-hair kid! Glad I found you!'

Izuku turned back to the door to see the girl from the entrance exam- her name was Uraraka if he remembered correctly. She smiled at him as she greeted him. Wow, she looked great in her uniform!

He immediately felt bad for thinking that, he had a feeling Katsumi wouldn't have liked him thinking that.

Uraraka went on about the entrance exam, getting way too close for comfort. Izuku avoided eye contact as she wondered out loud about what they would be doing today.

'Oh and the teacher, what'll they be like? I'm so anxious like wow!'

'If you're here to make friends you might as well pack up and leave.'

Their attention was directed to the voice that came from behind Uraraka. There lay a dishevelled man with long black hair… in a yellow sleeping bag.

'This is the hero course,' he deadpanned as he sucked a drink from a bag.

Who the hell was that guy? Uraraka and Izuku stepped back as he emerged from his sleeping bag, dressed in all black and a strange scarf, the exhausted-looking man looked at the class with disinterest.

'Hm, it took you all eight seconds to quiet down. Life is short kids, you lack common sense.'

Was this the teacher? He must be a hero then, Izuku thought, but he didn't recognise him at all. He looked pretty washed up.

'I'm your homeroom teacher, Shouta Aizawa. Pleasure to meet you.' he said, though he didn't sound too thrilled. Out of his cocoon, he pulled a P.E. uniform out, 'Put these on immediately then head out to the P.E. grounds.'

Izuku looked over to Iida, who looked horrified at the state of their teacher. He certainly didn't fit with his idea of what a teacher at a prestigious school like UA should be. Izuku took a uniform and started following the rest of the confused students to the changing rooms. Katsumi still hadn't arrived, had she overslept? No, no way she would be late on her first day. Well... probably not. She would probably show up soon.

By the time they had got to the P.E. grounds, Katsumi was still nowhere to be seen. Izuku accepted the fact that she was not showing up today. If the teacher hadn't said anything about it it was probably fine.

Aizawa was getting them to do a Quirk apprehension test, the same trials they did back at middle school but this time instead of testing their physical abilities they were testing their quirks.

'Awesome! This looks sooo fun!'

After the teacher had Kacchan demonstrate the ball toss the class was excitedly buzzing. Izuku did not share the excitement. He was already worried, and now this? How was he supposed to do eight trials when he broke his body with one punch?

'It looks fun you say?' Aizawa sensei slowly turned to face them, his face dark, 'So are you all planning to spend your three years here having a good ol' time? I thought you wanted to be heroes. We over-enrolled this year, so I think this new rule will be beneficial: The student who ranks last in total points will be judged as 'hopeless' and instantly expelled.'

Izuku's eyes widened as the teacher grinned at the panicked students. His mouth felt dry and he began to sweat, he couldn't adjust his power just yet…

'UA gives us teachers the freedom to teach in the way we see best. In this case, it means we dispense students as we please!' Aizawa pushed his hair back as he looked over them callously, 'Welcome to the UA hero course.'

Izuku swallowed, trying to dampen his mouth. He couldn't be expelled, all that work… it couldn't be for nothing. He imagined it, Katsumi coming to school the next day, wondering where he was. No, he couldn't let it happen, he couldn't let his dreams be crushed like that.

'Sensei!' Izuku was suddenly pulled back as a girl with a black ponytail raised her hand, 'Is it really necessary to expel the lowest performing student? You said that the class is oversubscribed yet I only see twenty people. Is that not the correct amount of students?'

Aizawa shook his head, 'It should be obvious one of your classmates isn't here today.'

'I see,' she coughed, a little flushed, 'But is it not unfair to run an exam like this without everyone present though?'

'Only if your absent classmate had a chance of being in last place.' he shrugged.

'Sir!' Uraraka protested, 'It's our first day here! And even if it wasn't, isn't this unreasonable?'

'Natural disasters, massive accidents, ego-mad villains. All kinds of calamities can happen when we least expect them. The world's positively drenched drenched in the unreasonable. It's our job, as heroes to reverse it all and restore reason. If you were planning to go for a friendly chat over fast food after school, thats too bad. For now on, for the next three years, all you can expect for your life at UA is one hardship after another.' He smiled slightly, 'That's what Plus Ultra is. I expect you to overcome these trials and climb to the top.

Izuku pursed his lips, his chest felt tight. What was he going to do?

Aizawa scratched his neck, 'Well that was the demonstration, time for the real test to begin.'

Izuku left Recovery Girls office for what he felt would be the first time of many. He had come last, dead last. Thank god the teacher had lied to them or Izuku would have been handing in his student ID and walking home in shame.

'Is your finger healed?'

Izuku turned and jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, 'Ah! Oh hey, Iida, yeah recovery girl saw to that…'

He had hurt his finger pretty badly during the ball toss, but the fact he could still move meant he was improving. That's all he could do for now. He couldn't go on getting rescued all the time though, he had to learn to adjust his power, quickly.

'I have to say, Aizawa Sensei really got to me! I'd actually thought 'So this is what high academia is like!'' Iida stroked his chin as they walked out of the gate, 'Now I see how a teacher can encourage through deception.'

Before he had thought Iida was scary, but it was clear now he was simply an honest, diligent guy.

'Hey there guys!' A familiar cheery voice came from behind, 'You guys headed for the station? Wait for me!'

'You're that infinity girl.' Iida noted, referencing her impressive score during the ball toss.

'Hiii! I'm Ochako Uraraka!' she grinned as she introduced herself, 'You're uh, Tenya Iida and if I'm not mistaken Deku Midoriya?'

'Deku!?' His eyes bulged as he heard that name come out of her mouth so casually.

'Eh?' she cocked her head in thought, 'Wasn't that what Bakugou called you?'

Oh yeah, after he used his quirk Kacchan had shouted that at him, demanding for him to tell him about his magically appearing quirk.

'Uh, well actually my name is Izuku, Deku is just what Kacchan uses to make fun of me.'

'Oh,' Iida frowned, 'so it's an insult.'

'Ehhh, for real? Sorry! But you know I kinda like the name Deku for you!' Uraraka smiled, pumping her fist. She was so upbeat, 'It gives me a sorta never-give-up vibe you know!'

'Deku it is!'

'Midoriya!' Iida gasped, 'Don't be so weak-willed! It's an insult remember?'

As they walked beneath the blooming cherry blossoms, their soft petals swirling in the gentle spring breeze, Izuku couldn't help but feel a surge of happiness. He had already made some friends, some really awesome friends. The thought warmed his heart. He couldn't wait for Katsumi to join them. Even with all the gruelling work they would be doing, he could tell UA would be a hell of a lot of fun too.

It was the second day of UA, and sitting in homeroom Aizawa Sensei gave out their timetable. Still, no Katsumi. He had messaged her last night asking where she was, and she actually replied within the hour, instead of leaving him on delivered for half a day. But all she said was that she'd be there tomorrow, maybe. Now it was almost fifteen minutes from the expected arrival time for students and there was still a very clear empty desk at the back of the classroom.

'In the afternoon you will have your first daily heroics class.'

'Sir, is it really true that All Might is teaching here?' A boy with spiky red hair called out.

'I heard that people saw him here yesterday!'

'Don't call out, now-' Aizawa began, only to pause at the sound of hurried footsteps echoing from the hallway. They skidded to a halt, followed by the door flying open with a bang.

'Sorry!'

It was Katsumi. She stood in the doorway, uniform untucked, collar unbuttoned and tie loose she panted heavily with her hands braced on her knees. Her cheeks were flushed a deep red, and her usually pin-straight or perfectly curled hair looked windswept. It was clear she'd been running–shouldn't All Might have brought her to school?

After a moment, she straightened up, swallowing hard as she approached Aizawa, the class was stunned silent, only the sound of her footsteps breaking the silence. Without a word, she handed him a crumpled note. He raised an eyebrow, taking the paper with a sigh. His eyes scanned it briefly, and then he let out a scoff, clearly unimpressed.

'Go take your seat. Don't be late again.'

'Not my fault,' she mumbled as she made her way to the back of the class, looking straight ahead pretending to not notice everyone staring at her.

'Excuse me?'

'Huh?' she turned around innocently, 'Nothing!'

Aizawa shook his head, 'Don't be late again.'

Katsumi nodded as she took her seat, 'Yes Sir!' she said with a smile he did not return.

It wasn't her fault she was late, well maybe a little. Ninety-nine per cent was her dad's fault. He said he would wake her up when it was time to get ready and he hadn't. As a teacher he didn't have to come in till the afternoon so he slept in, completely forgetting that Katsumi also was going to school.

Katsumi had woken up with a sinking feeling, something was off. One glance at the clock confirmed it- it was a quarter past eight. She bolted out of bed and rushed to her dad's room, yelling at him for oversleeping.

They both ended up frantically scrambling to get ready. Katsumi dashed through her morning routine, trying to squeeze in her skincare, teeth, makeup, hair, clothes, and a few bites of breakfast, into the shortest amount of time possible.

Her dad scribbled a note for her teacher and they rushed out of the house. Dad didn't even bother taking the car, instead, he took Katsumi in his arms- much to her dismay- and flew them both to UA.

As she sat listening to the teacher go over the timetable again she stroked her hair, trying to undo the damage from the journey. Ugh, how embarrassing, first day and she had shown up late. A great impression to make on her classmates. Oh well, she would have been known as the unorganized one eventually. Izuku probably felt more second-hand embarrassment from it though, his face while she was talking to the teacher was too funny, pale and shocked. He sat a few seats in front of her, but the boy between them was so short she could see him easily. Great, she could stare at his tussled green hair for as long as she wanted.

Katsumi giggled at the thought, but guilt quickly made her smile fade, her lips pressing into a thin line. Things had become far more complicated—she couldn't afford to waste time giggling over a crush.

The girl next to her seemed to have heard her, glancing over at her, but as soon as Katsumi turned to look at her she quickly turned back to face the front. Katsumi stared at her- she looked kinda familiar- oh yes! That was the girl from the entrance exam, the one who sat next to her. She wondered if she recognised her too, she should try talking to her later. After all, they would be sat next to each other for at least the term, maybe even the year- Katsumi wasn't sure how Japanese schools worked honestly.

The girl looked kinda uptight but who knows, they might have something in common. If she got into UA it probably meant she did well in her race, it would be good to get to know the other top students.

Annoyingly Katsumi was behind already, according to her dad they had done a quirk apprehension test yesterday, so everyone knew each other's quirks. She should try to find out her classmate's quirks before the afternoon lesson with Dad. Yeah, she should focus on that for now, if not for catching up to everyone else to keep her from agonising over her little problem.

Soon Aizawa Sensei left and the loud man with the gravity-defying hair came in to teach them their first lesson of the day, English. Katsumi elected to not listen, instead spending the time staring at the back of Izuku's head or guessing what quirks people had based on their looks. There was a guy at the front with a tail, that's pretty clear. One of the girls had earphone cables coming from her earlobes, maybe she could stick them into people and hear their thoughts? A girl right at the front was just invisible so that was easy, the guy behind her had spiky blond hair, maybe he could shoot them out like a porcupine.

'Miss Yagi, you've lived in America, can you have a go?'

'Huh?' Katsumi blinked as she heard her name.

'Aww man don't tell me you weren't paying attention!' The teacher laughed and pointed at the board, 'C'mon is number one, two, three or four correct?'

'Uhh…' Goddamit, she hadn't really thought of the consequences of all the teachers knowing who she was. She did not want to be picked on for every English-related question for the next three years. How was she going to make sure that didn't happen? First, she actually had to look at the question though. There were four sentences written on the board.

'Jessica was not, according to Jack's planning, to be having a dinner.' That's an awkward way of saying it.

'Planning to not have a dinner with Jessica was Jack.' That was completely wrong.

'Dinner not was planned with Jessica and Jack.' Definitely not.

'Jack is not planning to dinner with Jessica.' What.

Katsumi looked over them again, she must have misread them. No, they didn't make any sense. Maybe the first? Ugh, she was still tired, she couldn't be bothered for this.

'Is this a trick question?' She asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

'No! There is a correct answer! Anyone else- ah yes Yaoyorozu?'

The girl sitting next to her stood up, 'The correct answer is one!'

'Correct!'

'No?' Katsumi furrowed her brow further in confusion as she re-read the questions again, making the girl- Yaoyorozu- pause, as well as multiple students turn their heads, 'Literally none of them are right.'

'Number one is grammatically correct.' Yaoyorozu replied, her brows also tightening together.

Katsumi clicked her tongue as she thought about it, she shrugged, 'I guess but if you said it people would think you were a massive moron.'

Yaoyorozu's eyebrows shot up, she looked like she was about to say something but stopped. Katsumi heard a snort from someone sitting a few seats ahead—it was the dude with spiky hair.

'Uh, well,' Present Mic began.

'It's awkwardly phrased,' Katsumi butted in, trying to explain, 'you'd just say Jack didn't plan on having dinner with Jessica. If you overcomplicate it you look like a weirdo.' She doubled down, staring at the teacher blankly. In front of her, she could see Izuku burying his face in his hands, she had to focus really hard not to start laughing.

'Ah! Well, you learn something new every day!' President Mic chuckled, awkwardly. 'Let me just change this…'

The teacher didn't pick on Katsumi for the rest of the lesson, she was very happy with that.

Lunch couldn't come quickly enough. Katsumi could barely stand normal school back in America, so doing normal work when the promise of something thrilling was just behind the corner was excruciating. She was just packing up her stuff as students filed out of the room when she heard someone clear their throat in front of her. Katsumi looked up from her bag and raised an eyebrow.

A stocky boy with tidy blue hair and glasses stood in front of her, a serious look on his face, 'Yagi, correct?'

'Uh yeah and you are..?'

'My name is Tenya Iida and I would just like to say that your behaviour just this morning has been abhorrent! Arriving late! Speaking back to the teacher! No paying attention during class! Not standing when called on! Insulting a fellow classmate and teacher! On top of that wearing the incorrect uniform!'

Katsumi stared at him with raised eyebrows as he spoke, only half-listening. She nodded her head, more paying attention to Izuku coming over, sweating as usual.

'This is the uniform dude.' She didn't have many arguments against the rest of her transgressions, she absolutely did do all of that. Was it not that great to do on the first day? Yeah, but why did this dude care?

'But you're wearing it incorrectly! Tuck your shirt in and fix your tie!'

Katsumi laughed, 'Why do you care?'

'This is UA! We are all extremely lucky to be here, you should respect-'

'Uh Iida-' Izuku interpreted nervously.

'Ah, Midoriya, you go ahead without me I'll meet you at the cafeteria.'

'Bahahaha! Don't tell me you're friends with this guy Izuku?'

'Ah, well yes-'

'Izuku?' Iida was taken aback by her use of Midoriya's first name, 'Do you two know each other?'

Izuku watched as Katsumi raised an eyebrow at him, he quickly replied 'Uh, yes, Iida this is Katsumi Yagi, she's from America so she doesn't really know how school works here…'

'I see-' Iida pushed his glasses back, 'Still! Please be more considerate, I'm sure tardiness is looked down on in America too!'

'Yeah well, it wasn't my fault.'

'Oh right,' Izuku felt a little more at ease now Iida wasn't actively reprimanding Katsumi, 'why were you late?'

'Oh my Dad said he would get me up and surprise surprise he did not.' she rolled her eyes, 'Ugh he ended up-' Katsumi stopped, she couldn't say he flew her to school, that would raise too many questions and she didn't want to talk to Iida for longer than necessary- 'I'll tell you later actually.'

'Seriously?' Damnit, looks like she hadn't escaped his disapproval, 'That's a horrible excuse, you should be getting up yourself at this age! Even children can get up themselves!'

'Dude you don't know me,' Katsumi glared, 'I've literally been so ill I was bedridden so my Dad said he'd wake me up instead of a loud blaring alarm.' That comment pissed her off for more reasons than that, but he didn't have to know about her complex relationship to sleep.

'Woah!' A girl's voice came from behind the two boys, Izuku jumped, moving out of the way, 'Bedridden? That's awful, I hope you're feeling better.'

A girl with round pink cheeks and short brown hair appeared she smiled at Katsumi, 'Hey! My name's Ochako Uraraka, you're friends with Deku too?'

What.

'Who's Deku?' She asked.

'Ah!' Izuku scratched the back of his neck, his face growing pink, 'She means me.'

What the hell?

Who the hell was this girl? Why the hell did she have a nickname for Izuku? Why the hell was he blushing?

Katsumi clenched her teeth and forced a smile.

'Hey.' She turned to Izuku, 'So where did Deku come from?'

'Oh, well she heard Kacchan calling me that and well…'

'Kacchan?'

'The guy from middle school-'

Katsumi's eyes widened, 'That dude's here?'

'Oh didn't I tell you?'

'No!' She almost laughed.

'Well,' he looked at her a little weirdly, 'we haven't talked much since the entrance exam so…'

'You literally came round my house,' Katsumi said with a light-hearted scoff. Izuku seemingly took it more seriously though.

'Well that was for your birthday,' he said, a little defensively, 'and you never reply to messages so-'

'Yes, I do!' Katsumi's brows scrunched together, 'I've just been ill so-'

'Again?' Izuku shook his head, 'You need to cover up more.'

'Excuse me?' She said coldly.

Izuku's eyes widened as soon as he said that, Katsumi cocked her head. Uraraka and Iida, who had progressively felt more and more awkward, cringed. Uraraka shuffled back slightly.

'Ah!' Izuku winced at his own words, they had slipped out before he could think, 'I mean because it's still pretty chilly and-'

'Oh really?'

'C'mon, you know what I wasn't trying to say-'

Katsumi stood up, 'Yeah whatever.'

'Katsumi I didn't-'

'Mhm,' she refused to look at him as she picked up her bag. It was best to just leave it, she was feeling pretty damn sensitive at the moment and it was best for both of them that she didn't respond.

'Sorry, I just-' he began to apologise, Katsumi just patted him on the shoulder as she pushed past him.

'Wait,' he followed her, 'don't you wanna get lunch with us?'

'I'm going to the bathroom.'

'Ah, I can show you where it is!' Uraraka called after her.

Katsumi snapped her head around, her best fake smile on her face, 'It's fine!'

Her scowl returned as soon as she turned back around, opening the door and slipping out. Pretty much everyone had already left for the cafeteria at that point. She sighed, walking along the corridors. She had already passed the bathroom on her sprint to the classroom, it wasn't far.

'Ugh.' She covered her face with her hands, the anger that had risen in her melting down into a puddle of shame. What was she doing? It would have been better if she had just stayed home today. Opening the door to the bathroom she went straight to the sinks, glad it was empty. Glancing at herself in the mirror she took her brush on of her bag and started to brush her hair down. A little lip gloss and blush made her feel better too. She smiled at herself in the mirror.

'Katsumi. Everything will be fine, absolutely nothing bad is happening.' She laughed a little bitterly as she placed her stuff back into her bag.

Suddenly one of the cubicles opened up- dammit! She thought it was empty. Katsumi watched in the mirror as the girl with the black ponytail walked up to the sinks and started to wash her hands. Immediately her mind went back to that guy telling her off for being rude, he was kinda right- goddammit!

Katsumi let out a lofty sigh before she took a deep breath in and turned to her girl, 'Hey, Yaoyorozu right?'

'Ah, yes, Momo Yaoyorozu,' she looked a bit surprised, looking at her with apprehension, not like she could blame her, 'your name is Yagi-san correct?'

'Ah yeah, uh, I've lived in America most of my life so call me Katsumi if you want.'

'Oh!' Her cheeks flushed slightly, 'Ah, okay Katsumi-san.'

'Yeah, um, anyways-' Katsumi ran her fingers through her long blonde hair, she might as well rip the bandaid off, 'sorry about earlier.'

'You mean during English class?'

'Yeah, that glasses guy told me off about a bunch of things a second ago and one of the reasons was cuz I was rude to you.' Katsumi couldn't help but giggle, 'Sorry, I really didn't mean it as an insult to you but if you took it that way- I guess I can be pretty harsh sometimes.'

Yaoyorozu laughed, 'Don't worry, you were right, yes a little crass, but right. I didn't take it to heart- honestly, I think Sensei was more hurt about being wrong.' She raised her fingers to her lips as she smiled. 'The glasses guy- I'm guessing you mean Iida- he's very uptight, he was telling off another student on the first day for having his feet up on the table.'

'I don't get why he cares what other people are doing,' rolling her eyes Katsumi leaned back onto the sink, 'is he class president or something.'

'No, we don't have one of those, yet at least.' Yaoyorozu had a glint in her eye as she said that, Katsumi could guess she wanted that role for herself. 'I must admit, the boy with his feet up is a piece of work. Yesterday he tried to attack that green-haired boy, oh what's his name…'

'Izuku?' Katsumi said incredulously.

'Oh, you know each other? Did you go to their middle school?'

'Ah no, we met last summer,' she waved the question away, 'Wait I'm sorry you said he tried to attack him? Who are we talking about?' In her head, she ran through the students in the class, it must have been Kacchan, who was this dude?

'The delinquent-looking boy with the spiky blonde hair, his name's Katsuki Bakugou if I remember correctly.'

'So that's Kacchan,' Katsumi huffed, 'why'd he try to-' she stopped, why bother to ask that? She was annoyed with Izuku at the moment. She could ask him later. Plus, it had been way too long since she'd talked to another girl. A big smile came onto her face, 'Actually, I don't care, I'm hungry, wanna go get lunch together?'

'Ah,' Yaoyorozu blinked, a little taken aback at the change in topic. 'Sure, I'd love to,' she smiled.