The results from the entrance exam two weeks later. He'd been pretty sure he failed, and that man he met in the halls had mistaken him for another examinee. He looked at the letter sitting on his desk, he had no desire to open the letter he could already guess its contents.

When he came back that day his mother had worried over him, examining his blotchy purple bruises and asking him how it went. He gave his usual answer, "It was fine. I think I did okay." Now she expected to know how he actually did, he knew he had to face the letter eventually, but he didn't have the heart to open it.

So instead, he drew, his eyes flicking down to the envelope every few minutes. After a while he gave up, reaching for the letter and slowly opened the package. Inside were two items, a sheaf of paper and a puck. He examined the letter first, it was a form of some kind, asking for his name, body measurements, and at the very bottom he saw words in bold print.

Please have this form filled out and submitted two weeks prior to the start of term, hero course students must also submit a costume design form if they do not already possess an outfit.

This caused him no small amount of confusion, why would they give him a form if he failed the exam? He glanced at the puck now, wondering if he actually got in. He picked it up, examining it for any obvious buttons to press. He didn't find any, but a few moments later it activated on its own, a hologram appearing out of one side.

He quickly righted the device, setting it on his desk, the man displayed was scruffy looking and that he was in desperate need for a nap. The man spoke the way he looked, tired. "Midoriya Izuku, congratulations. You passed both the written and practical portions of the UA entrance exam." Izuku's mind swam, he passed? How? He saw his points displayed behind the man. He'd gotten 28 villain points and 50 rescue points! Who'd he rescue? And why didn't he remember any of this?

"You'll be in class 1A in the heroics course, I'll be your homeroom teacher, don't be late." With that, the hologram disappeared, the puck shut down. He sat at his desk staring at the puck for several minutes in disbelief. He'd passed. And he was in class 1A.

And he had no idea how he managed it.

When he told his mother she'd cried tears of joy, or at least he hoped it was tears of joy.

As she cooked dinner he retreated to his room, staring down at the form he needed to fill out. Most he could fill out, but there was one box he didn't know what to put. His quirk. He'd been diagnosed as quirkless, but the man with the orange hair claimed he did. And he must have one if he managed to pass the entrance exam.

So, what did he put?

Maybe he should consult a quirk specialist, get a second opinion.

"Honey, are you sure about this? Maybe they were mistaken?" his mom had walked into the clinic with him and filled out the paperwork.

"I could be a late bloomer," answered Izuku softly. It wasn't impossible, just highly unlikely.

"Okay, I just don't want you to get your hopes up over a mistake," she handed the paperwork to the front desk and sat down next to him. He had his phone out, reading a story to pass the time. After a few moments his name was called and he and his mother stood, following the nurse to a room.

Izuku sat down in one of the chairs as the nurse asked him a few generic questions and measured his biometrics. She left, and several minutes passed before a Dr. Came in. The man was tall and balding, but not old yet, maybe middle aged at most. He had a clipboard, and he smiled politely at Izuku as he took a seat on a swivel stool. "Good morning young man, I'm told you want to take a quirk test?"

Izuku nodded, "Yes sir, I was diagnosed quirkless when I was a kid, but I think I may have developed one recently."

The Dr. looked down at his chart, "Well, it's not unheard of for that to happen, but it's not a likely scenario. Did something happen recently that made you think you may have developed a quirk?"

"Sort of?" answered Izuku, "I applied for UA, and I passed, and one of the staff said I definitely had a quirk, but I don't remember anything about the practical test, so I don't know what it is. All I know about it is that it can affect robots in some way."

The Dr. hummed, "Well, we could draw blood and run some tests, see if the quirk factor is present. It won't tell us what your quirk is, but we'll have confirmation if you have a quirk or not. The nurse will schedule a time for you to come in for that." He seemed almost dismissive. As if he didn't believe his story. He probably wasn't the first quirkless person seeking a second or third opinion.

"Thank you, Dr.," said his mother quickly standing and following the Dr. out of the room. Izuku followed behind, a little frustrated that they came for a quirk consultation, and the consultation took all of thirty seconds before the Dr shoved them off onto someone else.

The nurse scheduled the blood draw to be done in three days, then Izuku and his mom left the clinic. He was surprised when his mom scowled at the building as they left and muttered, "could have done this over the phone."

They returned to the clinic three days later. They checked in, and after a few moments he was taken back into a room where a friendly nurse stuck a needle in the crook of his elbow before drawing several vials of blood. When she was finished Izuku felt a little lightheaded and his arm hurt a little.

The following days were a nerve-wracking experience for Izuku, every time the phone rang, he came out of his room, looking at his mom expectantly. After the fourth day they finally got the call. His mom put the phone on speaker mode so they could both hear. "We ran the test several times, just to make sure the results were accurate, and we weren't getting any false positives. Each test revealed a low quantity of active quirk factors within your blood cells. Congratulations, you have a quirk. You can schedule a time to come in to figure out what it could be."

Izuku just stared at the phone, a large smile on his face. He had a quirk! Now all he had to do was figure out what it was!

Finding out what his quirk could be became an arduous process that went nowhere fast. The quirk specialist thought that it may be technology oriented based on the story Izuku told him. So, for the next several days he interacted with all sorts of devices. Not a single thing caused his quirk to activate.

On the fifth day the Dr. came in with several robot toys, "I can't believe I didn't think of this first. You told me that it had something to do with robots, so I want you to interact with all of these."

Izuku reached for a small remote-controlled dinosaur, he picked it up, examining it closely, but nothing happened. Next he reached for a small robot, a toy from a child's cartoon show he didn't recognize. He felt a static shock as he brushed up against the little robot, he recoiled slightly but thought nothing of it and grabbed the little toy. He felt an odd buzzing in the back of his skull, barely noticeable through the feeling of happiness currently flooding his mind. Weird, he never expected to feel happy about this toy.

He was reluctant to put it down, having the sudden desire to play with it, to move the tiny figures arms and legs, make it pose and play fight against other toys. Dramas folding out on a little stage only he could perceive and understand. The little robot twisted in his hand, guided by his thoughts as its arm chopped repeatedly, the action causing his elated mood to skyrocket. He felt joy as the robot was being used again after all this time.

"Are you okay Izuku?" asked his mom worriedly.

Izuku glanced up at her, the little robot ceasing its movements. He wiped away tears he didn't remember making. "Yeah."

"Did something happen?" asked the Dr. Now leaning forward in interest.

"I don't know. When I picked it up, I just felt happy. Really happy. Like I just fulfilled my purpose in life," said Izuku, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them.

The Dr.'s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the little robot in Izuku's hand, "Pick this one up next." He offered him another robot; it looked similar to the one in his hand but had darker colors.

Izuku took the robot, the feeling of joy magnified tenfold, the two robots seemingly recognizing the other. He felt a bubble of laughter escape him; tears of joy now streamed down his face. There was a feeling of competitive rivalry too, both robots yearned to be played with, but they also yearned to be the favorite.

"Tell me what you feel?" asked the Dr. curiously.

"I feel" Izuku couldn't put it into words, not exactly, "I don't know how to describe it. Elation maybe? It's like seeing a long-lost friend again. But also wanting to be the best friend? It's complicated."

The Dr. scribbled on his notepad, "Interesting. Very interesting. Go ahead and put them down for me."

Izuku was reluctant, fear at being put down suddenly overwhelming the joy. But he did as the Dr. said and he set the two robots down on the table. The moment they were out of his hands the joy disappeared, so did the fear, he felt confused, what had just happened?

"Now what do you feel?" asked the Dr.

"I don't really feel anything. Maybe confused?" replied Izuku slowly.

The Dr. nodded, mumbling to himself. "I have a theory." He announced after a few moments, "Your quirk has something to do with robots, but more specifically I think it has to do with understanding a robot's intent. What it was designed to accomplish. The two robots here, their toys, so they're meant to be played with. You may be keying in on that goal and interpreting it."

Izuku was only more confused, and now feeling a little distressed, how the hell was this going to help him be a hero? "We'll have to run some more tests," said the Dr. He stood up, pacing the office as he tapped his clipboard thoughtfully.

His mom glanced at him, a small smile appearing on her face. Izuku wasn't good at reading people, so he couldn't tell if it was a sympathetic smile or an actual one.

Izuku stared at the form, specifically the blank box labeled "Quirk." He knew he had one now, he might not fully understand its abilities yet, but he had one. Now all he needed to do was come up with a name for it. He'd spent years dreaming of suddenly getting a quirk, coming up with dozens of quirk names.

But now that he had one, he had no idea what to name it. His mind had gone blank. So, he set the form aside, picked up his stylus, put on his headphones and started to draw. He just let his mind wander, drawing random things. He'd come up with a name eventually, maybe if he did this long enough one would just appear in his head on its own.

He drew for hours, the world around him tuned out. And as he drew names would flit across his mind, appearing briefly before being discarded. He'd thought back to what he could remember of the entrance exam. Something about that still bothered him. Why couldn't he remember what he did?

Maybe if he got video of it, he could see his quirk in action, then he might understand it better. But how would he get access to the video? He could ask them for a copy? But they might say no. Unless he asked specifically for video of him only, maybe if he phrased it in a way that he was wanting to improve his abilities they'd be more willing to give it to him?

He put down his stylus, pulled up his email and quickly composed a brief one to the principle of UA asking for a copy of the video for 'training purposes.'

He leaned back in his chair, still thinking about a name for his quirk. Then a sudden realization hit him. He was going into the hero program, which meant he needed to submit a costume design two weeks prior to the start of term. He hadn't started the design yet! And classes started in 20 days! "Shit!"

He scrambled for his stylus, opening up a new project, he selected the sketch tool, leaned over, his stylus hovering above the trackpad.

And he had not a single idea.

"Damn it art block! Now's not the time!" He scratched his head in frustration, groaning in frustration. After a few moments of just staring at the screen, trying to force the ideas to come to him, he sighed and put the stylus down. He knew forcing art was like trying to force a fart. It turned out messy and he'd regret it. So instead, he decided he'd just put on an anime and relax a little.

Then he had an idea. A wonderful idea. His quirk was related to robots, so his costume needed to probably be robot themed. He could take inspiration from anime with robots! It was perfect! But where should he draw his inspiration from?

Mecha.

It was the first thing that popped into his mind. When anyone thinks of robots and anime they think of Mecha. But what should he watch? There are so many choices. Literally hundreds of them. Starting with the most popular seemed like a good idea. A quick google search later he found a potential list.

He scanned the list looking for any outliers that could give him inspiration. "Evangelion seems popular, but it's long, I don't have much time. Mobile Suit? Holy shit there's so much of it!" He went through the list, discarding anything that had more than 24 episodes. He didn't need a quality story, just something to give him ideas.

He settled on three that were short enough to binge in a couple days and at first glance had promising costume inspirations. Darling in the Franxx, Aldnoah Zero, and Gurren Lagann.

At random he chose Darling in the Franxx first, and after a couple episodes he put that down. The story was interesting, so he filed it under his 'to watch later' list, but the only costume designs he could get out of it were the parasyte suits. Aldnoah Zero offered more material he could work with. But the entire time he was just a little bored. Sure, the visuals were good, and the music was God tier, but the story left a lot to be desired. He only watched the first twelve episodes, not remotely interested in watching the rest.

Gurren Lagann threw him for a loop. Despite having very little in the way of inspiration for his costume, he couldn't stop watching. It was weird, bizarre, nonsensical at times, the characters were over the top and the writers had decided that drama was the only form of storytelling they needed. It was an unexplainable rollercoaster of an anime that left him speechless at its unhinged plot.

And it worked. It was a fun watch, one that Izuku vowed to do again when he had more time to appreciate it. But for now, he had work to do, a costume to design, and a form to complete.

He cracked his knuckles, started up his drawing program, put his stylus to the trackpad, and uttered a single word.

"Shit."

Art block was a hell of a thing.

The day the costume submission was due he was panic drawing a design. Slapping down the literal first thing that came into his mind. Making a rough sketch of a run of the mill humanoid robot. It took him four hours, and the design he came up with made him grimace. It was most certainly not his best work, maybe one day he could come up with a better costume. Something better than a Power Rangers rip-off.

Finding out what his quirk does specifically also yielded no further results. The toy robots did nothing more, and even slightly larger ones yielded no further groundbreaking revelations. So, when the time came to submit his forms to UA he wrote down "Robot Understanding" as a sort of placeholder. He hoped to update that in the future with something a bit more accurate to what his quirk could do. But for now, he was working with toy robots and faulty memories.

The Principle of UA never replied to his email, so he guessed that the answer to his request is a resounding no.

So, for the remaining two weeks, Izuku dedicated some of his time trying to come up with a better costume design and trying to find out what his quirk could do. He made almost no progress.

He did actually have a thought for a better costume design, something he didn't consider before. An old fictional superhero named Ironman. Instead of the bulky suit of armor he'd initially thought of, this one was sleek and looked much cooler. So, he began to sketch a new design, he put more time into this one, trying to make it look as cool as possible while still being as realistic as possible.

He also made sure to spend some time exercising as well, he couldn't be a hero on looks alone after all, and while he had absolutely no skill or experience in fighting, he was sure he'd eventually learn something. But since he was taking the Ironman approach it seemed that gear would be his primary method of fighting.

It was a shame he had no technical knowledge, well, he knew how to download things and do basic tasks on a computer. But that was the extent of his abilities. He had so much he needed to learn, and it seemed like an insurmountable task. But he steeled himself, sure it seemed hard, but good things in life were. He wanted to be a hero, and he'll do anything he needs to do to make that dream a reality.

Surely there was a place to learn that at UA.

He received his uniform a week before school started, it was a boring gray blazer with dark green slacks and a red tie. Truly inspired. He was in awe. But such were the fates of most school uniforms. And he was sure that a school like UA demanded a certain level of decorum. So he'd grit his teeth and wear the damn uniform despite how ugly it was.

The day came quickly, he had trouble sleeping the night before, either out of nervousness or excitement he didn't know for certain. But after the first two hours of lying there awake in his bed, he gave in and grabbed his phone to read until he either passed out or morning came, whichever came first.

Morning came first.

When his alarm clock went off, he rolled over, glaring at it, silently berating himself for getting too sucked into the story to get a proper night's sleep. It wasn't the first time this happened, and he'd bet this wouldn't be the last. But he knew he should really break this habit sooner rather than later.

Exhausted he rolled out of bed, trudging to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shower. Then he made his way to the kitchen, his new uniform hanging on his thin frame as he picked up a piece of toast. "Good morning Izuku, sleep well?" his mother asked.

Internally he winced as he replied, "Not really." It wasn't a lie.

His mom frowned, "Oh no, are you sick?"

Izuku shook his head, he wasn't sick, just an idiot, "No, I don't think I am. I'll be okay mom." He chewed on the toast as he picked up his school things, slinging the bag over his shoulder, "I should get going. I'll see you later mom."

"Bye honey, have a good day!" his mom called after him. The front door closed just moments later. Izuku shivered in the chill morning breeze, the winter cold nipping at his nose and exposed skin.

He stuck an earphone into his left ear, starting up a random playlist as he walked to the station. He let his imagination run wild as he walked, imagining what it would be like on his first day at UA. He felt a spark of hope in his chest. This time school will be different. He'd make friends, he wouldn't be ostracized by his class for not having a quirk.

He'd be welcomed, seen, no longer ignored.

That hope continued as he walked off the train and eventually, he made it to UA, following the throng of students in the same drab uniform he was in. He marveled at how big the building was. He'd seen it once already in person, when he came to the entrance exam, but it still held the same magnificence it did back then. Perhaps just a little more that he was actually attending classes here now.

And like last time, he was lost in the labyrinthine hallways that made up the interior of the campus. It's like they designed this place to be impossible to navigate. It's a good thing he got here so early.

Eventually he found his way to his classroom, the sign hung over a massive door. Easily tall enough to accommodate someone three times his height. He heard voices inside, two people yelled at each other, arguing about something. He couldn't hear them all that well behind the door.

He steeled his nerves, taking a shaking breath as he opened the door and stepped inside.

The hope of a clean slate, of making friends, was shattered instantly as he spotted a familiar sneering face inhabiting the desk closest to the door. Bakugo Katsuki sat there, his feet up on the desktop as he balanced the chair on two legs. He was fortunately not looking in his direction, instead glaring at a tall boy with glasses.

"This is uncouth behavior! Kindly take your feet off the desk now!" yelled the kid with the glasses.

"Eh? And what will you do if I don't?" spat Bakugo, "pull that stick outta your ass and beat me with it?"

"I'll inform the teacher when they arrive! We students should respect school property!" retorted the boy, completely unfazed by Bakugo's crass language.

Instinct took over, and he dropped his head down, making himself as small a target as possible as he quietly scurried past the two. Praying to remain unnoticed. Bakugo was so engrossed in his argument with the tall boy to not notice Izuku, and he managed to slip away unmolested.

He sighed as he set his things down on the opposite side of the room, he sat down, pulling his phone out to check the time. Only a few more minutes until class started. He glanced around, looking at everyone in the room already.

The variety of quirks his classmates possessed were impressive, most had some sort of mutation, but there were others like him who didn't show any signs of what their quirk was. None of them seemed to notice him. Not even the guy he sat next to, his mismatched eyes were focused on a book he had on his desk, although Izuku suspected the boy must have been like him, a loner outcast. Maybe he could make friends with him since the two were similar.

But he didn't know where to start, how should he approach him? Say hi? Introduce himself? Ask him what he's reading? Maybe what his quirk is? He swallowed his apprehension, opening his mouth to say something, but his words died as the door to the classroom opened again.

His mouth went dry as a girl walked in, he recognized her. She sat next to him in the entrance exam, she was Uraraka right? That was her name, right? He was sure of it. She had a content grin on her face as she entered the classroom, but she didn't pay attention to where she was going and bumped into the guy with glasses.

The guy stopped arguing with Bakugou and turned to the girl. He couldn't hear their conversation over the sounds of the others, and he realized it was none of his business anyways. He turned back to the boy next to him, about to ask a question when he saw him speaking to someone else. A girl with long black hair tied up in a ponytail.

Izuku slumped in his seat, it would be rude to interrupt them. So instead, he waited in his seat quietly. Eventually the door opened again. A yellow something crawled into the room, it almost looked like a giant caterpillar.

The yellow thing got upright, revealing a man's exhausted face. His bloodshot eyes scanned the room, glaring at everyone who was still talking. Eventually he made eye contact with Izuku, pausing slightly before finishing his scan.

A few moments passed as the man waited for something. After a few seconds he coughed loudly, getting some people's attention, eventually everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the man. When it was quiet the man spoke in a droning voice, "Now that I have everyone's attention we can get started. It took far too long for you all to notice me, in the future I'll ask that when you come into my classroom to take your seats and wait quietly."

The man glanced at Izuku again as students scrambled for their seats. Once all seated the man unzipped the yellow bag, letting it fall to the floor. He stepped out of it, kicking it behind the podium and he said, "Alright everyone, welcome to UA blah blah blah, I'm Aizawa your homeroom teacher. Get your gym uniforms on and meet me outside in ten minutes."

Mr. Aizawa then walked to the door, sliding it open. He paused before leaving the room and looked back inside at all of them, "What the hell are you all waiting for? I told you to do something. Get going."

Shouta tapped his foot in annoyance as he waited for his students to line up on the athletics field. They nearly used up the ten minutes he'd given them when they had all finally showed up. "Alright everyone, you'll be taking part in a quirk placement test," he expected the muttering his students responded with. Both nervous and excited.

"In the past your school's made you take a physical placement test" continued Shouta, "however they told you all explicitly to not use your quirks. I feel like that's a stupid way to handle these tests in our current day and age." There was a ripple of excited chatter from his students. Save for a few who had looks of trepidation. He understood their feelings, their quirks weren't going to help them physically. His own quirk would have been as useful as a spent can of spray paint during this test.

But that's not why he was administering this test to them. This was to gauge his students' abilities, creativity, and seeing how developed some of their quirks are. This could also help him understand some of the limitations of their quirks, and hidden strengths of others. He knew of a couple that might struggle in most or all of these tests. He was curious at how they choose to overcome their weaknesses.

His gaze flitted to a boy with green hair and nervous expression. It was clear to him at first glance that this kid didn't feel like he belonged. Shouta knew the kid had serious promise, if he found a way to harness that quirk of his. He'd seen his form, the quirk written there, "Robot Understanding" was obviously a placeholder of some kind. Midoriya probably didn't understand his quirk's capabilities. Shouta was determined to find out for himself.

"Midoriya, you placed first at the entrance exam. What was your softball throw record?" The moment he said that he noticed three things. The boy in question squeaked, his eyes wide as he turned beet red. A brown-haired girl seemed to perk up, craning her neck to see the boy, she'd evidently recognized the boy's name.

And what caused him more concern was a blond-haired boy, standing in shock, his eyes going wide as he slowly turned to look where Shouta was looking. His eyes took on a heated glare as he ground his teeth in frustration when he spotted Midoriya.

The two obviously knew each other, and probably not in a good way. He'd keep an eye on them.

Midoriya stammered out, "four meters."

Not remotely impressive. Borderline depressing even. Shouta held up a softball, "Try it this time with your quirk." Shouta already expected that there wouldn't be anything amazing, his quirk had seemed more geared for machines than body enhancement. But it never hurt to try.

So Midoriya scurred forward, purposefully avoiding the gaze of his classmates. He took the softball from Shouta and moved into the circle. He reared back his arm and threw the ball.

It landed a healthy 16 meters away. Could be better, but Midoriya was at this moment the physical equivalent of a civilian with at most some above average exercise routine. Not surprising. But Shouta was happy to notice that it was much farther than four meters. It meant the kid had taken this seriously and started exercising in preparation.

There was a bark of laughter from the blond boy, "That ain't nothing teach, just wait till I get my turn. I'll show you all what a real hero's capable of." Shouta refrained from commenting; the boy had the telltale signs of a superiority complex. It probably didn't help that the boy had the power to back up most of his claims. But physical prowess alone didn't make a good hero.

Midoriya slouched at the other boy's words, and shuffled back into line, trying his best to shrink into his baggy uniform. Shouta gave the boy a small encouraging nod, hoping he saw it. The kid was clearly not a social butterfly, but he had potential to be a good hero, that much had been clear from the entrance exam. Not just anyone charges a skyscraper sized robot to save a complete stranger.

The first test he had the class do was a 50-meter sprint. Tenya Ida had come in first, entirely predictable with the boy's pedigree and quirk. There were some outliers he didn't consider, the blond-haired boy, Bakugo, Ashido, and Tsuyu were some of them. Shouta hummed contentedly as he wrote down seven seconds for Midoriya, faster than the world average. But overall, he was impressed, most were above average or on the faster side of average.

The grip strength usually only lets students with some actual training shine, but this year he had three students show actual promise. One student, Shoji, managed to top out around 540 kilograms. But that was while he was using several arms worth of strength. Bakugo had a high grip strength for someone his age at 45 kilograms. Midoriya had topped out at 56 kilograms, which at his age was quite remarkable. Clearly the kid was more than ready to enter despite his quirk's drawbacks.

This trend continued for the remainder of the tests. One or two students would excel at one thing while being okay at the rest, while Midoriya was above average for every test. But due to his lack of standing out in one area his score suffered. But it wasn't the score he relied on when actually making a decision on who had the most promise as a hero. What mattered to him was commitment and drive. Throughout the tests he compared each of their scores to ones they took in middle school, and it was telling.

Most had done better than how they did in middle school overall, but excluding the tests they did best at, Ida's running, Bakugo and Uraraka's softball throw, even Shoji's grip strength, it painted a picture he wasn't happy with.

Most of them hadn't improved all that much since their last physical test. Sure, they were strong and fast, but they weren't dedicated. The one individual's scores who'd improved dramatically was Midoriya's. He'd gone from barely being able to run two kilometers in 20 minutes, to running five kilometers in 12 minutes. Another notable outlier was Uraraka, she didn't improve nearly as drastically as Midoriya did, but she did improve enough to catch his attention. He'd keep an eye on her.

But for now, he'd let his students pat themselves on the back for a seemingly job well done. "Alright everyone, here are the scores," he tapped his phone, projecting a hologram of the scoreboard for them. The students gathered around, looking for their names, one of them, Mineta, fell to his knees "Yes! I'm not in last!"

Izuku scanned the scoreboard, desperate to see his name. He found it eventually, his heart sinking.

He was in last place.

He'd scored the worst.

He had the least potential.

He saw Bakugo smirk at him, he could almost hear it, Bakugo telling him to know his place. Everyone around him congratulated each other, telling them how relieved they were that they didn't place last. Izuku fought back the tears.

This was supposed to be his fresh start.

Away from all the madness of middle school.

Where he'd make friends.

Where he'd be cool.

Where he'd have a place.

He guessed this wasn't it, and he wondered if he'd ever find somewhere to fit in. Where people would accept him. Where people would be glad to see him again.

Where he'd get to feel human and not like a waste of space.

He glumly looked up as Mr. Aizawa called for their attention, "Alright everyone you're dismissed for the day. Make sure your back bright and early tomorrow, we're going to jump straight into lecture first thing in the morning." His classmates replied in an affirmative, turning to leave, splitting into groups as they walked back to the building.

"Midoriya, can I have a word with you?" asked Mr. Aizawa before he could follow his classmates. Izuku stopped, feeling a sense of dread.

He turned around, facing the tired looking man, worrying that he was going to be reprimanded for his poor performance filled his thoughts as he shuffled closer. "Yes sir?" he asked in trepidation.

Mr. Aizawa tapped on his phone, the hologram of the results disappearing, "Level with me kid, why do you want to be a hero?"

Izuku clenched his fists, balling up the hem of his blazer. "I want to help people."

The man studied him, as if trying to detect a lie. The man blinked slowly, then asked, "any other reason?"

Before he could stop his reply, he asked, "Do I need one?" His own brain stopped, why'd he just say that? That was rude!

Mr. Aizawa blinked in surprise, taken aback by the sudden tone Izuku used. Then he shook his head, "No kid, you don't. It's just that most people tend to have an ulterior motive, some want money, others fame. They work hard at it but it's obvious if you look closely enough their hearts' not in it." Mr. Aizawa put a hand on Izuku's shoulder, it was a gentle pat, "I was just curious at why a young man like yourself put in so much effort, that's all."

Izuku looked up into the man's eyes, there was a faint smile on his face and a kindness in his eyes that he'd only ever seen in his mothers. "Don't let the results of today's placement test get to you too much kid. Their only numbers. What matters is commitment and drive. And from what I've seen" he showed him his phone screen, it was the quirk placement test, his name still at the bottom. Mr. Aizawa swiped, showing him, a different list titled 'Hero Potential.' He felt fresh tears bead at his eyes as he saw the list, his name was at the top. "You have the potential to be a great hero. We just need to work on it some."

Izuku smiled at Mr. Aizawa, "I will sir. You can count on it."

"Good, go home, get some rest. You look like you didn't sleep last night," Mr. Aizawa made a shooing gesture at Izuku. And with his spirits thoroughly lifted, he jogged to catch up with his classmates.

Another chapter written and done. This is kind of the set up with Izuku's dynamic with his class, for the most part. It'll change, eventually, as they eventually get to know our boy. But first day impressions are not going Izuku's way. Don't worry he does make friends.

Eventually.

I promise.

But there's going to be plenty of angst along the way to get them. Not spiteful angst, Izuku isn't spiteful. More of just, depressed angst. He's kind at heart and I won't change that.

But there will eventually be one person who starts the whole getting friends part soon. We gotta start small after all. No sense in just giving him friends if his major characterization is that he has trouble making friends and doesn't know how to talk with people.

Any guesses at what his quirk is yet? I'm kinda interested in what y'all think could be and what it does. Surely someone has a guess?

Alright. See yall next time, make sure to leave a review!

The emoticon compels you ( •̀ ω •́ )