Thicken Your Skin

While Nemuri was explaining the rules, a certain pair of heroes was chatting not far away from them.

[Best Jeanist: What do you think about the 3 recommended students? In my opinion, only one of them deserves to be here. The other 2 bought their way in.]

[Cementoss: I believe that all of them are exceptional individuals. Moreover, there is no way that the principal would recommend someone average.]

Even though Best Jeanist was still a bit suspicious, he couldn't help but agree with his friend. Principal Nezu was a serious and righteous person. He was always helping with everything related to heroes, even though he suffered so much at the hands of humans.

[Best Jeanist : Even If I think it's true, I've heard a rumor concerning them. Apparently, the boy is a quirkless individual but All Might chose him as his successor and the girl has multibillionaire parents. Nezu might have pulled some strings for the girl so that he could reconstruct the academy. Just think about it, almost every teacher knows about it and none of them wanted her in their classes.]

He said it loudly enough for Izuku and the other girl to hear. He also looked at them to see whether he could get any reaction out of them.

Izuku just politely smiled at him, but the girl, clenched her fists even harder and a frown was forming on her face. It was definitely bothering her. She said something to one of her parents and quickly left the place.

[Cementoss: You are thinking too much. I don't feel like talking about this with you. Only the time will say. She might be a genius. Say, do you think that All Might will come?]

[Best Jeanist: I don't think so, he has other stuff to attend to. He doesn't have much free time on his hands. His relationship with Endeavor is terrible, I don't think that he will bother to attend this exam even if his successor is here. The chances are slim.]

Hearing him, Cementoss nodded and put his attention on the plasma television screen.

All of the heroes have received information about today's exam.

The big screen shined and two names appeared on it.

[Shiro Todoroki VS Cementoss]

"Hmm, it looks like it's my turn. I will be back in a minute." saying that, Cementoss walked up on the stage together with Shiro Todoroki.

✱✱✱

As much as Izuku wanted to watch the match, he felt like he had to go after the girl who left.

Nemuri knew that Izuku was feeling restless and couldn't help but ask, "What is it? Feeling unwell?"

Izuku nodded and replied, "Yeah, I will be right back" following which he left the training grounds.

He walked for a while before he arrived in front of a locked classroom. He listened closely could tell that someone was crying inside.

Using a bit of his strength, the door handle broke and Izuku easily walked inside.

To his surprise, it was the black-haired girl with the ponytail. She looked around in a confusion and saw Izuku. She was pretty sure that she locked the door until she noticed that the entire door handle was in his hand.

Izuku wasn't sure what to do so he just asked, "Hey...Are you okay? I heard that someone was crying, so I went in."

"W-Who are you?" she asked while wiping her tears away.

"Ah, How rude of me, my name is Izuku Midoriya. What about you?" Izuku smiled.

"Oh... My name is Momo Yaoy-... Yaoyorozu." after saying her family name, she looked at his reaction, but to her surprise, his expression didn't change one bit.

Most of the people she meets, always show some kind of reaction, whether it is a surprise, fear or greed. The name Yaoyorozu holds great power in Asia, therefore, it is expected that everyone would be surprised.

"That's a nice name! Look, I couldn't help but worry once I saw your reaction earlier. The pro hero Jeanist said too much. I knew people would talk badly about me since I have yet to prove myself, but I didn't think they would be rude to someone else as well. That makes us comrades in arms!" Izuku laughed and tried to lighten up the mood a little.

'Oh, so he is one of the people with the recommendation letter. But unlike me, he doesn't look like a failure.' Momo thought.

"You... You, don't look like it bothers you. How... Just how can you handle it. Tell me." Momo said.

Tears slowly fell down her beautiful face.

"I-I am not worthy to be here... He is right... Even if my quirk is unique... My parents must have bought the recommendation..I-I am ashamed to even show my face around here. E-Even though students don't know, most of the teachers were talking about me."

"Hmm. So then tell me, why do you care about what other people say?"

"Well... Because... It would ruin our family image and I just can't ignore it when someone talks bad about me. It just hurts too much." she put her hands on her chest and Izuku could feel that she was really hurt.

Izuku placed his right hand on his face and couldn't help but sigh. He was enduring his whole life and he didn't care what other people ever said. "Girl, your skin is not thick enough. Your parents are billionaires, do you think that they care about what other people think? NO! Those people are just greedy and jealous because your family can prosper this much!"

Momo was immediately drawn into his speech. 'So he knows who my parents are after all. But, he still doesn't care. Is he rich as well?'

"Look, all you need to do is to shut those people up. You need to show them what you are made of. If you are strong enough, they will immediately withdraw. Trust me."

Momo was silent for a second, did she really deserve to be here? She thought about his words and it indeed made sense. However, she looked at his form and his muscles. Did she even deserve to stand in the same room with him? Just looking at him, made her remember some of the western movies she used to watch, where the man, always had to overcome numerous hardships to get a good ending. Looking at his highly trained body, he must have put his blood, sweat, and tears into his training. While she, got into this school because of her cursed quirk.

"Don't doubt yourself" Izuku softly whispered.

His words made her unintentionally jump.

"If you got here, that means that you deserve to be here and besides, did you ever hear about it from your parents?"

"A-About what?"

"Well obviously, about how they bought you the recommendation."

Momo widened her eyes in realization. "No. I didn't."

"Then ask them today. I am positive that they wouldn't do it."

Momo smiled at what he said, 'Why is he blindly believing in my parents, he never even met then.'

When she saw him at first, she panicked, she wasn't expecting to see a man this soon. Well, while her father was a man and she saw some of his father's colleagues, but, none of them were good looking or similar to her age.

Other than that, she wasn't allowed to interact with any boy when she was younger. Moreover, she attended multiple girls-only schools so, the concept of a man was foreign to her.

Now that her father has decided to put his daughter into a mixed-gender school, Momo thought that she will finally be able to find a good man for her, just like in those old western movies.

But the moment she stepped onto the campus, most of the teachers were looking at her in disgust.

She thought that it was just her imagination, but on her way out of the toilet, she overheard a conversation between teachers.

"Yo! Have you heard about the new recommended students? Apparently, one of them is the daughter of Endeavor."

"Ah, I hope that I will get her in my class. That would boost my class ranking by so much. What about the other two?"

"Apparently, one of them is quirkless and the other one bought her way in because her parents are Yaoyorozu"

"So disgusting. This is supposed to be the best academy for young heroes and yet, they are allowing someone like that on the campus. What is Nezu thinking."

"Who knows, but it doesn't matter. None of the teachers have any intention of picking her anyway."

Hearing that, Momo was completely discouraged. She followed her parents to the training ground and there, she overheard another pair of teachers talking. This time, she couldn't take it anymore and she left the place while holding her tears in.

Meeting this boy has helped her regain confidence in herself.

"Midoriya-dono, so... you are saying, that if I were to defeat a hero, in today's match, I would gain their recognition?"

Hearing her voice, Izuku knew that she regained at least a part of her confidence back, so he smiled and replied, "That's how it is, Yaoyorozu-san. I will help you prepare a plan against that hero, how about it?"

"Hm? Is it possible that you know who I am facing? But how? The picks are supposed to be random!"

Izuku laughed and replied, "Actually, they are not random at all. I've already figured it out. As you've seen, there are plenty of teachers attending this exam, however, most of them are sitting in the background. Now, how many students are taking the test?"

"Three." Momo replied.

"Yes, and did you see how many teachers were waiting with us?" Izuku asked.

Momo thought for a while before she realized what he meant. "There were 3 teachers as well!"

Izuku nodded, "Yes, and since Cementoss is already fighting with Todoroki, and Midnight will be fighting me, it only leaves Jeanist for you." saying that, Izuku took out his hero journal #10.

Seeing that, Momo couldn't help but ask, "What is that and where did it come from?"

"This is something that I do in my free time. I always liked to study heroes and villains. I have all of his abilities and ways of fighting written in this notebook." saying that, he handed it over to her to see.

Seeing the incredibly detailed art, Momo couldn't help but comment,

"Your drawings are incredibly beautiful and your writing is exceptional as well. I've never seen anything like it, it's simply amazing."

"I am glad I am of some use to you. I will lend it to you for a while, see you later!" saying that, Izuku returned into the training ground.

Watching his back, Momo couldn't help but bite her thumb the moment he left.

'Don't doubt yourself, you deserve to be here.'

She was replaying their exchange a minute ago.

She also thought about numerous western movies she watched and couldn't help but blush. In one of those particular romantic movies, the woman, fell in love with a man, because he has helped her regain her confidence back.

'Oh no.'