Metting the Neighbors

"Pivot, pivot"

"I am pivoting."

"Well, pivot more!

"This is as far as it will pivot!"

The sound of exhausted and angered voices could be heard coming from a stairway within an apartment block in the vast city of Musutafu Japan.

Naomi and I were hoisting up the last of the furniture we were moving into our new apartment, I was holding onto the back of the brown recliner chair whilst Naomi held the other end.

"Why can't I use my quirk for this?" I asked with a huff as I walked back up the stairs.

"It builds character, nothing humbles you more than trying to haul furniture up four flights of stairs," Naomi explain with an amused smirk as she stared up at me.

"This…is…annoying." My words came out in exhausted huffs with each step.

"Aw come on, it's not even heavy you big baby."

"Not heavy…just….awkward as hell," I growled as we finally made it to the floor our apartment was on.

The redhead chuckled, "go open the door, I'll bring this in for my little baby boy."

I did not have the energy to argue with her right now so I did as asked and opened apartment door number four fifteen.

This apartment was quite a bit larger than our old one, it had two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and an actual living room and kitchen. Naomi had claimed the largest of the bedrooms and the only one with its own attached bathroom while I had a room on the opposite end of the apartment directly across from the other bedroom and next to the second bathroom.

The living room had a door that opened to a balcony that could be easily seen from the inside thanks to the two large windows that bathed the apartment in a bright noon glow. While the kitchen was separated from the living room by a half wall and was large enough to actually move around with spread arms without having to worry about bumping into the kitchen table.

"Beep, beep, out of the way," Naomi warned as she stepped through the door with the recliner held on her back as if she was giving the chair a piggyback before dropping it opposite a few feet from the other recliner we had brought up earlier.

Naomi then walked over to the kitchen and drank from the water bottle she had left on the counter. "Are you finished unpacking your room?" She questioned whilst whipping her mouth with the back of her hand.

I yawned loudly as I flopped onto one of the reclining chairs. "I still got some stuff in boxes but I'll get around to it."

Just then light knocks sounded from the front door.

Naomi turned to me and gave me a look that I knew meant she wanted me to check who was at the door.

With a small inclination of will, I ghosted my awareness towards the person behind the apartment door. A sense of curiosity, nervousness, and excitement came from the mind of the woman at the door. Interestingly enough she also had a strong psychic presence but seemed to be repressed and shackled, however, it was not stopped by an inhibitor, but by some sort of psychological blockage.

I didn't feel comfortable with diving into what said blockage could be though as that would be a violation of privacy but for my own safety, I did gently brush against her mind to see what her intent was."

𝘖𝘩, 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘺𝘰𝘻𝘢, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨." Were the surface thoughts of the person beyond the door.

"It's fine, just a new neighbor," I confirmed with a dismissive wave of my hand.

Naomi sighed quietly in relief as she stepped towards the door and opened it. "Hello?" The redhead questioned.

I stood and peered from behind Naomi's broad frame to see a plump short woman with a kindly round face and dark green hair tied into a bun with two long bangs falling to frame her face. She was wearing a pink cardigan over a white shirt, a light blue skirt, and beige slippers.

"Hello, I'm Inko Midoriya, your neighbor from across the hall. I wanted to welcome you to the building with some homemade gyoza." The woman introduced herself giving us a wide smile as she held up a glass pan with tinfoil wrapped over the top to keep the dumplings warm.

I knew Naomi's answer before she even gave it, if there was one thing to get this amazonian to be your friend it was to feed her a homecooked meal

"Oh how nice, please come in." The redhead beamed as she stepped aside and allowed the other woman inside.

This woman was incredibly nice to cook us a meal, and if her name and appearance said anything, this was the kindly mother of the protagonist of this universe. So I was more than willing to be polite to her.

"Please let me." I offered to take the warm pan from her.

"So polite, your parents must be so proud," Inko said as she handed it to me.

"He's a bit of a handful sometimes but I am." Naomi chuckled as she reached over and ruffled my hair.

"You're his mother I thought…but you look so young?" Inko looked at us in surprise.

The tall woman laughed as she slapped her stomach. "Thank you for saying so Midoriya-san."

Poor Inko looked red as a tomato for her honest mistake. She couldn't really be blamed, Naomi hardly looked a day over twenty-five thanks to her healthy lifestyle, diet, and good genetics. It didn't help that Naomi hardly acted like she was in her thirties.

I decided to spare her by speaking up from the kitchen. "Mom, we haven't even introduced ourselves and you're already laughing at our guest."

Naomi's deep belly laugh changed to a sheepish one as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Oh right, so sorry. I'm Naomi Ishii and this is my son Samuru Ishii."

I waved from the kitchen as I set the gyoza onto three separate plates and set them on the kitchen table.

"Would you mind joining us for lunch Midoriya-san? I feel guilty for laughing now." Offred Naomi.

"That would be lovely, but I don't wish to intrude just for my sake."

"Nonsense, it would be good to actually be friends with our neighbors for once." Naomi dismissed the woman's concern with a wave.

Inko slipped into a seat across from Naomi and me with a bit of a shy smile on her face. "So what bring you to Musutafu?"

"I've been accepted into UA so we decided to move here to make the commute easier," I answered before taking a bite out of the soft dumpling.

Inko smiled brightly, "what a coincidence, my son will be attending his first year too."

"Oh really, what course is he taking?" Naomi questioned with a raised brow.

"He was accepted into the hero course." Inko practically shone with pride.

Naomi and Inko continued to speak, but my mind was already gone a million miles away on a spiritual journey. As soon as Inko's dumplings touched my tongue, my brain short-circuited, the bread was so fluffy and warm, the onions so perfectly grilled, and the meat so wonderfully cooked. Dear God if Inko wasn't married, I'd get down on one knee right here right now, not even joking.

"What do you think Sa…" Naomi stopped whatever she was about to ask me. "Sam are you alright?"

I blinked once, then twice. "This…this is the best gyudon I've ever eaten."

Inko giggled behind her hand. "Oh, it's nothing, just something I threw together last minute once I noticed you moving in earlier today."

"This was last minute?" I questioned with wide eyes. If this was what Inko Midorya was capable of with only a few hours of prep, then what the hell could she do with a whole day or even a week?

Naomi bite into her own gyudon and judging by her own wide eyes, she was having a similar experience as I was. "Are you a chief Midorya-san?" She questioned.

Inko shook her head, "no, I just have a lot of time on my hands being a housewife."

I had already finished my first dumpling and was already moving to grab my second. "You could make a living off this Midorya-san if you really wanted to."

"I've thought about it, but I don't really want to attach money to a hobby," Inko admitted.

Naomi grabbed a few more of her own dumplings. "Well if you ever change your mind then give me a call and I'll help you out."

"What do you do for work Ishii-san?"

Thankfully the redhead still had the presence of mind to not give away her secret identity. "I work security and do some private investigating on the side." Technically not a lie.

"That sounds so fun." Inko gushed.

Naomi chuckled, "it can be, I get to interact with a lot of strange characters from all over."

Inko inched forward onto her chair as she asked. "What was your funniest case?"

Naomi smiled nostalgically, "well, there was this one time in Hiroshima with this guy with a cotton candy quirk…."

And so Naomi and Inko exchanged stories for the next few hours while I listened on with a small smile on my face.

It's been so long since Naomi made a new friend, I was happy for her.

_______________________________

𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘭, 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴.

"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘮 𝘐?" 𝘔𝘺 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳.

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥." 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦.

𝘐 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦.

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶?" 𝘐 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. "𝘈 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳."

"𝘐𝘴…𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯?" 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮… 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭, 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴.

"𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥."

_______________________________

A sharp intake of air filled my lungs as I was rudely awoken by the sound of my alarm blaring loudly.

With an annoyed groan, I hit the top of my digital clock that had shown six-thirty in the morning.

"Fuck a duck I hate waking up in the morning."

Reluctantly I decided to go about my morning routine, a light exercise, which changed every morning but today consisted of fifty pushups, forty crunches, and twenty squats. Then I went on to take a massive shit whilst browsing memes on my phone, shower, brush my teeth, get dressed then eat breakfast.

It was during my morning meal of banana smoothie, scrambled eggs, and blueberry pancakes that Naomi had shuffled into the kitchen with a loud yawn and a disheveled bedhead.

Her tight black tank top showed off her abs and thick arms, whilst her baggy All Might-themed pajama bottoms did little to hide her shapely posterior.

"Morning," she greeted with a tired smile.

"Catch," I said whilst telekinetically commanding an apple to fly toward her as I continued to eat.

Naomi caught the flying fruit easily with one hand without even looking as she pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge. "So you excited for your first day?" She asked.

"Yeah, I mean All Might's going to be a teacher so it's hard not to be."

"I know I'm so jealous, but then again you have Nemuri teaching History so I guess it balances it out." She joked as she bite into the fresh green apple.

"She can't be that bad, especially since this is like her third year of teaching."

Naomi shrugged, "maybe, I just hope you both tone it down. Don't want the other kids to start getting the wrong idea."

I rolled my eyes, "it's just a bit of banter, it's not like I really think she'll be my baby momma one day." Not that I would at all object if she ever genuinely offered, fuck I'd even become a stay-at-home dad if it ever came to it.

"Well, you two certainly make it hard to tell the difference sometimes. Just…" She sighed, "just don't be weird with it okay? I know how you two operate, some people seriously have no sense of humor so they might actually think you two are really flirting."

"I'll keep that in mind, don't need to scar the kids after all."

We ate in silence for a few more minutes until I was finally done and picked up my backpack from near the front door and put on my shoes.

"You forgot something," Naomi said as she stepped towards me with her arms held wide.

I chuckled in exasperation and gave the woman a tight hug. "Be safe out there," I mumbled into her muscular torso.

Naomi pulled me away and ran her hand through my short dark crimson hair whilst the other rested atop my shoulder that was covered in the school-provided light grey blazer. Her dark purple eyes looked right into mine. "Please try to make some friends okay?"

I couldn't say no to her when she gave me that look. "I'll try."

She smiled, "that's all I ask." She then gave me a forehead kiss, "do your best and be respectful, I'll see you tonight if something crazy doesn't happen."

I nodded at her with a smile of my own, "I'll see you tonight." I said whilst opening the front door.

Just as I stepped outside, the apartment directly across from mine opened.

"Be good Izuku, love you!" Inko called from inside the opposite apartments.

"I will mom, love you!" A boy with a head of messy dark green hair who was nearly half a foot taller than me stepped out into the hallway. The boy wore the same UA school uniform as I was, his bright green eyes shone with excitement and his wide smile crinkled the freckles on his cheeks.

The boy stopped in his tracks when he noticed me. "Oh…uh good morning." He mumbled.

Inko made herself known as she held the door open. "Oh Ishii-san, it's good to see you again." She greeted me with a bright smile.

"Morning," I nodded towards her with a small smile of my own.

The mother turned toward her confused-looking child. "Izuku, this is our new neihbor. It's his first day at UA too."

Izuku blinked in surprise, seemingly to just now notice our matching uniforms. "Oh…really, are you in the hero course too?"

I nodded, "yeah."

"Sam get moving before the train leaves," Naomi said as she cracked the door to our apartment.

"Ah crap, come on we should get going," I said before rushing down the hallway.

"He's right. Bye, mom!" Izuku shouted as he ran alongside me.

I could hear the echoing giggles of both of our mothers sounding down the hallway as we ran.

____________________________

Izuku and I arrived and made it to the train just in time as the moment we ran inside the two doors closed behind us.

All the seats on the train were already taken by the other morning commuters and so Izuku and I had to content ourselves with holding onto the hanging handholds in the middle of the aisle near the door we arrived through.

"Holy cow we almost didn't make it," Izuku said with wide eyes.

"That would've been embarrassing on our first day." I nodded in agreement.

"I-I'm Izuku Midorya by the way."

"Samuru Ishii."

We both fell into silence for a long awkward moment before the boy spoke again. "S-so, uh…what class are you going to be in?"

"Class 1-A." I had no idea who I was replacing, I suspected I was more than likely replacing that grape kid with the diaper or even the invisible girl as I don't see those two doing all that well in the practical. But who knows, maybe somewhere along the way my existence caused a ripple that changed some things more than I even realize.

"Oh cool, me too."

We fell into yet another awkward silence for several minutes, neither of us really know how to go about continuing a conversation with a peer. But then I noticed a little All Might pin attached to Izuku's backpack and I suddenly remembered exactly what to talk about with this kid.

"So you excited about having All Might as a teacher?"

Izuku's face lit up as he smiled broadly. "I sure am, it's going to be so awesome. I've followed All Might's career since I was a little kid."

"So All Might must be your favorite hero then?"

He nodded, "yeah, he's my inspiration."

"He is pretty cool." I nodded in agreement.

"Who's your favorite hero?"

A small smile grew on my face as I answered. "Star Platinum."

Izuku blinked in surprise. "Star Platinum, the one who came out of retirement last year?"

"Yep, I was there at the Mecha Arena when she showed up, she saved my life."

The boy's eyes widened at my admission. "Woah, so you were there when that giant robot got hijacked and attacked everyone?"

"Pretty much yeah."

In a blink, Izuku had some kind of notebook in his hand along with a pencil. "Do you remember how Star Platinum fought, how did she move, how fast was she, how much power do you estimate she could attack with?"

Izuku's sudden rapid-fire questions stunned me for a brief moment. "Uh…I think she cleared a few hundred feet in like two seconds. From the specs that were advertised, Mechagodzilla had at least two feet of steel plating so she could at least punch through that pretty easily." I could tell him an accurate account of Naomi's strength and speed, but I wasn't stupid enough to actually say that aloud in public nor give that information away to anyone unless Naomi herself approved.

The green-haired boy wrote in his notebook with the speed of an engineering student hopped up on their seventh Bang energy drink on finals week. "So her astral self not only acts as extra limbs but also enhances her strength and speed to a considerable degree. Not All Might levels of course but more than likely equivalent to top heroes like Mirko or Ryukyu." He muttered to himself.

"She actually used to be in the top ten before her retirement." I pointed out.

Izuku palmed his forehead as he continued to write down notes, "of course, she was the second-youngest person in Japanese history to get in the top ten."

That was a little tidbit I had found out only after the news went crazy upon her return. Naomi had obtained the number ten hero rank at only twenty years old, just a half year before she suddenly disappeared from the public eye. Images and videos of a young Star Platinum ran all through Japanese news as speculation of why she left and why she returned ran through the news cycle for a full week until the public attention span eventually moved on to something else.

If it was not already obvious before, it was more than obvious now that the public was unaware that Naomi had been on parole for crimes that I was still ignorant of. Had they known about it the public would most assuredly not have been as welcoming to her return as they had been.

Izuku continued to mutter to himself about Star Platinum's quirk and how well it could theoretically work in different environments and against different opponents all throughout the train ride. The boy was completely stuck in his own little world and more than likely would've missed our stop had I not poked him in the shoulder once we arrived.

"This is our stop."

Izuku blinked in surprise as he looked up from his notebook, "w-what?" He looked around to see the doors open and many people either boarding or leaving the train.

"Come on." I brushed past him with an amused chuckle.

I heard the boy scramble to catch up to me as I weaved through the mass of other commuters.

The station was only a block away from UA, and from this elevated height, I could see the four large glass towers looming over the horizon and reflecting the bright morning sun briefly into my eyes.

Within a few minutes, Midorya and I were at the wide-open gates of the school, "you ready?" I gave the boy a grin from over my shoulder.

Izuku gulped nervously and gave a stiff nod.

Without looking back I stepped forward and marched towards the large class towers in the distance. Today was going to be my first day of hero training, the start of the rest of my life, here is where my story truly begins.

________________________________

Thanks to the helpful map shown on the class schedule, I was able to find class 1-A within five minutes of my arrival on campus.

The large fifteen-foot door opened to reveal a room full of excited teens who were talking amongst each other in their own groups of two to four other children.

There was a pink-skinned girl with yellow eyes and black sclera chatting excitedly with a girl with long green hair and large hands.

Listing to the pink girl as she gesticulated wildly with her hands was also a taller boy with slicked-back blond hair and a long and thick tail with a tuft of matching blond hair at the end. With them was also what appeared to be an invisible girl, well I assumed she was a girl as the floating female uniform was filled out noticeably on the chest.

On the other side of the room were two boys, one with blond hair with what looked to be black highlights shaped like a lightning bolt. Speaking to him was a boy with spiky crimson hair a few shades brighter than my own.

In the middle of the class were three boys and one girl who all seemed content with not speaking with anyone. A boy with some sort of avian quirk as his head was that of a black-feathered raptor. A boy whose head was shaped like a salt lamp, and a kid that looked like the bastard love child of Kakashi Hatake and an eldritch horror. The last of this bunch was a girl with onyx eyes short chin-length dark purple hair with earphone jacks for earlobes. She appeared to be vibing to some music as she sat back with her head gently bobbing to a beat I could not hear.

Near the back were two more boys quietly speaking to one another, one boy was pretty average looking with his black hair spiked downwards with a lean build but a friendly disposition as he spoke with a wide smile. The boy he was talking to was the tallest and most heavily built person in the room, his brown hair was spiked up wards which gave me a type of Guy Fieri vibe, but he was otherwise also fairly average aside from his thick lips that possibly indicated some sort of African heritage.

At the very back was a short boy who I would assume to have dwarfism if it wasn't for the fact his head was proportional to his body, well aside from the fact that his hair was shaped like dark purple grapes. Said boy was seemingly contenting himself with staring dreamily at all of the females in the class as he held his head in his hands, it was quite an amusing sight as it looked like he was trying to roleplay Pepe Le Pew.

On the opposite end of the room, nearest the front was a tall boy with neatly cut dark blue hair and thin square glasses over his small black eyes, someone I remembered to be Tenya Ida. He was currently lecturing another smug-looking boy with spiky ashy blond hair and red eyes who sat back with feet on the desk, Bakuo if I remembered correctly.

Lastly were the two from my recommended exams. Both Shoto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu were seated quietly near the back, their keen eyes analyzing everyone in the room trying to break down who they were and what they could do with their gazes alone.

They must have felt my stare on them as both of them turned their eyes towards me, I could see recognition on both of their faces as Momo's eyes slightly widened for a brief moment before they shifted back into her neutral mask. Shoto meanwhile narrowed his eyes ever so slightly as he looked at me with something akin to glare but I could sense no actual malice in it.

From my cursory glance over the class I noticed there were only two students missing, Izuku was somewhere close behind which meant that there was only one person unaccounted for.

It's been fifteen years since I watched My Hero but I could still remember a few standout characters from the supporting cast such as Momo, Shoto, Tenya, Bakugo, and that grape-headed pervert kid. Ochaco was one such character that I remember, I hope her absence meant she was running a bit late as I actually liked her character and wanted to meet her.

However most of these people I don't really remember all that well, I was replacing someone and I don't really know who. The fact that the grape kid was here was a surprise, from what I remember he did something with his hair, like make tar or a grease trap or something. I'm not too sure but I know it worked well in only certain situations. So the fact he was here meant the person I replaced was even less useful than he was, which was hard to believe but I guess whoever it was should've just done better.

I didn't have the energy or inclination to start a conversation at the moment so I decided to grab an available seat at the very back in the same row as Momo and Shoto. I laid back in my seat and put on headphones, I was still in a chill mood right now so I put on my chill vibes playlist.

I gave a small sigh as I closed my eyes as Skyfall began to play through my headphones and the world around me disappeared. I focus my mind on the sturdy psychic walls that held back the ocean of thoughts that surrounded me at all times. The stray musings of the sentient gently ebbed and flowed as they brushed against my walls like the crashing of waves against a rocky shore.

Some waves were larger and louder than others, particularly my fellow students as they were no doubt excited for their first day at UA while others were smaller and hardly noticeable. Such as the teachers as they had years and some even decades of experience in dealing with a varied amount and types of stressful situations and thus had an expert hold of their emotions and thoughts.

As I sat back relaxing, my presence ghosted itself over the school as I idly gazed over the minds of everyone in the building. I did not look into them, as that would be a violation of their privacy and quite rude. All I did was acknowledge their presence and note that some had a stronger psychic presence than others. For example, there was a girl in class 1-B and a boy in General Education that could prove to be interesting people to know.

Just as I was beginning to spread my awareness out of the walls of the school, a hand gently shook my shoulder and force me back into the physical world.

"Hey dude, the teacher wants us to put on our gym clothes and head down to the practice field." Said the boy with a large tail and slicked-back blond hair.

Ah damn, I must have been too deep in meditation to even realize what was going on around me. "Thanks for the heads up," I said with a small grateful smile.

I put away my headphones and turned off my music app as I approached the pile of clothes left on the floor by our teacher who was no doubt already at the place he wanted us to meet. I was among the last to grab their equipment so it was not difficult to find the dark blue tracksuit that had a sticky label with my name on it.

Thankfully I was able to catch up with the group as they headed down to the locker rooms. Someone up ahead must know where they were going so I just followed the crowd, a choice that proved to be correct as within a few minutes I was walking into the boys' locker room.

Surprisingly enough, the lockers already had our names on them and were all open. Inside the lockers was a strip of paper that told us the combination to the lockers, so thankfully we weren't in a situation where we could accidentally be locked out and not able to get to our stuff.

As I got undressed, I overheard some of the other students striking up a conversation.

"So what do you think Aizawa-Sensei wants us to do?" Asked the boy that looked like he had a Pikachu on his head.

"I don't know, I thought we were supposed to be heading to the opening ceremony by now." Answered the guy with spiky crimson hair.

"It is most unusual I agree, but he is our teacher so we must trust he has our best interests at heart." Tenya Ida said with a stern look on his face.

As those three were talking, I noticed the grape-head kid was already dressed and looking at the opposite wall pensively. "Oh come on, there must be some type of peephole in here or something." Grumbled the boy with a heavy lisp.

I had just finished dressing into my gym clothes when decided to approach the would-be peeping tom. "What are you doing?"

The short boy turned to me. "What doe's it look like? I'm trying to find the peephole to look at the girls." He admitted without shame.

I blinked once, then twice, this guy just straight up admitted it without any hesitation. I was torn between wanting to be disgusted with his intent and impressed with his shameless honesty. In the end, I decided to just tell him like it is. "Yeah, dude that's not going to work."

He waved dismissively, "of course it will, just need to find a drill and come in when everyone's distracted, and boom. Perfect view of all those beautiful honies undressing on the other side."

I shook my head with a sigh, "no it won't. First of all these rooms were most likely made with people like you in mind so that wouldn't even work in the first place. Second, even if it did I'd stop you, Third even if I didn't stop you the girls would eventually notice and tell a teacher and all of us would be in trouble because of what you did."

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not tempted to peep on the girls." The boy whined.

This boy didn't even listen to what I was saying at all, did he? "Kid I'm just going to assume you're joking and brush this off, but if you actually try it then don't come crying to me when you're actions come biting you in the ass."

With my bit said I walked away, a few of the other boys overheard our conversation and was looking over at me and the grape kid.

"Is he really going to try to peep on the girls?" The Kakashi-looking kid with six arms that were attached to each other by webbed skin asked.

"That's kind of messed up not going to lie." The tallest among us commented as he scratch his spiky brown hair.

I gave a shrug, "don't know. I'm not a white knight but those girls shouldn't have to worry about being looked at every time they undress. If I was a dad I certainly wouldn't want a boy looking at my daughter when she undressed."

"Well said, such behavior is uncouth and should be reported to the teachers." Ida acknowledged with a ridged chop of his arm.

I shook my head at the suggestion. "No, if we report him they might kick him out of the hero course. Best we keep this to ourselves and discourage him on our own. If it doesn't work then yes we should tell, but right now he hasn't actually done anything wrong."

Ida looked like he wanted to protest but I was already walking out of the door, there wasn't any reason to keep discussing this as my decision was already made and we needed to be out in the field by now anyway.

________________________________

Minutes later everyone in class 1-A was assembled on a field with several places designated for different physical sports such as the long jump, shot put, and fifty-meter dash.

"Good you're all finally here." Said Aizawa as he looked at us with a tired glare. "Today we will be going over a quirk assessment test."

Several students looked at each other in confusion. "Sensei, shouldn't we be going to orientation right now?" A girl with short brown hair who was just a bit taller than I was asked as she stepped forward.

Oh so that must be Ochacho, she must've shown up when I was distracted earlier, I'm glad she made it.

Aizawa turned his tired glare solely on the girl who spoke. "If you want to make the big leagues you shouldn't waste time on pointless ceremony." He then lifted his head to address the rest of the class. "Here at UA we aren't tethered to traditions, that means I'm allowed to run my class however I see fit."

Many in the class glanced around at each other in confusion as most of us had not ever encountered a teacher so brash before.

Aizawa wasn't done with this lecture as he continued to speak. "You've been taking standardized tests most of your lives, but you've never got to use your quirks in physical exams before. The country is still trying to pretend we're all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel, it's not rational. One day the Ministry of Education will learn."

He then turned towards the boy with spiky ashy blond hair, "Bakugo you were the one to place first on the entrance exam. What was your farthest throw with a softball when you were in junior high?"

"Sixty-seven meters I think," Bakugo answered.

Aizawa nodded, "right, try doing it with your quirk. Anything goes just don't step out of the ring over here." He said whilst tossing a soft ball towards the boy.

Bakugo caught the ball and stepped into the middle of a shot put ring. "Alright man, but you asked for it." He said as he briefly stretched out his right arm and shoulder.

The blond wound up his stance and took a deep breath, red eyes focused on the horizon. He extended his throwing arm and just a half-second before the ball left his hand a great fiery explosion went off that sent shockwaves into the air, the ball rocketed into the sky with a trail of fire as two smaller explosions went off to boost the speed of the ball and sent it even further.

Aizawa spoke again as he watched the ball fly through the air, "all of you need to know your maxim capabilities." He then turned to class as a touch screen phone he was holding beeped in his hand and showed the results to the class. "It's the most rational way of figuring out your potential as a pro hero."

"Woah seven hundred and five-meter are you kidding me?" Pikachu hair questioned in astonishment.

"I wanna go, looks like fun!" The pink girl exclaimed.

"This is what I'm talking about, using our quirks as much as we want." Now that he was out of his normal school clothes, I could now see that the otherwise average-looking boy with black hair did in fact have a strange mutation. His quirk manifested some sort of cylindrical object that replaced his elbows and reminded me of a tape dispenser.

Aizawa glared, "so this is fun huh?" His words silenced the class, "you have three years to become a hero. Do you think it's just going to be game and playtime? Idiots, today you're going to be competing in eight physical tests to gauge your potential, whoever comes in last has none and will be expelled immediately."

Much of the class gasped in shock.

Ochaco stepped forward definitely. "You can't send us home, I mean we just got here even if it wasn't the first day that isn't fair!"

Aizawa glared down at the girl once again. "Oh and you think natural disasters are, or power-hungry villains hum, or catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities? No, the world is full of unfairness its a hero's job to try to combat that unfairness. If you want to be a pro you're going to have to push yourself to the brink, for the next three years UA will throw one terrible hardship after another so go beyond, plus ultra style."

He gave the class a challenging grin, "Show me it's not a mistake that you're here."

______________________________

The first test was a fifty-meter dash where we were paired against one other student. This was a test where Tenya Ida showed his dominance by blowing through it with a time of just hair above three seconds.

I was paired with the bubbly girl with pink skin and hair. With the use of telekinesis and my own physical fitness, I was just barely able to eke out a win against her as I arrived at the finish ahead of her at four point five eight seconds.

"Woah…you're….pretty…fast." My opponent said between panting breaths.

I gave her a nod, "you did well too. I think you're probably the fastest in-class unassisted by a quirk."

She looked at me in surprise, "But I didn't see you use a quirk."

"Believe me I did, if it wasn't for my quirk you'd have won no doubt."

The girl didn't look like she believed me but decided to drop it. "I'm Mina Ashido by the way." She introduced herself with a smile.

"Samuru Ishii," I nodded back to her.

We soon walked off and allowed the next pair to be tested after us, which just so happened to be Midorya against Bakugo. Poor little green bean was absolutely crushed by the explosive boy's time of four-point thirteen seconds.

Izuku and Bakugo were the last to compete in the fifty-meter dash and so we soon moved on to the second test, repeating sidesteps.

In this test we were to jump side to side as fast as possible for a full minute, there was some sort of motion sensor device sitting atop a tripod pointed at the spot we were to be tested. It was simple and straightforward but it was a very good test of leg strength, cardio, and stamina.

Thankfully for me, this test was also something that telekinesis could aid me in if I gave myself a little boost the moment one of my feet left the ground. A strategy that I employed to the best of my ability and worked very well for me as I was able to score one hundred and eighty-five cycles.

As good as that score was, the grape kid absolutely destroyed everyone else with a score of nine hundred and forty-seven. Thanks to his quirk that allowed him to detach the purple balls on his head and bounce between them like a pinball.

The kid was absolutely smug about his score and walked back toward the other students with an exaggerated swagger to his step. "So, any of you ladies impressed yet?" He asked the girls in the class with an eyebrow wiggle.

Mina, Ochacho, and Momo gave an awkward chuckle, not knowing if this was some sort of joke or a poor attempt at flirting. While the girl with earphone jacks for earlobes gave him a glare and the green-haired girl blinked at him in confusion.

The reaction put a disappointed frown on his face as he walked back over to us with a sulky expression where I, Izuku, and Shoto just so happened to be standing

Pervert this kid might be, at least he was putting himself out there and trying, he had far more confidence than I ever did at his age. "That was a pretty inventive use of your quirk there kid," I encouraged.

"Still didn't work," he huffed.

I shrugged, "well these things take time."

"I guess so," the grape kid sighed before turning towards me with an inquisitive look in his eye. "Wait, where is that stick up your ass from earlier?"

I rolled my eyes, "there is a difference between being flirty and being a perv."

He blinked in surprise, "there is?"

My palm met my face, "did your momma not teach you anything about this type of stuff?"

"Not really no."

I sighed, I'm going to regret this. "What's your name kid?"

"Minoru Mineta."

"Well Mineta, if no one has tried to help you with not being a perv then I guess it would be irresponsible of me as a future hero not to help you out."

Mineta looked me up and down for a moment before bursting out in laughter, "aha, okay sure buddy, I doubt you'd be a good wingman but I'll keep that in mind if I ever need your help though."

This little shit, fuck it fine. If the midget wanted to strike out on his own then it's no skin off my nose.

__________________________

The fourth test was a distance run, we were to run four times as fast as possible around a half-mile track. In this test, there were four students racing against one another.

My group consisted of the kid with spiky red hair, Momo, and Tenya.

As expected Tenya dunked on all of us, this time going even faster than in the fifty-meter dash as he had enough room to pick up enough speed and cleared the two-mile run in just over a minute.

Momo got second place in this test as she conjured a souped-up motorized scooter from her body and was able to just barely beat me, getting a full two seconds ahead at five and half minutes.

The other redhead soon followed and came in last at six minutes and three seconds.

"Man…y-you guys are s-so fast." The redhead panted.

"And you did well yourself." Ida encouraged.

The redhead chuckled with a sharp-toothed smile. "C-cardio is my bane." He then approached the three of us with an extended hand, "my name's Eijiro Kirishima, we should totally hit the gym together."

As I was the closest to him I took the offered hand and met his firm handshake with one of my own. "Samuru Ishii and that sounds cool to me since my normal spotter is too busy for me nowadays."

Kirishima's grin grew larger, "alright, I'd always wanted a gym bro."

Uh, I guess I just made a friend?

______________________________________

The next test took place indoors on a basketball court and was a grip strength test. Something that I was able to actually win overall as I cheesed it once again with telekinesis by getting seven hundred and forty-seven kilograms on the handheld grip tester machine.

Thankfully I was off to the side and away from everyone else as most of the guys were checking out the six-armed kid's high score so no one noticed what I had just done as Aizawa quietly tallied my score whilst everyone was distracted. It was a good thing too as I don't really want to draw attention to myself right now, my social batter was already starting to run empty with the amount of speaking and introducing I've already had to do today.

However, my introversion did bear some fruit as I was able to watch my fellow students which allowed me to pick up a few names from the conversations happening around me.

The kid with the tail was Mashirao Ojiro, the girl with the earphone jack earlobes was Kyoka Jiro, Pikachu reference was named Denki Kaminari, the Invisible girl went by Toru Hagakure, the guy with tape dispensers for elbows was named Hanta Sero, and Mezo Shoji was the eldritch Kakashi kid.

The next two tests were the seated toe touch and the sit-ups. Both of these tests had been a part of my warmup exercises at one point or another and so I was able to find a comfortable position in third and fourth respectively meanwhile Mina actually got first in toe touching whilst the tall guy built like a truck got first in sit-ups.

____________________________

The very last test was the ball throw test, since Bakugo had already gone he did not need to participate so that just left the rest of us.

Momo was up first, using her quirk to summon a small cannon. With the welcoming smell of gunpowder and a thunderous roar, the cannon fired and sent the ball sailing through the air where it finally came to a rest at six hundred and ninety-eight meters.

Most of the class merely applauded respectfully but Mina and Ochacho cheered loudly to express their encouragement. Causing the tall girl to blush faintly while she walked back to the group.

Her embarrassment at the praise the class had given her had caused her to find a spot near the outside of the crowd where I was standing.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye and bite the inside of my cheek. I really didn't want to talk more than I needed to at the moment but I felt awkward just standing here and not saying anything.

I decided to ignore my mild discomfort and speak up quietly. "That was pretty impressive. Did you calculate how much gunpowder you needed to get the ball to fly without destroying it all in your head?"

Momo glanced toward me with a small smile on her face, "Yes I did."

I chuckled, "you're way smarter than me then. it would take me a good thirty minutes a calculator, weights, and writing material to even get close to correct."

She looked at me confused, "were you not also in the recommended exams?"

I shrugged, "there is a major difference between being educated and being intelligent, I am educated but I wouldn't call myself particularly intelligent."

Yaoyorozu frowned. "I don't understand, the level of education one can achieve is often directly correlated with one's own intelligence."

"Well the way I see it, education is the ability to regurgitate facts as presented while intelligence is the ability to find facts on your own."

"Oh," She fell silent for a long moment with a contemplative look on her face.

Whilst we were talking a few other students had already gone, none so far getting as close to Bakugo or even Momo's score until Ochacho stepped up.

Uraraka's throwing technique was a bit sloppy, and her wrist was a bit limp, however, none of that mattered. Her ability to take away the gravitation pull on an object or at least greatly reduce it meant the poor softball would never see holy Terra again.

"Infinity?!" Many of the class said in unison with complete and utter shock.

Ochaco's permanent blushing cheeks reddened even further as she giggled sheepishly behind her hand.

"That's a terrifying and amazing quirk," I whispered.

"She told me she has the ability to take away the gravitational pull of any object she touches," Momo whispered back.

I shook my head, "no, if that was true the object would fling off the Earth at thousands of feet per second, she probably just gives the object the equivalent mass of helium or something."

"I'll ask her permission to run some tests, this could be something very interesting to study," Momo muttered mostly to herself.

"Ishii you're up," Aizawa called.

"Good luck," Momo encouraged.

I gave her a quick smile from over my shoulder before walking towards the center of the shot put circle as I caught the softball Aizawa threw at me.

I sighed internally as I looked down at the softball, as a Texan, I naturally was inclined towards the ability to throw a football, not a softball. It's been way too long since I've even touched this particular sporting equipment, it's not as if I had a father in this life to play catch with after all. In the end, I decided to just channel the American within me and just do what comes naturally.

My windup was sloppy, I could tell that from the first raise of my left foot, my right arm extended a bit too far and I let go of the ball a bit too late. But much like Ochacho, none of that mattered in the end.

With hardly any real effort I willed the ball to continue on its course, and through the literal magic that was psionics, the ball actually began to pick up speed instead of slowing due to air resistance. The ball continued to move further and further, well out of the line of sight as it disappeared in the glare of the sun, but as my physique presence already seeped into the ball, I could easily track it and continue to move it with my mind.

I decided to drop the ball just before it hit the far wall that surrounded the school, lest I accidentally break someone's car window.

"One thousand five hundred meters," Aizawa announced.

"Woah holy crap dude that was so manly!" Kirishima shouted.

Kaminari nodded in agreement. "Yeah man, that was awesome."

"How did you even do that?" Mina asked with an excited bounce.

I rubbed my neck sheepishly as I walked back to the group of kids. I wasn't particularly used to encouragement outside of the three people in my life and even then It had become few and far between as they grew to expect me to excel.

"Enough all of you. This isn't a game, it's a test to see if any of you are worthy to even be at this school." Aizawa admonished with a glare.

That shut everyone up real quick.

Last but not least was Izuku Midoriya himself. The poor guy was literally the whole reason this universe even existed in the first place and he looked ready to piss himself.

As he stood there in the center of the shot put circle, the boy's face contorted into many different faces. He was having his anime protagonist inner monologue no doubt, his roiling emotions were so strong that they bashed against my mental barriers like a caged gorilla.

"𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘭, 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯!"

Oh shit, he's going to break every bone in his body.

I fast-walked beside the teacher and whispered to him. "Sensei, you're going to have to stop him."

Aizawa glanced at me, "I know."

Izuku clenched his fist in front of his hands and set his face in determination, his wind-up was nearly perfect, the extension of his arm flawless, and he let go of the ball at the most efficient time.

But it didn't matter, the ball was thrown and it fell only just forty-six meters.

Aizawa's shaggy black hair floated as if a strong breeze was flowing right toward him, and the scarf around his neck came to life as it wrapped around Izuku's frame. "I erased your quirk." He growled as he stepped forward with glowing red eyes, "the judges for the entrance exam were not rational enough, someone like you should never be allowed to enroll at this school."

Izuku looked confused for a brief moment. "You did what to my…wait those goggles, I know you. You can look at someone and cancel out their powers, the Erasure Hero Eraser Head!"

With a relieved sigh I walked back to my previous position near the edge of the group of students whilst everyone talked amongst each other and Aizawa continued to scold Izuku out of earshot.

"Who's Eraser Head?" Kiminari wondered.

Bakugo shrugged, "I've never heard of 'em."

"I think I heard of him once," admitted Ochacho.

"Do you know what Midorya is talking about?" Shoji asked me in a hushed toned.

Momo who was nearby overhead the question and turned towards us with interest.

I nodded. "Yeah, Eraser Head is one of those underground heroes."

"Underground heroes, what's that mean?" Ojiro questioned as he overheard my answer.

"It means he's a student of the Crow's Eye school of thought."

"I've never heard of the Crow's Eye school of thought." Said Momo.

I shrugged, "not a lot of people do nowadays anymore. To put it simply, Crow's Eye was once the number three hero in all of Japan long before All Might took the scene. He retired in protest to what he saw as the corporate and governmental corruption of what hero society was becoming. He unintentionally started the Underground Hero Movement, it's basically made up of a bunch of people who see hero work not as a way to seek glory or fame, but as a duty and a responsibility to society."

During my small lecture, a few other classmates had begun to move closer as they listened, something I didn't notice until Kirishima spoke up with a confused tone. "That was putting it simply?"

I blinked in surprise to see over half of the class was listening to me by this point, "uh, well…it's a complicated social issue so that's pretty much as simple as I could put it."

"Guys, Midorya is going to try again," Mina said excitedly, bringing the class's attention back to the green-haired kid.

We watched as Izuku exhaled deeply, once again his stance was nearly perfect, the extension of his arm textbook, he let go of the ball at the most opportune time. It made all the difference in the world, a quick flash of yellow from Izuku's right pointer finger was the only indication of his quirk activating.

The ball tore through the air like a speeding bullet and blurred sight for a solid two seconds before it came crashing down onto the ground. "Seven hundred and five-point three meters!" The robotic voice from the sensor announced.

"What the hell, no way that useless Deku could make it that far?!" Bakugo shouted in anger.

Izuku smiled through the pain of his broken pointer finger, "See Aizawa-sensei, I can control it."

Aizawa smiled wrily, "so you can, but you still have much to learn."

That he did, Izuku might be a smart cookie but he had very far to go to live up to this world's equivalent to Superman. Hopefully, with my help and the rest of 1-A, this diamond in the rough will shine brighter than any of us.

This world needs a true hero like Izuku because Lord knows I can't live up to that standard.