Back to Basics, Part I

As the bell rang throughout the school to signal the start of homeroom, the entirety of Class 1-A (save for one) settled into their seats, patiently waiting for their teacher to show up. However, a tense silence slowly filled the room, as they collectively remembered who it was that occupied the seat behind Izuku and in front of Momo Yaoyorozu, along with a few others glancing between her and Ochako.

Not a single one of them had missed Mineta's advances towards the two girls, along with the subsequent berating Aizawa had given him the day before, and were now anticipating the boy's arrival and the awkward confrontation. Needless to say, most, if not all of the students viewed him with disdain, but to some, it was particularly evident, primarily in Izuku. He had heard a few stories from his mother about how before meeting his father, she had received her fair share of leers and comments, along with a street thug's attempt to come onto her that was thankfully stopped by one of the local heroes.

The night before, he and Katsuki had talked about their suspicions on whether or not Mineta had been expelled, or if he was simply let off with a warning, though the latter seemed unlikely with how mad Aizawa had looked. Looking to his right, he saw that Ochako was keeping her eyes firmly glued to her desk, and briefly wondered if the girl sitting two seats behind him was doing the same.

Needless to say, Minoru Mineta had already become the 'black sheep' of Class 1-A.

When the door had finally opened, several students had tensed up in anticipation of seeing the pervert, but immediately relaxed at seeing that it was only their homeroom teacher. Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the desk at the front of the room, stopping in front of it. "I'm sure many of you are wondering what happened with Mineta, so I'll just tell you upfront; he's been moved to General Studies." At seeing several shocked expressions coming from the students, he continued. "We'll be down to nineteen students until someone else takes the spot."

"Don't you think he should've been expelled?" called out a pink-skinned girl named Mina Ashido, who was raising her hand.

"What I think and what's allowed are two different things when it concerns this, Ashido," he answered, before looking back towards the class as a whole. "Contrary to what I've told you all yesterday, only the principal has the authority to expel students. What I am allowed to do, however, is kick as many people out of my class as I want, meaning you'll only be seeing him in the halls and in the cafeteria from here on out."

"So will someone from 1-B be transferred here, then?" Izuku asked, raising his own hand. It felt rather odd to have to go through the school year with an odd number of students in their class.

"No," Aizawa said. "Because Vlad King handpicked all of the students for his class. Nezu and the other teachers put all of you with me. The only way for the vacancy to be filled in is from a General Studies student who performs well during the Sports Festival."

'Is that how he got into the hero course?' Izuku suddenly thought, intrigued by his teacher's words. An erasure-type Quirk would be just about useless when faced against robots in the practical exam, so he had to have joined the hero course somehow.

"So..." Ochako began with a quiet voice. "So you're saying there's a chance he could come back?"

Aizawa's tired expression slightly softened at her question. "It's highly unlikely, considering what he'll be matched up against," he replied, shaking his head. "After what he pulled, there's no way I would allow him back into the hero course this year, even if he did somehow manage to do well, so be ready to have a new classmate after the Festival ends." Soon after, a knock was heard coming from the door, and upon opening it, Present Mic - or rather, Hizashi Yamada - walked through the door, signifying the start of the first period: English class.

---

"Yo Deku, hand me some pepper."

Wordlessly, Izuku reached into his pocket and pulled out a pink eraser. Closing his hand in a fist, he concentrated for a few moments, and upon feeling a shift in his hand, opened it back up to reveal a small amount of black peppercorns in place of the eraser. "You owe me an eraser, Kacchan," he said, extending his arm out and over his friend's hand to prevent the spice from spilling on the table.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll give it to you when we get back," Katsuki replied, as he used his Quirk to discreetly create minute explosions in his hand to grind the peppercorn into a fine powder, before mixing it into his curry and taking a bite, satisfied at the new spice level.

Tenya, meanwhile, had seen the entire exchange, and was not happy at how nonchalant the two were being. "Midoriya-kun," he hissed. "I can't believe that you and Bakugō-kun would be so reckless as to be using your Quirks so carelessly, and in public, no less!"

Katsuki rolled his eyes in response as he continued eating his food. "Relax, Glasses. It's not like it's gonna hurt anyone."

"It doesn't matter if no one gets hurt," Tenya continued. "It is against the rules of U.A. for non-mutant-type Quirks to be displayed out in public spaces unless in emergency situations or authorized to do so. What if a teacher or faculty member walked by and saw?"

"Except that didn't happen, now did it?" Katsuki countered, refusing to back down from the argument.

Tenya sighed as he pushed up the rim of his glasses, feeling that he was going to get nowhere with the other boy. "Fine, I will concede," he said. "But I must implore that you use caution in the future."

Katsuki raised an eyebrow as he found himself feeling challenged, along with the urge to stand up. "Are you telling me I'm not already being careful?"

Ochako, sensing the situation starting to escalate, quickly intervened to keep it from escalating even further. "So who do you think the Basic Heroics teacher is gonna be?" she asked, slightly raising her voice.

Thankfully, this had the desired effect, as Katsuki visibly calmed down and continued to eat his food, while Tenya grew thoughtful as he thought of an answer to her question. "I am uncertain as to who exactly will be teaching us," he began "But there is no doubt that it will be a Pro Hero, just as how our teachers thus far have been such."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, Iida-kun," Izuku chimed in, having been reminded about something from the day before. "Are you by any chance related to Ingenium?"

Tenya perked up at hearing his question. "Ah, so you've noticed the similarities between our Quirks? Well, to answer your question, Ingenium is in fact my older brother." He looked ahead towards a random spot on the wall as he held a fist close to his chest. "I desire to become a hero so that I may one day follow in his footsteps and make him and my family proud!"

Ochako let out a deep breath through her nose as Tenya spoke, satisfied that the exchange between him and Katsuki was interrupted before it could get worse.

---

"I AM...COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"

Despite the bell already having rung, Toshinori decided to instead wait outside for a few more minutes, before making his grand entrance into Class 1-A. He had even made the choice to wear his previous costume from what the fans were calling the 'silver age', before he had cemented himself as the world's 'Symbol of Peace' and subsequently causing a new 'golden age' of heroics.

To be honest, he was kind of scared about the prospect of teaching twenty - wait, sorry, nineteen teenagers how Pro Heroes operate in the field. Aside from Izuku and Katsuki, the last person he had mentored had been Mirai, and he could still vividly recall how that had ended.

But considering how the two boys had managed to land the top two scores in the practical exam, surely it wouldn't prove to be too difficult.

Stopping in front of the room, he turned to face the class with his fists resting on his hips, in a pose similar to that of Superman. "Hello, students," he greeted. "And welcome to 'Basics of Heroics'! In this class, you will learn the very foundations of what it means to be a hero, as well as work together to face the various trials and tribulations that will come your way." He paused for a moment for dramatic effect, before raising a finger. "But fear not! Because I am here to guide you through this course, should you ever need it."

Seeing that he still had everyone's complete attention, Toshinori felt his trademark grin start to become more and more genuine. "Yosh! Now then-" He took a brief moment to consider his next decision, before inwardly shrugging and striking a strongman's pose. "Today, we will be commencing...battle training! But that's not all; today is also the day you will be receiving your hero costumes!" Picking up the remote on the desk behind him, he held it out towards the wall to his right, which caused the several compartments housed within to reveal themselves, containing multiple briefcases that were labeled numbers one-through-nineteen. "Many of your costumes were made in accordance with your Quirk registrations, as well as some specific requests you sent in before the school year started. Now, I understand you're excited to see what your respective cases hold, but I must ask that you be quick with getting dressed, as well as to meet me at Ground Beta. Now off we go! We don't have all day, folks!" With that settled, Toshinori marched out of the classroom and towards the mock city, leaving the students to gawk over what the support department had made for them.

---

After double-checking that he was wearing everything he needed, Izuku stored the briefcase containing his hero costume in his locker and moved to make his way out of the locker room, but not before taking a moment to stop in front of the large mirror beside the entrance and see how he looked.

His costume consisted of a dark green long-coat with a red zipper, white gloves, and black combat pants and boots. As for accessories, he also had three ladybug brooches, which were attached to the left and right sides of his torso, along with the third at the base of the zipper. A few years before, he had made a few sketches of how he originally wanted his costume to look, with an appearance that closely resembled All Might's, but when he showed Katsuki and asked him for his opinion, he was flat out told to go 'come up with something else that isn't as cringeworthy'.

"Lookin' pretty slick there, Midoriya!"

Izuku turned around to see Eijirō Kirishima walking up to him, wearing his own costume. Walking beside him was Tenya, who in turn was wearing a suit of armor that closely resembled that of his brother's, and was carrying a helmet in the crook of his arm. "I must agree," he said. "You do look rather stylish."

Izuku smiled at the words. "Thanks, you two. I really like your costumes, too! Are they styled that way with your Quirks in mind?"

"Indeed it was!" Tenya declared proudly, as he gestured to the golden engines on his calves. "My boots contain a special coolant, as well as other mechanisms, that allow me to use my Quirk for longer, as well as help augment its performance."

"And I know that it's kind of weird not having a shirt," Eijirō spoke up. "But they're kind of useless to me, since I need to be up close and personal to actually get anything done."

"Oh that's right, your Quirk is hardening your skin, right, Kirishima-kun?" Izuku asked.

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"Oi, get out of the way," interjected a new voice. "You're all blocking the door." At the words, the three boys collectively turned to see Katsuki standing behind them wearing his costume, along with a pair of large grenades as gauntlets. Catching sight of Izuku's costume, he gave him a brief once-over, before nodding in approval. "Not bad. Better than your last one, at least. Now come on, All Might said not to take too long." With that, he walked out of the locker room.

"Bakugō-kun is right; It is time that we head out to the meeting point," Tenya said, putting on his helmet and following Katsuki out, with Izuku and Eijirō close behind.

---

Stopping just outside of the large tunnel that led to the mock city (which was coincidentally the same one he had had his practical exam in), Izuku was mildly awed to see all of his other classmates wearing their costumes, as they all looked very unique and impressive. However, it seemed that there was someone missing from the mass of students.

"Wow, Deku-kun, your costume looks really cool!"

Ah, never mind.

Turning around to face Ochako, Izuku was about to thank her for the compliment, but instead froze at seeing the skintight bodysuit that was her costume. A pretty girl - one that he was also friends with - was wearing a skintight bodysuit.

Yup, looks like he lost.

"It really gives off the feel of an anime character, you know?" she continued, while absentmindedly pulling at the fabric on her forearm. "I probably should've been more specific with what I wanted...they just ended up giving me a bodysuit...I probably don't look too good in this..."

Izuku, however, was thinking the exact opposite. He already knew that Ochako was obviously very pretty, especially considering how he found himself attracted to her after only knowing her for two days. But seeing her now, and wearing that?

She looked utterly gorgeous.

"O-oh. Um, t-thanks..." Ochako managed to squeak out, bringing him out of his thoughts. She ceased her fidgeting with her arm, and was now suddenly staring down at the floor, her face turning redder and redder by the second.

Izuku was confused by her sudden behavior. 'Huh? Why is she acting like that all of a-'

His eyes widened as the realization of what he had just done made itself known to him. Apparently, it looks like he had accidentally said that out loud, instead of just thinking it.

...

Oh fuck, he said that out loud.

"W-wait, I didn't mean it like that!" Izuku exclaimed, as he felt his face start to heat up, along with frantically waving his arms out in front of him in an attempt to do damage control. "I mean, like, I don't think that you're not pretty, and, well - I just - uh..."

A bit farther away, Katsuki was watching the two teenagers interact with each other with a knowing smirk on his face. While he himself never really had much interest when it came to dating, he sure as hell wasn't blind. After all, how would anyone become the number one hero if they didn't pay attention to what was happening with the people around them? He knew about every single crush Izuku had had during middle school, and would often pressure him to just get it over with and make a damn move already (to which he always chickened out of), but he had a feeling that this new one with Ochako...was pretty different to the 'she's pretty' type of crush most teenagers had.

"Is it just me," began a voice to his right, causing him to turn and see Tenya with his hand resting against the opposite side of his face in a 'whispering' gesture. "Or does it seem like there appears to be something happening between those two?"

Katsuki chuckled as he turned back to face the pair, finding himself agreeing with him. "You and me both, Glasses. You and me both."