8

Izuku stared up at the massive 1-A door in front of him. Just like at the entrance exam, standing inside UA as an official student felt surreal to him, despite the fact that being there wasn't anything new to him at all. He'd get over it at some point, but for the moment, he'd enjoy the ride.

Opening the giant door, he let his brain run wild with the possibilities of what he'd encounter when he stepped inside. What would his classmates be like? Who would be his homeroom teacher? Was All Might actually teaching at UA, and, if so, why didn't Nezu tell him? Would the school year prove to be an exciting one? Was Ochako waiting for him behind the door to surprise him, something she'd been attempting to do ever so often since the entrance exam to no success?

"Remove your feet from the desk this instant! It is disrespectful to both the craftsmen of these desks as well as our predecessors!"

And Izuku was already exhausted. He remembered the tall boy sporting glasses from the entrance exam, and he hoped that their future interactions would not end the same way.

"Huh? The hell's your problem?"

And Izuku was now both exhausted and disappointed. He was really hoping that Bakugo would be in 1-B so that he could put off the inevitable confrontation as long as possible.

With a resigned sigh, he stepped into the just about half-full classroom, tuning out the argument between them and scanning the room. His eyes immediately landed on a yellow sleeping bag behind the podium in the front of the classroom, and the face of a scraggly, dark-haired man poked out of it. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Izuku shrugged and walked away toward his seat. He recognized the man as Aizawa but hadn't thought much about his identity as a hero since it wasn't particularly relevant to him beyond sating his curiosity.

Heading to his assigned seat that was regrettably behind Bakugo, he took note of his classmates that were slowly trickling into the room and lightly chatting away with each other, with the exception of a boy with bichromatic hair that appeared content with sitting in his seat with a face drowning in impassivity. A quick glance showed that the other teen had heterochromia in line with the division in his hair, as if he was two separate people that were split down the middle and fused together. How would that even work-

"Deku…" a low growl from Bakugo pulled him out of his thoughts before he could descend into muttering.

Slowly meeting the intense, piercing red eyes of the blonde filled with barely restrained indignation, Izuku was at a complete loss for what to say to him. Their last meeting hadn't been stellar, and it had been half a decade since then. He had no idea if Bakugo hated his guts and wanted to kill him or if he was actually a misguided tsundere the entire time that just couldn't properly express his feelings.

He truly didn't know which one frightened him more.

Izuku was spared the fate of finding out for the moment by the tall boy teleporting next to him and bowing at a perfect 90-degree angle.

"I must apologize for my behavior at the entrance exam," he solemnly began. "It was unbecoming of a proper hero to cast judgement upon you before even speaking to you. My name is Tenya Iida, it's nice to meet you, a truly better man for figuring out the secret of the rescue points."

Izuku slowly took all of that in while shaking Iida's hand. 'So he is just really intense, got it,' he thought to himself before shooting out his other hand to catch an encroaching feminine hand attempting to sneak up on him. "Close, but not good enough yet, Ochako."

"Damn it," she huffed with a pout before her signature smile reformed to brighten up the room. "You won't see me coming one of these days."

Izuku tried to ignore the mildly alarmed and calculating eyes that Bakugo bored into his skull as well as the equally assessing gaze he could feel from the heterochromatic teen to his right.

"If you're here to make friends, then leave now."

The attention of the entire classroom snapped to the front where a sleeping bag was laying abandoned on the floor and Aizawa stood before them with a flat, unimpressed glare. Everyone who wasn't already in their seat quickly rushed to it, and they all silently waited for their homeroom to begin.

"It took you all 8 seconds to get yourselves in order. Such a lengthy waste of time could cost lives in the field. I expect it to improve," he plainly stated, his glare never wavering as he reached behind the podium and pulled out a blue P.E. uniform. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Put these on and follow me to the P.E. fields."

"The Department of Education mandates that students not use their quirks when conducting fitness tests in middle school," Aizawa began in his signature straightforward manner. "It's illogical. It gives the impression that everyone is equal when that just isn't the case, for better or for worse. Today, we'll be conducting a quirk apprehension test."

"Um, Mr. Aizawa? What about orientation?" Ochako questioned.

"UA is a nontraditional school in many aspects, one of them being that it allows teachers to preside as they see fit. Heroes don't have time for frivolous matters like those," he responded, and his eyes shifted to Izuku.

"Midoriya, you placed 1st in the entrance exam. How far could you throw a ball in middle school?"

Izuku quirked an eyebrow at him, as he knew that Aizawa knew that he technically never went to middle school, but he supposed that he could give the man a rough estimate for the sake of the exercise.

"About 60 meters, give or take," he answered, and the man only nodded before tossing him a ball.

"Throw that, this time using your quirk," he instructed. "You can do whatever you want as long as you don't leave the circle."

Izuku stalked toward the circle while eying the ball and trying to decide how he would approach this. He could ignite his green flames and simply enhance his strength to throw the ball as far as he could, but one look at Aizawa's fiercely calculating eyes that nearly rooted Izuku to his spot gave him a hunch that the man was looking for a little more than what he had already shown.

'Well, I suppose I've been toying with combining the flames to use them in tandem. I know what I could try, but it might make Bakugo angry…'

"We don't have all day," came the tired voice of his teacher.

'Screw it, he'll get over it.'

Izuku took his place in the circle and ignited his base flames, blanketing him in a fiery mosaic that sparked recognition in the eyes of a few of his classmates.

"Holy shit, is that the Rainbow Comet?" he heard someone try (and fail) to ask in a hushed tone. Blocking out the resulting chatter, he willed his flames to take on the familiar emerald that strengthened his body, and he planted his feet and winded up for the throw. Aizawa watched intently as Izuku engulfed his entire body in a green blaze with the exception of his right hand holding the ball, which was glowing. Izuku finally swung, and that glow became a bright flash as he blasted a massive fireball from his hand to launch the ball skyward in tandem with the added force his green flames allowed him.

The sky above them lit up in a brief, brilliant rainbow of flame, and the class was sent into a frenzy. A few of them had their suspicions confirmed about his identity as the "Rainbow Comet," while others were awestruck and excited at the impressive display. He noticed the look of reverence return in the eyes of the short, purple boy from the entrance exam, but he decided to unpack that later.

Two people, however, were not particularly enthusiastic. Bakugo looked somewhere between apoplectic and constipated, which he supposed was the norm if memory served. The heterochromatic boy looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and scorn, although some of that scorn seemed to be a bit nebulous, so it might not have been entirely directed at him. That, too, he'd unpack at a later date.

He had completely missed the reading of his score and only turned back around to Aizawa just in time to hear him grimly scold a student for… having fun? He supposed that his mother had said something along those lines when he was younger to emphasize the constant mortal danger of the career, especially in the underground, but threatening expulsion for getting last place felt a bit overkill.

"That's not fair! We just got here, and you're threatening to expel one of us on the first day?!" Ochako indignantly cried out.

"Fair?" Aizawa scoffed. "Are natural disasters fair? Villain attacks on civilians? Targeting a hero's family or catching them specifically on their day off, is that fair?"

Okay, Izuku could certainly concede those points. Many aspects of heroics aren't the slightest bit fair, and that just came with the job-

"How about paying taxes? Is that fair?"

What the fuck-

"There's nothing fair about heroics. You can accept it here and now, or you can walk away," Aizawa barked with finality.

Izuku shook off his befuddlement and put his game face on. A quick look around showed that each of his classmates had hardened their resolve as well.

The first test was a 50 meter dash. Iida was called up to begin alongside a girl with what appeared to be a frog mutation quirk. He would be lying if he said he wasn't excited to see his classmates' quirks in action. The engines in Iida's legs gave him an idea of what his quirk and specialty would be, but seeing him practically become a blur across the 50 meter track to finish in only 3.04 seconds was incredible to Izuku. Asui wasn't terribly far behind, coming in at 5.58 seconds.

He watched in utter fascination at the many ways his classmates applied their quirks, from Ochako making her clothes weightless to the Aoyama boy propelling himself with a laser that shot out from his navel. He found the application of the pink-skinned Ashido's acid to allow her to slide across the track in lieu of running to be especially cool, but seeing the heterochromatic boy do something very similar with ice blew his mind. Izuku felt like a kid in a candy store surrounded by such fascinating quirks and potentially just as fascinating people.

"Bakugo, Midoriya, you're up," Aizawa called.

Izuku bounded to the starting line and brought his flames to life once again, this time a vibrant yellow blanketing him. Bakugo sauntered next to him, sneering at him and readying his palms behind him.

"You think you're so cool, huh, Deku?" Bakugo snarled. "You think you're fucking better than me? Well, I'm gonna crush you in every single one of these dumbass tests and remind you that I'm the goddamn best!"

Bakugo was met with only confusion from his classmate, and that pissed him right off. He growled, resolving to let his actions do the talking and blow him out of the water. The starting signal abruptly sounded, and Bakugo wasted no time igniting his palms to launch himself across the length of the track. A vicious grin stretched across his face as he blasted himself forward, and he could almost taste the victory ahead of him.

Then, an inexplicable flash of yellow lit up his periphery as the golden blur cleared the track a full second before he reached the finish line.

"Midoriya, 3.13 seconds. Bakugo, 4.13 seconds," Aizawa dully announced.

Bakugo's brain stalled once again, which was happening far too often for his tastes when the green head was involved. He watched in pregnant silence as the other teen was congratulated by the round-faced girl from earlier for getting the 2nd fastest time. A violent spark popped within him, but he choked it down. It was his own fault; he underestimated Deku, and he paid for it. That would not happen again.

The tests went by rather quickly for Izuku, and he was pleasantly surprised that each test was dominated by a different person, giving him ample opportunity to see their quirks in action in the various situations they were presented. The grip strength test was simple enough for him with an application of green fire, but the masked boy with six arms went completely unmatched. The seated toe touches and sit-ups were light work for him, and he was only matched in either event respectively by Ashido and a floating gym uniform-

'Wait, what?'

He took a closer look at the floating uniform in question, and it occurred to him that she must have been invisible. That really intrigued him, and he made a mental note to learn more about her quirk at some point.

Moving right along, his years of dodge training helped immensely in the repeated side steps, trauma not withstanding, but the short boy with balls for hair was the undisputed leader in that event by using his quirk as trampolines to bounce between. The ball throw was next, and Izuku was allowed to sit back and watch the others take a stab at it.

There were only a few standouts: Bakugo unleashed a massive explosion while yelling "DIE!" and was promptly seething that his impressive score of 705.2 meters was apparently less than his own score. He was really interested when he saw a tall girl with long, black hair in a unique, spiked ponytail pull an entire cannon from her midsection and launch the ball with it. Her name, Yaoyorozu, rang a few bells to him with the Yaoyorozu Company, the largest developer of pharmaceuticals and medical instruments in Japan. He would be sure to add her to the list of fascinating quirks to learn more about.

Then, there was Ochako, who just negated the gravity of the ball and tossed it into orbit. He couldn't help but return the triumphant smile she sent his way upon their teacher giving her a score of infinity.

The final assessment was a long distance run around a track in which Izuku assumed that he would lead the pack. That assumption was swiftly stomped out when Yaoyorozu whipped out an electric scooter with her quirk, and he numbly accepted that he would just be competing for 2nd place. Along the way, however, he couldn't ignore the many scornful glances he got from the heterochromatic boy whose name he remembered being Todoroki…

'Wait, Todoroki? As in Endeavor's kid Todoroki? Did whatever beef he and my mother have get passed down to his son or something? And why did he have an ice quirk rather than fire? Or maybe he has both and just doesn't use his fire? Is that why he feels like two people fused into one?'

So wrapped up in his thoughts, he completely missed the almost rabid yelling from Bakugo about beating him and proving that he was better. The lack of a response only further infuriated the explosive blonde.

After the assessment was completed and Aizawa stepped away to compile the scores and rank his students, Izuku made his way towards the Yaoyorozu girl with a single mission in mind. She laid her onyx eyes on him in surprise and curiosity, and that was enough to almost halt the burst of confidence that carried him toward her in the first place. Ochako spotted him and curiously watched the scene unfold.

"Yaoyorozu?" he queried.

"Yes," she tentatively answered. "Midoriya, right?"

"Yes, um, this may seem rather forward, but I was really fascinated with seeing your quirk in action. Could you explain it for me?"

Lightly flushing at the question and sudden attention, she nodded. "I can convert the lipids in my body into any material I know the chemical formula for and create whatever I need, provided I'm not creating a living organism."

Izuku's eyes went wide. "So, in essence, you know the chemical makeup of an electric scooter off the top of your head?

Yaoyorozu flushed even more in mild embarrassment. "Uh, well, I suppose so, when you put it like that…"

Her quick descent into mortification was stopped in its tracks by the boy's starry-eyed gape.

"That is so obscenely cool!" Izuku giddily remarked. "You could make literally any non-living thing for any situation with just your lipids! Granted, I assume complexity is certainly a factor, and you said you can't create living beings, but could you make organic matter? Like simple compounds such as water or even something like wood?"

The boy shot into a mumble-storm, and the taller girl was surprisingly able to keep up with the rapid fire inquiries. Eventually, her own excitement at finding a kindred spirit of sorts took over, and she joined in alongside him. Meanwhile, Ochako watched the two excitedly bounce ideas and concepts off of each other from afar with a tight smile. She was happy to see her new friend make more friends, as his mother not-so-subtly hinted that he needed any amount at all. However…

She shook away those thoughts. It wasn't the time or place. Unfortunately, she wasn't as subtle as she would have liked, as she turned her head to see the golden eyes of Ashido narrowed in mirth at her with a knowing smirk to match. Ochako went beet red and huffed in exasperation.

"Displaying all of the individual scores would be a waste of time, so here are the cumulative rankings," Aizawa drawled and displayed a holographic list from the device he used to measure their scores.

Izuku checked the list and was surprised to find his name all the way in 2nd place behind Yaoyorozu, with Todoroki, Bakugo, and Iida rounding out the top 5. He perused a little bit further and found Ochako in 11th place, and both breathed a sigh of relief. Sitting at the very bottom spot was Mineta, and Izuku legitimately felt bad for the boy that he might've helped get to the hero course in the first place. The look of horrified despair on the diminutive boy's face said it all.

"By the way, no one's getting expelled," Aizawa's dry delivery cut through the silence and garnered the rapt attention of the class. "It was a logical ruse to push you all to do your best. You're all safe… for now."

The class immediately deflated, and a few of the more social teens perked back up to talk amongst each other. Bakugo, meanwhile, stared daggers at the list. Deku had beaten him once again; he had beaten him in just about every assessment, actually. Deku was the better man today, and that was okay. Well, it wasn't actually okay, but it would have to be. He would get his opportunity to face Deku one on one and finally put things to rest by proving he's the greatest once and for all.

Izuku, blissfully unaware of any of that (much to Bakugo's unending chagrin), contemplated speaking to Todoroki. He didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with the boy on account of his father, but the two-toned teen didn't seem particularly receptive to conversation with anyone, so he decided to leave it alone for the moment. He'd ask his mother about later on if necessary. He vaguely heard Yaoyorozu mention that she figured out their teacher's logical ruse from the start, which he certainly wouldn't put past her, but he also wasn't really paying much attention until his teacher spoke up again.

"The path of heroics is a dangerous one. Entering without proper preparation could very easily lead to a swift death for yourself and those around you, civilian, hero, or otherwise. I've seen it happen." Aizawa hesitated and took a shaky breath. "I've seen it happen far too many times. If this life isn't for you, no one would ever begrudge you for bowing out. However, if this is the path you insist on pursuing, then nothing less than your best will be accepted. Fall below that at any point, and I will not hesitate to expel you."

He fixed them with a final, tired glare. "Welcome to the hero course. Don't disappoint."

Before turning away completely, he shot them another look over his shoulder. "Oh, the syllabus and any course or school information are on your desks. Pick those up before you leave today." And, with that, he turned away for good, and the class left back toward the school building.

Aizawa hung around the P.E. grounds for a little while until a tall, skinny figure made his presence known. "You know, stalking Verdant's son is the easiest way to end up in a full-body cast."

Yagi hacked up a glob of blood at the comment, and he struggled to regain his composure. "I'm not stalking him! He just…" he paused, searching for the right words that wouldn't expose the secret of his quirk, "… he interests me."

"If you think that makes it sound any better, it really doesn't," Aizawa replied with a quirked eyebrow. "Whatever your reasons, just don't get caught. Power Loader is only just now getting over his limp, and I doubt she'd let you off nearly as easily as him."

"He's a pretty advanced kid," Yagi responded, ignoring the previous line of conversation entirely. "He's got a lot of potential."

"They all do," Aizawa replied. "Him more than others, though. He has a measure of control in both his quirk and his movements that not many 3rd Years even have yet."

"I've noticed. There's something else about him, though, in the way he behaves. From my observation, he just feels… different than the other children."

Aizawa did not immediately reply. The silence held between them for a little bit as the teacher thought hard about what he wanted to say. Eventually, he opened his mouth.

"I haven't had much time to observe him with his classmates, but I can identify that it's a level of world-weariness that someone his age wouldn't normally have. Given who raised and trained him, it doesn't surprise me that much. But he's not the one with that look that worries me."

Aizawa turned away and began his trek back inside. "Class 1-B will be out here later. Consider stalking them in lieu of my class since you'll be the Foundational Heroics teacher for both classes."

Yagi took a moment to consider the thought. He already had his eye on one student to receive One For All, and his former sidekick was practically campaigning for another, but he only came to UA in the first place to find a suitable successor, and there wasn't any harm in fielding other potential candidates. '

You know, perhaps I will.'

"That was so intense! I really thought he was going to expel someone."

Izuku mulled over the thought for the first time since leaving the classroom after the quirk apprehension test. He could definitely see where Ochako was coming from, as Aizawa was incredibly frank with them from the beginning, but he could also see why Yaoyorozu figured it was all a sham. Aizawa did feel like a "trial by fire" and "sink or swim" kind of teacher. Whether or not that was a good thing had yet to be determined.

"I must agree," the voice of Iida spoke up beside them. "It was unbecoming of him to deceive us like that as our instructor. How can we be certain that we can trust him going forward?"

"I don't entirely believe that it was a ruse," Izuku quietly spoke up, gaining the attention of the other two.

"What do you mean?" Ochako asked.

"I don't think that he went into that exercise with the intent of expelling whoever came in last place. Someone had to come in last, that's just how things work. That said, if what he told us after the assessments was any indication, I do think he was more than willing to expel anyone he felt didn't have what it took to be a hero or wasn't putting in 100% effort," he explained, receiving thoughtful looks in return.

"So, we got lucky," Ochako lamented.

"I wouldn't call it luck. We all worked hard, and he acknowledged that," Izuku replied with a light smile.

"That is correct, Midoriya. Ever the insightful one, I see," Iida complimented.

Something occurred to Ochako at the mention of Izuku's surname. "Oh, that reminds me. Do you know that angry blonde kid in our class? He kept calling you 'Deku' under his breath whenever he looked in your direction. It was honestly kinda funny at first, but it got a little weird."

"I'm curious as well," Iida added. "He seemed to be personally affronted at your existence."

"Oh, right," Izuku sighed. "That's Bakugo. We practically grew up together until we were about 10." Izuku paused, wondering if he should go into detail about what happened between them and what precipitated as a result. He sighed and shrugged, figuring there was no need to keep it close to the chest anymore.

"To explain what happened between us, I'd first have to ask if either of you are familiar with the shutdowns of school districts and hundreds of arrests made in those districts over the years."

The confusion in their eyes became recognition, and Iida nodded while Ochako answered. "I heard about that! It was all over the news for a while that a ton of school districts across the country were promoting discriminatory and terrorist propaganda."

Her face scrunched and she took on a thinking pose. "I read some theories that it was all a big conspiracy to indoctrinate the youth into subscribing to an old, quirkist ideology and eventually join in an uprising to institute a society based around that ideology, but I don't know how much I believe that."

On his train ride home, Todoroki's head snapped up, much to the confusion of those around him at the sudden movement. Another conspiracy was afoot, and he would get to the bottom of it after he determined if his father ever stepped out on his mother before he was born. Midoriya's existence seemed too suspicious to him.

Izuku was trying his absolute hardest to keep from sweating at his friend's comment.

"Uraraka, that's preposterous! While unpleasant, systemic discrimination in the education system isn't automatically indicative of a conspiracy to incite an uprising," Iida declared with frantic chops of his hand.

"I know that, it's just a wild theory I came across," she relented.

"Um, right," Izuku shakily agreed. He certainly wasn't going to confirm or deny any theories, so he was glad for Iida's rejection of the premise and moved on. "Well, the school district we were in was among those districts. I'm a late bloomer, so, at the time, people thought I was quirkless, and that made me a target."

Ochako and Iida gasped, but they remained quiet and allowed him to continue. "Bakugo was kinda mean to me back then, but no more than anyone else was, I guess. I still wholeheartedly believe that the teachers were influencing him and everyone else, but I digress. We were friends when we were young, and he misread the kanji in my name to be 'Deku' instead of 'Izuku.' When he manifested his quirk and I didn't, 'Deku' transitioned from a run-of-the-mill nickname to an insult that meant 'useless.' I was the useless kid without a quirk."

Izuku hadn't noticed that he was tearing up the more he explained, and it was only the concerned face of Ochako and her hand taking his that made him aware, and he quickly blinked the unshed tears away. It bewildered him; beyond his training, he had never thought much about his time before his quirk officially manifested, and he took everything that had happened to him during that period in stride.

Or, at least, he thought he did.

Composing himself, he gave Ochako's hand a light squeeze and sent her a small, thankful smile before continuing. "I finally manifested my quirk when I was 10, and then everything with the school districts happened, and I hadn't been face to face with Bakugo at all since then before today."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that!" Ochako fretted. "There weren't a lot of schools that were targeted in Mie, so I haven't met anyone who experienced that firsthand until now. Calling you Deku is so mean, he shouldn't do that!"

"I don't really know if he hates me or if things are just ridiculously awkward between us now," Izuku replied with a mirthless chuckle.

Iida, who had been silent and contemplative throughout Izuku's explanation, finally spoke up. "Do not let his reprehensible behavior or that of others deter you from your own success, Midoriya. You've done well to overcome these struggles and persevere in spite of them, so I'm confident that it will be easy to continue doing so," he offered with a kind smile.

Izuku, tearing up again, nodded and wiped his tears away before they could fall. He wouldn't break down in front of his friends, and he did count Iida as a friend, even after their rough start. He nodded, silently thanking them both and motioning to continue on with their walk toward the train station.

Recounting those days brought up some unaddressed feelings that laid dormant within him since he was 10. He didn't like those feelings, and he didn't want anyone to have to feel that way, either. He was lucky enough to manifest a quirk, but not everyone in that position was so fortunate. Not everyone was fortunate enough to have someone violently in their corner like he did with his mother, either.

What if he could be that person? What if he could be that person for everyone who got a raw deal not just from the MLA schemes, but society as a whole, even those that fell through the cracks? He may not be worthy of that responsibility just yet, and he may never truly be, but even just one person to believe in them could mean the world to someone who felt like they were at rock bottom.

It was something he'd think more about when he got home, but a text from Yui shifted his attention:

"One of my classmates is an even bigger fan of kaijus than me. She is, frankly, shocked and appalled at your stance on All Might against Godzilla, and she's certain that All Might wouldn't last 10 seconds."

He smiled, a true, non-quirk-related warmth spreading within at the thought of him having actual friends. It wasn't something he would have even considered merely a few months prior. He resolved to buy a plate of mochi for Ochako and a set of matryoshka dolls for Yui.

"Can we talk about how our teacher apparently doesn't pay taxes?" Ochako brought up as they made their way to the train station.

"Uraraka, we cannot make such a scandalous claim for certain! All he said was that taxes were unfair!" Iida reprimanded.

"Yeah, but... we can make some inferences from that, right?" Ochako challenged.

Izuku's smile grew even bigger. He would certainly enjoy this semester.

"Your classmate doesn't know what the hell she's talking about."