Chapter 86 - 7-9

Chapter 7: Your Hero Academia

Izuku awoke to nothing but pain. For a scant few seconds, he assumed he was back training with his mom since waking up in pain was a familiar occurrence afterward. However, the white walls and ceiling he woke up to told him that he wasn't in his room.

"Ah, you're awake," an old, familiar voice came from beside him. He looked over to see the short frame of Recovery Girl next to his bed giving him a kind smile. That smile vanished and a stern frown took its place.

"I should be scolding you for overdoing it again, but I can't fault you entirely since Nezu intentionally put you in position to do so, and from what I saw when I watched the footage back, you did prioritize rescue and tried to avoid fighting until you simply couldn't."

Izuku sighed in relief at narrowly avoiding a whack on the head from Recovery Girl's syringe cane.

"With that said," Recovery Girl continued before lightly whacking him on the head with her cane; he had spoken too soon, "You were on the brink of tearing your muscles apart, young man!"

And she was right, Izuku could definitely feel it. His entire body was sore, and his right arm in particular felt like it went through a meat grinder. He knew that pushing his green flames as far as they could go for that punch was incredibly risky, but he didn't have a lot of options, and he figured that he could reset whatever damage there was with his pink flames.

"You overused your quirk in that last bid against the 0-pointer. You're not supposed to fly like that regardless of how little gravity you have," Recovery Girl said while fighting back a chuckle at the thought. "And pooling your green fire on your arm could've done severe damage that you wouldn't have been able to immediately heal from. Your body may be immune to overheating, but you were completely drained of stamina, so neither my quirk nor your own pink fire could've done much for you without killing you."

"Oh…" Izuku mumbled in embarrassed realization.

"'Oh' is right," she said with a shake of her head, and she reached over and kissed his arm. He felt her quirk at work, zapping some of the energy he had and greatly easing the pain he felt throughout his body. "You're not likely to be in a manufactured situation like this again, but there will be times where you will push yourself much further than your limits will safely allow for one reason or another. You did well to do no lasting damage this time around, but please be careful in the future. It was your muscles this time, but overdoing your yellow flames could stop your heart or your white flames could give you a brain aneurysm, both of which are exponentially more severe, especially out on the field."

Izuku was silent in thought at her words, missing the doctor's muttering about "reckless damn rodents" and "Inko would burn this school to the ground if anything happened to her boy." He hadn't considered what would actually happen if he really went overboard with his quirk. The migraines from his white flames were usually enough of a deterrent, but the fight against the 0-pointer was the first time he truly went beyond Plus Ultra, and he supposed that there were consequences for that.

"Since you're awake and in relatively good health, I can let your mother in," Recovery Girl stated, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts.

She didn't get the chance to, however, and the door slammed open with his mother rushing into the room and practically diving into his bed to hug him to death.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she practically cried. "I can't believe my son is so cool!"

Izuku was expecting an emotional reaction along these lines when his mother showed up, but he figured she'd be fretting more over his health and safety than anything else.

"I honestly thought you'd be a lot more worried," Izuku remarked while returning the hug.

"I was at first, but Recovery Girl was able to assure me that there was no real, lasting damage. I watched the whole thing; I'm so proud that you were able to pick your battles and focus on the important things before Principal Nezu forced your hand," she explained with a watery smile.

"I knew he had something to do with that," Izuku lowly muttered.

"Of course, he did. It's Nezu," she sighed, before something came to her, and a sly smile formed onto her face. "You also have a visitor. She's been waiting outside for two hours worried sick about her hero."

"W-wait a minute, I wasn't- it hasn't even been that long!" a familiar, high-pitched voice frantically cried out from the hallway.

"Don't try to be coy, little miss," Inko responded with a grin, and she quickly left the room to retrieve the girl in question, revealing a beet red Ochako in her grasp. "You've been fretting over him for as long as I have."

"Uraraka?" Izuku asked in confusion.

"Uh… hi…" she barely managed with the amused gazes of Inko and Recovery Girl on her.

Not reading the situation, Izuku proceeded on as normal. "I'm glad you're okay. Your ankle looked pretty gnarly back there, and I didn't get a chance to check on you again before passing out mid-flight."

"I should be the one worrying about you!" she exclaimed at his concern for her and not himself. "You were awesome out there! You lit up into this flaming rainbow and went POW right into the 0-pointer and practically blew it up! Everyone is calling you the Rainbow Comet!"

"Rainbow Comet?" Izuku asked, quirking an eyebrow in amusement.

"Can you come up with something better, Small Might?" Inko asked, sharing her son's mirth.

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"

"Absolutely not."

Ochako watched the two banter in wonder, and then it clicked. "Oh, is she your mother that you mentioned earlier?"

Inko looked at the girl in surprise, and then her eyes returned to her son in a silent question of how much he told her.

"Yeah, this is her. She works here," Izuku confirmed while meeting his mother's stare to confirm that he didn't tell her any more than that. She nodded and smiled.

"It's great to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya!" Ochako beamed and extended her hand.

"Likewise, and you can just call me Inko," she replied and took the offered hand. "Do you live in the area? I'd love to have one of Izuku's friends over for dinner."

Ochako was taken completely off guard by the offer, and she quickly put her hands up. "I wouldn't want to impose," she wobbly attempted to decline.

"It's no trouble at all," Inko replied, completely undeterred. "It would be nice to have someone else around, and Izuku certainly needs more friends."

Recovery Girl, knowing exactly what Inko was doing, turned around at her desk to stave off the laughter. Izuku, meanwhile, kept a close, calculating eye on his mother. She was up to something, and the fact that he didn't know what put him on edge.

"Well, I guess I could, just this once," Ochako bashfully accepted over the rumbling of her stomach. She yelped as Inko snatched her and Izuku's arms and yanked him out of the bed before throwing a quick goodbye to Recovery Girl and leaving with the two teens in her tight grasp.

Recovery Girl couldn't hold back her laugher any longer.

"She's just like her mother. I wonder if Toshi has figured it out, yet."

"So, Ochako, do you live in the area?" Inko asked while she and the two teens were eating the katsudon she cooked to keep Izuku quiet about his suspicions.

"Hm? Oh, sorry," she quickly apologized as she was completely lost in the meal. "I'm actually from Mie. My parents rented me an apartment out here so that I could take the entrance exam and not have to ride two hours on the train."

Her expression became slightly downcast. "I don't know how long I'll have it, though. I don't even know if I'll be accepted into UA."

"Stop that, you'll be accepted for sure," Inko chided. "I was watching the entire thing, there's no way a team like you two don't make it in."

"Wait, aren't you grading the exams? Should you even be telling us any of this?" Izuku questioned.

"Who's gonna stop me?" She replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Fair enough," he accepted with a nod.

"Worst case scenario," she continued, turning back to Ochako, "I can just take you on as an apprentice and force them to admit you."

"WHAT?!" both teens choked out.

"Did I not say that was an option?" she asked her son.

"…No, you never mentioned anything of the sort," he answered while trying to regain his bearings.

"Wait, apprenticeship? How would you be able to do that?" Ochako coughed.

"I'm a retired pro," Inko explained to the girl who now had stars in her eyes. "Since I still have my license, I reserve that right. Principal Nezu also owes me quite a few favors, now. I doubt it'll come to that, though."

Izuku took a moment to gather himself completely before refocusing on his mother. "I'm surprised you just came right out and said it. You never used to be this comfortable with talking about it in the past."

"It would've come out at some point," Inko shrugged. "Being the Underground Heroics teacher kinda puts you back into that world whether you like it or not, so there's no use hiding it."

Ochako, meanwhile, was positively starstruck. Her new friend was the son of a retired pro who had just offered to take her on as an apprentice if she didn't make it into UA. Now the two of them were bantering again like she didn't just casually drop a bomb on her entire world. She refused to believe that what was happening was real, but a few pinches to her arm confirmed that it was indeed real life.

"Um, why?" she finally asked, getting the attention of both Midoriyas. Her cheeks immediately flushed at the newfound attention, and she quickly elaborated. "Not that I'm not super grateful at the offer, but it's so sudden. Why me, of all people…"

"Stop that."

"Huh?"

"Stop selling yourself short. Just because you didn't take down as many robots as Izuku or some of the others in the exam doesn't make you any less competent or heroic. Potential is potential, honey, and you have it in spades."

"I…"

"Your quirk is fascinating, and while not purely offensive, you already know how to use it in creative ways to get the job done. Removing this little gremlin's gravity so that he could fly around like a comic book hero clearly showed that. My quirk isn't purely offensive either," she continued before pulling a fork into her hand from across the table to illustrate her point, "but it's about how you use it in tandem with the skills you have. Your quirk already makes you a potentially deadly hand-to-hand fighter, the next step is to improve your hand-to-hand capabilities to properly utilize that potential."

Ochako was speechless. No one she had ever met had even once given her any sort of advice like that. Sure, her parents encouraged her to follow her dreams and be the best hero she could possibly be, but they weren't heroes or combatants themselves. They wanted her to succeed, but they couldn't give her any advice like what she had just received. This woman that she met literally earlier that day had revealed herself to be a retired pro and told her precisely what she could do to improve as a hero and fighter, and that was after telling her that she already had potential to be a great hero in the first place to assuage the girl's doubts.

What the hell was it about this family that made her want to cry tears of joy and protect them with everything she had?

Inko could see the tears building in the girl's eyes, and she knew exactly what to do. "Like I said, dear, you'll be just fine. How about I bring out the scrapbook so you and I can look at Izuku's embarrassing baby pictures?"

"MOM!"

Ochako wiped her eyes and sniffled, doing nothing to fight the joyful smile that plastered itself onto her face. "I'd love to!"

She'd hang onto Izuku and Inko for dear life, she'd make damn sure of it.

Izuku was sprawled on his couch, TV remote in hand, and channel surfing. Nezu had given him the two weeks between the entrance exam and admittance/rejection letters going out off to do as he pleased, and it was primarily spent texting Yui and Ochako (she told him to call her Ochako right after she ate dinner with them the first time). Apparently, Yui had even more luck than him and made a few friends during the exam herself, and he also learned that she had a repertoire of memes rivaling his own collection of hero memorabilia.

She also had a notable collection of Super Sentai and Transformers merch in the few pictures of her room that she sent him, and that sparked a discussion about the two franchises in which Izuku learned that Yui was rather passionate about mechs, kaijus, and Megazords.

It instigated an on-going debate about whether or not All Might could take Godzilla that had dominated the last week and a half for him, so he was taking a break with mind numbing television.

"Omae wa mou shindeiru-"

click

"Can we get much higher?"

click

"Sludge Villain has continued to evade capture-"

click

"Izuku, your letter is here!" he heard his mother call from the front door. Shooting up, he looked over the couch to see her hurrying toward him with the letter in hand. She handed it to him, and he felt a hard disk inside the envelope. Taking a moment to stare down at the determining factor of his future, he opened the envelope and pulled out the small disk in front of the formal letter. Confused at what it was, he looked over to his mother to find that she had conveniently left the room.

Putting the disk and letter down on the coffee table in front of him, he was taken by surprise when a holographic projection of none other than All Might appeared from the disk.

"I AM HERE! As a projection!"

Izuku quickly clamped down on his excitement before he could attempt to have a conversation with a prerecorded video of his idol.

"Young Midoriya, you received a perfect score on the written exam! That alone would guarantee you admittance to the school in the general studies department, but your story does not end here! In the practical exam, you racked up a total of 57 Villain Points!"

"Geez, was it really that much?" he asked himself.

"It certainly was!" All Might responded with his giant smile, and the video continued before Izuku could question any further. "That alone would've gotten you ranked 8th in total points scored, but what kind of hero school would we be if your ability to destroy robots was the only thing we graded on? We were also looking at the content of your character when placed in a situation to help another, even at the cost of yourself. Your many instances of helping and rescuing your fellow examinees, especially when you didn't have to, truly displayed that you have the heart of a hero, and as such, you were rewarded 75 Rescue Points."

"75?" Izuku incredulously shouted.

"Yes, 75! That adds up to 132 total points scored! That comfortably puts you in 1st place. It is my pleasure to say welcome to YOUR hero academia, Young Midoriya!"

The projection faded, and Izuku sat on the couch with only the low sounds of the TV in the background. It was all starting to catch up to him, and a giant smile crept onto his face.

"I FUCKING DID IT!" he shouted in pure elation.

"Language, young man!" came the stern response of his mother from the other room, but the effect was muted when she poked her head into the living room bearing a kind, proud smile.

Izuku felt like he was walking on air, and he immediately went to text his two newest friends to ask them if they got their letters. He saw that they had apparently gotten theirs a little before him, as they both sent him texts declaring that they were accepted and asked him what class he was in. Figuring that the formal acceptance letter had that information, he checked to find out that he was in Class 1-A. He was happy that Ochako appeared to be with him, but he was a little bummed that Yui was in 1-B.

Suddenly, one particular detail occurred to him. During the projection, a list of the rankings from the entrance exam appeared on screen. Turning on the device and fast forwarding to the end, he stopped the recording on the results. He was in 1st with his 57 villain points and 75 rescue points, and he noticed that Ochako was in 4th with 28 villain points and 45 rescue points, likely from her helping him take down the 0-pointer and then catching him afterward.

But a single name stood out to him.

Katsuki Bakugo, 2nd place with 77 villain points and 0 rescue points.

"Bakugo was there…" Izuku quietly said to himself. And, if he was being honest with himself, of course Bakugo was. It was his dream to be the best hero ever and become even better than All Might, and there was no better way to accomplish that than by attending the best hero school in the nation and All Might's own alma mater. It came as no surprise to the green-haired boy that Bakugo trained exceptionally hard for it, as his score of 77 villain points made clear.

But that brought a specific event back to his memory:

"Fuck outta my way, extra!"

There was something familiar about that voice and hair to Izuku at the time, but meeting Ochako pushed it from his mind. Now, with nothing distracting him, it became all too clear to him.

"Holy shit, that was Bakugo…" he said to himself, subconsciously making sure to keep his voice low to prevent his mother from hearing him. "Did he not recognize me? Did I not recognize him?"

Then, another thought occurred to him that could make his time at UA complicated. "I hope he isn't still upset about what happened all those years ago…"

Looking back at the rankings, he winced. "He'll definitely be upset about getting 2nd place, especially to me."

Katsuki Bakugo was having a good day. He had dominated the entrance exam two weeks prior like he knew he would, and all that was left was to wait for his inevitable acceptance. Passing the time at his shitty school with useless extras was tedious, however, especially with the annoying pink-skinned girl with horns that was always on his case about being mean to people and kept trying to be his friend.

He didn't need friends. He was a winner. He would be the best damn hero ever.

So, when the letter from UA finally came in the mail, he knew it was simply a formality. He destroyed the most robots in his zone, and the written test was a piece of cake. The envelope contained a disk and a formal letter, so he pressed play on the disk, and a holographic projection of All Might appeared. Now, he was stoked. All Might himself was telling him how well he did. It was clearly the first step on his path to surpassing All Might, and no one would stop him.

"That is why it is my pleasure to inform you that you scored 77 Villain Points!"

'Hell yeah, 77 points!'

"That earned you 2nd place in the total rankings!"

Bakugo's brain stalled at that declaration. He didn't hear a word of All Might welcoming him to UA and the projection finally shutting off. His mind was stuck on the simple, almost alien detail of him getting 2nd place.

He grabbed the disk and rewound it if for no other reason than to ensure he hadn't misheard. Surely, he did not annihilate the competition with gusto just to come in 2nd, right?

Sure enough, that was exactly what had happened, and the display of the rankings only confirmed it. The first thing he noticed was the 0 tied to his name under Rescue Points, which confused him. The hell were rescue points? He was the only one who didn't have them, but he still scored better than almost everyone else, so they clearly didn't matter.

Then, the real issue presented itself. Who had the gall to take 1st place away from him-

IZUKU MIDORIYA

Bakugo's brain stalled for a second time. Deku…

The nerd had shown off his quirk and then dropped off the face of the Earth. He still remembered that day, the look in the nerd's eyes when he looked down on him with contempt surrounded by flames of all colors…

Then, he was just gone. He never showed up to school again, and Bakugo hadn't seen him once in 5 years. In that time, the old hag pulled him out of his school and transferred him to one on the other side of the city with the excuse that their principal was a pedo, but he was dubious about that. The news that came out a short time later and continued over the years about entire school districts being dismantled for promoting quirk discrimination and terroristic ideologies only confirmed his suspicions that something bigger was going on.

That news, however, re-contextualized his last meeting with Deku. That day, he was so angry that the nerd had hidden his quirk from him and pretended to be weak just to laugh at him behind his back, and he let that useless teacher get into his head and fanned his anger, pointing him towards Deku to remind him of his place. However, with the knowledge that the principal was arrested and that teacher went on the run, as well as his own mother screaming at him about what he did to the nerd, it forced him to sit down and reevaluate exactly what was going on at that school.

Deku was quirkless, or, at least, he thought he was up until they were 10. Everyone else thought he was, too, so they treated him as such. Even the adults treated him differently, but that might've been due in part to Deku being freakishly smart since that made the adults uncomfortable. A few even walked on eggshells around him as if they had something to hide, but the students mostly just made him a pariah for being the weird kid without a quirk.

Was that… was that by design? Did the adults and teachers try to set Deku up? They never said or did anything when anyone messed with him, and Deku never really seemed to care much about it, which pissed people off even more and compelled them to mess with him even harder. Was the whole school in on trying to wipe the quirkless off the map?

Was that useless teacher riling him up that day for that sole purpose?

Was that teacher using HIM to hurt Deku?

Bakugo snarled, small explosions crackling in his palms as he seethed at the thought. Those teachers were using him and kissing up to him for their bullshit quirk supremacy. They used him to attack a kid for not having a quirk just to further their own warped agendas.

"Those fuckers…" he seethed. "No one uses me as their fucking patsy!"

Bakugo was certain that if the school hadn't already been knocked down with a wrecking ball driven by a talking rat, he'd march down there himself and blow them all to kingdom come. He didn't need the help of any stupid terrorists, damnit! He'd be the best without them trying to kiss his ass and give him shortcuts!

And Deku…

Deku wasn't safe, either. The nerd had a quirk, and it was powerful. Wherever the hell he was during the last five years, he had obviously been training and getting stronger. The 1st place result in the rankings proved that, and it meant that, for the moment, Deku was better than him.

That would not stand.

He hoped that Deku was strong; he hoped that Deku was really strong. He wanted Deku to be at his best when Katsuki fucking Bakugo finally reminded him and everyone else just who the hell he was. He would be the best, and no quirk terrorists or even Deku himself would stand in the way of that.

"You hear me, you fucking Deku?! I'm coming for you, and I'm gonna be THE GODDAMN BEST!"

"What the hell are ya screaming up there for, ya brat?!" the voice of his mother came from downstairs.

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, YOU OVER-THE-HILL HAG!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING OVER-THE-HILL, YA SHITTY BRAT?! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT YOUR FATHER STILL LOVES THIS ASS!"

"Mitsuki, please!"

Chapter 8: If You're Not First, You're Last

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 that ball, which was 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 along 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."

Chapter 9: Fated Battle Between Unrequited Rivals

The next day was a return to the usual school schedule that Izuku didn't miss very much. He agreed that having pro heroes for teachers was certainly cool, though, and he didn't think that the novelty of that would wear off anytime soon. Even lunch was prepared by a pro hero, which Izuku was especially curious about because one man was cooking for an entire school and doing so successfully, even providing a multitude of options for them to partake in. Izuku had no idea how the man managed to pull it off, but he was thankful that he did.

The only real deviation from traditional schooling was after lunch when the time came for their Foundational Heroics class. No one knew who their teacher was going to be, and the class was rife with speculation. Izuku had his own suspicions, but he kept quiet about them. There had to have been a reason that Nezu elected not to tell him about All Might teaching at UA, and their dedicated heroics class being the only one with a teacher unaccounted for was too convenient for him to overlook.

"Yo, Midoriya, who do you think our teacher's gonna be?"

He looked over to the boy seated to his immediate right, Hanta Sero, looking back at him with his perpetual grin. He made a side-note to learn more about his quirk later; meanwhile, he figured he could have a bit of fun with his classmate.

"All Might," was his simple reply. He expected to catch Sero off guard with the admittedly ridiculous answer and not elaborate any further to mess with him.

What he did not expect was for the entire class to stop and look in his direction. Now, with 19 pairs of eyes on him, one being an especially scrutinizing red-eyed glare, Izuku found himself a deer in headlights. He could even feel the invisible gaze of Hagakure fixed on him two seats ahead.

"All Might? Seriously?"

"I don't know if The Number One Hero could take time out of his schedule to become a teacher."

"Well, he did do the recordings for the acceptance letters, so it's possible, ribbit."

Deciding to roll with it, he pointedly turned to the door and held out his hand. The class went silent again, and he silently counted down from 5 with his fingers, then he pointed at the door upon reaching 0. The class remained dead silent as they watched the door on the edge of their seats. The tension in the room was only heightened by the sound of footsteps making their way towards the classroom.

And then, nothing happened. The class waited in silence for a little while longer to see just who would come through the door. When the door hadn't opened after another 5 seconds, Bakugo turned back to Izuku with a mocking sneer.

"Ha, ya nerd! There's no way All Might himself-"

"I AM," a familiar voice boomed from outside of the room, "coming through the door like a normal person!"

"Holy shit, it's All Might!"

"Midoriya was right!"

"Is that his Silver Age costume?"

Izuku slowly craned his head to face the dumbfounded expression of Bakugo, and he gave him a dry smirk before doing a small bow. It was worth it to the green head to see the blonde valiantly fight off blowing a gasket in his seat.

All Might pressed a button on a remote, and a panel in the wall opened to reveal a set of lockers with numbers corresponding to their seats. After they grabbed the cases containing their costumes, they were herded to the locker rooms to get changed for their first practical lesson in heroics.

Izuku sat on a bench and stared down at the unopened case holding his costume. When he first drew up a design at the age of 4, it was heavily inspired by All Might. It even included a cowl with two long appendages that were supposed to be reminiscent of All Might's two signature locks of hair. As he grew and his hero worship of All Might slowly diminished into something less fanatical, he revisited and reworked the costume idea. He wanted to keep the influence of All Might, as the insurmountable mountain of a man was still his hero, but he also wanted to pay homage to his mother's costume for her efforts in getting him to this point in the first place.

The end result was a black spandex suit with white flame decals traveling up the sides of his abdomen and down his legs, as well as a reflective flame symbol on his chest that the notes in the case assured was as flameproof as the rest of the suit. He wore a pair of white gloves and a matching pair of white boots, and on his waist was a green utility belt as a nod to his mother since he felt wrong not having green anywhere in the costume otherwise. Completing the ensemble was a white cape that he included as a callback to All Might's older costumes. He requested the cape to be made of a special material that allowed him to remove it and use it as a capture weapon, similar to the capture scarf used by Eraserhead.

'Wait a minute…' Izuku thought with a contemplative frown. 'So, that's who Aizawa is. How did I not piece that together sooner?'

After getting dressed into his costume, he started to make his way towards Ground Beta, noticing someone begin to walk in step with him.

"I was expecting a lot more color for the Rainbow Comet," the blonde kid with a black lightning bolt in his hair (Kaminari, he believed) playfully remarked.

This was it, a casual social situation with someone he hadn't explicitly befriended. He somehow made it through the interaction with Sero and the resulting mishap in class unscathed, so he knew he could make it through this one too. He wasn't going to mess this up.

"My quirk provides enough color as it is," he responded with a totally unrehearsed laugh. "Anymore color on the suit would have been overkill."

"Ha, I hear ya," Kaminari replied with a smile.

'Wow, I made it through that! I should ask him about his quirk!' Izuku excitedly thought before taking a breath and calming down. 'No, I'll wait until after class. I'll probably see it in action again, anyway.'

The bulk of the class reached Ground Beta to see All Might waiting on them. He proudly looked over their costumes until his eyes landed on Izuku, and his breath hitched. There were certainly differences, but watching the boy walk out in his black jumpsuit, white boots, and oh-so-familiar white cape gave him incredibly warm and painful flashbacks. One For All buzzed inside of him again, and he swore that he could faintly hear a voice shouting in the back of his mind, "That's him! That's him!"

'Yes, that's him, my successor,' he thought to himself seemingly in confirmation.

"NO, YOU BLONDE BAFOON! That's my grandson!" shouted a woman wearing a similar getup to Izuku in a black, foggy void.

"He still can't hear you, Nana," a shorter, high-collared man sighed in exasperation.

All Might shook himself out of his stupor and regained his signature grin. "The clothes really do make the man!"

"Izuku, I love your costume!" Ochako bubbily chirped beside him. "I was expecting a little more color, though."

"I wanted to pay homage to my mom's costume and All Might's while still making something of my own," he chuckled. "I'm not sure how much I love the cape, though, now that I'm wearing it. Your costume is really cool, too. I can definitely see the space motif you're going for."

Ochako beamed at the recognition, and then her smile faltered a bit. "I'm glad you noticed! I wanted something a little more puffy, though, sorta like Thirteen's suit. This one's a little skin tight."

Then, something occurred to her. "I've never seen your mom's costume."

"It's like mine, but greener, and no cape," Izuku answered simply. Izuku could've sworn that he caught the eye of Jiro, but she quickly looked away, so he pushed it out of his mind.

'Costume?' were the simultaneous thoughts of Bakugo and Todoroki as they overheard that bit of the conversation.

'Since when was Aunty Inko a fucking hero?'

'So, his mother is a pro? That would provide a motive and an opportunity…'

All Might cut into their radically different rumination by explaining what their first class would be: a battle trial. He explained (with the help of cue cards) that the class would be divided into teams of two. The teams would face off against each other in a mock scenario where one team played the role of villains holding a large bomb within a building, and the other team would play the role of heroes attempting to thwart them.

He held out a box for them to draw lots for what team they'd be apart of, and Izuku found himself on Team J. He looked to Ochako, but she, unfortunately, was on Team C. He looked around for his partner as the class started to group up until he felt something pat him through his cape. Turning around, he saw no one, and he was confused until a floating glove waved at him.

"Hi there! Guess we're partners for today," Hagakure excitedly said.

Izuku blinked, and then he returned the smile he was certain she was sending him. "I guess we are." He noticed that she was wearing a pair of gloves and shoes, but he couldn't see anything else. Before he could ask about it, their teacher's voice filled the area.

"Now, for the first group," All Might bellowed as he reached into a box with labeled slips of paper, "the hero team will be Team J!"

"Oh wow, we have to go first," Hagakure said while Izuku focused his eyes on the box in All Might's hands.

"And the villain team will be Team B!"

Izuku looked around for any team to perk up in acknowledgment, and his eyes landed on the feral grin of Bakugo and cold glare of Todoroki directed back at him.

"Goddamn it…"

Inko stepped into Principal Nezu's office with a contemplative frown. She was on her break, and that usually entailed sitting in the teacher's lounge reading trashy romance novels with Snipe while Aizawa pretended to not fanboy in her presence across the room, but Nezu specifically called her into the office rather than sending her a text. That likely meant that whatever it was, he didn't want a written record of it.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Inko questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"You may drop the formalities for this meeting," Nezu assured. "Today, we are equals once again."

"So, this is about a case, then," Inko quickly surmised.

"That case in particular, yes," he confirmed.

Inko's frown deepened. "You have a new lead?"

Nezu nodded and pulled out several articles from his desk. "It's a tenuous one, but I feel there's something here. Within the past year and a half, there has been a steady uptick in hit pieces directed at UA, its staff, and myself as the principal. It ranged from simple things like expulsions potentially creating vigilantes and villains, to not-so-simple things like singling out UA for creating child soldiers to fight for the public's amusement in the Sports Festival."

Inko took a careful look through the articles in concern until one thing stood out to her. "These are all from the same publisher."

"So, you noticed." Nezu nodded with a smile. "At first, I wasn't sure if it was just a single writer or publisher with an ax to grind against UA for one reason or another, but I do love a good investigation. A further look into this 'Shoowaysha Publishing' didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary, which I expected. However, a look into their executive director and occasional writer, Chitose Kizuki, unearthed some interesting details."

"Do tell," Inko said while sitting down across from him.

"When I had people go undercover into different quirkist groups I suspected were being financially supported, one of them was a larger group primarily congregating on a message board that had monthly meetups for demonstrations and recruitment." Nezu took a sip of tea from a cup that Inko was certain wasn't there initially, but she learned years ago to stop questioning it. "During one of those meetups, my operative was able to accompany the moderator of the message board to a meeting with a woman fitting Kizuki's description. It was a handoff of information, though we're still not certain exactly what information was given."

"How can you be sure that it's the same woman?" Inko ventured, to which Nezu only retrieved a picture and slid it across the desk to her. "Ah, point taken," she responded upon seeing the picture. "So, you think she's directly involved with the MLA?"

Nezu nodded. "Being a middleman that only runs information between parties wouldn't be worth the time of someone with her position, and it would also be an equally large waste of an asset. As the executive director of a major news publication, she no doubt has considerable influence over information distribution to the public."

"And that means the MLA already had a steady influence on information flow irrespective of their indoctrination schemes," Inko added. "That definitely re-contextualizes all of the news that comes out of there. It also means that UA is directly in their crosshairs if these hit pieces are any indication."

A small, dangerous smile baring more teeth than Inko was comfortable with developed onto Nezu's face. "Yes, I suppose we are."

Inko would be lying if she said she didn't begin to sweat at his predatory tone.

"It appears that war may come sooner than we had anticipated."

"So that's the story between me and Bakugo, and that's why I'm fairly sure that he's going to abandon the bomb entirely to come directly after me," Izuku finished explaining with a sigh.

"Oh no, I'm sorry for making you relive all of that!" Hagakure exclaimed, frantically waving her gloved hands.

"It's fine," he quickly assured her. "I'm getting past it, and it's better to know these things now before they potentially result in disaster later on."

"Well, we have a few minutes left. Got a plan in that green noggin of yours?"

Izuku's smile returned with an edge to it. "I do, actually. I take it that you're pretty good at sneaking around." She nodded, but when he stayed silent, she remembered that he couldn't see her, so she gave him a thumbs up. "Right, well, I'd normally suggest that you sneak your way through the building and locate the bomb while I keep Bakugo busy, but Todoroki has a pretty powerful ice quirk, and I'm not certain how far it reaches. Given your… costume situation, you might catch hypothermia if you're frozen and I'm not around to thaw you out and heat you back up."

"So, you just want to stay around and keep me warm, huh?" she playfully teased.

"Basically," he casually replied.

She huffed, lamenting her failed attempt to get a rise out of him. "What about Ol' Explodey?"

"How hard can you hit?"

"Pretty hard."

Izuku hummed in consideration. "Punch me in the gut as hard as you can."

"Uhh… are you sure?" she hesitantly questioned.

"Yes. I've seen Bakugo take a hard hit and keep on going on pure spite and hatred alone. He's no doubt gotten tougher since then, so I just want to measure what we're working with," he responded. "Give it all you got, I can take it."

"…Okay," she reluctantly accepted.

Izuku flexed his abs and mentally prepared himself for the coming blow. He didn't want to underestimate the girl, so he readied himself for a hit as if he himself was throwing it.

He was not at all prepared to be folded over an invisible arm with a gloved fist firmly planted in his stomach. His eyes were bulging out of his skull, and he just barely kept his very soul from being ejected from his body on impact. He fell to his knees and hacked his life away while Hagakure apologetically fretted over him.

"Holy hell, it feels like I just got hit by a Texas Smash!" Izuku struggled between breaths, and he flashed her a wobbly grin. "You've got a mean straight punch."

"Well, when your whole thing is being invisible, you gotta develop some other talents to keep up," she sheepishly chuckled with a not-so-insignificant measure of pride.

"I think we'll be just fine," Izuku told her with a confident smile.

"Your 10-minute prep time has concluded!" All Might's voice blared over their ear pieces. "GO!"

"Listen up, Mr. Freeze, I'm hunting down Deku and beating him into the ground. I don't care what you do, just stay out of my way!" Bakugo snarled at Todoroki.

Todoroki's impassive stare did not falter for a second as he walked past Bakugo and placed his right hand on the wall. "There won't even be a fight, and I don't need your help."

Bakugo might have been intimidated by his chilly tone if not for the ridiculously goofy ice prosthetic covering his left side with a glowing red eye. Instead, he just felt even more annoyed.

That annoyance became shock when Todoroki froze the entire building in an instant. Turning away from him, Todoroki calmly walked towards the door amidst Bakugo's silence.

"They're done. Let's capture them and get this over with," he coldly instructed.

That snapped Bakugo out of his stupor, and his annoyance returned ten-fold. "Don't fucking order me around, Ice Terminator!"

Izuku felt the sudden, abrasive cold before his quirk activated on instinct with a flash of orange, and the hallway they were in glaciered in the blink of an eye. As if on a mental command, the hallway was blanketed in a deep crimson, and the red flames of his quirk quickly melted the surrounding ice. Looking over to check on his partner, he was greeted with the sight of Hagakure wrapped in a snug-looking blanket of orange fire. If her head movements (at least, what he could assume was her head) were any indication, she was just as confused as he was.

"Huh… I forgot I could do that," Izuku calmly stated.

"You forgot?!" Hagakure shouted. "I thought your quirk was just colorful fire that lets you move fast sometimes! What even is this?!"

Izuku could tell from her hands curiously probing and examining the orange fire blanketing her that her tone was less accusatory and more excitedly inquisitive.

"Well, I can separate my quirk into individual flames that each allow me to do different things," he answered. "It's kind of a lot to explain, so I'll just say that red gives me even more intense heat in localized areas, and I've only ever used orange once at the entrance exam. I think it forms barriers that I can protect people with, but it activates subconsciously thus far."

"That is so fucking cool!"

"My grandson is so fucking cool!"

The vestiges of One For All were watching the Battle Trial through the unwitting eyes and ears of All Might, and they could hear Izuku's explanation to go along with the showcase of his quirk. Nana was positively over the moon with pride at her grandson, while En and Daigoro Banjo were shaking their heads in amused exasperation. Banjo could definitely concede that Nana's grandson had looked pretty cool up to that point, though.

Hikage Shinomori and Yoichi Shigaraki, however, were watching the scene with critical eyes, Yoichi especially.

"Is that…" Hikage began.

"Singularity?" Yoichi finished. "Looks like it."

"Sheesh," Hikage sighed. "You think Eighth is going to try to pass it on to him?"

"I certainly hope not," Yoichi replied. "Two quirks reaching singularity within one person? I'd rather Nana not have to watch her successor clean the remains of her grandson off of the floor and walls."

Izuku retracted the protective orange shield and focused his quirk in melting a path down the hall for the two. It didn't take long for them to realize that Todoroki had frozen the entire building.

"Hey, Midori?" Hagakure spoke up.

Momentarily taken aback by the nickname, Izuku stumbled. "Midori?"

"You've poured your heart and soul to me in our first conversation and saved me from being frozen, and I've folded you over my fist for science. I think we've already advanced to being best friends, today."

"That's… fair," Izuku conceded with a chuckle. "I don't have a cool nickname for you yet, unfortunately."

"Just Toru is fine."

"Roger that. What did you need?"

"Well, since Todoroki froze the building, how likely is it that he thinks we're frozen too and left the bomb unguarded to capture us?"

Izuku froze for a moment as he hadn't considered that, and his eyes lit up with another plan. "How well do you think you can sneak around on ice?"

"I used to train by silently navigating through a room covered in broken glass. Ice will be child's play," Toru confidently replied.

"Awesome. I'll find a large enough room and make a ton of noise to draw them to my position while you find the bomb."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Toru said with a mock salute and scampered off down the hall. Izuku made his way down the hall in the other direction, passing through the corridors to find an empty room that was suitable enough for the distraction. He knew that he'd likely end up taking on both Bakugo and Todoroki, so he needed room to dodge explosions and more glaciers. He wasn't sure if they'd work well together, however, but he'd make them pay for it if they didn't.

Finally finding an optimal room, he ignited his red flames and melted the ice, even subliming it directly into steam at points. The room was filled with steam and slippery patches of mostly melted ice, and Izuku's flames of ruby transitioned to emerald like Gen 3, and he clapped his hands together as hard as he could to both clear the room and create a thunderous boom to draw his two opponents to his location.

All he had to do now was wait. So he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After around 15 seconds, he started to get a little impatient, so he took a shot in the dark and speculated that they were waiting outside the room in case it was a trap. With that in mind, he decided to push the easiest button he knew of to get the show on the road.

"Hey, Bakugo! I'm better than you and you know it!"

"THE HELL YOU ARE, YOU BASTARD!"

Bakugo bounded down the hall and into the room with a vicious snarl. The bright sunshine of Izuku's yellow fire took over, and he darted out of the way of the furious blonde's initial explosion. Bakugo threw an explosion at him again, and Izuku dodged again... and again…and again. They kept up the intense game of cat and mouse with Bakugo launching himself at Izuku with explosion after explosion, meanwhile Izuku dodged each one with an apparent ease that felt so mocking to Bakugo. The boy was practically bouncing around the room like a yellow pinball, and Bakugo was getting incredibly sick of it. The intermittent kicks and punches he received whenever Izuku bounded past him that often came close to knocking the wind out of him were not helping matters, either.

"Stop dodging and face me, Deku!" he commanded. Izuku, feeling the strain begin to set in on his chest, obliged him and landed in a crouch in front of him, deactivating his quirk all the while.

Bakugo felt truly insulted in that moment by him deactivating his quirk, and he would make the boy pay for it in blood. "Don't you dare fucking look down on me, you piece of shit!"

Bakugo threw himself at Izuku in his rage, telegraphing a right hook that Izuku was more than happy to exploit by hooking the arm and using the blonde's own momentum to toss him over his hip and onto the concrete. It was a scene very reminiscent of their schoolyard scuffle 5 years prior, and Bakugo knew that all too well. He stared up at Izuku with wide eyes, feeling just as bewildered as he did back then. He felt just as small, just as insignificant.

He felt just as inferior.

Izuku only had a fraction of a second to notice Bakugo's thousand-yard stare before his instincts screamed at him once again, and he went back up in yellow fire to just barely dodge the pillar of ice that slammed through where he once stood, carefully skirting around Bakugo to avoid freezing him as well.

"I told you this would be a trap," came the annoyed voice of Todoroki from the entrance. "You clearly can't finish this yourself, so I will."

Izuku, feeling an almost alien rush of confidence and snark, decided to roll with it and respond. "You're more than welcome to try, Terminator."

"Holy hell, he even got your one-liners!" Banjo laughed alongside Nana, who was currently using En's collar to wipe the tears of joy from her face.

"Right? And look at how well my little baby Inko trained him, he's moving even better than me!" Nana cried.

Yoichi quietly sighed with a mixture of fondness and dismay. The boy looked like he'd make for a great Ninth wielder, but it just wasn't in the cards. 'That invisible girl, though, she did have a wicked right…'

Izuku was mildly disappointed at the lack of verbal or facial response from the heterochromatic teen, but he didn't have time to dwell on it since he was busy dodging the resulting ice spikes that shot at him. They were faster than Bakugo's explosions, however, and he only narrowly avoided being skewered on a few occasions. After the 5th tear on his costume, he decided to switch tactics. He put out his yellow fire and green took its place, and he met the next mini-glacier with a solid right hook, smashing into the ice with enough force to shatter it entirely.

Momentarily taken aback, Todoroki only acted in instinct when blasting another mini-glacier to block the split-second advance by the newly golden Izuku, trapping him in the ice in front of him. Putting his confusion at the boy's constant changing of color and powers aside, he exhaled his tension away at a seemingly apprehended foe. That relief was short-lived, though, as the ice flashed red and practically blew apart with the green head forcing his way out shrouded in crimson fire. The heat became too much for even him to deal with, and he quickly backed off.

Or, rather, he backed off as quickly as he could manage since the frostbite from overusing his ice started to hit him. The sluggishness would come to bite him, as he received a left hook to the jaw and a boot to the sternum in rapid succession for his troubles. Midoriya was beginning to become a truly troublesome opponent.

Izuku, meanwhile, wasn't fairing much better. The strain was really beginning to hit him, as well, and he didn't need Recovery Girl whacking him with her cane again. He wanted to prolong the fight as long as possible to give Toru time to find the objective, but it looked more and more as though he needed to end the fight quickly if he didn't want to be captured and leave her to fend for herself 2 on 1. The two teens intensely stared each other down as they picked up that the other was slowing, and they both knew that the end for one of them was near.

"All these years," came a raspy, feral growl to the side of them. They broke eye contact and looked over to see an absolutely tempestuous-looking Bakugo clutching his right gauntlet.

"All these years you've been looking down on me, those extras only kissed up to me, and those shitty teachers tried to use me as their patsy! I'm no one's pawn, I'm no one's stepping stone, and I'm no one's fucking measuring stick! I'm the fucking best, AND THAT'S ALL I'LL EVER FUCKING BE!" he roared and yanked the pin from his gauntlet with both Izuku and Todoroki in the line of fire.

The resulting explosion was gargantuan, shaking the building and weakening the structural integrity even more than flash freezing it did. Bakugo panted at ground zero, watching intently for any signs of movement. He was both relieved and enraged when there was movement in the rubble ahead of him, and a soot-covered Izuku sporting a freshly torn costume emerged with a barely-conscious Todoroki hanging off his arm. The glare Bakugo received from those emerald eyes was so frigid that he was rooted in place. The blonde swore he saw flickers of black enter the boy's eyes and spark in his green hair. It was exponentially more threatening than the contemptuous glare he received half a decade prior in the alleyway.

Izuku, meanwhile, felt an unfamiliar level of rage leak into him the longer he laid eyes on the blonde. The blackness he briefly felt that day months before the entrance exam was returning much hotter than previously, and Izuku struggled to keep a lid on it out of fear of what sort of damage it could do if he didn't.

Then, a chunk of ice slammed down onto the back of Bakugo's head, and he limply fell into unconsciousness. Izuku's surprise gave him the opportunity he needed to swallow that blackness and lock it away again. He looked over to the limp form of Bakugo to find capture tape floating above him and proceed to wrap around the boy.

"Midori, what the hell happened down here?!" the voice of Toru shouted from above Bakugo's captured form.

"Toru?" he asked in confusion. "I thought you were looking for the bomb?"

"I felt that massive explosion and figured you might need help," she frantically reasoned.

"Ah, that," he bemusedly chuckled. "You came at the perfect time. I am absolutely spent."

"I can see that; you're barely standing up straight with him unconscious on your arm," she giggled.

Izuku looked over to see that Todoroki was indeed slumped over in unconsciousness. "Huh, so he is." He removed his cape with his free hand and appeared to twirl it, forming it into a thinner piece of fabric that wrapped tightly around Todoroki.

"Erm… Hero Team wins…" came the shocked voice of All Might through their ear pieces.

"Awesome," Izuku breathed out. "Please catch me," he said before slipping into unconsciousness himself and falling forward with Toru scrambling to keep him from hitting the ground.

The control room was silent. The entire class, teacher included, could only stare at the screen, mouths agape. No one moved a muscle until All Might snapped out of it and sprung into action, leaping out of the room and toward the building to collect his 3 unconscious students.

The rest of the class was left to make sense of the titanic clash they had just witnessed. Three of the strongest kids in their class just beat the piss out of each other, and one of them may have tried to commit murder against the other two? And, in the end, the winner was still the guy who was outnumbered in the first place.

"How in the FUCK are we supposed to follow that?!" Kaminari shouted, voicing what just about everyone was thinking.

Izuku awoke to the unfortunate sight of white walls and the unfortunate feeling of a hospital bed. He immediately deflated when he realized where he was.

"I thought I told you not to overdo it again!" Recovery Girl scolded him at his bedside.

"Would you believe that I didn't have a choice again?" he offered with a sheepish smile.

The old medic sighed in resignation, knowing that it was the truth. "When Toshinori came in with you three, he explained what happened. I want to be upset at you, but you weren't the one being reckless this time around." Her face scrunched in frustration. "He should've stopped the match, and Bakugo shouldn't have gone as far as he did. But we're here now, and from what Toshinori told me, you seemed to know restraint again this time around, so I'll give you props for that."

Izuku was just glad that he wouldn't be getting whacked in the head-

"You're thinking too loudly, young man," Recovery Girl smirked after lightly whacking him with her cane. Her smile then softened to a kind one. "You didn't go overboard and hurt yourself with your quirk, so all you needed was some rest to regain your stamina. You're good to go."

"Thanks, Recovery Girl," Izuku returned her smile and shuffled out of bed and out of the room. He noticed that he passed the unconscious figures of Todoroki and Bakugo on his way out, but he didn't stop to check on them. He had faith in Recovery Girl, and he also had a sinking feeling that Bakugo would be in some shit when he awoke, which he wanted no part of.

He made it back to Ground Beta in time for the rest of the class to be headed back to the locker rooms, and he was immediately tackled by an invisible missile.

"Midori! You're okay!" Toru gleefully shouted.

Izuku momentarily blue-screened at being hugged with no warning by the one person other than his mother who can consistently sneak up on him, largely because she was still practically naked. She seemed to realize this, and she sheepishly stepped back and gave him some space.

That space was not to be, however, as a second blur in the form of Ochako slammed into him and accidentally negated his gravity, causing him to float into the air above the class while struggling in vain to right himself. Ochako quickly canceled her quirk, and he plummeted right into the arms of Shoji.

"Sup," Shoji said after a moment of silence.

"Yo," Izuku replied just as casually as if he wasn't in a bridal carry. "You are strong."

"So are you," Shoji replied with mirth edging into his voice.

"Fair enough," Izuku replied with a light smile, and the taller boy let him back down to his feet.

The moment he was back on solid ground, the entire class surrounded him.

"Dude, that fight was so manly!" Kirishima shouted.

"Where did you learn to move like that? I could hardly follow you!" Sero asked.

"Did you train at a dojo?" Ojiro asked

"I can't believe Bakugo tried to blow you two up! I mean, I can, but still!" Ashido shouted in frustration. That frustration seemed like it was much too familiar to her.

"Now, now, children, please do not crowd him! He just recovered from an intense battle!" thankfully came the voice of All Might, and the class gave the boy some much appreciated space.

All Might watched as he nervously answered their questions and shyly accepted their praise. It was a stark contrast from the alert, self-assured teen he was in the heat of battle. It brought a genuine smile to the Number One's face.

Internally, One For All was a different story.

"LET ME AT THE LITTLE SHIT! I'LL TEAR HIM APART FOR TRYING TO HURT MY BOY!" Nana practically snarled while being restrained by Banjo and En.

"Why are we even holding her back? It's not like she can leave the void and hurt him for real," Banjo queried to En through strained grunts in their efforts to keep the apoplectic grandmother contained.

"I'd rather not test if she could find a way," En replied with equal strain.