Chapter Text
Midoriya Izuku gulped and averted his eyes from Kacchan, who already looked like he was about to explode.
He mumbled a hasty good morning and ducked his head as he tried to find a seat. There was one open behind Kacchan. That was perfect, he could be close to him and get out of the blonde’s way at the same time. Before he could make a beeline for the seat, his path was blocked by an arm. Startled, Izuku looked up and was surprised to see the glasses-wearing boy from the practical entrance exam.
“Greetings!” The blue-haired boy made an arm chopping motion. “I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is—"
“I heard!” Izuku said before wincing. He didn’t really mean to cut the guy off. “I’m Midoriya. It’s nice to meet you, Iida.”
At this, Iida straightened and looked at him calculatingly.
“Midoriya, you realized that there was something more to that practical exam, didn’t you?”
At this, Izuku stared blankly. “Huh?”
Iida continued, “I hate to admit it, but you are better than me.” He sighed.
Izuku felt even more confused. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize—”
“Oh!” Someone remarked.
Both boys turned to look at a brunette who smiled at them warmly. Izuku gasped and felt his cheeks warm. It was the girl he saved during the practical exam. She looks good in her uniform, he thought before shaking it away.
“That curly hair! You’re that plain-looking one!”
Izuku nodded his head feverishly. Her energy was too cute for him to feel offended.
She continued with eyes too bright and smile too big. “It was amazing how you punched that zero-point robot!” She made a chopping motion in the air, a poor attempt to recreate how he fought off the robot from the exam.
“Oi!” Kacchan’s irritated voice echoed from the other side of the classroom. Izuku flinched on instinct. "If you two losers would fucking mind sitting down instead of yapping at the doorway, maybe you could actually be of use.”
Iida spun around with a glint in his eye. “Bakugou! That foul mouth of yours is unbecoming of a hero student, especially one from UA!”
From beside him, the nice girl rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind him,” she waved off. “He’s grumpy all the time but he’s nice.”
Izuku felt like choking. Kacchan? Nice?
She held out a hand and beamed at him and Iida.
“I’m Uraraka Ochako. It’s nice to meet you two.” Izuku felt another blush crawl up his face. “I’m—!”
“Go somewhere else if you want to play at being friends.” A drawl made all three of them look back at the doorway.
Except… there was no one there.
“This is the hero course,” the voice continued, and Izuku’s eyes trailed downwards to see a yellow sleeping bag on the floor with a person inside it. The guy looked like he hadn’t slept for days.
The homeless-looking man slowly unzipped a part of the sleeping bag before downing the rest of the fruit juice he had stored. He stood up and unzipped the rest of the sleeping bag, revealing a disheveled form. He rolled the sleeping bag before muttering, “Took you a total of eight seconds to be quiet.”
The man looked at the rest of the class with dead eyes. “I’m your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota.”
The class erupted into murmurs and the freckled boy racked his brain. He had never seen a pro-hero this worn out before. Aizawa trailed his eyes onto the three students still standing at the doorway.
“If you three could sit down,” he said slowly, “that would benefit the whole class.”
Ochako eep-ed and rushed to her seat at the back. Iida bowed lowly and apologized, before following Uraraka. Izuku scanned the class and stopped at the seat behind Kacchan, now suddenly scared to sit behind him. At this, Bakugou glared and raised his chin, as if daring him to even think about breathing the same air with him. Izuku gulped and hurried to sit down behind Kacchan, quietly taking out a notebook and a pen.
Aizawa groaned and made him way to the table at the front. He felt his pocket for something while the class held its breath. After a few seconds, their teacher found some… eyedrops? Izuku didn’t want to question why a pro-hero would put in eyedrops at the front of the class. After a minute, Aizawa addressed the class.
“UA is a school known to produce the country’s very best heroes. If you don’t have what it takes to become a pro, we will show you no mercy.”
The tension in the class was thick.
From behind him, Izuku could hear a classmate mutter, “That’s All Might’s Alma Mater for you,” and he had to agree.
UA was tough, All Might kept reminding him as he trained throughout the summer. To be a proper vessel, Izuku would have to do whatever it took to reach the top. He couldn’t let All Might down.
“Change into your gym uniforms and meet me outside on the grounds in twenty minutes. Dismissed.” Aizawa yawned and trudged to the doorway before leaving the whole class.
“Damn, what an introduction, huh?” A voice from his right startled Izuku.
A black-haired boy smiled lightly at him. “I’m Sero Hanta,” he held out his hand and Izuku scrambled to shake it.
“My name is Midoriya Izuku,” he squeaked in response.
“I’m Mineta Minoru!” The boy from behind Izuku chipped in.
They exchanged pleasantries and Izuku felt himself relax. See, All Might? This wasn’t so bad. He could make friends and have a good time at UA, after all.
Mineta grinned and cupped his hands around his mouth to whisper. Both Sero and Midoriya leaned down to listen. “The babes in our class sure are hot,” the small one whispered with barely concealed glee.
Sero grinned and offered a fist bump. “We could have a hard time in this hero course but at least our eyes can take a break every now and then,” Sero whispered back and trailed his eyes at someone from the other side of the room.
Izuku followed his gaze before it landed on Uraraka. The girl unknowingly bent over and picked up a dropped pencil. At this, both Sero and Mineta silently whistled as her skirt arched over her thighs. The freckled boy felt dirty. Uraraka was such a nice girl, she didn’t deserve to get ogled at during her first day. Izuku cleared his throat and was about to tell them to stop before a shadow fell upon the three. They all looked up to see a very infuriated Bakugou Katsuki.
He grinned menacingly and lowered himself to their level before whispering, “If anyone of you even looks in her direction, I will tear you from limb to limb and explode the rest of your torso.”
His childhood friend stood up straight and smirked at the horrified faces of the two. He sauntered over to Uraraka, threw an arm over her shoulder, and walked with her outside the classroom. Right as they reached the doorway, Bakugou looked back at the three gawking guys and motioned with his thumb slicing across his neck.
Fucking try me, he mouthed.
Izuku gulped. The message was loud and clear.
Uraraka Ochako couldn’t stop fidgeting.
They changed into their gym uniforms and went to the grounds as Aizawa instructed. Bakugou waited for her outside the locker rooms, and when she emerged, he threw his arm around her shoulder and walked with her all the way outside.
Ochako kept looking around the campus as they made their way to the grounds. UA was bigger than she thought! Around them, their classmates were also getting antsy.
Aizawa didn’t give them any instruction so they all waited with bated breath until he appeared. He still looked worse for the wear, Ochako thought as she observed his wrinkled clothing and deep eyebags.
“For your first activity,” Aizawa started, “you will have a Quirk Apprehension Test.”
“What about the entrance ceremony?” Ochako babbled. She didn’t feel the warning tug that Bakugou gave on her sleeve. “Or the orientation?”
“If you’re going to be a hero, you don’t have time for such leisurely events,” Aizawa replied, not the least bothered by her interruption. “UA’s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are. That is also how teachers run their classes.”
The class looked at each other apprehendingly.
Aizawa continued, “You kids have been doing this since junior high, right?” He held up a phone.
Upon squinting, Ochako could see a list of physical activities.
“Physical fitness tests where you weren’t allowed to use your quirks.” He brought the phone back to his pocket. “The country still uses such averages taken from results without students using their quirks. It’s not rational.” Aizawa shifted his eyes at the back of the class.
At this, Uraraka gulped before realizing his eyes were on Bakugou and not her.
“Bakugou, you finished at the top of the practical exam, right?”
The blonde beside her tensed. Aizawa continued, “In junior high, what was the best result of your softball throw?”
“67 meters,” Bakugou answered. The class mumbled again. Even without the use of a quirk, that was a pretty high score.
The tired teacher threw him a softball. Bakugou caught it and twisted his wrist around. Instead of a regular softball, it looked like it had a chip installed at the side. Probably to track how far it could be thrown.
“Try it this time with your quirk,” Aizawa said before stepping away from the front, a clear invitation for Bakugou to take his place.
Katsuki breathed deeply. Ochako patted his arm discretely for good luck before he went to the front of the class. Aizawa stared him down.
“Hurry up. Give it all you got.”
Hearing this, her best friend grinned wildly. Ochako silently cheered and felt herself become excited. It was the first day and yet everyone had been given the opportunity to show their abilities.
“Well then,” Katsuki grumbled, arm stretching before getting into a throwing position. Katsuki threw the ball with an added explosion from his quirk and a yell of, “Die!”
“D-die…?” Ochako heard Izuku gulp.
The ball shot up high and long, a trail of smoke from Katsuki’s quirk at its tail. The class held its breath as Aizawa showed them the phone with Bakugou’s result.
“Know your maximum first. This is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero.”
705.2 meters.
The entire class gasped.
Katsuki saunted back to the back of the class and threw an arm around Ochako.
While the rest of the students were in awe, the brunette was positively beaming.
“Good job, Katsu!” she cheered.
Katsuki scoffed. “That was nothing,” which basically translated for did you fucking see how great I was?
The class continued to mutter.
“705 meters? Is he for real?” Another blonde in the class stammered.
The girl with the pink hair waved her hands excitedly. “This looks fun!”
“We can use our quirks as much as we want!” Another student chimed. “As expected from the hero course!”
Aizawa fixed them down with a hard glare.
“It looks fun, huh? You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?” Their teacher suddenly smirked and the class froze. “Whoever comes in last in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion.”
The reaction was immediate. The hopeless feeling was about to sink in, but before Ochako could lament or worry, Katsuki laughed next to her. Surprised, she went to slap his arm to calm him down since about half the class was looking at them.
“That’s UA for you,” Katsuki barked as he let out small sparks from his left hand.
Ochako felt the anxiety blur away and turn to determination.
Katsuki removed the arm he slung around her shoulder and nudged her lightly to their classmates slowly lining up to do the softball throw.
“Kill them, Angel.” He said it so simply and naturally.
Ochako nodded before squaring her shoulders and marching to the end of the line.
The one next to do the throw was a guy who had extra limbs and towered over the rest of the class. He threw the ball and it landed with an impressive 470 meters.
The next student was the guy who barely greeted her this morning and whom Katsu yelled at. She couldn’t help but think he looked beautiful when he threw the ball in a similar fashion to Katsuki. Except, he used a quirk that produced ice to give more power to his throw. 701 meters.
Some students, Ochako observed, had quirks that were unsuitable for the ball throw. There was a student who spoke both French and Japanese who had a result of 50 meters.
The invisible girl could only throw for 48 meters.
Then, it was Ochako’s turn. The pink-cheeked brunette gulped before taking the ball offered by Aizawa. Breathing in, she activated her quirk on the ball and threw it as high as she could and let the cancelled gravity do the work. The softball floated higher and higher until it couldn’t be seen.
Aizawa showed the result.
“Infinity?!” the class echoed.
Ochako giggled and stepped to the back of the class where Katsuki was positively beaming with pride.
“Knew you could ace it,” he greeted and slung his arm back on her shoulders.
“I got a higher score than you,” she teased.
Katsuki scoffed. “I’ll kick your ass for the other tests.”
The softball throw had its last student.
Midoriya Izuku was the last one. Ochako watched him raise his arm to throw it, arm glowing, before he released the ball and it… fell? 46 meters.
“What happened?” The smallest boy in class asked.
Midoriya was still shaking in disbelief. He turned to look at their teacher.
Eyes glowing and scarf flying, Aizawa stared Midoriya down. “I erased your quirk.”
“You… erased my quirk?” Midoriya asked in confusion.
Ochako gawked at the goggles their teacher wore. “The erasure hero—”
“Eraserhead,” Katsuki mumbled. He eyed her. “Damn, Cheeks? You couldn’t tell within one second of meeting the guy?”
“Shut up,” she mumbled.
“From what I can tell,” Aizawa’s started and the class turned to look at him, “you can’t control your quirk, can you?”
Before Midoriya could answer, the once tired-looking teacher continued relentlessly, “Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?”
“That’s not my intention!” the plain-looking boy rushed but gasped when the tendrils of Eraserhead’s scarf wrapped around him and brought him closer.
“I’m saying,” Aizawa’s eyes glowed a deep red, “that’s what those around you will be forced to do.”
He stared him down. Beside her, Katsuki clicked his tongue. “Serves the nerd right.”
Ochako elbowed him in the ribs. “Katsu! Shut up!” she whispered angrily.
He settled for glaring back at her.
“Midoriya Izuku, with your power, you can’t become a hero.” Aizawa’s words echoed throughout the whole class.
Slowly, his scarf unfurled around the boy. “I’ve returned your quirk. You get two turns with the ball throw. Hurry up and get it over with.”
As if nothing happened, Aizawa walked away. Ochako felt her heart hurt for the guy. Midoriya looked downcast and just so miserable. No one deserved to get told that you had no chance of becoming a hero. Beside her, Katsuki was absolutely gloating. She rolled her eyes and stepped away, letting his arm fall between them. She didn’t fail to notice the hurt from his eyes.
Midoriya breathed deeply. He raised the ball with a different glint to his eye.
Ochako felt herself freeze.
It was like he had a new, different aura all of a sudden. Izuku threw the ball with his quirk activated, and the wind swept around them so much that she had to cover her eyes. It was like a miniature All Might smash or something.
When the ball landed, Izuku looked back at Aizawa, forefinger broken and bleeding.
“Sir Aizawa,” Izuku said with teeth grinded together, “I’m still standing.”
Ochako felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. Now that’s determination. This guy was born to be a hero. He stood there with a grin despite his injury. The brunette tilted her head to the side in confusion. Everything the boy did somehow reminded her of All Might.
Huh.
Aizawa addressed the rest of the class. “Next test is the 50-meter dash.”
Iida, the boy with engines on his legs, completed the course in 3.04 seconds while Katsuki scored 4.13.
While this would be a score to celebrate at, she knew that her boy was seething for not having placed first.
Ochako lightened her uniform and shoes to lessen the weight. 7.15 seconds.
Katsuki nodded in approval once she made her way back to him.
“That’s faster than your junior high score.”
She raised an eyebrow at him as she drank the rest of his water. “And how do you know that?”
“I know everything about you. Duh.”
The girl waved off his arm as he made to slung it again over her shoulder. “We’re both sweaty,” the round-cheeked girl explained when he pouted at her rejection. “Why are you so needy—well, needier, anyway?”
“No reason,” he mumbled and glared at someone from behind her.
She turned around to look at the smallest guy from class, who was unabashedly staring at her behind. Ochako flinched and Katsuki immediately shielded her from the guy, eyes glaring deadly daggers at the grapehead boy.
One female student used her quirk to create a small jetpack which she used to quickly clear the course. 4.15 seconds.
The French-Japanese student used his navel laser and managed to get 5.51 seconds.
Another girl with pink skin and hair skated on acid and got 4.80 seconds.
The beautiful boy with the ice quirk had a result of 3.90 seconds.
More and more students showed different levels of mastery with their quirks. A lot were extremely creative with how they used their own quirks. This was the level of people who got into UA to become heroes. Ochako was determined to not be left behind.
For the grip strength test, the boy with the multiple limbs held a score of 540 kg. Ochako peered at her measly 48 kg.
Some tests were compatible with some quirks and had their advantages, some just didn’t. For the standing long jump, Ochako easily cleared the sandbox with Katsuki. A lot struggled with it but she embraced the advantage zero gravity gave her. Katsuki ruffled her hair in congratulations.
Soon after, the quirk apprehension test came to an end.
Aizawa gathered them back to the grounds and revealed the results.
Everyone searched their names with bated breaths, some releasing a sigh of disappointment. There were some who cheered with their unexpected high result.
Katsuki growled angrily upon seeing how he placed third. First place went to the beautiful girl who created things from her body, and second place to the quiet boy with different-colored hair. Ochako went down the list and found her name ranked tenth. She sighed. At least she wasn’t last.
“You did well, Cheeks,” Katsuki mumbled and bumped his hip against hers.
She plastered on a smile and offered a peace sign. “Congrats on getting third, Katsu. You’ll get first next time.”
He took her peace sign and raised another finger. He held her wrist and shook her hand with the three fingers raised. "I will get first place,” he growled and stared at the three digits.
Ochako laughed and tucked her forefinger and ring finger. He gawked as she lowered her hand. “What the fuck?” he said but she could only giggle.
“Last place is Midoriya, damn,” she heard one of their classmates mutter.
The brunette searched for Midoriya who was staring at the results board in disbelief.
“Expelled?” he mumbled and sighed.
“Serves him right,” Katsuki cackled and Ochako turned to glare at him.
“Katsu!” she scolded but he was way too over his head.
Aizawa cleared his throat and closed the result board. “By the way, I was lying about the expulsion,” he said and stared back at the shocked faces of the class. “It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limit of your quirks.” Aizawa rolled his eyes at the class as they yelled in indignation.
“Of course, that was a lie,” the beautiful girl from earlier said at a stuttering Midoriya. “It should have been obvious if you thought it through.”
“With that, we’re done here,” Aizawa yawned and moved to walk away. “There are handouts with the curriculum and such in the classroom when you get back. Make sure to look over them.”
He stopped briefly by Midoriya and gave him a slip, instructing him to visit the school physician before leaving.
Ochako breathed deeply and closed her eyes. Tenth place. Right in the middle of twenty students. She felt the tears of frustration prick her eyes but she squashed all the disappointment down until it was an insignificant ball.
“Tenth place is okay,” she muttered to herself, still willing the tears to not fall. “I’m gonna start from the middle and work my way up.”
“Atta girl.” Katsuki ruffled her hair.
She looked up at him and he smirked. “First place next time, yeah?” she offered.
Bakugou Katsuki glowed with pride and confidence. How Ochako wished she could siphon some of his strength for a few minutes.
“An undisputable first place,” he promised.
The trek back the classroom was full of mindless chatter.
Bakugou Katsuki glared at the soy sauce looking motherfucker and the grapehead bitch as they walked back inside. They probably realized him glaring every time they snuck a peek at Ochako, so the two idiots just stopped looking altogether. The guy with the weird elbows learned his lesson. Grapehead bitch, not so much.
When they reached the classroom, he reluctantly separated from Ochako and took his own seat. The schedule given earlier was already copied in his notebook and memorized to perfection. Since it was their first day, Katsuki assumed the teachers were lenient somehow seeing as there were only twenty minutes left before lunch. The quirk apprehension test took up most of their morning. He scanned the rest of the extras. Some of them really did have quite powerful quirks, even Katsuki had to admit. From what he could see, the only threats to him being first place so far were the two extras who ranked above him earlier in the exam. The emo kid who didn’t bother greeting Uraraka earlier got second place. Katsuki felt his eye twitch.
He moved his stare to the girl who reeked every bit elite and high class. With one look, Katsuki knew she would be the type to drink expensive tea from Europe or something. Not that he never drank those kinds as well, but he didn’t parade his money around.
“Staring at girls already on the first day, Katsuki?” Ochako’s voice made him blink.
She was smiling at him, two hands clasped behind her back as she moved to block his vision of richy girl.
“Wha—?” He blinked up at Ochako.
She smiled but it looked too strained. Like, she had to take a shit or something.
“You okay, Angel?” If anything, her smile became wider.
“Don’t call me that.”
Katsuki stiffened. “What crawled up your ass?”
Ochako rolled her eyes and marched aggressively back to her own seat. Most of the class already left so it was just a few of the extras in the room. Soon, everyone had already left except for Ochako who was busy fuming and writing on her notebook. Groaning, Katsuki stood up and made his way over to her. The girl ignored him, still scribbling in that damned notebook.
“Come on, Cheeks. You know how this goes,” he started and moved to pry the pen off her fingers.
“The faster you tell me why you’re upset, the quicker we can get lunch.”
Ochako sighed, closed her notebook, and stared up at him. After a beat, she shrugged and moved to stand up.
“You know what,” his angel declared, “it doesn’t even bother me anymore.”
“What doesn’t bother you?”
“If you’re interested in having a girlfriend, just make sure she’s nice and buys me mochi, too.”
Katsuki gawked. “A girlfriend? That’s the last thing I’d ever want. Who the fuck has time for that anyway?”
Surprisingly, Ochako laughed. “You’re right,” she breathed between her giggles, “you’re right. I don’t know what crawled up in my ass.”
He hummed. “Damn right.”
Katsuki went back to his bag and ruffled around for the bento boxes he had prepared. He handed the one wrapped in a pink handkerchief to Ochako and grabbed the other bento box. “We can eat here, if you want?” he offered and she nodded.
Ochako motioned for him to scoot over so he did. They ate lunch quietly, sharing Katsuki’s chair and table. The brunette poked a toothpick at one of the octopus-shaped hotdogs he crafted and brought it close to his face teasingly. Unperturbed, he bit half of it off before shoveling more rice.
“You cook amazingly as always, Katsu,” Ochako sighed in bliss, having finished the rolled omelettes, sauteed vegetables, and octopus wieners.
When she teased him about his insistence of having vegetables for every lunch, all he countered was that heroes needed to have a balanced diet. What if he fainted in front of a villain from hunger during a real battle? Fuck. That.
Soon, the rest of the class started pouring in, so they wrapped up their lunch and Ochako made her way back to her own assigned seat. Katsuki wasn’t immune to all the stares and whispers he got today. He wasn’t that dense. The pink alien looking girl called him good-looking but scary. The shorty who couldn’t stop staring at Ochako’s ass thought he was a psychopath. Good.
His first day at UA.
One step closer to becoming a hero.