"Well… what are you waiting you little brats, get up and properly greet your homeroom teacher!" Maybe it was his status as a pro hero and their teacher, or maybe it was some inherit ability, but he definitely sounded more imposing than a man of his stature should.
Izuku looked around to see the reactions of his new classmates, most looked somewhere in-between a little surprised to stressed out, while a select few, like Kuroiro and Juzo looked defiantly at the man, ready for whatever challenge he would throw at them.
"Are you all perhaps deaf? I distinctly remember asking for a proper greeting, come, get up!" he said again, now looking sightly angry. Izuku saw himself getting up fast, when he looked around he saw that even the more aggressive looking of his classmates had given in into a mixture of the man's aggressiveness and the peer pressure.
What came after that could only be described in one word.
"I hope we get along well!"
"Let's work together, Sekijirou-sensei!"
"Hope you'll make us kickass heroes teacher!"
Chaos. The disorganized cacophony of voices almost made Izuko go deaf, and the more exited classmates caused his own (not so) exited greeting get lost in the noise, to be honest the mismatch of greetings and excitements only made him more nervous over the opinion of the man who would teach them. 'Now he probably hates us all...' was the only thing he could think of.
To Midoriya's surprise(and probably to that of many of his classmates), Sekijirou looked more amused than anything else, a smile threatening to appear on his lips. Not containing himself further he gave a hearty laugh, as if he found their disorganization truly hilarious.
"I guess you can't totally be faulted for lack of excitement, I would give you all an eight, now..." he asserted the whole class again, this time his face much less serious and almost fatherly, Izuku immediately felt himself calming down a little bit "I guess you don't look too shabby, but there's definitely a hundred or so things you all need to learn before even dreaming of being good heroes, but if I have my way, you will learn in it all" he said brimming with confidence, Midoriya looked around to see everyone in class looked actually pretty impressed.
"You all can now sit down, I heard what I wanted" with the sound of twenty disorganized teenagers getting into their seats filling the air, Ken blinked before continuing "Keep your voices down because I'm going to do a few announcements, and you should all probably conserve energy too, since we're all going to have a team combat training, so back to announcements..."
While the teacher seemed capable of continuing talking calmly after dropping that bombshell at them, the class certainly wasn't, (not so) quiet murmuring took over everyone in less than a few second, guesses and theories popped up at surprising speed, from the mundane to the insane, nobody could keep to themselves, and of course, that did not go unnoticed by their teacher.
"Understand that when I ask for silence, I mean silence!" Said the now angry-looking man, in a tone that caused everyone to immediately shut up "I understand young curiosity, but is anyone here gonna act like a civilized human being and actually ask a question when you have one?"
Izuku really didn't have courage to do so when their teacher was looking like that, but apparently that wasn't the case for everyone, case in point, Shiozaki almost immediately raised her hand, and looked unfazed by the booming voice their teacher.
"Could I ask a question, Sekijirou-sensei?" she said serenely, also ignoring the surprised look the rest of the students were giving her.
"Well you actually got guts to ask, and you don't look like you're gonna dissolve in aggressive screeching in the next five words, so yes, ask away" he answered now looking much calmer.
"Teacher, while in your immense knowledge and experience you probably know what's better for us than ourselves, do you truly think it is wise to allow us to battle before we are able to truly know and understand each other as heroes?" While she was still receiving a plethora of surprised looks, although the reason now had shifted entirely.
"Gonna admit I did not expect how polite this was going to be" said the teacher to himself before laughing briefly "While your questions and concerns are legitimate, and I would be surprised if no one here expressed similar feelings, I think you misunderstand an important point."
Shiozaki seemed surprised at hearing that, resting her hand to her chin as if pondering over his words
"This fight will be the way you will all get to know each other as heroes" he continued "As heroes you might be forced to team up with someone on the fly, and learn to trust much faster than normal people should, think about that. While it may seem a bit cynical for a pro-hero, I do believe that only show or best and worst when the push comes to shove" He paused for a minute, allowing his word to sink in the mind of the students "This is why I ask that you play the closest attention that you possibly can to every battle, so that you can understand each other not only as heroes, but as persons."
"While I truly do understand your views on the matter now, would it still be the best to do it on the first day, when everything could overwhelm us and cause people to perform poorly" said the vine-haired girl, now much less sure of herself.
"Well… I definitely could do a 'logical ruse' with you and just test you for the first day…" His intonation, word choice and suspicious look to a very specific direction made it very clear to Izuku that this was not just a random comment and he had someone in mind, whoever they were it sounded like someone Izuku would not like to meet "But I'm not going to do that, as you probably are aware, first days are for getting to know each other, and you'll get to know each other, only in a battlefield" he gave a small chuckle, as if amused at the prospect.
"Now, do you still have any questions?" the silence that had fallen upon the class was taken as a form of agreement by Kan, who continued on "Then, for general announcements, congratulations for entering the hero course of U.A, and we hope that..." he started his class, content with the semblance of normalty that had fallen over.
Of course that went over Izuku, who was even more in 'mumbling mode' than ever before. 'I mean, I would probably observe everything closely anyway, but the way he said made it look so much more important, and thinking about it, he's right! It will be the first time we'll see each other in true battle, so I gotta do my best' that's the line his thoughts eventually went in, vowing to do his best both in and out of combat.
Without any more last minute twist, the rest of class went almost without troubles, Izuku was almost surprised with how normal everything felt, although the unspoken pressure of 'being' at U.A was still wearing him down, it definitely wasn't as bad as he believed it was going to be.
Case in point, he was very surprised when the bell rung, signaling the end of the class, and soon it showed that he was not the only one, actually causing Tokage to joke that 'someone here has to be a time warper, because I sure never had such a quick class in my life'
Even tough everyone was getting ready to leave, their teacher was apparently not done, as he cleared his throat in an attempt to get everyone's attention.
"I was gonna say that before, but such you want so crazy over the last surprise I decided to keep this one to the last minute, since we want this to be as a marking as possible, when it's your turn to fight you will use your hero costumes, that's not even the last surprise, but the last surely is something I want you to only discover there." Kan then gave a last laugh before getting out of the room, and therefore was not there to see as his class descended into screaming insanity.
Izuku himself felt two hands on his shoulders which proceeded to rocket him back and forth continuously, he looked behind to see Kosei wearing a dumb smile.
"Dude, duude, Duuude! This is so cool and ubelivable! I'm just a country boy and now I'm gonna wear my hero costume at U.A!" he mumble in a way Izuku could understand all too well.
"Yeah! I'm also finding everything hard to believe, but what about that last surprise he mentioned?"
"No worries here man! It's probably something crazy and super cool, whatever, nothing can ruin my good mood now" his smiled and simple happiness proved to be infectious as Midoriya felt his own mood lighten.
"Are we not leaving?" Said Ibara as she got closer to the boys.
"Shiozaki-san, you were also really gutsy to just go and ask the teacher what everyone was afraid to" commented Kosei.
"Were I? I imagine everyone was curious, so it was nothing important" she answered, unflappable.
"You're definitely one of a kind Shiozaki-san" Izuku said "But you're right, I don 't want to be a second late" the three then set of at the sound of small talk, although the exited Kosei was doing most of the talking, and in the back of his mind, Izuku felt he should remember something about the teachers, but it certainly wasn't that important, was it?
They again were not the first to arrive at the designated location, a room full of monitors, howerver they were also not the last. While when they got there, Kendo, Yui and Reiko were already there talking in a friendly manner, although Reiko was mostly just nodding along, until she mentinoned feeling a "powerful presence" approaching, a commentary to which both Yui and Kendo laughed, leaving Reiko pouting.
After that, the rest of the class seemed to arrive in large groups, with Tetsutetsu and Juzo arriving last, both seemed intense in a discussion over "courage" or something like that, surprisingly Juzo actually seemed to be listening to the steel boy who was rambling.
The peace was shattered when Kan entered the room, everyone immediately quieted, and merely waited for him to speak up.
"Just wait a second, when the other teacher is here we'll start" declared him.
The silence that followed apparently stretched into eternity, although Izuku was sure that it was that it was only a few minutes, and the tension and anxiety everyone felt stopped any real talking from happening.
"Dude, where is this guy?" whisperede Kosei at his side "I think I'm going to blow in anticipation"
Before Izuku could respond anything, an interruption that no one could have missed occurred.
"You don't have to wait anymore students! Because..." the loud voice that everyone in that class knew by heart, booming with confidence and charisma "I AM HERE!" All Might.
The door slammed open to reveal the smiling face of the symbol of peace, just as Izuku remembered him, his costume and gestures just as bombastic, his smile just as strong, even with the extra knowledge he had about him, that certainly did not damper his enjoyment over seeing his favorite hero.
The 'surprised' factor seemed much stronger over his classmates, as even the most stoic of them let a full shocked expression cover their faces, the more exited ones, like Setsuna and Manga, did not even try to put a facade, outright jumping with screams of delight, their surprise from before looked like nothing compared to this.
At his side, Izuku saw Shiozaki opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of the water, and then Kosei, who jumped up and down like a kid in Christmas.
"Now calm down class!" Said Ken, in an attempt to stop the commotion "I understand how exited you are, but you have to act professional for sake of the class, ask for autographs later."
"Autographs won't be necessary, for I will be with you for the whole year" declared All Might.
This seemed to be enough to calm down most of the class, who were now content with sending him looks of admiration, and those who didn't calm down soon became self-conscious and shut up for the moment.
"Now, allow me to explain the exercise you will all partake in" All Might had now apparently swapped to some 'teacher-mode' and took a black board out of nowhere "You will be called four at once and divide in teams of two, the Heroes and the Villians, the hero's objective is to 'capture', or touch, the nuclear warhead in the highest floor, consequently, the villain's job is to defend it, if fifteen minutes pass and the heroes can't catch the nuke, it's counted as a villain victory. And if the heroes manage immobilize the two villains, it's their win. Everyone understood?"
Considering the rules were apparently simple enough, no questions were asked, and people simply nodded.
"Now for the first combat, the combatants will be Togaru Kamakiri and Neito Monoma as heroes, and Hiryu Rin plus Kinoko Komori"
Three of the four people who were called stayed silent, probably already thinking of the possible outcomes of the battle or how to win it, the fourth however…
"Oh it seems even the gods of luck recognize the destiny of greatness that surrounds me, and allowed me to go first, I believe this will be enlightening to you all and more..." Monoma had decided that making a speech was the correct use of the few time he had before the battle, opinion that apparently wasn't shared by his partner.
"Let's just freaking go" said Kamakiri, probably already wishing for a different match, any different match.
Hiryu and Komori simply nodded to each other instead, Komori now looking much calmer after receiving Hiryu's silent confidence.
"All Might will give you your costumes and guide you to the location, so go with him." explained Ken.
"Yes, come with me youngsters!"
The five left the room soon after that, and the remaining stayed on an awkward silence that left everyone tired.
"Who do you believe is going to win, and also who's going to be the best individual in battle?" asked their teacher.
"Huh, are you supposed to ask questions like that?" questioned Kendo, looking slightly concerned.
"I just want to know how you see your new classmates, and possibly how tactically smart you are" or so he explained, although the smirk he wore seemed to betray such pure intentions "So, any bets?"
In the aftermath, the first person to give their opinion was Kosei.
"Well… Sorry but I would bet on Kamakiri and Monoma, Kamakiri definitely looks like someone who knows what he's doing, and there must be a reason to justify Monoma being like that, he must be like, partially talented, also Komori really doesn't look like a front line fighter so… Yeah, Kamakiri should win individually and heroes as a team." as he explained his reasoning, a few people nodded.
"I must disagree" To the surprise of everyone in the room, the one who had decided to refute Kosei was the big and quiet Jurota "Were any of you in the same field as Komori?"
The answer was apparently no, as everyone simply shaked their heads or stayed quiet
"I guess it wouldn't even matter, that explosive blonde boy would have claimed all your attention anyway..." Izuku cringed a bit at that, definitely recognizing the boy "But if you were there and knew her quirk you would realize that despite having a disadvantage against the robots she was quick and smart enough to win a place here, so if she uses her quirk to full potential on other people, she's going to bring her team swift victory." Jurota's cold voice, good reasoning and imposing stature made it very hard to argue against him, and many people had now joined to his wagon.
"If I had to bet it would be Rin" said Reiko absentmindedly.
"Care to elaborate?" asked the teacher, looking confused.
"No, not really, but if I have to, Dragons." although Reiko's explanation left a lot to desire, the teacher seemed very satisfied for some reason.
After that most people were now more conformable talking amongst themselves, although Izuku retracted into himself and started muttering 'Well I guess it's all decided by what their quirks are, although Jurota seemed especially sure on Komori's chances, Monoma's personality will definitely make him hard to cooperate with so that's working against his team, but if Kamakiri can lead really well he may-'
Before he could reach any conclusion, the door slammed open again, revealing all might was already back.
"You don't have to wait any more yougsters, Blood King, turn on the monitors, it will start at any moment" declared All Might.
"Got it" said Kan as he prepared every monitor. "Remember what I said before and pay the closest attention you can"
The whole class steeled themselves as the one by one the monitors went on, announcing that their first day at U.A had only now begun…
On the top floor…
"Well you actually look pretty scary with this, but you sure you don't want an armor to help you?" Said Hiryu innocently, instead of the uniform he wore before, he was now with a long-sleeved changshan, said article of clothing had a pattern of blue and read dragons rising from the bottom and meeting at the top, the boy also wore simple black pants and another dragon-patterned article of clothing, a jacket that rested over his shoulders.
"I-I told you, m-my quirk doesn't go well with heavy armor" complained back Komori, the small girl wore a curious clothes, with a black piece of fabric acting as a hood to cover her head in addition to her bangs, in addition she wore an off-putting gas mask that made her face impossible to see, and also made her voice a little muffled, complementing that was simple short sleeved black dress and two heavy, also black, boots. In almost opposition to that was a small brown bag she had on her shoulders, it appeared to be full of… something.
To Hiryu she looked like some sort of 'Little black riding hood of death', but he kept that to himself.
"Sorry, I understand. But let me see if got the plan right, I go there and distract them for the most time I can, while you prepare a trap here, is that right?" the small girl nodded nervously.
"But please be careful, if things aren't going well, don't be afraid to retreat." even as she warned him, he merely held a serene smile, and nodded calmly.
But before he could respond her concerns, they a sound that sounded much like a fire alarm, but as All Might had told them before, that was their signal to start, time was running and they couldn't just stand and talk anymore, so Hiryu started walking toward the stair to meet his opponents, only giving Komori one last thumbs up.
The entrance…
"So it has begun." commented Kamakiri, with clothes that looked very much like a biker gangster, using a black shirt with a skull pattern in it, a simple leather jacket, all being complimented by a long green bandana with tow blade as a symbol in it, his jeans being slightly ripped for an extra 'rebel' look.
"Well let's just go, we'll win without any doubt" contrary to his partner, Monoma didn't even attempt to hide his confidence, and combined with his impeccable black tuxedo, his aura of superiority was almost suffocating.
After a hearty sigh, they both started running toward the stairs in silence, knowing that waiting too much would be their doom, but to their surprise, slowly a boy came down, Hiryu, who now looked more serious and had his hands covered in what appeared to be dragon scales.
"I guess it's my job to say that you shall not pass by me" he declared with confidence.
"We'll see about that" as Monoma ran toward his enemy with a deranged smile, he touched Kamakiri's arm for a few second and almost immediately, one could see curved blades appear out of his arm, causing the fabric of his sleeves to rip, this fact seemingly surprised his ally more than his enemy, and so Kamakiri was left stunned for a few seconds.
As Monoma got closer to Hiryu, he swung his arm in a way that would make the blades hit his enemy, however, the other boy did nothing to stop that and it was soon clear why, after receiving the hit in his arm, the cuts in the fabric showed that not only his hands, but his entire arm was covered in the dragon-like scales, and the attack had apparently done nothing to him.
The next few second happened almost too fast for anyone to understand, Hiryu simply threw the coat that rested on his shoulders at Monoma, causing the blond boy to be distracted for a few moments, that was apparently enough for Hiryu to slide to his side and deliver as much as three punches, but already enough to stun Monoma, who realized the punches were being powered up not only by the scales on Hiryu's hands, but also by his technique and natural talent at unarmed fighting.
Using the momentum he had acquired, the scaled boy was now behind Monoma, and he now dealt about five palm strikes throughout the boy's spine.
It took only a few seconds for Monoma to drop in the ground, conscious but immobile. Hiryu then bowed at the pathetic sight.
"Do not worry, I was careful, you'll be paralyzed for a few minutes at most" Of course that did nothing to soothe Monoma's mood, who groaned profusely and repeatedly, and both of the boys who could still stand guessed those were very dark threats, but ignored it and now focused on each other for what would surely be a battle of skills.
In the observation room…
"Man that was crazy!" screamed Tetsutesu "Hiryu is crazy good!"
"Yeah, his talent at Chinese Martial Arts is insane, it's so beyond mine it's not even funny" Kendo commented, looking impressed.
The rest of the class, who had been (again) reduced to screaming confusion as they saw the half-chinese boy so casually beat one other of his classmates, many now appeared to be wanting to join Reiko in betting for Hiryu, but a special group of three looked weirdly quiet, Izuku, Manga and Pony, to be specific.
"Wait minute..." Manga was probably merely muttering to himself, but as the words appeared indiscriminately on his 'face', a good amount of the class was aware of his thoughts "His face, that quirk, the fact that he's half-Chinese, how could we ignore this possibility? He's..."
"The son of the Rising Dragons!" Sadly for Manga, his moment of awesome revelation was stolen by Pony, who looked like she had just won a small fortune.
To Izuku that was enough to make everything in his mind click, and he nodded excitedly at the direction of Pony and Manga, and those three immediately formed a connection of nerds.
"Well… I'm sure you're very happy with your realization, but do you care to explain why that's important?" questioned Kosei, looking curious as to why the three were so exited.
"You don't know who they are?" Pony questioned, and even though she looked almost offended at the possibility, he merely shaked his head to indicate that 'no' he hadn't
"But how can you not Tsuburaba-kun, they're literally the most famous battle couple of the age?" If Pony looked offend, Midoriya looked at him as if a crime was just committed, but dashing both their hopes, he still looked clueless as to what they were talking about, and what's more, he was now straight up scared and backed a few steps.
"Battle couple? Oh, you mean those married pro-heroes who act like duos?" questioned Setsuna with an exited curiosity
"Their popularity skyrocketed for a number of reasons, first, they're classified badasses…" while Manga seemed to be in some sort of exposition mood, even somehow getting glasses that did absolutely nothing, he would not have the pleasure of explaining everything as the exited Izuku interrupted him to do some explanation of his own.
"They also have matching quirks, so it's really cool to observe them in battle, people also think it adds to the 'true love' thing..."
In moment that proved that nerd connection was an actual thing, Pony choose this moment to lose control of herself and start babbling.
"And it's also super cool because they're from different countries, so they're popular in both, they even have a manga detailing how they got together!"
While the three soon entered a discussion between themselves about this specific duo of heroes, they managed to miss the fact that the rest of the class (and honestly, the teachers as well) looked at them with a mixture of concern and disbelief.
"Okay, that was actually impressive random knowledge, but let me ask?" Tsuburaba seemed to be the first to recover enough "Did you actually rehearse this before?"
"No!"
"What?!"
"Why would you think that?"
Of course, the fact that they spoke almost in sync didn't exactly dissuade Tsuburaba from his belief, and he merely took a few steps back.
"Hey this is interesting and all, but the battle is still going on" Honezuki, who seemed disinterested in the whole affair, was the one to get their attention to what they should actually be doing.
Back to Building A...
As they got back to watching the battle, the group realized the situation had changed, as Kamakiri's enlarged teeth-blades seemed actually capable of chipping away at Hiryu's defenses, as they both clashed repeatedly, a few of Hiryu's scales detached themselves from his arm, falling uselessly in the ground, however, neither of them seemed willing to turn that into a battle of endurance.
In the end, the one who moved first was Kamakiri, who, to the surprise of everyone involved, decided to use his fists now, and because Hiryu expected another attack with his blades he was incapable of reacting fast enough, and as soon as the punch connected, he saw himself launched at the nearest wall.
Kamakiri wasted no time in getting away, knowing that his time was soon running out, while his lack of knowledge of Komori's quirk was point against him, he thought that he could probably take out her before she could any major damage could be done, and who could blame him? She certainly didn't look like a physical threat.
And that was the reason he never saw it coming.
As soon as he arrived in the fourth floor, the one that came just before the last, the first thing he realized was a thin cloud of smoke covering the whole place, even though that caused all his internal alarms to go off he still moved on more slowly, if only because of cautiousness and his new-found tiredness.
His second realization was the fact that he had never noticed Hiryu pursuing him all the way from their battle in the first floor to here, while that punch definitively was one of his stronger one, he knew he did not have the strength to incapacitate the other boy for so long, it seemed really weird to Kamakiri that the half-Chinese boy would leave Komori to the wolves.
Maybe those other thoughts were what made his third, and final realization, come so late. He was moving slower, each step consuming just a bit more energy than the last, and in just a few meters he found himself incapable of walking, an unnatural and encompassing exhaustion covering his entire body, even though he screamed to himself that he simply couldn't be that tired, that Hiryu was only a minor fight and he could still keep going. But his body didn't listen, screaming back that he should let loose a little and just… go to sleep.
And to sleep he went.
While in the ground struggling to maintain what little was left of his consciousness he could, he saw a figure completely covered in black with a gas mas covering their face, the figure walked in his direction until it stood directly in front of him, then, it waved in front of him an arm that was thoroughly covered in mysterious mushrooms.
That seemed to be enough to immediately make Kamakiri pass out.