Hope everyone's been safe and not sick. Didn't mean for this chapter to take some-nine months to finish, but…a lot of things happened.

Enjoy!

. . .

. . .

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What."

"Which hand do you use when you wipe?"

"…What?"

"You know…wipe. Like after you take a dump."

"…The fuck kind of question is that…"

"A normal one."

"No, it isn't…"

"You're not answering my question~"

. . .

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

For the hundredth time in her life, Izuki cursed the existence of alarm clocks. Or the alarm app on her phone, in this case. Their sole purpose was to abruptly wake people up, and most of the time, it was at a time when people did not want to wake up.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

"Uuuggghhh…"

Izuki groaned and blindly flung her hand out to her bedside table to turn off her phone's alarm, but grasped nothing. She tried a few more times, just barely lifting her hand and patting down the table's surface, but ended up with the same result.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Then she remembered that she left her phone on her desk last night, not by her bed - a desk that was on the other side of the room and required her to get up.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

'Eh.' She mentally shrugged and stuffed her pillow over her ears. She shifted her body position to sink deeper into her mattress. 'I can sleep through it.'

"Izuki!" her mother called from downstairs. "Izuki, I can hear your alarm from the kitchen! You're going to be late for the entrance exam if you don't get up!"

And just like that, any drowsiness that Izuki had was gone. Her eyes shot open and she bolted out of her bed. She looked at her clock and paled when she saw that it was 7:39am. The entrance exam began at 8:00am on the dot. Yuuei was a thirty-minute walk away.

Midoriya Inko couldn't remember the last time that her daughter moved so quickly.

. . .

Fifteen minutes later, Izuki's mad sprint slowed to a walk as she neared Yuuei's golden gates. Despite there being only five minutes left, there were still over a dozen students trickling into the school grounds.

"Izu."

She looked up and saw Katsuki approaching her with his hands stuck in his pockets. A few of the rushing students took a single glance at his face before quickly turning away. It made sense, really, as his scowl seemed to have gotten deeper over the years.

"You're late," he grunted.

"Sorry. Woke up late," she apologetically said. "But I'm here now, aren't I?" she added with a weak grin.

Katsuki said nothing for a few seconds, opting to just stare at her as she steadied her breathing. Once her heartbeat slowed down, he turned around and began walking towards the gates.

"Hurry up. We better not be late because of you," he said over his shoulder.

Izuki quickly began following him and asked, "If you didn't want to be late, then why'd you wait for me?"

The only reaction she got back was a slight stiffening of his shoulders, and she counted that as a win for herself. A non-verbal Katsuki meant either one of two things: one, he had no retort, or two, he was furious enough to the point that he would restrain himself from speaking. And Katsuki was nowhere near angry even with his permanent scowl resting on his face.

The moment the two of them passed through the golden gates, they heard someone's voice from behind them. Izuki turned to see who was yelling and saw a girl with orange hair running down the street. She seemed to be struggling to run properly. She looked encumbered - only one arm was swinging with her running motions while the other was firmly set behind her. As the girl drew closer and closer, Izuki realized that she was dragging something along behind her, which explained her awkward movements.

Izuki quickly gauged the distance between the running girl and Yuuei's grounds. At her current speed, Izuki estimated that she'd get past the gates in the next fifteen seconds. A respectable time, really, when she's over-encumbered by something heavy behind her.

The only problem was the fact that Yuuei's gates began to close.

The orange-haired girl must've noticed this as well as she blanched and began to run faster. Even so, she didn't have enough time. Not at her current speed.

Izuki put herself in the girl's shoes. The chance to enter Yuuei's exam only came around once in people's lives unless a student was to transfer from a different hero school. But transfers were so rare that there was only a handful of them ever since the school's founding, so passing the entrance exam was the best bet to enter the prestigious school.

If she was late (which she already almost was) and the only reason why she couldn't take the exam was due to a few seconds of lateness, she'd never forgive herself.

Which was why Izuki found herself dropping her bag on the ground and running towards the girl. She ignored Katsuki's surprised "Izu!" from behind her as she bolted past the gates. As she neared the girl, she noticed that the "something" that she was dragging behind her was a person.

"Give me his other arm!" Izuki hastily said, extending her hand.

The girl's eyes widened for a moment before nodding. She shifted her hold on the corpse-like body and tossed one of the body's arms over. Izuki easily caught the flying appendage and threw it around her shoulders as the other girl did the same. With another person helping drag the body, their movement speed was increased greatly.

But that still wasn't enough. The gates were closing too quickly for them to reach it in time.

"Fucking shit!" Katsuki was suddenly in front of her and grabbed her free arm. "Unless you want to drop this piece of shit deadweight - " He momentarily glared at the body that Izuki and the other girl were carrying. " - then you better hold onto him!"

Izuki had less than a second to react before Katsuki jumped. There was a muffled explosion from beneath his feet, propelling them all forward and sending them flying through the air at a much faster speed than they were when on the ground. The orange-haired girl yelped in surprise from their sudden airborne movement.

"Izu! Flame jet!" Katsuki barked.

"On it!"

Heat rushed through her body, starting from the center of her chest to the tips of her fingers and feet, as Izuki activated her Quirk. A moment later, a focused burst of fire shot out of her right foot, giving them a tiny boost to their speed. It wasn't much, but they needed every last bit that they could get as everything they did still wasn't enough. The still-closing gap between the gates was too narrow and they were just too far away to reach it.

Just before the gates closed, however, the air in front of them shimmered. The next second, the ground was right in front of them, less than an arm's length away from her face. She reactively twisted her body in the air and landed on her shoulder, rolling to disperse the impact from the fall. Her elbows, shoulders, and hands scraped against the rough ground, tearing her skin.

With a pained groan, she pushed herself off the ground and came face to face with Yuuei's gates.

Closed.

She didn't make it. She failed.

"Damn it."

Izuki bit her lip and clenched her fists. She fought back the tears that threatened to form in her eyes. She wouldn't be able to take the entrance exam.

She failed.

There was a blur of movement from her side followed by a thud. She glanced up and saw Katsuki slam the unconscious person that she and the other girl were carrying earlier up against the gates. Only now, the person was awake and lazily staring at Katsuki.

"You fucker!" Katsuki growled, his fingers wrapping themselves around the person's collar. "This is your fault!"

Now that she had the time to look, Izuki was able to make out the stranger's features. Messy black hair framed his face, falling down his shoulders, and she was able to make out blue eyes from behind the boy's bangs.

"What's my fault?" the boy drawled in an incredibly bored and monotone voice. "If this is about you and that girl over there coming to help us, then I'd say the fault lies with you. Itsuka and I didn't ask for help."

A vein of anger formed on Katuski's forehead as his grip tightened around the boy's shirt.

"You ungrateful piece of shit!"

"Kyo, don't antagonize him," the orange-haired girl reprimanded. Itsuka, if the boy's words were anything to go by. "They went out of their way to help us."

"Help that we didn't need," Kyo grunted.

Katsuki slammed Kyo against the gate again. Before he could do anything else, however, a voice interrupted them from behind Izuki.

"Now now, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't resort to violence within my school grounds. I realize that the school term has yet to begin so the "No Violence" rule doesn't apply here, but nevertheless, it is quite uncouth."

Izuki turned around to see a walking white rodent-looking creature that came up to her waist. It wore a white dress shirt underneath a black vest, and there was a long scar over one eye.

She recognized the person immediately. There was only one Hero with those features, and the principal of the top hero school was not exactly an inconspicuous figure.

"P-Principle Nezu!" Itsuka stammered.

The principal smiled as he looked at Katsuki. "Bakugo-san, if you would please drop Zuikaku-san?"

Katsuki turned to glare at Kyo again. For a moment, Izuki was worried that he would disobey the principal's orders.

"Tch," Katsuki clicked his tongue and shoved Zuikaku away.

"Splendid!" Nezu brightly exclaimed.

Izuki frowned as she replayed Principal Nezu's words in her head. "Principal Nezu? What did you mean when you said that we were within your school…grounds…"

She trailed to a stop as she looked around her. Instead of seeing the streets outside, she was staring at the main entrance to Yuuei. From inside the school gates.

"How did we get inside?" she whispered to nobody in particular.

"The use of Quirks in public without a Hero License or without permission from a Pro Hero is prohibited," Nezu conversationally said, bringing Izuki's heart to drop. He probably heard Katsuki's Quirk and saw her flames in their attempt to get in. "But at the same time, how could I ignore the selflessness that accompanied your actions? To do so would be the antithesis of being a hero."

Izuki stood frozen in place as her brain slowly registered the principal's words. If she was understanding this correctly, then…

"Hurry along now," Principal Nezu warmly smiled at them. "The entrance exam speech is about to start. I've already sent the staff a message to wait for the last four students that made it just in time to qualify for the exam."

Elation filled Izuki and she quickly bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you very much!" she exclaimed.

Turning around and grabbing Katsuki's hand, she began running towards the main building, ignoring Katsuki's indignant cries of being pulled by her.

. . .

An hour and a half later, she was standing in front of a life-sized replica of a worn down, urban city. Buildings that looked to be on their last legs filled the entire area in front of her, and while there weren't any skyscrapers (unless they were already broken), there were definitely towering structures here and there.

'What kind of budget does Yuuei have?' Izuki wondered in awe. She knew that the school had a large budget due to them being the most prestigious hero school, but she never expected miniature cities inside the school's property. 'This looks like a city straight out of a dystopian-world book.'

She began to stretch her limbs as she waited for the 'Go' to start the physical part of the entrance exam. The written half wasn't too difficult, having only taken her forty minutes to complete from the hour of time given. Most of the questions focused on the theme of why she wanted to be a hero and what her dreams were.

There were a few questions that gave her pause and seemingly out of nowhere, such as the one that asked her, 'There are two boats sailing across the sea. Boat A has three-hundred innocent civilians on board and Boat B has two-hundred innocent civilians on board. Both ships have a bomb on them that's set to detonate in five minutes. What would you do?

'Conditions: (A) You're the only person with the skills to safely defuse the bombs. (B) You only have time to defuse ONE of the bombs. (C) The closest backup is ten minutes away. (D) In this hypothetical situation, you CANNOT use your Quirk nor can you receive any assistance from the civilians.'

Izuki shook her head again as she thought about it. She didn't have the time to focus on that question when she still had the physical portion of the exam to complete. From what Present Mic said, the test was a time-attack to see how many robots she could defeat. Simple enough. She played more than her fair share of video games that had the same mechanic.

As she finished the last of her stretches, she spotted the orange-haired girl from earlier walking over to her.

"Hey," she greeted once she was close enough. "I never got the chance to thank you for earlier. You didn't have to come and help. Despite what Kyo said, we wouldn't have made it without you and your friend's help."

"No problem," Izuki said. "Sorry that Kacchan - er, Katsuki slammed your friend against the wall."

The girl light-heartedly laughed. "It's fine, it's fine. Kyo kind of asked for it by saying what he did. I mean, the two of you were almost disqualified from the exam. There was no need for either of you to come and help."

"I mean, you looked like you needed help," Izuki reasonably said. "By the way, why were you dragging him in the first place?"

"Kyo is…well…lazy," she exasperatedly sighed. "He's easily the laziest person that I know. I know for a fact that he knew that today was the entrance exam, and he still slept in; said that it was too bothersome to get out of bed." She scratched the side of her head. "Honestly, I'm lucky that all I had to do was drag him out of the house and to here. Usually, I'd have to pull him out of his bed."

Izuki didn't really know how to respond to that. While she was trying to figure out a response, the girl plopped a fist into her palm.

"Ah, that reminds me! We never introduced ourselves!" A bright grin formed on her face. "Kendo Itsuka! Nice to meet you!"

"Midoriya Izuki," Izuki said, returning the smile. "I look forward to - "

"Aaaand~ begin!" an exuberant voice suddenly boomed over the P.A. speakers, cutting off whatever Izuki was going to say.

Everyone looked around in confusion, Izuki included. A full two seconds passed before it clicked. The moment it did, she began sprinting towards the urban city gates. A quick glance to her left and right told her that a few other Yuuei-hopefuls, Itsuka included, had the same thought as her, and them running caused a reaction in everyone else. There was a thunderous roar and the ground began to shake as fifty people began to run at the same time.

"Midoriya-san!" Kendo called out. The grin was still on her face. "I'll see you at Yuuei!"

Before Izuki could reply, Kendo was lost in the rush of eager students.

. . .

A boom shook the earth and the wall in front of Katsuki exploded in a cloud of dust and debris. From within the cloud, a three-legged, mechanical scorpion with an elongated neck stepped out. Its eye whirled onto Katsuki's position only to have its entire chassis blown apart.

"Another two-pointer," he scowled with steam rising from his palms. "This is too fucking easy."

He still felt the anger that overcame him hours ago, when he slammed Zuikaku against Yuuei's gates. If it wasn't for Zuikaku's lazy ass being dragged by that other girl, Izuki wouldn't have had the urge to go and help them. If it wasn't for her helping them, then she wouldn't have nearly missed the opportunity to take the entrance exam. And because Katsuki knew for a fact that Izuki wouldn't be able to make it back to the gates in time, he had to go and help so that she wouldn't miss her opportunity. Which she almost did.

Back at the moment, when the four of them were soaring through the air through the combined use of both his and Izuki's Quirk, Katsuki was more than ready to throw Izuki forward so that she would make it at his expense. He wouldn't have made it to the entrance exam, sure, but that wouldn't have stopped him from being the top hero. There were plenty of other ways to reach the top, and Yuuei was just the fastest and easiest way. A means to an end. He'd be able to become Number One from any school.

Izuki, on the other hand, didn't have the adaptability and the drive as he did. She'd be able to meet him at the pinnacle of heroes by attending a different school, yes, but it'd take her a lot more effort than it would at Yuuei. Not to mention that entering Yuuei, the very school that All Might graduated from, was a long time dream of hers.

Katsuki would be damned before he let anyone stop her from reaching her dream.

Then Zuikaku Kyo, this random shit stain that crawled up out of nowhere, nearly brought that dream of hers to a screeching halt, taking his spot at the top of his shitlist. As Katsuki approached the main reason as to why they all thought they didn't make it, he saw Izuki's face. The pained and heartbroken expression that she wore, as much as she tried to hide it, made him furious. It took everything he had to not blow Zuikaku to kingdom come.

But he didn't. Izuki wouldn't want him to.

That didn't stop him from slamming the fucker against Yuuei's gates. The bored tone that he nearly threw him over the edge, despite what Izuki would have wanted.

There was the sound of gravel crunching that brought him out of his musings, and he whirled around with his arm poised to strike…only to stop as he realized that it wasn't a robot. Though, he really wished it was as he now had to hold back on blowing up the person in front of him. The "person" being the same asshole that was now on the top of his shitlist.

Not even choosing to say a word, Katsuki turned around and began walking off to search for more targets. He figured that the person would wander off and leave him alone, but the footsteps that trailed behind him told him otherwise. They walked in silence for a bit before Katsuki turned around.

"The fuck do you want," he roughly asked in a tone that didn't sound like a question.

The person shrugged with his hands in his pockets. "Nothing."

"Then why are you following me."

Another shrug. "Cause you're my safest bet."

Katsuki raised an eyebrow and the person let out an exasperated sigh. He then took a step forward and held out a hand.

"Zuikaku Kyo. A pleasure."

Katsuki smacked the hand away. "What did you mean by being the 'safest bet'?"

Zuikaku looked down at his hand that was hit for a second before meeting Katsuki's eyes. "Alright, not a pleasure then, Bakugo-san."

"Answer my question."

"Not gonna ask how I know your name?"

"The principal said both of our names back at the school's entrance, now hurry the fuck up and answer. I've shit to do."

There was another sigh from Zuikaku and he stuck his hand back into his pocket. "I mean exactly what I said: you're my safest bet."

Katsuki opened his mouth to speak when Zuikaku raised a hand to stop him.

"To elaborate on what I said…" Zuikaku continued with a bored tone. "I'm just trying to get through this test with the least amount of effort possible. I'd like to just sit down and nap in one of the many buildings here, but I highly doubt that's the safest thing to do when there are robots that can bust through a wall in a second. Taking a nap in the streets isn't safe either since these robots like to attack on sight.

"Based on what I've seen so far, you're an aggressive yet efficient fighter. Easily one of the best fighters, if not the best, in this group. If I just follow you, you'll get rid of any robot that comes near us, leaving me to do absolutely nothing. Which also means that I get to finish this test with the least amount of effort as possible."

"So you plan on being a fucking leech."

"Of course not," Zuikaku said with a roll of his eyes. "Leeching would require me to gain EXP in return for being AFK. I'm not gaining any EXP, or these robot points, if I just let you do all the work. Think of me as that one random in the same instance as you, but I'm sitting at the corner of the map with the 'Away' icon over my character's head." He paused for a second and tilted his head to the side. "You…do play MMORPGs, right? If not, I can translate the terms I just used into - "

"I know what you're talking about," Katsuki irritably said.

"Oh thank god. I really didn't want to say all of that again," Zuikaku said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Anyway, with that said, you do you, and I'll just follow along."

"Tch," Katsuki irritably clicked his tongue and began walking again. "Fine. Just don't get in my way."

"That's…the entire point of me staying behind you in the first place," Zuikaku snarked back in a deadpan tone.

Opting to not reply, Katuski continued on. More robots made an appearance, and true to his word, the Zuikaku bastard stayed back. Katsuki didn't mind. If he didn't want to earn any points and fail, then let him. It'd be some sort of compensation or karma for that stunt he pulled earlier.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. Debris began to fall from the buildings and the earth began to split beneath Katsuki's feet. A large shadow covered Katsuki and Zuikaku as something rose out of the ground to cover the sun.

"S'a big ass robot…" Zuikaku muttered.

Katsuki couldn't help but think that Zuikaku's words were an understatement. The two and three-pointers were considered big as they were the size of SUVs and trucks respectively. This new robot was on a completely different level, towering over all of the buildings in the faux city. Its joints creaked and groaned with every movement, which sounded as if someone was blasting the sound through Katsuki's ears through some giant speakers.

There was no doubt in his mind that this was the zero-pointer. Present Mic said that its sole purpose was to act as an obstacle. Defeating it would be of no benefit. Its size and hull would render most if not all attacks useless.

Not that that would stop him. Given how everyone was running away from the robot, it was presumed to be unstoppable. Unbeatable. It was even implied by Present Mic that they were indestructible since he referenced the Thomp enemies from the Super Mario franchise. From what little of those games that Katsuki played, the only way to kill a Thomp was to run into it while empowered by the Power Star, or Invincibility Star.

Katsuki didn't have a Power Star. That didn't matter. In his eyes, Yuuei had presented to him a challenge in the form of a seemingly unbeatable, giant robot.

And Katsuki was never one to run from a challenge.

. . .

"Above you!"

The moment those two words registered in Izuki's head, she leapt to the side as a chunk of debris crashed down onto the spot that she would have been had she continued running forward.

"Thank you, Kendo-san!" Izuki yelled over her shoulder.

"You can thank me when we're all out of here safely!" Kendo good-naturedly yelled back.

Giving her a nod, Izuki turned her focus back in front of her to avoid both the building chunks falling from the sky and the debris that had already built up on the road. The giant zero-pointer had caused havoc just from rising out of the ground, and every step from one of its metal, octopus-like legs shook the earth, threatening to throw her off balance.

Then there was a rumbling sound from the robot, echoing within itself, and the sheer volume of it caused Izuki to clutch her ears in pain. It sounded as if the zero-pointer was roaring, if something that was completely mechanical even had vocal cords, and she began to see double.

The sound only lasted for a few seconds, but the ringing in her ears didn't go away. Everything sounded muffled and far away, almost as if she was underwater, and she blinked a few times in an attempt to fix her double vision. She didn't even realize that she had collapsed onto her knees, and a quick look around told her that she was not the only one in that position. Kendo was in a similar position, but her hands were a LOT bigger than normal, most likely her Quirk, and the girl slowly rose to her feet. She looked in Izuki's direction and her mouth moved, but no sound came out.

No. There was sound coming out - she could feel the slight vibrations of her throat - but Izuki just couldn't hear it due to the current state of her ears.

"I can't hear you," Izuki said, or she hoped she said. At the same time, she pointed at herself, tapped her ear while shaking her head, then pointed at Kendo, in that order, hoping that she'd understand. Thankfully, Kendo understood, indicated by the quick nod she gave.

Pushing herself to her feet, she took a step forward. However, she was still disoriented and would have fallen once more had someone not caught her. She glanced over at the person who caught her, and the first thought that appeared in her mind was…

"Round…"

And round her helper's face was. It wasn't said in a derogatory manner or anything but more of an offhand comment. A simple observation. Nothing more, nothing less.

Luckily enough, it didn't seem like the girl heard her. Still, making a comment like that instead of thanking the person who helped her was still a little rude.

"Thank you," she said.

The girl that helped her looked away from the giant robot and at Izuki, a bright smile adorning her face. Her lips went through the motions of talking, but due to her still-ringing ears, Izuki couldn't hear her and quickly explained that she couldn't hear anything for now. The round-faced girl's mouth formed the shape that matched her head's shape before she nodded once.

They began running down the street again, ignoring the tremors that came at constant intervals. Izuki made sure to jump a little every time that the robot's legs would come down in order to not lose her balance from the earth shakes that would follow it.

And then one of the buildings crashed down in front of them, blocking their advance. The rubble was stacked in a steep manner, which would make it incredibly difficult to climb. Even if they did, the giant robot would catch up before they even got halfway up the building.

"Well, this sucks," Kendo grumbled, staring at the destroyed building.

Izuki's eyes widened as she tapped her ears. She didn't know when exactly her hearing returned. "I can hear again!"

"I'm happy for you, Midoriya-san, truly. But we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now!" Kendo exclaimed.

"What do we do?!" the round-faced girl frantically yelled.

Izuki looked around and mulled over all the information that she had available to her. The surrounding buildings didn't have any windows or doors to enter through, the wall of rubble would take too long to climb, and the giant robot was approaching quickly. She had her Quirk for fire and ice but didn't know anything about Round Face or Kendo.

She should probably solve that last one.

"What are your Quirks?" Izuki quickly asked. "I can shoot out flames from my hand."

"I can increase the size of my hands. My arm and grip strength increases as well," Kendo said, flexing her fingers.

"Um, I can make things float by touching them with my fingertips," Round Face said, staring wide-eyed at the zero-pointer. "But I get really queasy if I do it on myself or if I use it on really heavy things."

"Like that robot?" Kendo asked.

Round Face nodded. "Exactly like that robot."

"What about the rubble and building parts around us?" Izuki asked, pointing at the cement blocks scattered around the street.

"Umm…I can probably lift a few of them," Round Face replied with uncertainty in her voice.

A few seconds passed as Izuki created a plan in her head. During that time, the zero-pointer continued to get closer and closer, and both Round Face and Kendo were visibly on edge.

"I got it!" Izuki exclaimed. "I have a plan to take that thing down, but we're going to have to cooperate."

"We're listening," Kendo said and Round Face nodded in agreement.

. . .

In a dimly lit room of Yuuei's main building, a group of people were watching the Entrance Exam through multiple monitors. Aside from the lights coming from the screens, there was no other source of light in the room.

"Isn't this getting a little dangerous?" one woman openly asked. "These zero-pointers may not have their standard weaponry installed, but they can still crush someone very easily."

"They'll be fine. I have faith in those three that they'll finish this exam without too much trouble," Principal Nezu replied. He was standing right in front of the screens, intently watching each one of them. "What are some of your thoughts on this year's examinees?"

"The majority of them are average at best. Some are already showing the signs of a Pro, and I can count the number of examinees that have a lot of potential with my fingers."

"I agree. This year has a good balance of skill varieties as opposed to last year's."

"Quick thinking, resourcefulness, the heart to willingly aid others at the expense of losing out on villain points. These are all the traits of a hero."

"Don't forget combat prowess. Examinee Number 137, holding the highest number of villain points ever counted. In this short time alone, he has shown an incredible amount of situational awareness and has shown the signs of a sharp mind. He assesses any threat that he comes across and tackles it efficiently."

"But he chose to fight the zero-pointer instead of helping the others get to safety. That isn't very hero-like."

There was a chuckle from the other side of the room. "Au contraire. By choosing to fight the zero-pointer, he is distracting it by keeping its attention on him. The fight is being held far from the other students in order to keep them out of any collateral damage, and he is continuing to pull it further away. He reminds me of a certain exuberant hero that we all know, does he not?"

Principal Nezu hummed, nodding at the assessments.

"Even so, to think that he's taking on the zero-pointer by himself and winning. Are we sure he's a first-year?"

"The medical reports and date of birth match - "

"It was a rhetorical question, don't answer. Oh, and would you look at that. He actually beat it."

Up on the screen, one of the zero-pointers had collapsed onto its multiple legs. There was a giant hole in its head, almost as if someone had detonated a bomb from the inside and then wrenched the hole open even further.

"Deducing that the insides aren't as durable as the exterior is simple enough, but figuring out the 'How' in getting to the inside in this short amount of time is quite impressive. This year may just be the cream of the crop."

"Oh, would you look at that. Examinees 138, 057, and 277 on Monitor 9 have also taken down a zero-pointer. A fine show of teamwork. Their Quirks don't seem to be as combat-oriented as Examinee 137, yet they were able to take it down."

"Indeed - hmm…Examinee 138… Her flames remind me of someone," There was a small light as one of the heroes in the room took out their phone. They tapped their screen a few times and brought up the information page of the girl in question. "Midoriya Izuki, adopted child of Midoriya Hisashi and Midoriya Inko. Taken in on the eleventh of January, right on the day of her birth. Birth parents are…blacked out?"

Principal Nezu's grin was hidden from the other heroes as he was in the front of the group. "I'm afraid that information is classified. I'm sure you can understand the significance of keeping one's birth parents hidden."

Silence fell upon the room after that. The heroes watched as all of the examinees made their way to the entrance of the makeshift cities. Those that were injured were being tended to by Licensed Heroes with healing Quirks, such as Recovery Girl and Hibiscus, and those not injured were resting wherever they could.

"Now then!" Principal Nezu turned around with a large smile on his face. "Shall we start the grading process? There's a lot of promising students this year!"

There was a collective groan from all of the teachers in the room.

. . .

"Fuaaaahhhh~ The exam is finally over!"

Izuki's head landed on the table with a thud, nearly knocking over her drink. A few people turned to look towards the sudden sound before going back to whatever it was that they were doing in the first place.

Across the table, Katsuki let out a snort as he rested his chin on his fist. Personally, he didn't find the exam to be that difficult. The written half didn't take any longer than half an hour, and the physical portion was a joke. The point-robots were so fragile and their weaknesses so easy to exploit that using his Quirk felt like overkill.

'That zero-pointer, on the other hand…'

Katsuki grinned as he thought back on the giant octopus-squid-like robot. It moved faster than he expected something of that size to be capable of, and its armor was durable as well. A point-blank explosion from him only caused scorch marks on its plating, but that was honestly to be expected. That was the point of armor, after all. Armor that wouldn't protect something was pointless. The more exposed areas of it, however, weren't so tough and were easily blasted apart.

"We get our letters at the end of the week, right?" Izuki asked him, lifting her head just enough to talk clearly. "Our acceptance or refusal letters, that is."

"You worried?" Katsuki asked with a raised brow. "Are you serious?"

"Aha~" A sheepish grin appeared on her face. "I'm not worried, per se, but anxious. Nerves, I guess. You know, it's like when you take a test and you know you did good, but there's that feeling in the back of your mind going, "But what if I didn't do good?" you know?"

Rolling his eyes, Katsuki looked around the cafe again. The majority of the customers were around his age, and given how most of them looked battered and exhausted, they must've taken the entrance exam as well.

On the other hand, he and Izuki were nowhere near as dirty or tired. Of course, the lazy shit from earlier didn't seem to do much either, but neither he nor Izuki were the types to just sit back and let the others do the work for them. With that being said…

"Oi, Izu. Take a look around you," he said.

Lifting her head off of the table, Izuki glanced around the cafe with a confused expression.

"You see how the ones that took the entrance exam look like shit?" he asked her. When she nodded, he continued, "They're the ones that got shit-faced by the exam robots and ran from the Zero. We wrecked shit and took down a zero-pointer. You still think that you did worse than them?" He finished by jabbing his thumb at a group of tired-looking teenagers by one of the corner tables.

"Well, when you put it that way…" Izuki sheepishly grinned again and rubbed the back of her head. "Thanks, Kacchan."

"Hmph. Getting so worked up over such a small thing," Katsuki chided with a roll of his eyes.

"Not worrying isn't always good, you know," she said. "It helps at times. It's a part of being human, isn't it?"

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his brow. "Don't get all philosophical on me again."

"I wasn't getting philosophical. I'm just saying that worrying is a part of the human psyche. Everyone gets worried."

"I don't."

"Probably because you're too thick-headed to get worried," she grinned.

"Oi."

"Ah! A vein popped up on your forehead again!" Izuki beamed, pointing a finger at his face.

She continued to smile as if all was good in the world, and as if they were almost locked out of Yuuei's gates a few hours ago. Her mood was infectious, and Katsuki found himself almost smiling as well. And he most likely would have had one of the cafe workers not appeared beside their table.

"Excuse me, I hate to be a bother, but would you mind sharing your table with another pair of guests?" the waitress asked.

"Of course!" Izuki smiled, moving closer to the wall to make room. "I didn't realize that this was the only four-seater left in the cafe."

A quick glance around proved those words to be correct. The entire store was packed now as opposed to when they arrived. It was barely half-full then, and he didn't even realize that more people were entering the store.

"Thank you very much," the waitress said before walking away.

Izuki straightened her back and looked around the store again. "Uwahh~ It really is packed, isn't it? I honestly didn't notice that more and more people were coming in."

"That's because you spent most of our time here needlessly worrying about the exam results," Katsuki responded with a mildly irritated click of his tongue. "You were barely paying attention to anything else."

As if to further emphasize his point, he pointed at her iced tea. At least, the drink that was once iced tea. It was just really cold tea now with the exterior of the cup covered with condensation. It was still mostly full while Katsuki's cup was nearing empty.

"Was I really that gone?" Izuki asked no one in particular, scratching the back of her head. "But Kacchan, it was the entrance exam for Yuuei! How could I not have reacted!"

"Oooh! You're going to Yuuei?! Congratulations!" a new voice cheerfully exclaimed from the front of the table.

Katsuki looked up, frowning at the two people, both looking to be a few years older than him and Izuki, standing there. The first was in a white shirt underneath a navy-colored jacket with black pants. His black hair was similar in design to Katsuki's, if not a little longer, and hung over disinterested, turquoise eyes. The second was wearing a white hoodie and khakis and had short, snow-colored hair.

"Aah! Sorry, sorry!" the second one quickly apologized. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

From behind the two newcomers, the waitress from before walked forward.

"Dear customers," she said to Katsuki and Izuki. "Thank you again for being generous enough to share your table. These two gentlemen…" She gestured at the two next to her. "…shall be the ones sitting here."

White Hair awkwardly scratched his cheek. "Ah…What's with that manner of speech. It's so formal."

The waitress slowly turned to face White Hair with an unreadable expression. "We of Background Noise are to uphold the air and look of the store."

White Hair froze immediately as a bead of sweat visibly rolled down the side of his face. "I-I see. Terribly sorry. We'll uhh…we'll just get out of your way."

With a nod and a brisk bow, she walked away, and the stranger with black hair looked at Katsuki.

"Mind if we sit?" he asked in a tone that matched the look of his eyes.

"Go right ahead," Katsuki gruffly replied.

"Thanks."

Black Hair sat down next to Katsuki while White Hair took the seat next to Izuki.

"So you two are going to Yuuei this year?" White Hair asked with twinkling eyes.

"Well, that's not confirmed yet," Izuki replied. "I mean, we took the entrance exams earlier today and we'll be getting our acceptance or rejection letter later this week."

"You took the exam already?" White Hair appreciatively whistled. "I heard rumors of how difficult it is and that some test takers nearly die every year. Is that true? What was it like? Did you meet any Pros?"

"Mu," Black Hair sternly said, and White Hair's facial expression immediately turned apologetic.

"Ah, my bad," White Hair said. "You're probably under some sort of NDA, right? Same reason why there isn't any solid information on Yuuei's tests."

"N-No, it's fine," Izuki quickly said. "Did you ever apply to Yuuei before, uhh…"

White Hari's eyes suddenly widened as he plopped a fist into his hand. "Oh, that's right! We never introduced ourselves! Komadori Muko, nice to meet you!"

"Dabi," Black Hair simply said.

"I'm Midoriya Izuki," Izuki brightly smiled before pointing at Katsuki. "And he's Sparky Sparky Boom Man."

"Oi!" Katsuki barked, slamming his hand on the table while Izuki mischievously grinned.

"Nice to meet you, Sparky Sparky Boom Man-kun," Komadori smiled.

If looks could kill, White Hair would be dead at Katsuki's feet. Unfortunately for him, his Quirk was Explosion, not Death Glare, despite his wishes at times to have a Death Glare Quirk. The wish was quickly revoked a second later many times though. Explosions were cool.

"Ah, to answer your question, Midoriya-san, I never applied to Yuuei. Or any hero school, for that matter," Komadori continued. "While nice, the thought of being a Hero never interested me. Ah, no disrespect or any insult to the Heroes or aspiring heroes though. I don't really hate them or anything, but it's just not for me, you know?"

Which was understandable in Katsuki's eyes. Some people weren't cut out to be heroes, plain and simple.

"But maaaan, I'm super jealous of you two," Komadori sighed. "I bet you were able to see a bunch of Quirks up close, right? I wish I could've seen that. I love seeing Quirks and trying to figure out how they work."

Izuki's eyes immediately lit up. "Really?"

"Oh boy," Dabi groaned underneath his breath.

"Yup! Take Kamui Woods for example," Komadori energetically began. "Him being weak to flames and fire-based Quirks is obvious, but do you think he could produce wood that's fire resistant? Like wood from deciduous trees, like the Japanese Elm or Southern Magnolia. Or what if he sprayed his wooden arms with fire retardant sprays? Would that also extend to the wood that he creates or would that just stay on his arms alone?"

"Or Mount Lady! Do you think that if she gains better control of her Quirk, she'd be able to adjust her height for certain areas?" Izuki asked with the same amount of excitement as Komadori. "Or maybe she could shorten the time that it takes for her to grow, or maybe she could shrink in size to get into really small areas or be really hard to hit!"

"Yes! You get me!" Komadori hurrahed. He then tossed a smug look at Dabi. "See, I told you that I wouldn't be the only one that thinks about Quirks like this."

Dabi let out a tired sigh. "I never said you weren't. You're just overbearing when you rant. Which you do a lot."

"My dear friend, you fail to see the beauty in viewing Quirks in the same manner as I. And Midoriya-san, I should add," Komadori said in a teacher-like voice. "Understanding a Quirk and figuring out how it works is super-duper important, you know."

"Are you two researchers?" Izuki curiously asked.

"Not really." "Something like that."

Dabi and Komadori answered her question at the same time, causing her to make a confused expression.

"So which is it? A yes or a no?" Katsuki growled. "Don't give two fucking different answers to one question."

"Sensitive, aren't ya, Sparky Sparky Boom Man-san?" Komadori grinned with a shrug. "And what can I say? Both of us are correct. We're not researchers, per se, but I do love studying Quirks. Just seeing what you can do with the simplest of Quirks and seeing how far you can go is fascinating! Also, just knowing the ins and outs of your own Quirk is super helpful cause then you know how far you can push it. And maybe if you push it far enough, maybe it'll change!"

"Change?" Izuki asked, raising a brow. "I don't think Quirks can change, Komadori-san."

"Not that we know of," he replied. "I mean, Quirks change all the time, right? How often does a child have the same Quirk as their parent? Practically never, right? It's similar, but there's always a few small differences that make each Quirk unique. Which means that a child's Quirk is a slight mutation of their parents', right? So, in theory, Quirk mutation is possible through natural means!"

"But the Quirk researchers already tried that years ago," Izuki said.

Upon seeing her expression, Katsuki rolled his eyes as he drank the last of his watered-down iced tea. Her expression was the same one that she would make whenever she would talk about Pros and when she delved into Quirks, and while he did enjoy talking about it with her at times, it also meant that the conversation was going to be a long one.

"There were numerous tests done by scientists with volunteer Quirk users, some of those scientists being the leading experts on Quirk theory, to see if Quirks would change on their own," Izuki explained. "The volunteers went through multiple exercises to test their limits and see what else they could do. All that happened was that the volunteers discovered new things about their Quirks or new ways that they could utilize it."

"Yeah, I read all of those studies. It's true that their Quirks didn't mutate or change, but what if they didn't try everything?" Komadori countered. "All that the scientists disclosed was that the volunteers went through "strenuous tests", but we don't know how many or what exactly. The volunteers are also under an NDA as well, so their lips are sealed. There must be one or two variables that they didn't account for."

"Hmm…maybe." Izuki slowly nodded. "But at the same time, the tests were done by experts and people with decades of knowledge and experience. What could they have missed or not done?"

"That - " Komadori suddenly froze before putting a finger on his chin. "That's a good question. Chances are that they've already done most, if not all, of the tests that I can think of. Well, aside from that, what sort of Quirks did the other participants of the exam have? I'm super curious."

Izuki's eyes lit up again. She pulled out a pocket notebook and flipped it open to one of the latest pages that she filled out. Not a single space was wasted as sketches and her scribble-notes filled every part of the page.

"There were a lot of Quirks!" Izuki said, handing her notebook to him. "I jotted down some notes, descriptions, and some sketches of Quirks that I remembered. A lot of what I wrote is speculation though since I never got a chance to talk to anyone about their Quirks."

"Woaaahh, these are super detailed!" Komadori brightly said, pointing at a sketch of a person with two slightly-curved horns sticking out of her forehead. "What kind of mutation Quirk do you think this one is? You didn't write much about it."

"Oh, her? I only saw her for a few seconds as she ran by. I didn't see her use her horns for anything, but she was able to punch a hole in a wall," Izuki explained. "At first, I thought that they were some sort of animal horns, but I don't think there are any animals with red horns. Plus, her horns looked really smooth."

"Hmm, that's true," Komadori murmured. "But being able to punch through a wall means increased physical strength, which you already wrote down. And 'increased durability'?"

Izuki nodded as she mimed a punch. "If a normal person were to punch a wall as hard as they could, they'd fracture their knuckles or tear their skin at the very least. The horned girl I saw didn't look hurt or affected at all and continued the exam like no big deal."

"True true. Never really thought about it that way for people with increased strength. Then, going from that standpoint, should that also mean that those with speed Quirks also have heightened perception, right? If not, they'd have to have incredibly fast reflexes in order to not run straight into a wall."

"Exactly! In fact, there was someone that I'm sure was from the Iida family!"

It was obvious that Izuki and Komadori were in their own world. They flipped through her notebook, pointing at various Quirks and notes while bouncing ideas off of each other. Every now and then, Izuki would write something that she and Komadori discussed down in her notebook before continuing their conversation again.

"My bad about this," Dabi suddenly said to Katsuki.

"Ah?"

"I mean that." Dabi flicked his chin at the conversing duo. "Pretty sure you would've preferred to not talk with random people that intruded on your time with your friend."

Katsuki looked over at Izuki. Her mismatched eyes were practically shining as she exchanged information with Komadori. Her arm motions were swift and full of energy, and her smile was the brightest than he'd seen in a while. All in all, she was happy and was enjoying herself.

Who was he to deny her happiness?

"Like I care," Katsuki said.

Dabi's eyebrow moved upward ever so slightly. "…I see."

Given his tone, it was obvious that Dabi didn't believe him. Not that Katsuki really cared about being believed or not. A stranger was a stranger, and a stranger's opinion of him didn't matter to him.

The two of them remained silent as they watched the two Quirk enthusiasts continue their talk. A few minutes passed and Dabi ordered a drink, and a few more minutes later, the waitress returned with a tea kettle and a cup.

"Is she always like this?" Dabi suddenly asked.

Katsuki raised a brow at him. Why was he still talking? "No."

"Mostly?"

"No."

"Huh. Must be nice."

"…He talks to you a lot?"

"Yeah. I bounce ideas back at him every now and then."

"Same here."

The two of them fell into silence after that. Time trickled by as the two of them did nothing else but sit in their seats, simply content with watching their respective partners interact. It wasn't until Izuki's phone vibrated from a text that their talk was put on pause.

"Ah…" A sheepish look appeared on her face as she read her message. "Sorry, but I've gotta get going else I'm going to miss dinner," she said to Muko.

"Oh, no no no, I should be the one to apologize," Muko hastily replied. "I didn't think that it'd get this late."

Taking that as his queue to leave, Katsuki got out of his seat. As he began walking away from the table, he caught Dabi's eyes.

"See ya," Dabi said.

Katsuki grunted in response as he walked by. He didn't consider Dabi to be a friend. Far from it. Hell, he didn't even think of him as an acquaintance. However, there was the indisputable fact that they shared one similarity, and that was them both having a friend who was essentially a Quirk geek.

"It was a lot of fun, Muko-san!" Izuki said as she waved goodbye.

Muko gave a friendly smile. "Yeah! Same to you!"

Once they were out of the store, Izuki stretched her arms above her head as she let out a satisfied sigh. The sun was already setting as they walked down the street, and Izuki had a light spring to her step. It was a big contrast to how she was during their walk to the cafe hours ago, and he supposed that he should be thankful to Muko for that. Keywords: 'should be'.

"That was fun! I didn't think that I'd meet someone like that at a random cafe! He had a lot of good ideas!" Izuki beamed. Then she turned to him with a frown on her face. "Why don't you do that with me anymore?"

"Cause you stopped asking me," he bluntly replied.

"Eh?"

A dumbfounded look appeared on her face as she froze on the spot, causing her red hair to sway from the sudden stop. Her brows were raised slightly higher than normal and her mouth hung open a little.

When she remained frozen like that for over five seconds, Katsuki began to get worried.

"Oi, Izu." He walked forward and waved a hand in front of her face.

No reaction.

"Izu," he tried again as he leaned forward a little.

Just as before, there was no reaction.

Breathing out an irritated sigh, he reached up and flicked her forehead. The sudden sting brought life back into her body as Izuki yelped and brought a hand to her reddening forehead.

"Ow!" Izuki began rubbing the flicked spot and pouted at him. "What was that for?"

"Cause you weren't moving," he replied.

It was only then that he realized that their faces were inches apart. Izuki seemed to have realized it as well as a bit of pink rose to her cheeks and she took a step back, averting her gaze.

"A-Anyway, I didn't realize that I haven't talked with you like that in a while. And you didn't have to flick me that hard," she huffed.

Katsuki fought down the heat that was rising up his neck. He quickly turned around and began walking down the street once more, hiding any potential red on his face from her.

"I didn't. It was a light flick," he replied.

"You and I have very different definitions of 'light'."

"That sounds like a 'you' problem."

"Jerk."

. . .

Elsewhere, near the other side of town, Muko and Dabi were on their way back to their home when a playful smirk appeared on Muko's face.

"So, they were quite interesting," he said.

"They're not even in highschool yet, you pedophile," Dabi replied.

"Hey! I am not a pedo! And they're going to enter highschool in like…a few months? That means that they're fifteen or so!" Muko defensively yelled.

Dabi raised an unamused eyebrow. "Your point? They're still minors."

"My point is that they're not children. Ergo, I'm not a pedo since pedophiles aim for children," Muko huffed.

"Even if she's fifteen, that's still a large gap in your ages."

"I'm not interested in her that way! I'm just saying that they were interesting! You can be interested in someone while not being romantically or sexually interested in them!" Muko heatedly exclaimed. "And the age difference is still less than ten years."

At this, Dabi made a point to dramatically look around while pointing at Muko. "Yes, officer. This man over here," he said to no one in particular.

"I hate you," Muko grumbled. "There's a difference between a shouta and a shounen, a loli and a shoujo. I am attracted to neither."

"Uh-huh."

Muko clicked his tongue and stuck his hands into his pockets. "Screw you. Anyhow, back to what I was saying about the girl being interesting…" He looked at Dabi from the corner of his eyes. "Is she the one that you mentioned way back when? The one that you bumped into along with a loud-mouthed brat?"

It wasn't until they reached the next block that Dabi decided to answer him.

"…Maybe," he finally said.

"What do you mean, 'maybe'?" Muko rolled his eyes. "Red hair and mismatched eyes? Far as I know, heterochromia is a rare enough trait alone, especially when one of her eyes' colors matches yours."

Dabi was silent for another few seconds. "Don't you have messages to respond to? Messages relating to the anonymous letters that we've been getting for the past few months? When are you going to meet them face to face anyway?"

It was painfully obvious that he was changing the subject, but Muko didn't seem to mind too much as he simply went along with it.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I didn't realize that they had eyes on us ever since the beginning," Muko said with an exasperated sigh. He pulled out his phone and opened his inbox. "Seriously, do we look like the type of people that would make good hitmen? Cause I think that's how they see us as."

"At least the pay's good."

"Yeah yeah, I know." He opened the latest message from an unnamed sender and narrowed his eyes. After he finished reading it, he deleted it from his inbox and put his phone back into his pocket. "You were saying about not meeting face to face? Wish granted."

Dabi raised an eyebrow again, this time in genuine interest, despite his look of apathy. "Really?"

"Yeah. Got an address and a date."

"…Sounds suspicious."

Muko nodded as they turned a corner. "I know. Which is why I'm not going to go alone."

"You have a plan?" Dabi asked.

"Not yet. But I'm sure I can think of one in time. The meeting time is in two weeks." He crossed his fingers and placed his hands behind his head. "But seriously, so many Quirks out on display… She cataloged some really interesting ones too."

"Did she?"

Muko nodded as he took some long steps. "Yup. One guy was basically that one short guy from the metal alchemist anime, which is an absolutely overpowered Quirk if you think about it, and I'm really curious as to what mutation Quirk the horned girl has. Increased physical abilities with horns…there aren't that many animals that have that."

"Maybe it's a dragon-type like that one dragon Pro Hero."

"…Maybe, maybe." Muko put a hand on his chin. "Maybe I can ask our business partners if they can get the roster of the examinees."

"You should ask them."

Up ahead, the building that they called home came into view. On the outside, it was a two-story apartment with a dozen studio homes, each one having belonged to a single person. It was a style in which many university students and office workers lived in, and the second floor was just that - rooms for the residents to sleep in.

The first floor, on the other hand…

"We're back!" Muko loudly exclaimed as he swung the door open.

What was once multiple apartment homes was now a single, vast room. The walls that once separated the now-gone rooms were taken down, and a few pillars were installed in order to support the ceiling and the second floor. A kitchen was in the far back next to the dining table. To the right was a box sofa with a fur carpet in front of a wide TV, which was currently seating Fusou and Ibiki, both of who were engrossed in a game of Smash Bros.

"Oh, our shit leader is back," Fusou said without even taking her eyes off the screen.

"Who are you calling a shit leader?!" Muko immediately yelled.

"You, who else?"

Even though her face was turned away, it was clear that she had a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Yo, Ibiki, hurry up and lose so that I can kick Fusou's ass!" Muko said, leaping over the sofa.

Almost as if he was waiting for it, Ibiki's character jumped off the stage and lost his final life, giving the victory to Fusou. Now that he wasn't playing anymore, he curled up into a ball in the corner of the couch and fell asleep.

"Bitch, please, you're just gonna get three-stocked," Fusou scoffed at Muko.

"Language!" Haruna scolded from the kitchen.

"Yes, Mother…" Fusou and Muko drawled in unison.

Unlike the 'shit leader' of the group, Dabi made sure to take off his shoes before strolling over the kitchen.

"Hey, perfect timing. Can you get the lettuce and wash it?" Haruna asked him.

Without a word, Dabi opened the fridge and took out a ball of lettuce.

"Ah, and the butter as well?" she added.

He took a bar of butter from the door compartment and closed the fridge. Tossing the butter to Haruna, he made his way over to the sink and turned on the faucet.

"I take it that you and Muko didn't eat yet?" Haruna asked.

"Nope."

Haruna hummed as she turned the knob for the stove. Feeble sparks came out but it failed to light, and she tried again. "What'd you do today? The two of you were - this stupid stove. Dabi, can you - ?"

Before she even finished her sentence, Dabi shot a weak flame at the stove, lighting it up immediately.

"This is why I said we should get rid of that old stove and get a new one," Dabi muttered. "An electric one."

"Thanks," she said as she placed a pan over the flame. "And we don't have the budget for that right now. Expenses are going to the other projects." She placed the butter on the pan and began spreading it around. "You didn't answer my question."

"Didn't do much really. Just finished the bounty that Muko was holding off for days and went to Background Noise."

"We met the two little kids that he ran into years ago there!" Muko yelled from the couch.

She hummed again and grabbed a cut of pork. "Did you?" she asked with an all too innocent smile.

Turning the faucet off, Dabi flicked his hands free of water. "Anything else you need help with?"

"Jeez. As boring as ever," Haruna exasperatedly sighed. "And can you get the bread out of the oven? It finished just before you returned and I haven't had the time to take it out."

Dabi looked over at Haruna with a blank expression. Then down at the stove. Then at the oven that was directly built into the stove, and finally back at Haruna.

"You're in front of the oven," he deadpanned.

Haruna looked down at the oven that was in front of her legs as well before shrugging. "Doesn't mean you can't open it."

Letting out a tired sigh, Dabi walked out of the kitchen. "Hey, lolicon. Your girlfriend needs help with the food," he called out.

Just as expected, Muko's head snapped back to glare at him. "I'm not a lolicon! I told you this already!"

"Then why'd you respond immediately if you don't associate yourself with that word?" he asked.

"'Cause you're the only one that would call me that!"

"Your girlfriend's waiting," Fusou cut in.

"Ah, shit. But the game…" Muko's eyes flicked back and forth between the TV screen and the kitchen, clearly torn between the two.

"You're really trying to figure out whether you should choose between a game or your girlfriend?" Fusou scoffed. Then, raising her voice, she yelled, "Oi, Haruna! Your lolicon boyfriend's a piece of shit!"

To which Haruna yelled back, "I know!"

"Shit fuck!" Muko tossed the controller aside and jumped over the couch. "Haruna, I'm coming!"

"We all know you do that inside her," Fusou said in a loud voice.

"F-Fusou!"

Haruna threw a compressed ball of dough at Fusou, her face flush with embarrassment. Fusou dodged the doughball without even looking while laughing all the while. She was still playing the game against an inactive Muko-character, taking Muko-character's last life.

"Oi, shitty leader! I won the game!" she yelled.

"That doesn't count!" Muko shot back. "I'm not even playing the game and we were both down to our last stocks!"

"The screen, my victory screen, says otherwise!"

Calmly walking around the couch, Dabi picked up the second controller. "Mind if I play a game?"

"By all means," Fusou grinned, motioning for him to sit.

A quick spam of the 'A' button later, they were at the character selection screen.

"Where's the others?" he asked as he picked his character.

"Alchemist hasn't left his lab ever since breakfast. No idea where Joker is," she replied, calling Kaza and Azuma by their respective nicknames.

"Takao and Kūhaku?"

The map was picked and the game went to the loading screen, dramatically showing both of their characters up on the screen with blue and red backgrounds.

Rather than verbally replying to his question, Fusou tapped her heel on the ground a couple of times, and he got the message.

"Three!" the game's announcer called out. "Two!"

"Go easy on me," Dabi said.

"Fuck off. I don't go easy on anyone."

"Go!"

Just as the game began, there was another scream from the kitchen accompanied by a few crashes.

"Why would you ever ask a girl something like that?!" Haruna screamed, her voice being a much higher pitch than normal.

"It's genuine curiosity - ow ow! Stop throwing things at me!" Muko was also screaming in a higher pitch. "Metal pans hurt when thrown - wait wait wait! Put those knives down - " He shrieked and there was a dull thud as something embedded itself into a wall. "Don't throw knives, you crazy woman!"

"Don't ask a lady which hand she uses then! That's not something you just ask a lady!"

More clattering sounds came from the kitchen, and Fusou glanced at Dabi for a fraction of a second.

"Any idea what he's talking about?" she asked, fixing her eyes back on the game.

"He wants to know which hand you use to wipe your ass after taking a dump," Dabi answered.

"The fuck kind of question is that."

"Exactly what I said."

"Leader's fucking weird."

"That, he is."

This statement was further solidified when said leader suddenly made a sound that sounded like a dog that had its tail stepped on. A second later, he was sprinting across the room and to the stairway leading down to the basement.

"Kūhaku! Save me!" he frantically yelled as he ran down the stairs to the basement. "Haruna's going to kill me!"

Haruna didn't look like she was going to kill him at all. She was simply standing in the kitchen as she fried something in the frying pan, contrary to how she was a few seconds ago.

"Why the hell do we follow him," Fusou deadpanned.

The air suddenly shimmered next to them and Muko dropped face-first onto the ground with the grace of a drunken elephant.

"Traitor!" Muko yelled at the doorway. "How dare you throw your leader under the bus!"

Just as he was getting to his feet, a crystalline barrier surrounded him and lifted him up into the air. His face paled as a look of pure horror appeared on his face. The barrier began to slowly hover over towards Haruna, who was wearing a smile that was a little too sweet.

"NOOOOO!" Muko shrieked as he futilely slammed on the barrier.

Dabi looked over at Fusou between his in-game lives with a tiny smirk on his face and answered her question.

"Because it's fun."

"True true," Fusou said with a shrug. "And watch this combo."

Less than ten seconds later, Dabi's in-game character was sent to stage borders and lost his final life.

. . .

A coffee cup was set down and Principle Nezu peered at the test paper in his hands. His eyes quickly looked over the short-response questions, resisting the urge to sigh as he read the examinee's answer. Specifically, he was reading the trick question that he put in.

"Quite the standard answer," he sighed, setting the paper aside and grabbing a new one. "They're always the same response."

The door to his office opened and a tall man with messy black hair walked in. In his hands were two folders, both of which he dropped onto Nezu's desk.

"I'm done," the man said. "This folder's the one with the papers that I've accepted. The others are the ones that I rejected."

Nezu eyed the folders. "Aizawa." He picked up the acceptance folder. "This is completely empty."

Aizawa, also known as the Pro Hero, Eraser Head, looked at the principle with a no-shit expression on his face. The look was amplified from the bags under his eyes.

"I know," Aizawa grunted.

"You were handed nearly two-hundred written exams, and not a single one of them managed to score high enough to pass?" Nezu asked in disbelief. "This is a cumulative scoring with between both the written exam and the physical exam."

"I know," Aizawa repeated. His eyes flickered over to the growing stack of failed papers. "You're in a similar position as me."

The principle sighed and placed the empty folder down on his desk. "In terms of combat potential, there are a lot of students that show promise. A few are quite exceptional. As for the written part of the exam that delves into their psyche…"

Aizawa picked up the tests that Nezu set in the 'Accepted' section of his table.

"With the current bar set like this, we won't have enough students for this year," Nezu said. "What do you think, Aizawa? Do you think that we should lower the bar to let more students into our school?"

Aizawa was silent as his eyes scanned the papers in his hands.

"We have a grading system here for a reason," he finally answered. "If the examinees have enough points at the end of the exam, they pass. If they don't, then they fail."

"How like you to say something like that," Nezu wryly said. "Very well. I hope that the other teachers have better luck than we did with our tests."

With a nod, Aizawa turned to leave when he spotted a separate stack of papers on the desk. It was located right behind the failed test papers, and consisted of only a few tests.

"Ah, those." A small smile rose to Nezu's face as Aizawa picked up the tests.

"Why are these set aside from the rest?" Aizawa asked.

"Read through them and I'm sure you'll realize it for yourself."

Time trickled along as Aizawa read the short-response questions. It took him over three minutes to finally finish reading the first test and move onto the second. By the time he had gone through all of them, nearly fifteen minutes had passed, and Nezu's stack of failed tests grew even higher.

"I see," Aizawa slowly said.

"So you agree with my assessment?" Nezu asked him.

"What assessment. You didn't write anything on them," Aizawa replied.

"You know exactly why I set those aside."

Silence fell upon the room when Aizawa didn't reply. Instead, he placed the tests where they were originally before he walked out of the office, not saying a single word the entire time.

"I'm glad that you agree with me," Nezu smiled to himself, knowing full well that Aizawa wouldn't hear him.

Then he turned his attention back to the pile of ungraded papers and let out a sigh. Paperwork was going to be the cause of retirement for the world of heroes.

. . .

. . .

Oooohhhh maaaaan. This was a pain in the ass to write out. Mainly due to two reasons, the first reason is Katsuki.

As I'm sure you're all aware, Katsuki is one angry, explosive, prideful, and arrogant teenager in the source material. However, that mainly stemmed from the fact that there wasn't anyone on his level when he was a kid. Izuku was Quirkless and his goons had some tiny ass wings and some weird stick fingers. Not exactly hero material. So it was obvious that he would become an arrogant ass without anyone there to keep him in check.

In ASHH, however, Izuki has a Quirk that can easily compete with his, so he has someone that's sharing the top seat with him, which, in theory, would rid him of most of his arrogance. The base character of Katsuki would remain the same (prideful, angry, explosive), but with Izuki there with him, I feel like those characteristics would be subdued. Not completely gone or anything as he can still get angry and retains the "holier-than-thou" attitude, but it'll take more to rile him up than a random pebble in the road.

So yeah, I literally struggled for months as I tried to figure out how to write out ASHH's Katsuki as compared to the canon-Katsuki. There's a good guideline that I (and many other writers, I'm sure) follow called P.E.P.S.I., which stands for:
| Physical | How they look.
| Emotional | How they emotionally react to certain situations.
| Psychological | How they think.
| Societal | How they fit in with those around them.
| Interpersonal |Relations to characters and how they get along.

The | Physical | I left untouched for obvious reasons, but holy shit, I was changing around the E.P.S.I. parts again and again and again and again.

The same applied to Izuki since she has a strong Quirk from the start unlike Izuku, but she was a bit easier to get down. I just got Izuku's character and took out most of his lack of self-confidence since that was stemmed from him not having a Quirk. So the hero-nature and Quirk-analysis part of the character is all still there.

Reason Two as to why I struggled with this chapter is because the previous chapter was released at the start of the Villain Arc of the manga. And all of them got buffed to hell, which fucked with the later chapter ideas that I already had planned out.

So I had one of two choices:
1) Continue on as normal and disregard the insane power increase that the League of Villains received.
2) Integrate the power buffs that they received into the story at the cost of changing up a lot of the later ideas as this story is still in its early stages.

So yeah, this chapter was difficult to write, though a lot of it was due to the rewrite of Katsuki's character. In any case, most of the world and character building for the main cast is done. I can finally get started on the actual first arc (first day of school - USJ) and not on other things. And also get to introducing the Todoroki family. I've been putting them on the backburner for a while, but I promise that a meeting between Izuki and the Todos will be coming.

Thank you all for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing!
Speaking of reviews || animegirl1570: I'm not sure as to what you mean by "gatcha series". It would be appreciated if you could expand upon that.