"Alright, today's the day!" Midoriya's mind was racing as he rose out of bed for his first day of school at UA. "Alright, here's my uniform, here's my necklace, and there are my shoes." He began dressing himself in his school uniform, which was just a bit loose on his body. He struggled with his tie so much that he eventually gave up and left it half done and awkwardly short. He glanced at the time. "7:30… maybe I'll be able to wake up earlier and make time for the gym or something." He looked at himself in the mirror. "There he is. It's finally time to become a hero," he smiled at his image with a measured confidence, ready to take on the world.

He wandered down the stairs and was met with a few other people getting breakfast. Hardly anyone was fully awake, so the atmosphere of the room was dull and lax, a stark contrast from Midoriya's overwhelming excitement. He lit up the dining room with his energetic strut and marched to the kitchen for cereal. Everyone looked up from what they were doing to watch his bizarre alertness for how early it was. He was far too excited to miss this day.

Iida came downstairs shortly after Midoriya sat down to eat and notified everyone that today should be an orientation day. Kaminari, who had fallen asleep in his bowl, took that as an excuse to be late, but Iida quickly shut that notion down by shouting at him. Midoriya chuckled at their antics when he noticed Asui walk by. He waved at her and she waved back groggily, making her way to the kitchen.

She returned with a bowl of cereal and sat down next to Midoriya, "Ribbit, hey Izuku… you seem awfully upbeat for 7:44am," she took a glance at the clock while speaking. "You didn't have any trouble sleeping, did you?"

"Nope!" Midoriya's smile shone like a glorious palace of gold, brightening up the whole room, "I slept better than usual even! I just couldn't wait for today!"

Asui rubbed her eyes as an attempt to wake up more as she continued eating, "Well I'm happy to hear it." As she began to wake up fully and focus on her surroundings a bit more, she noticed how Midoriya's tie was ruined beyond belief with how he tied it. "Izuku? Do you know how to tie a tie?"

He looked away and blushed a little, "Well, do you want the truth or do you want me to pretend that this is intentional?"

"Ah, c'mere," Asui grabbed him by the tie and he felt a very strong feeling well up inside of him that he decided to ignore for now. His face went bright red and she untied his tie and began tying it for him. It was even more awkward and embarrassing when he noticed just how many people were watching. Once she finished, his tie looked like a real article of clothing and his face looked like he suffered an intense heatstroke. Asui noticed all the people watching and blushed a little too, but remained stone-faced as she returned to her cereal bowl.

"Do you think they'll ever get together?" Jirou leaned over to Ashido, who was silently freaking out at what she thought was the cutest sight in the world.

"I think that they might on their own, but I'm brewing up a bit of a plan to hook them up," Ashido grinned mischievously as she stared at the green-haired pair. She started whispering to Jirou about her secret plan, and they carried on this conversation in secret as everyone continued on with their morning.

Once everyone finished their breakfast, they returned to their respective rooms to gather their books and make any final preparations before heading to their class. Midoriya had prepared the night before so he accompanied Asui to help her.

"Alright, ribbit, I think that's everything," Asui grabbed her backpack and put it on her bed. It was 8:05, and class started at 8:30, but they needed to leave 10 minutes prior. So they figured that they would just chat for the next 15 minutes before leaving with the rest of the class.

"So, what do you think orientation will be like?" Midoriya sat on Asui's bed next to her, almost jumping in place with excitement.

"Probably a lot of rules and regulations, you know?" Asui murmured. "You seem awfully excited."

"I am! I hope we get to tour the campus and see all the hero faculties!" he cheered, before assuming a more serious expression. "I finally made it… I'm finally on track to become a hero… I'll be honest, a part of me never thought I'd make it here. I'm just so happy…!" he almost broke into tears, but Asui noticed that and put her hand on his shoulder, making him focus his attention on her.

"You deserve to be here, ribbit. I knew you could do it." She flashed a bright, genuine smile at him that melted his heart and he brought her into a hug. They spent the rest of their time talking about what places on campus they wanted to visit that they haven't yet, as well as what they wanted out of their teacher. They didn't know who their teacher was, as they hadn't visited the dorms yet and presumably lived in the staff dorms. They did meet several custodial members who would occasionally stop by their building to clean up and make sure everyone was ok, but no teacher.

Time flew and soon everyone was out the door and on their way to their classroom, 1-A. Sero almost broke away from the class thinking he saw their room, but was quickly caught by Bakugou. Midoriya smiled at the scene before looking at Asui walking next to him. He felt his heart flutter, his chest bursting with feelings to the point where they were caged within his blazer. He didn't notice her staring back.

"Ahem," Asui coughed after a while to get his attention, "Izuku? Is there something on my face or are you broken?"

His face ignited with a burning red glow as he started to freak out, realizing that he had been caught staring. "U-umm… I-I was just admiring how nice your uniform looked on you."

Her blush rose in response to his compliment and she fumbled with her words, "O-oh! Well… thanks. Yours doesn't look half bad either."

"Well no," he deflected, "mine is too loose, it doesn't fit well at all…"

"… I think it looks cute," Asui grinned as she watched his face go a shade of red that she'd never seen on a person's face before.

"I uh… thank you…" Midoriya looked away and smiled. Asui giggled at his bashful attitude. She was compelled to give him a quick kiss on the cheek or something to that effect, but immediately suppressed that. She didn't want to do anything to make him uncomfortable and figured that was a line that she shouldn't cross, despite how much she wanted to.

They eventually reached the massive classroom door. Iida and Yaoyorozu were at the front of the group, followed by an ecstatic Midoriya and Asui. Iida dragged open the door and the class filed in one after another. Everyone took their seats based on the number they were assigned. Midoriya was a bit downtrodden to see that despite being in the same row as Asui, they sat on opposite sides of the classroom. He also sat behind Bakugou, which worried him a bit. They were on better terms than before, but Midoriya was still afraid that Bakugou would lash out at him if he felt it to be necessary. The difference now is that Midoriya had the will and the power to hold his ground against Bakugou.

Meanwhile, their teacher was nowhere to be found. It was 8:33 and the whole class was beginning to worry. And then, the sleeping bag arose.

"Hello. I'm Shouta Aizawa. Your homeroom teacher," his voice was wrought with drowsiness and apathy. "You might have heard that the orientation is today. We won't be going." The class looked at each other in confusion, but was too afraid of the man in black to ask any questions. "Instead, we won't be wasting any time. Change into your gym clothes and meet me outside." The man left the room and the class was dumbfounded. They made their way to the locker rooms, which weren't that far, and changed into their gym outfits.

Midoriya entered the boy's locker room with the rest of the boys in the class. He began changing out of his uniform and remembered his huge burn scar on his back. Not wanting to let anyone else see it, he faced his back to the wall and ended up watching all of the other guys change as he slid his gym shirt over his head. Bakugou, who was surveying the rest of the guys in the class, ended up seeing Midoriya's strange behavior and connected the dots. He suddenly felt anxious, something foreign to him. "Was I really… that bad?" He steeled himself and cleared his mind before leaving the locker room.

Eventually, everyone in class 1-A was standing outside in the PE area. Aizawa stood out on the asphalt with a clipboard.

"We're going to be doing a quirk apprehension test today. It's a physical exam, but you will be allowed to use your quirks as much as you'd like," Aizawa gestured towards the painted lines behind him that established a 50 meter race track. "Oh, and whoever comes in last will get expelled." The whole class got chills from his icy tone. Midoriya started to grow worried.

"You four. Get up here. The robot at the end will record your time." He pointed to the students who occupied seats one through four: Aoyama, Ashido, Asui, and Iida. They all ran the track and did exceptionally well. Iida won the race at 3.04 seconds and ended up setting one of the best times ever.

Midoriya waited anxiously, as he was set to go in the last group at seat 18. He congratulated Asui on doing well when she came back and stood with her as he awaited his turn, twiddling his thumbs and shifting constantly. Asui gave him a reassuring pat on the back and a smile when Midoriya was finally called up.

"Aaaahh, ok. Just like All Might showed me… I just hope it works as well as he expects it to…"

Midoriya looked to see Bakugou to his left and Mineta to his right. He took a deep breath as everyone else got ready to make a break for it.

And then he turned around.

"Hey dipshit," Bakugou smirked, "the race is over here. Unless you're looking to forfeit now. I thought you said that you were gonna give it your all now?" Bakugou got poised in a squatting position with his hands facing backwards, ready to fire off at the sound of the whistle.

Midoriya held his left arm out directly in front of him, perfectly straight and parallel to the ground. As Aizawa prepared to blow the whistle, he set his right arm to point slightly downwards from the left. It didn't point towards the ground, but it wasn't matched up with his other arm. As Aizawa began counting down from three, he formed his thumb and pinky on his right hand into a flicking formation. The rest of the class watched him in great confusion. Aizawa was especially concerned as Midoriya took his left arm and grabbed his right one with it by the wrist, almost like he wanted to stabilize himself.

Midoriya concentrated deeply as he held a determined look forward, facing the class and not the track. He thought very hard about channeling One for All inside of him and felt it in his hand. He suppressed as much of the immense power as he could and a gust of air puffed off of his body and started a cool breeze that whipped at the whole class's faces. It wasn't particularly strong, especially not how Asui remembered it when he couldn't control it in the field, but everyone could feel the power he was emitting. Even Bakugou turned his head momentarily to see Midoriya's pinky finger begin to glow red as Aizawa blew the whistle.

They all took off immediately, Bakugou flying through the air at an incredible speed. For a moment, everyone thought Midoriya didn't hear the whistle. However, as the sweat in anticipation dripped off of his brow, he released his pinky and flicked towards the ground, using the power of One for All to launch himself backwards at an obscene speed, just inches off the ground. The whole class felt the strong gust of wind that was sent their way as they were almost knocked off their feet. He passed the robot first by a large margin, clearing the 50 meters in 2.59 seconds, but he kept going. He carried his momentum for another 25 meters before attempting to flip his body and land on his feet. His attempt was a complete failure as he twisted awkwardly as he approached the ground. He ended up landing on his shoulder and tumbled as he slowed to a halt. Everyone watched in silence as the others finished the race.

Everyone watched as Midoriya stirred slightly, before struggling to get up. He rose to his feet and began to approach the class. The left shoulder on his gym shirt was torn and bloodied, as well as the knees on his gym pants.

"Midoriya," Aizawa demanded. Midoriya hobbled up to Aizawa's tall figure and stood tall, proud of his accomplishment despite the pain in his shoulder and finger. "You've just seriously injured yourself due to a lack of control of your quirk, in both the initial usage and your landing." Midoriya shrunk slightly at Aizawa's cutting words, immediately fearing the worst as his teacher cut into him. "You also broke the UA 50 meter dash record. And if it weren't for your landing, you would've cleared that distance in record time with nothing more than a broken pinky." Midoriya lightened up at what he assumed was Aizawa's form of praise. "If you don't get that quirk under control, you'll have no hope of being a hero. So I suggest you do that quickly. Go see Recovery Girl and skip the next couple tests. You should be fine before the examination is over. They're just skin-deep wounds."

Aizawa made a face at Midoriya that he could barely interpret, walking a line between disappointment and impression. Midoriya made his way to the nurse's office, already well acquainted with its location, as Aizawa continued with the resting.

Asui watched in horror at the whole ordeal. She just saw her best friend fly across the ground at a speed that probably should've ripped him apart before he ate the pavement and rag-dolled across it like a stone across water. She shuddered at his ghastly, broken shuffle that he assumed with his legs as scraped up as they were. She wanted to volunteer to walk with him, but was too afraid of Aizawa to speak up and do so.

After a strong scolding from Recovery Girl and no promise of staying out of trouble, he returned to the PE grounds with a bandaged finger and his other wounds healed. He was able to participate in the long distance run, the seated toe-touch, the sit-ups test, and the ball toss.

For the ball toss, he was the last to go up. Everyone watched him walk up to the circle with concern, especially Asui. He grabbed the ball as Aizawa held the tablet that would record his performance. Midoriya, instead of winding up to throw the ball like everyone expected him to, he simply held it with his left hand and prepared to flick it with his middle finger on his right hand. He once again channeled his quirk into his finger and let it release, sending the ball far out of view and nearly knocking everyone over again.

"1,672 meters," Aizawa flashed the screen to everyone. "The highest numerical score ever."

The whole class was clamoring at this performance, "It went a whole kilometer and a half?!", "Do you think it hit someone?", "Where did all this power come from?", "What is his obsession with flicking things?"

Aizawa then showed the results of the test to the entire class. In first place was Yaoyorozu, then Todoroki, then Bakugou, and in dead last was Midoriya. Despite his overwhelming performance in the 50 meter dash and ball toss, the tests that he missed just barely made him score below Mineta.

"I will not be expelling anyone today," Aizawa said bluntly. "It was a ruse to inspire you all to do your best." The smile that accompanied this was eerie and unsettling, but Midoriya gasped in excitement as all of his anxiety about being expelled was flushed from his body.

As class ended, a couple people congratulated Midoriya on his impressive showing as he made his way to Recovery Girl's office, with Asui joining him.

"Hey, 13th is pretty good!" Midoriya congratulated Asui for her performance.

"Ribbit, thanks," Asui grabbed Midoriya's hand to pull him ahead at her pace as she started walking faster, "Let's hurry, your finger's starting to bleed a bit more."

A second Recovery Girl visit later and the pair began heading towards the cafeteria for lunch. Midoriya and Asui sat down together before being joined by Uraraka and Iida.

"Midoriya, that was very impressive out there!" Iida shouted.

"Wow Deku, your quirk is so powerful!" Uraraka chimed. "But why do you keep flicking things?"

"Oh!" Midoriya exclaimed, evidently very excited, "Well that was something All M—" he screeched to a halt as he almost dropped that he was having secret training lessons with All Might. After the first incident where he shattered his arm trying to control his quirk getting recorded, he and All Might agreed that they should practice at night instead. "I-I mean, it was something my trainer recommended! Haha! He said that if I'm gonna break my bones, I might as well pick the ones that heal the fastest!" Midoriya kept awkwardly laughing to try and ease the pressure. Sometimes Asui would laugh with him to make it seem more natural, trying to help him hide his secret.

"Very interesting!" Iida commented, "So you have a personal trainer?"

"Heheh, uh yep I sure do! I train with him almost every night now. I don't think I would be here without him, so I'm really glad that he's sticking with me and believing in me…" Midoriya smiled faintly as he thought about how supportive All Might had been the past few days. In preparation for classes starting, All Might helped Midoriya to control his power much better than before by just working on controlling parts of him individually before trying to spread his quirk across his whole body, which allowed him to use his quirk during the test at a level of power that wouldn't shatter the PE grounds.

"He sounds like a great guy!" Uraraka exclaimed before digging into her lunch. They continued eating and conversing, eventually deciding that they liked the table they were sitting at and wanted to eat there every day, which made Midoriya and Asui really happy that they were making friends pretty well. Lunch ended and classes were over for the day, so everyone returned to the dorms to relax after the stressful quirk examination.

The green-haired duo entered Midoriya's dorm and he flopped onto his bed and released a sigh much deeper than Asui was used to. He remained face-down in his pillow for a while before Asui sat next to him.

"Izuku?" she croaked, "Are you ok?"

"I want you to answer honestly," he turned over, his face serious as he laid on his bed. She nodded at him. "Do you think I stand a chance here? I mean, I got dead last in the quirk examination. I can't control it… and I don't know if I ever will. It's just too much for my body to handle! If I can't get it down to a point where it doesn't hurt me, then I can never be a hero. But I can't seem to control it to that level. It just feels so hopeless…"

Asui took a deep breath, "I understand what you mean, ribbit. When…" she paused to try and control her breathing as it became slightly erratic. "When Habuko passed away… I-I felt that hopelessness. I didn't know what to do without her. I was lost… sometimes I realize that I still am. That's why I'm lucky to have such a nice and caring friend like you, ribbit.

"It took me a while before things went back to normal, and nothing really stopped to let me settle into my new reality. But I eventually made it, and so will you. I think you just need a new perspective on controlling your power, some way to get around this block that's preventing you from going any lower. How about I come out with you tonight and see if I can help with that?" Asui gave Midoriya a kind smile and he returned it with one of his own. He then sat up and gave her a warm hug.

"Thank you, Tsuyu…" he mumbled into her ear. "I really appreciate that you're willing to help."

"Of course, I've got your back like you have mine, ribbit."

They held their embrace for a long time, Midoriya eventually began laying back down from exhaustion by Recovery Girl's quirk, pulling Asui down with him. He then passed out and left Asui laying down next to him. She shrugged inwardly and made herself comfortable before falling asleep next to him. He may have gotten last place today, but he would always be first place in her heart.

I've been meaning to say this for a bit, but hey! If you have anything you want to say to me, I'd love to hear it! I always get excited when I see reviews show up in my email, so if you want to tell me something, please do! If you want to give me criticism or ask a question, I'll be happy to read and answer (I'm gonna try and answer all reviews from here on out, so I mean it!). If you want to tell me that you hate the story and you think I smell bad, then I'll be happy to hear that too!

In other news, next chapter is gonna be important. I'm sure you know what comes next, so I hope you're excited for that! I have a lot of big plans for it, but it might take a while to write, I've been awfully busy (if my month and a half hiatus says anything), but hopefully it's really long or something to compensate. Anyway, thanks so much for reading! And again, if there's anything you wanna say to me, now's a pretty good time! ^w^V