Thank you guys for the follows, favorites, and reviews! It motivates me like crazy, haha.

Some things to note: Bakugo isn't going to be a total asshole here. Imagine a male tsundere in a completely platonic sense. I think there are already enough fics bashing Bakugo, so if that's what you wanted, sorry, you won't find that here. There are in-story reasons for why he behaves the way he does.

I'm having a lot of fun expanding Izuku's arsenal of Quirks. You'll get to see one of them in action this chapter! If you know A Certain Scientific Railgun, it should look very familiar, mostly because it is somewhat the same as Misaka Mikoto's power. You can look it up if you want a better example of it, though there will be some differences from it. I like to put my own twist on things, but I just wanted to credit the source material.

Anyways—enjoy!

Izuku Midoriya stood in a glass room.

The faceless man in the dark suit stood beside him while a researcher clad in a lab coat pointed something at him.

Oh. It was a gun. Considerably rarer these days ever since the advent of Quirks, but they were still around. Izuku knew that since, well, he'd been shot by it—forty-five, forty-six times by now? That sounded right. All wounds had been quickly healed, though, by a combination of Regenerator and… Chrono Force, was it? He couldn't exactly remember.

"Now remember what we discussed," the suited man said. The other people behind the glass wall scurried about in their lab coats doing whatever it was that kept them so busy; Izuku couldn't care less. "Visualize opposites."

There had been a long, complex speech about how he should be able to utilize this Quirk he was given. Something about electromagnetic fields, something about positive and negative charges, something about negating forces, yada yada yada. He'd forgotten the vast majority of it within minutes. All he knew was this man had shot him forty-six times, and he was getting hungry.

"Ready?" the faceless man beside him asked.

This man was good, Izuku deemed. This one gave him food. In all his days spent here, this faceless man always brought him food if he surpassed expectations.

Izuku nodded.

The gun fired, but the bullet never hit him.

Instead, it was hovering, mid-air, one inch away from Izuku's hand.

He didn't know how exactly he did it. The bullet vibrated and hummed with unspent kinetic energy, and Izuku and the faceless man marveled at it for a moment. The people in the lab around them cheered, though it looked like slow motion from where he was standing.

But the bullet… it still had to go somewhere. He could feel the bullet protesting its temporary confinement. And so, he simply reversed the charges. How he did it, he did not know. Green electricity crackled in the air around Izuku, and the bullet, faced with an overwhelming negative charge, shot back into the direction from whence it came—

The bombastic sound of a near-supersonic boom. The crinkling sound of shattering glass. The sound of an object piercing, no, obliterating flesh.

A deafening silence reigned in the room, now joined to the outside laboratory by a massive, gaping hole in the glass wall.

The bloody… remains of the researcher sprawled out on the ground did not affect Izuku in the slightest. The fact that he was completely missing a portion of his upper body from where Izuku had "shot" him was actually…

Amusing to Izuku. Yes, it was amusing. The man who had shot him so many times, reduced to paste when "shot" once in return. Izuku began giggling, unnerving the wide-eyed researchers. Some even had the urge to charge at the boy, to beat him for daring to kill one of their own, but they were silenced by the slow clapping of the man in the suit.

"Fantastic, simply fantastic!" the faceless man applauded. "Never once did I think that this Quirk could be used offensively. Very creative, Izuku!"

The man patted him on his head.

Izuku looked up at the man. "Does this mean food?"

"Yes, yes, of course! A feast, full of your favorites!"

Ah, good. That's what Izuku liked to hear.

Of course, this was a memory long forgotten—

Unbreakable

Moving In

Getting his teary-eyed mom to let him leave was a task easier said than done.

Of course Izuku was tearing up a bit too, but he had to put on his manly face and show, for his mom's sake, that he'd be alright. With many promises of calling and visiting home frequently, he left their homely apartment and departed for U.A. University, luggage in tow.

The bulk of the moving in had already been done by moving companies, so all Izuku had to bring were his clothes and toiletries. His room had been fairly plain, with his hero memorabilia and desktop computer being the only things of actual value. Plus, if he needed more clothes, he could just visit home and grab some. The campus was a fairly short train ride away, so it wouldn't be some mammoth undertaking if he wanted to visit home.

Sitting on the train, Izuku felt excited for what was to come. Not only was he going to college, he was going to U.A. University! He had gotten slightly used to the idea, but in the end, a small part of him still couldn't believe that his dream was slowly becoming a reality. It was a wonderful feeling, all in all.

After a couple minutes, the train stopped and he hopped off, wheeling the suitcase behind him. It was only a short walk before he began to see other students, rolling their suitcases or carrying last minute add-ons for their dorms, walking towards the campus. Some of them were with their parents, a sight which made Izuku smile to himself.

Inko had originally wanted to accompany her son to his move-in day, but Izuku quickly dismissed that idea. He, and she, both knew that she'd just end up bawling her eyes out the entire time, and Izuku didn't have much confidence that he wouldn't cry either. She had been placated with hundreds of promises to Facetime and visit as soon as he had free time, and that had been that.

He stopped on the threshold of U.A. University's campus, taking a deep breath before stepping through.

Sure, Izuku had been here multiple times before, but this time just felt different. He was finally here as a student, he finally belonged here.

He walked past the crowd of general course students and made his way to his dorm building. The giant "H" shaped building loomed over him, tall and magnificent, and he spotted a few of his future classmates loitering about the common room as he walked through. He waved at them, smiling, earning a few hello's back, but he didn't stay to chat as he ascended the stairs to his room.

He passed by Todoroki on the way up, and the two greeted each other. When he was on the second floor, he hopped off the staircase only to come face to face with Katsuki Bakugo in one of his classic black tank tops.

The two stared at each other. Like a deer caught in headlights, the two neither said anything or moved. A beat passed like this, before Izuku uneasily said, "S-So, Bakugo, looks like we'll be neighbors."

"Yeah." Katsuki scratched at his neck.

The two stood there.

And stood there.

… and stood there.

"Um, I'll be going then." Izuku walked by Katsuki to reach his room, but he was stopped by a hand.

"I just—" Katsuki swallowed heavily, not making eye contact with Izuku, "Just wanted to say congrats. On placing first in the entrance exam, I mean."

"Oh." That had been a surprise. "Thanks," Izuku said, not quite sure of what else to say.

"BUT!" Katsuki suddenly roared, grabbing the front of his shirt. "I'm going to surpass you, Deku, so that I can protect… forget that, it was a cheesy line anyways. Enjoy your stay on the throne while it lasts."

Without another word, he let go and stalked away, heading down the steps.

Izuku, letting out a sigh of relief, continued to his room. Living next door to Katsuki was going to be interesting. While the days of the bully Katsuki were long gone, he still wasn't the most… pleasant person to be around. But it had been genuinely surprising to hear Katsuki congratulate him. He wasn't one to admit inferiority easily.

He opened the door to his room, and the somewhat plain interior greeted him. The massive wall of All Might merch gazed down at him, but he wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. Izuku set about transferring his stuff from his luggage to the dresser located in the corner of his room, taking the time to fold his clothes rather than just throwing them in. The process took somewhere close to half an hour—only because he was so insistent on everything being neat and tidy—but he was interrupted near the end of it by a polite knock on his door.

Izuku walked over, opening it and asking, "Yes?"

In front of him stood a tall, rigid-looking man. He looked somewhat familiar, but Izuku couldn't exactly place just where he'd seen him. Maybe at the entrance exam…?

The man seemed to recognize him, though. "You're the one that was murmuring to himself throughout all of Present Mic's opening speech!"

"Me?" Izuku realized where he had seen the man before—this guy had called him out during Present Mic's opener. "Oh, yeah…"

The man stiffly bowed at a ninety degree angle. "I would like to formally apologize for my transgression on the day of the entrance exam. I was judging you even before I knew you, and that is—"

"Uahhh," Izuku cried out, flailing his arms at the taller man. "No need to apologize! It's perfectly okay, I was the one distracting everyone."

The man peered up at him through the lens of his glasses. "If you say so. Still, I am sorry." He unbent himself, straightening out, before saying, "My name is Tenya Iida. I look forward to our years together at U.A."

That got an easy grin out of Izuku. "Likewise. I'm Izuku Midoriya. Pleasure to meet you."

Tenya's eyes widened slightly. Izuku Midoriya, the guy who scored two hundred and fifty-eight points on the entrance exam, tripling the second place score and breaking the school record for most points ever earned on an U.A. entrance exam. The knowledge wasn't privy to a lot of people—the most that knew about it, Tenya guessed, were the other nine top ten examinees and the teachers, or else the school would've been swamped by the papers and tabloids looking for the one that broke All Might's record.

Tenya cleared his throat. "Anyways, I was thinking of holding a get-together in the common room for all the members of class 1-A. I've already told the others about it on their way up, but I wasn't able to catch you, so I think you're amongst the last people to be notified about it. Would you like to come down for the meeting?"

Izuku nodded eagerly. "Yes, I would! Thanks for getting me, by the way."

"No problem."

The two left the room and descended the stairs to the common room. There, already, were tons of people. He saw a few familiar faces, including the one gravity girl he'd run into and talked to briefly during the entrance exam. She was beaming and chatting it up with… empty space? Closer inspection of the scene revealed a floating t-shirt and skirt.

An invisibility Quirk? Cool, Izuku thought.

He spotted an annoyed-looking Katsuki responding to an energetic, red-haired man's attempts at conversation, and to the left of them, in a large group of girls, he saw Momo. When he saw that he caught her glance, he smiled and waved, but that only earned a faint blush and an instant look away.

That reaction was… odd.

"Everyone!" Tenya called, shushing the gathered people there. He did a quick headcount, stopping at twenty before nodding contentedly. "Now that we're all here, I thought that we should all take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. These are the classmates that we'll be working together with this school year, so I'd like to get acquaintanced."

With no verbal objections, he continued: "Since I suggested the idea, I will go first. Hello, everyone, my name is Tenya Iida. My Quirk is called Engine. It gives me these things—" He pointed down at his exposed calves, revealing engine-like protrusions "— that allow me to move very fast. I drink orange juice to fuel it."

A polite smattering of applause sounded throughout the room. With Tenya finished, they all waited for the next person to speak. It seemed no one wanted to step up, which left a slightly awkward and strained atmosphere.

Silence.

Iuku, unable to take the tension anymore, whispered to Tenya, "How about we go around in a circle, starting to your right?"

Tenya looked at him, nodding. He said loudly, "How about we start introducing ourselves in a circle? You can go next." He gestured at a blonde, foreign looking student.

Caught off guard but visibly unperturbed by the attention on him, he bowed slightly before introducing himself. "Bonjour. Je m'appelle—ah, er, my name is Yuga Aoyama. My Quirk is called Navel Laser, and it allows me to fire—"

Introductions went on like this for some time. Due to his position on Tenya's left, Izuku was glad to have time to think about his introduction and what he would say. He couldn't exactly come out with the truth, after all. It may or may not cause a ruckus if he said he had All Might's Quirk.

Still, he paid attention to what his classmates were saying. They were gonna spend a year together, so Izuku wanted to get to know them.

Yuga Aoyama, Quirk: Navel Laser. He seemed slightly aloof and flamboyant to some degree, and he could shoot powerful lasers out of his belly. If he fires too much, he ends up with a severe bellyache.

Eijiro Kirishima, Quirk: Hardening. A very simple but useful Quirk, similar to Izuku's unknown third Quirk but not exactly the same. His appeared to be more physical, and it was more visibly obvious when he was using it. He was the guy he saw talking to Katsuki earlier.

Katsuki Bakugo, Quirk: Explosion. Nothing new to be learned here, just that even he seemed oddly invested into learning about his future classmates. Scouting the competition or just genuine interest, Izuku didn't know.

Denki Kaminari, Quirk: Electrification. He seemed to be able to generate electricity and cover his body with it, or he could shoot it out a certain distance. He had little control of it, though. For some reason, there was a prickling in the back of his mind when hearing about this Quirk. Izuku pondered upon why that was so, nearly missing the next explanation.

Koji Koda, Quirk: Anivoice. Apparently, he could communicate with animals. He didn't say anything beyond that, though, meekly sitting back down after his quick introduction.

Rikido Sato, Quirk: Sugar Rush. When activated, his Quirk allowed him to increase his strength by five-fold, but he needed a small amount of sugar. Izuku was highly interested in hearing about his Quirk, since wasn't One For All a strength increase, too? Except in this case, he was drawing upon a stockpile of accumulated power. That was the difference between the two, Izuku guessed.

Mezo Shoji, Quirk: Dupli-Arms. He could transform the tips of the six tentacle-like appendages attached to his body into other body parts, like ears, mouths, or noses. The duped body parts are much more effective than the original, up to ten times better, in fact. Izuku initially thought he looked menacing, but from the way that he talked, Izuku could tell he was a sweet guy. There was a certain softness in his speech and tone.

Ochaco Uraraka, Quirk: Zero Gravity. She was the girl he'd seen at the Entrance Exam levitating robots and smashing them down. Her Quirk allows her to cancel the effects of gravity on anything she touches with her fingers, but if she does too much, she admitted, she gets an urge to throw up. She caught his eye as she said that, turning a light shade of red upon recognizing him. That explains the sight he saw at the entrance exam.

Tsuyu Asui, Quirk: Frog. Her appearance suited her Quirk, with dark green hair and a wide mouth which drooped down a little in the middle. Izuku thought the features she had looked cute, but upon further reflection… weren't all of his female classmates either cute or beauties?

That didn't matter that much to him, though. He had Himiko.

His face went into a fiery red blush as he considered, for a second, just what he thought.

He reeled his mind in and listened to the other introductions. Toru Hagakure, Quirk: Invisibility. The invisible girl that he spotted earlier, as odd as that sounds. A fairly straightforward Quirk that revolved around light manipulation. Apparently she looked like a combination of Yang Guifei and Francis Xavier. Izuku carefully thought about what that would look like before giving up entirely.

Mina Ashido, Quirk: Acid. She could generate acids from her body, controlling the concentration and viscosity of it. It was interesting to hear that she loved to dance, even breaking out a few dance moves on the spot. Her movements were fluid, precise, and Izuku knew right then and there she would be a fearsome hand-to-hand combatant.

Kyoka Jiro, Quirk: Earphone Jack. Extending her earlobes, she described her Quirk using a physical demonstration, crouching down and jamming it into the floor. This way, she explained, she could hear footsteps up to a hundred or so meters around.

Next was someone he knew already. "I'm Momo Yaoyorozu. It's a pleasure to meet you all," she said politely. "My Quirk, Creation, allows me to create non-living material from my exposed skin, but I have to know the molecular structure of the object I want to create. Also, when I create things, I draw upon my body's supply of lipids in order to do so."

"No fair~" Mina said playfully, surprise hugging Momo from behind. "Is that the secret to this rocking bod of yours? You just get to burn off fat by naturally using your Quirk… a natural enemy of us normal girls who have to work out, sniff sniff."

Momo, who had let out an eep! sound at suddenly being hugged like that, quickly said, "Well, if I use it too much, I can become anemic—"

Nice to meet you, Yaoyorozu! "I'm Minoru Mineta!" said a short boy with purple… balls on his head? He evidently could not contain himself anymore, seeing as to how he rushed to Momo's side. "Can I just come out and say it? You are stunningly beautiful, and it would be a shame if you were to become anemic. I could just say that…"

The boy went on and on after that, blissfully ignorant of how uncomfortable Momo seemed. Izuku, catching her eye for a split second and looking at her embarrassed expression, made a decision and went with it.

"Mineta, uhm…." Izuku began, getting his attention, "maybe wait until after the introductions are done before resuming your conversation with Yaoyorozu?"

Mineta didn't even seem fazed. Looking back at Izuku, he grinned slyly. "Why, are you jealous? You snooze, you lose, buddy boy."

Katsuki let out a sharp peal of laughter at that comment. Izuku turned to look at the blonde, who was setting off mini explosions in his palms. "Humor, but. You wanna fucking die, rat?" Katsuki said callously. "Shut the fuck up and let's continue."

The whole room was cowed by Katsuki's brusque manner, but they didn't have the heart to disagree with what he said. Mineta had been grating on just about everyone's nerves.

"Let's… move on," Tenya said diplomatically, causing Katsuki to grunt in response and a visibly frightened Mineta to squeak out an affirmative.

Next up was Mashirao Ojiro, Quirk: Tail. He laughed good naturedly, and he said, "I don't have any fun facts about it or anything. I've just got a tail, and that's good enough for me." He didn't seem embarrassed in the slightest, just apologetic that he didn't have anything more to say about his Quirk.

Hanta Sero, Quirk: Tape. His Quirk was like the old American superhero Spiderman, he could swing around on the tapes and capture things with them, but it came at a cost: using his Quirk causes his skin to dry out. That's why, he said half-jokingly, his biggest purchase every month was bottles of lotion.

Fumikage Tokoyami, Quirk: Dark Shadow. Fumikage's Quirk was one of those rare sentient Quirks. The personality and strength of his Quirk directly depends on the amount of light there is, or rather, the lack of it. In complete daytime, his Quirk was very well-behaved and listened to him, but on the darkest nights… he trailed off, letting everyone imagine for themselves.

Shoto Todoroki, Quirk: Half-Cold Half-Hot. True to the name, his Quirk allowed him to generate ice from the right side of his body and flames from the left side. He favored using his right side, but Shoto said he wouldn't hesitate using his left side if absolutely necessary.

With Shoto's short and succinct introduction done, all eyes fell on Izuku. Swallowing in an attempt to calm his nerves, he decided to go with what he thought up and spoke.

"Hi everyone! I'm Izuku Midoriya."

He noticed looks of realization pass through a couple faces in the room. Unfazed, he pressed on. "My Quirk grants me extra strength and speed along with"—He manifested three strands of Blackwhip, letting them wriggle about—"this. That's all."

Silence reigned strong over the room.

"You're Izuku Midoriya?!" Eijiro Kirishima bellowed, making the people around him jump slightly in surprise. Katsuki just covered his ear with one hand, though. "As in, like, two hundred and fifty-eight points on the entrance exam Izuku Midoriya?!"

Ah. That hadn't been the reaction Izuku wanted. He dimly remembered seeing Eijiro's name on the top ten list, meaning that he was privy to such knowledge. Not that he wanted to hide it, of course, but Izuku also didn't need people broadcasting that fact to the whole world. Honestly, he could do without the extra attention that it placed on him. He was simply content to beat All Might's record and didn't know that it was apparently such a big deal.

But, oh well. He wasn't ashamed of it, so Izuku decided to own up to it. "Yup, that's… me." There was a hint of resignation still present in his tone, though.

"Dude. That's. So. MANLY!" Eijiro cheered, energetically jumping off of his seat and bouncing over to Izuku. "Can I shake your hand? I'm gonna shake your hand."

Eijiro grabbed his hand with two of his and shook it enthusiastically. Izuku could tell that there weren't any ill feelings coming off of the young man, but as he thought before, he could really do without the extra attention on him. Now the vast majority of his class were staring at him, wide-eyed, save for a select few.

He dimly wondered if this was the pressure All Might faced: everyone always constantly watching, being placed on a pedestal to be held above everyone else. But this wasn't even close to the amount of attention and pressure that All Might undoubtedly faced. If Izuku was really going to succeed All Might, he would be facing this type of attention every day multiplied by like a gazillion. This early attention, he decided, would be good training for such a future.

That didn't mean Izuku had to like it, though.

"But, dude! You're holding out on us. Tell us more about your Quirk!"

This is training for the day when I become a pro hero, Izuku reminded himself, steeling his nerves.

This is training.

.:.

At the end of it all, Izuku was drained physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Eijiro blurting out his entrance exam score triggered an avalanche of questions from curious classmates. Since Izuku didn't want to be rude and off-putting to his classmates before their first official day together even began, he tried his best at answering each and every single one of them without giving away too much. Ultimately, he was glad that he wasn't being teased or harassed by his future classmates. Although some questions were invasive in content, he could tell that it didn't come from a place of ill will. His classmates were just genuinely curious people.

His attempts at drawing away attention from his Quirk were laughable at best and suspicious at worst. When asked to further explain his Quirk to them, Izuku had replied, "Um, ah—I can just power up and go, you know?"

Thinking about it now made him want to cry.

Also, Katsuki had the most indescribable expression on his face. He looked like he was furious, wanted to ask him questions as well, and relieved, all mixed into one look. He didn't participate in the question asking, though.

Mercifully, his torture ended by the grace of a goddess. Momo Yaoyorozu, bless her saintly heart, noticed the time and suggested that they end the questioning for today and turn in early to get ready for their first day of school tomorrow. Izuku had wanted to thank her, but she had disappeared into the girls section of the dorms before he could single her out.

He sighed. His classmates definitely seemed like a raucous, rowdy bunch full of varying personalities. But they were the people he was going to spend a whole school year with, so he hoped that he'd made a good impression on them.

As the sky darkened and became night, Izuku showered at the end of the hall bathroom and, thankfully not bumping into anyone on his way to and from his shower, he managed to get back into his room uninterrupted. As he got changed into his sleepwear, a simple pair of loose hanging boxers and white t-shirt, he checked his phone and was mildly surprised that he got a text from Himiko. It had been sent somewhat recently, so she must've sent it while he was showering.

Himiko: izu!

Himiko: tell me which dorm u r in

Himiko: and which room

Himiko: plzzzzzzz

Smiling to himself, Izuku decided to humor her strange request.

Izuku: It's the one that says 1-A Alliance on the front of it. I'm room 203.

Izuku: Why do you ask, though?

It took barely a second before the response came.

Himiko: good

Himiko: omw

Confused by what "omw" meant, Izuku decided to look it up. Was it a typo or something? Apparently, the "omw" was an acronym for "on my way" but that simply didn't make sense—

Tack.

The sound came from his window. Intrigued, Izuku walked to it and saw Himiko waving at him happily from the ground.

What.

His brain froze for a moment, crashed, and then rebooted. Then crashed again.

His phone rung in his hand. Incoming call from Himiko Toga, it read. With shaky fingers, he accepted the call.

"Izuuu~" Himiko's sweet tone came through his phone, "are you going to invite me in? Or am I going to freeze out here?"

"Himiko! Wh-What are you doing out there?"

Her voice tickled his ears. "Coming to see you, of course."

Izuku stayed silent for a second, not trusting himself to speak. Swallowing thickly, he finally said, "B-But, isn't there a rule against this? Isn't there—"

"Nope, none at all. Izukuuu," Himiko all but whined, "it's cold out here~"

Izuku gulped. "I'll come get you." A part of him burned in embarrassment, but another part of him was thrilled at the potential prospect of having Himiko in his room, alone.

He hung up the phone, and, steeling his nerves, put on a pair of shorts and walked out of his room. Going silently down the stairs, he scoped out the area, realizing that there was noise coming from the kitchen. He poked his head around the corner, only to find—

Shoto Todoroki eating a bowl of cold soba. The heterochromatic boy noticed him and sheepishly put down the bowl that he'd just been slurping from.

"Oh. Midoriya." Shoto said.

"Todoroki!" Izuku hurriedly amended, stepping fully out. "W-What are you doing down here?"

Shoto looked down at his bowl of food. "Eating soba."

"Ah, yes, but—" Izuku frowned, but ultimately he decided to go on the offensive, "why now? Is also a question I'm asking, yeah."

Shoto looked at him thoughtfully. "Cold soba's my favorite food. Eating it helps me calm down."

Oh, that's what this was about. Izuku was also nervous about the actual first day of school tomorrow, and seeing that even a person as seemingly unflappable as Shoto be nervous was enlightening to Izuku. Or, at least he hoped that that was what Shoto was worried about.

"I wish I had a comfort food like that," Izuku said honestly, "and, yeah, I'm nervous about tomorrow, too, to be honest. I hope we both do great!"

"You as well."

"Hehehe," Izuku chuckled, scratching the back of his neck, "and if you need anything such as help, or you just need a friend, please don't hesitate to call on me."

That got Shoto's full attention, and he looked at Izuku with that appraising look of his. After quite some time of mental consideration of some sort, Shoto said sincerely, "Thank you."

"No problem," Izuku smiled. "Have a good night, Todoroki."

As Shoto wished him the same, he realized he never asked why Izuku was down there in the first place. But as he thought of that, Izuku had already disappeared upstairs.

Oh, well, Shoto thought, this soba isn't going to eat itself.

Meanwhile, Izuku was dialing Himiko and rushing as quietly as he could back to his room. She picked up on the second ring and excitedly said, "Where are you, Izu?"

"Got caught up downstairs," Izuku hurriedly explained. Voice still in a hushed whisper, he said, "I've got another idea, though."

Unlocking the door to his room, entering it, and locking it again, Izuku set about to bring his plan to fruition. He went to the large window in his room and opened it fully. A human should be able to fit through, no problem.

"Look back at the window," Izuku instructed, waving at Himiko. Down there, he saw Himiko look up and grin at him. "Okay, now just hold on a sec."

Concentrating for a moment, he fired four strands of Blackwhip down towards Himiko. They reached her easily, even from their distance of about twenty-five feet. "Do you trust me?" he said into the phone.

"Yes," Himiko said instantly, flashing him a thumbs up.

With a nod, Izuku willed the individual strands of Blackwhip to curl securely around Himiko. Once he was confident that he had a tight grip on her, he recollected the strands of Blackwhip. The pitch-black tendrils raced back to their master, bringing a laughing Himiko up with them. He slowed down when she was just right outside his room, bringing her gently inside and setting her down with care before shutting the window softly and sucking the strands of Blackwhip back into his body.

And, just like that, Himiko was in his room…

Alone…

With no adult supervision.

"Hi," he said shyly and quietly, setting down his phone.

He drank in her appearance. Dressed in a green hoodie—one of his, he noticed—and dark sweats, she still looked no less beautiful than when she was fully dressed up for one of their fancy dinner rendezvous. Dimly, Izuku was aware of his face heating up.

"Hi there yourself. I was lucky that I got your window on the first try," she laughed breathlessly.

"Y-Yeah. Welcome to my room." He gestured around awkwardly.

Himiko giggled. "It's about as fanboyish as I imagined it would be." She eyed the wall of All Might merch, frowning so quickly that Izuku thought it was a trick of the light.

"Well, it'll be my home for the year."

He watched with bated breath as Himiko languidly walked over to his bed and asked, "Do you mind if I lie on this?"

"N-No, not at all."

She kicked off her tennis shoes and yawned, throwing her arms back and pushing out her chest. That act made Izuku's throat go dry, and Himiko, as if she knew of the effect she had on him, grinned up at him and finally laid down, grabbing Izuku's pillow and holding it like it was a dakimakura.

Izuku took a brief moment to appreciate the sight before him. Himiko was curled up around his pillow, hugging it with her arms and legs, and her hair splayed out like a halo around her head. Her golden eyes looked lazily up at him, her gaze warm and inviting, as if she was trying to entice him.

Unsure of what to do, Izuku sat down at his desk chair, keeping his eyes on the picturesque scene before him. Himiko looked like a comfy kitten playing with a ball of yarn or something. It was kinda hard for Izuku to think of ways to describe just how cute and… alluring Himiko looked at the moment.

Himiko made a happy noise in the back of her throat. "Your room is nice. It's bigger than mine."

"Oh?" Izuku said, surprised, "I thought the buildings were the same size."

"You'd think so, right?" Himiko laughed to herself. "But, no, my room is noticeably smaller. Probably has something to do with them valuing the potential hero students more than the general courses students."

Izuku frowned. "Well, that's wrong of them. U.A. should value them equally."

Himiko hummed, squeezing the pillow closer to herself. "They should, but they don't. They're much too preoccupied with the rearing of future heroes."

To that, Izuku had no counter.

"Heroes. Villains. Good. Bad. Just designations made by society. All I see are people using their Quirks for violence." She spoke the last word vehemently.

A silence settled in the room, and a dark look crossed Himiko's face.

She said quietly, "But ultimately I'm just a big fat hypocrite."

"No, you're not," Izuku admonished strongly. "You're like, the least violent person I know. If you were violent, you would've attacked me for my blood all those years ago."

Himiko looked like she wanted to counter, but she kept her mouth shut. But I did essentially attack you, she wanted to say, but she knew Izuku would find some sort of way to refute that. And with that, she bit back a lot more… unsavory and unnecessary things that Iazuku did not need to know about. Ever.

"Liking to drink blood doesn't make you violent," Izuku explained, "and it's just a craving related to your Quirk. One that I'll help you out with for as long as you'll have me."

She looked up at him, the previous dark look all but replaced by a look of pure affection. "You don't have any idea how much those words mean to me."

"H-Hey!" Izuku said, growing embarrassed, "I'm sure that anybody else would say and do the same thing—"

"But no one else has, Izuku," Himiko interrupted him, "no one else has come even close to offering their blood to me willingly. And, besides… it's always been you." Her eyes seemed unfocused, as if she were lost in a memory.

"Uh, Himiko…?"

"It can only ever be you," Himiko emphasized, getting off of his bed. She walked towards him in the manner a predator stalks its prey, a look of raw hunger and unbridled need in her eyes. Frozen in his chair, Izuku didn't dare make a noise as Himiko walked toward him, until…

Himiko threw her arms around his neck and sat in his lap. It was then that Izuku made an eep! sound.

"Can I…?" She asked for permission in a low tone, and Izuku bit his lip and nodded, shutting his eyes at their close proximity.

Relaxing his neck and deactivating his unknown Quirk, he waited for Himiko to bite into his neck. It was a regular enough occurrence that he knew what pain to expect, but he could never get used to the sheer closeness and intimacy of the act.

But the bite never came. The pain never surfaced.

All he felt was a pair of lips gently caressing his own.

Izuku's eyes shot open to find Himiko, eyes shut, much closer than he anticipated. She broke off their chaste kiss and slowly opened her eyes, grinning triumphantly. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. You just looked too cute, Izu~"

Izuku didn't doubt that his face looked like a ripe tomato right about now. He struggled to speak, but he found himself crushed under the sheer enormity of the act that they'd just committed. All he could say was, "That… was my first k-kiss." His eyes focused on anything not-Himiko.

"Are you sad that I took it?" Himiko asked, a bit of worry laced into her tone and expression. All traces of it were wiped away by what Izuku said next, however.

"No. I'm g-glad that it was you… actually," he finished meekly, embarrassed out of his mind.

If he had been looking at Himiko, he would've noticed her face blossom into red, matching his face, and a giddy smile form. He's too cute, Himiko decided. Too cute. And all mine.

Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine. . Mine. Mi—

Whoops. Himiko wiped off the manic grin she knew was on her face. Luckily, her Izuku wasn't looking at her just yet. She just couldn't help it! He was too adorable, and having him here in her arms did poor things to her mental state.

"Thank you for the meal, Izu," she whispered directly into his ear, loving how he shuddered and writhed underneath her. Himiko moved her mouth close to the pulse point on his neck.

"Now time for the dessert~"

.:.

"Geez, trouble sleeping, huh, Midoriya?"

Izuku gazed at the person eating breakfast next to him. Rikido Sato gazed at him, concerned. The gentle giant had taken it upon himself to cook breakfast for everyone, waking up before the crack of dawn in order to do so. While the breakfast mainly consisted of sweets full of sugar, 1-A had appreciated it nonetheless.

"Y-Yeah," Izuku sighed, "I guess you can say that."

"Eh, so even the manliest of us all gets the heebie-jeebies before the first day of class," the redhead Eijiro said. "Figures. I'm a bit nervous, too."

Well, Izuku wanted to say, it's not just that.

After Himiko finished her, ah… dessert, she gave him a flutter of kisses along his neck before untangling herself from him. She stayed and chatted for a while more, leading Izuku to figure out she was in class 1-C. With a demand to visit her at her dorm when he had the chance and to eat lunch with her tomorrow, Himiko left, taking Izuku's express Blackwhip down to the ground from his window.

That left Izuku alone… and very, very on edge. He couldn't even escape his thoughts by falling asleep. Replays of the memory of Himiko's lips on his kept him awake all night. The kiss had been chaste, no crazy tongue action involved, but… still! Even thinking about it now set his heart beating abnormally fast and his face aflame.

How soft her lips were, how tender her kiss was, it was all just so…

Awesome.

He kissed a girl! Well, to be fair, a girl kissed him, but that was mere semantics at this point. And a girl as beautiful, cute, pretty, and hot as Himiko at that! That fact alone set his pride, his ego, his psyche roaring in delight. Not to mention her scent lingered on his pillow after she was gone. Now that was a creepy thought, Izuku mentally berated himself.

Yet he couldn't help but think: why him? Why would a girl as attractive as Himiko want anything to do with him? Sure, he treated her the best he physically and mentally could, but he was just… Izuku Midoriya, a boy with aspiring dreams of being the #1 hero. He had nothing concrete to his name, and yet…

"Whoa, you're really out of it, Midoriya."

This time it had been… Kyoka Jiro?—Izuku thought that was what her name was, the girl with earphone jacks in her ears— who had interrupted his self-deprecating train of thought.

"Y-Yeah," he laughed nervously, "sorry. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"That makes two of us," she grumbled.

Before Izuku could respond, a loud voice boomed throughout the entirety of the first floor. "THE FIRST CLASS STARTS IN THIRTY MINUTES. LET'S NOT BE LATE ON OUR FIRST DAY TOGETHER!" Izuku recognized the voice as Tenya Iida, who must've been yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Crap. I've still gotta pack. Midoriya," Kyoka clasped her hands together in a prayer motion, "can you take this into the kitchen for me?" She pointed at her plate.

"No problem," he replied, and with a grateful thanks Kyoka ran off.

Wolfing down the remainder of his meal, Izuku stood up to bring his and Kyoka's plate into the kitchen. There, he found Momo dutifully washing the dishes and placing them in the dishwasher. Seeing that she was alone and still had a ton of plates to go through, he decided to join her, settling into place beside her.

Momo didn't notice him until she naturally accepted a plate passed to her from Izuku. When she turned to see who the mysterious helper was and saw Izuku, of all people, standing beside her, she let out an unseemly yelp, making Izuku wince at the sudden loud voice.

"I'm s-so sorry! I didn't see you there," Momo apologized, wanting to go and hide somewhere dark after the little screech she emitted.

"No worries," Izuku said, "I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that, so it's my bad."

"No, no, no," she dismissed, "it's my bad."

"Urk, uhm… okay."

A strained silence passed over the two of them. The only noise was the clinking of plates and silverware being passed and washed.

Izuku truly did not know what to say. He wasn't a savant when it came to talking with girls,not even close, and he couldn't, for the life of him, come up with anything to say. Of course he could go with the classic—so how 'bout the weather?—but he'd rather go die in a ditch than say that evidently try-hard attempt at forcing a conversation to start.

Momo, on the other hand, had too many questions (his Quirk being the main focus of the vast majority of them) but didn't know if she even had the guts to ask them. She knew there was more to his Quirk than just "power up and go", she had seen a bit of it in action after all. What were those green tendrils of electricity swirling around him about? What's up with the thick ropes of pure darkness that he could conjure up? To what was the physical extent that he could power up? For what reason did he have to—

Okay, pause, Momo. Take deep breaths. For a scary second there, the nerdy side to Momo nearly took over and asked Izuku those questions. It was just so… curious! She couldn't help herself! First that overheard conversation between Izuku and Aizawa, then the physical demonstration when Izuku rushed to her side with inhuman speed, and then the sight of him all but summoning three strands of black energy… it all just made her so damn curious! If Momo didn't know any better, she'd think he had multiple Quirks at his disposal.

She chuckled to herself. Now that's a funny joke. First, inheriting Quirks; now, multiple Quirks in one person. Momo was coming up with crazy ideas nowadays.

They finished up the dishes in a claustrophobic silence, with Izuku not knowing what to say and Momo having too much to say but holding herself back. When Momo stored away the last plate, Izuku said, "Okay, that's that. Are you packed for class?"

"Yes," she answered, "and you?"

Izuku nodded. Looking at the clock and noticing that there were only fifteen minutes left until class started, he offered, "I think I'll head over to class now. Wanna walk together?"

A polite smile appeared on Momo's face. "Well, yes, that'd be nice. Let me go grab my things."

"Okay. I'll be waiting at the dorm's primary entrance."

As he ran off, Momo took a moment to collect herself. It had been the first time a male had so directly invited her for… anything, and she'd be lying if she said her heart had not skipped a beat at the nonchalant, easy way he invited her. It had been an experience she was lacking in; after all, she had gone to an all-girls school for her middle school and high school, so her contact with boys her age had been close to none.

That had honestly been another reason she wanted to go to U.A. Fame aside, she wanted the co-ed schooling experience. She wanted to be able to talk to guys her own age, not just creepy older men her parents set her up on arranged marriage interviews with. None of them had been successful so far, mostly due to Momo putting her foot down and declining every single one of them. Her parents knew that for a normally docile and obedient Momo to put her foot down and say no was a pretty big deal, and so she never heard of any follow up meetings being arranged.

She just had to mess things up with Izuku. Her own excitement at being able to talk to a boy her age—though, to be honest, she'd met Shoto Todoroki first, but the brief exchange they had barely counted for an actual interaction—had betrayed her in the end, and she'd gone overboard and off the rails, exposing too much of the side her parents had always deemed unseemly.

But he hadn't outed her, yet. Her interactions with the rest of her classmates had gone well, and Momo thought she had done a good job of setting herself up as a dependable, reliable type of person. None of them seemed to know about the geeky side of hers, so she could assume Midoriya had kept his mouth shut. She was… grateful for that, but Momo didn't have a way of comfortably broaching the subject with the boy.

Oh well, she sighed. Things could be a lot worse.

After retrieving her bag that she was using for class from her room, Momo met up with Izuku at the entrance to their dorm. He was waiting there with another boy—Tenya Iida—and Ochaco Uraraka.

"Hello," Momo greeted pleasantly, earning a chorus of hello's back.

"Let us be off, then!" Tenya enthusiastically said. "I made sure that everyone has already gone ahead of us, so we were just waiting on you, Yaoyorozu."

"Thank you for waiting for me." Momo bowed slightly, remembering the etiquette classes her parents made her attend.

Izuku said cheerfully, "No problem!"

The four lightly jogged to their first class, not wanting to be late on their first day. As they jogged, few words were spoken, and by the time they arrived outside of their classroom, there were three minutes remaining until class started.

Izuku was surprised to find that it was assigned seating. He found his seat next to… Katsuki Bakugo and Minoru Mineta. Oh boy, he thought, this is going to be an interesting year.

As he walked towards his seat, his ears picked up the surrounding conversation: "Dude, you're insane—"

Minoru Mineta shook his hands wildly. "I'm telling you guys! I swear I saw a skeet blonde bid just floating outside of the window last night!"

A confused-looking Denki Kaminari responded, "A… what, what, and what?"

"An attractive blonde girl," deadpanned Minoru. Then, he spotted Izuku. "Midoriya! Did you see the girl of my dreams last night, too?"

"I—uhm, what?" Izuku asked, feigning surprise. His heart sunk in his chest as he realized the identity of the person Minoru was likely talking about. It seems like someone had spotted Himiko last night.

"Dude, I think you're tripping balls. No offense," Eijiro said apologetically. Katsuki let out a snort of laughter at that comment.

"No, no, no! I swear that I saw the perfect woman floating outside of my—"

"If you're here to chit chat about perfect women," sneered a sudden authoritative voice, "I suggest you leave and go home."

Izuku recognized that voice and promptly sat in his seat, not saying a single word. As people realized who had just spoken, they, too, ran and sat down in their seats, immediately shutting up. Izuku was immensely grateful for the distraction from Minoru's topic.

"I am Shota Aizawa and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year. Nine seconds," Aizawa-sensei said, scowling, "it took you all nine seconds to realize that I was here, to shut up, and to sit down. In the real world, nine people could die in nine seconds. The time you waste could make all the difference. Remember that."

At his bone-chilling words, all the class could do was gulp and nod.

"Now is typically the time where you'd expect me to go through orientation and the like." Aizawa rubbed his eyes, and for the first time Izuku noticed that he seemed to be standing in a sleeping bag of some sort. He continued, "But here at U.A. we do things differently. Get changed into these and meet me on the general-use P.E. grounds."

From inside his sleeping bag, he pulled out a box and unceremoniously dropped it on the floor before exiting the room. Mina Ashido, who sat in the front row, got out of her seat and opened it, revealing a bunch of blue and white… track uniforms?

"Wow. They've got our sizes correct and our names on it, too," Mina breathed. She quickly distributed the tracksuits to their correct owner, never once asking for a name, and then she stopped and mulled over something.

"Hmmm…" she hummed, growing a devilish smile. "Girls change here, we kick the boys out, yeah?"

Immediately, Minoru protested, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Why can't we all just be mature adults here and change together for the interest of time—"

Ochaco suddenly appeared before him, smiling serenely. With an angelic expression, she tapped Minoru with all of her fingers, causing him to float, before brutally shoving his levitating weightless body through the open door. All they heard was a loud yelp, a few cuss words, and a meaty-sounding thud.

"Point taken," Denki said. "See you ladies on the flipside." He quickly gathered his clothing and left the room, followed by a group of more-or-less equally shaken boys.

Mina waved after them. "Bye byeee~"

.:.

As Izuku walked along to the general-use P.E. grounds clad in his new blue and white personalized track uniform, he found himself gazing at the classrooms used by the general course students, who all looked like they were deep in session.

While the general course had a more flexible schedule, with each student taking their own classes, class selection was almost nonexistent for the heroics course students. They all had to take English, Modern Literature, Modern Hero Art History, Mathematics, and a litany of other required courses. The most exciting course and the one that Izuku was looking forward to the most was the Fundamental Hero Studies class, taught by All Might.

The Heroics class took up a vast portion of their time every day except for the weekends, and it was the defining class for the heroics course at U.A. In it, they taught everything from regulations to hand-to-hand combat and everything in between. It was the class that made U.A. and its heroics program famous throughout the nation.

He found himself thinking about Aizawa's warning: If I find you lacking, I will not hesitate to expel you.

It was a chilling threat, but not an unwelcome one. Izuku just had to prove himself to Aizawa, and his warning gave him an even bigger incentive to do so.

As he arrived with the rest of his classmates, he found a bunch of relatively tame-looking tools: a softball, a long-jump pit, a straight track for sprints, and many more everyday equipment.

"Welcome to the Quirk Assessment Test," Aizawa said with a mock flourish. As confused whispers went around the group of first year college students, he continued, "U.A. allows its teachers great freedom in what they do. So, what we're doing is essentially a test to see where your upper limits are. That forms the basis of our training."

Izuku understood—well, kind of. It was just a baseline test, right?

"Midoriya," Aizawa suddenly addressed him, "you finished top of the practical exam, right? How far could you throw a softball in high school?"

Izuku briefly floundered as attention was suddenly turned onto him, but he finally said, "Seventy two meters, I think." It had been a somewhat above average score, especially since he'd already started his workout program with All Might by the time his final test for the softball throw came.

"That was without your Quirk, correct?"

"Yes."

Aizawa sighed deeply. "Such an archaic and dated way of doing things. In case you greenhorns didn't realize this, we don't live in a Quirkless society. Villains have Quirks, and they're not afraid to use them. So, in return, we must master our Quirks to our fullest capabilities. We have to use what we were given for the greater good, and we can't shy away from our Quirk. In our time here, you will learn to embrace your Quirk in its entirety, or I will have failed you."

He held up a softball to Izuku. "Take this and throw it. Use your Quirk. As long as you don't leave this circle, anything goes."

In a quiet voice that only Izuku could hear, he added, "Show me that you are worthy."

Izuku stared up at Aizawa, accepting both the ball and the challenge. "I will."

Nodding, Aizawa stepped back to give Izuku space and motioned for the rest of the class to do the same. Izuku stepped into the circle, mentally prepping his mind for what he was about to do. Normally, he'd just throw it at 50%, but after Aizawa's challenge, anything less than 100% would be insulting. And—

"Visualize opposites."

For a moment, his brain shut down. Ice-cold terror, pure and raw, crept up his spine and spread to every crevice in Izuku's body.

Where… where had he heard that before? And just why did it sound so familiar? Why did it… evoke this feeling?

He shut his eyes and breathed in deeply. Calm down, he gently told himself. Breathe in for ten seconds, breathe out for five seconds, repeat. He repeated the sequence until his rapidly beating heart finally returned to a more agreeable level. It was still slightly elevated, but at least he had control of his body again.

Izuku had no idea where that voice came from or why it absolutely, downright terrified him to his core, but he was certain of one thing: visualize opposites. He could do that. He had no idea how he knew, Izuku just knew intrinsically what to do.

He grabbed the softball in his right hand and cocked back. His arm began to glow as green electricity and fragmented black shadows swirled around his palm, and he gathered One For All in its entirety and… visualized opposites. With a low grunt, he swung his arm forward and released all the pent up energy gathered, sending green lightning flying wildly in all directions.

The softball exploded out of his grasp, soaring high into the sky with an ear-shattering boom.

"Oh," he heard one of his classmates involuntarily mumble.

Aizawa stared at the distance reader in his left hand. "So, there you have it." If Aizawa had been impressed, he surely didn't show it. "You will all be using your Quirks in these tests."

After a solid amount of time, Izuku heard a ding, and Aizawa showed them the final result: 2368 meters. 2.3 kilometers. Even Izuku hadn't expected that type of result, and judging by the flabbergasted looks of his classmates, they hadn't either. Immediately, everyone burst into conversation.

"That's slightly… crazy," Eijiro said, still in awe.

"But," Mina cut in, "this seems exciting! We get to use our Quirks all we like?"

"Exciting, hmm?" Aizawa sneered. "How about we make this truly exciting. The student who ranks last in these eight tests will be judged as having no potential and promptly expelled."

That shut everyone up.

"T-That can't be fair," Mina said. It had been her words that had prompted such an extreme reaction from their teacher, so she felt the need to make amends for it. "It's just our first day, after all."

"The life of a hero isn't fair," Aizawa countered. "Villains, natural disasters, you name it; a hero doesn't ever get to choose what they are going to have to deal with on any given day. You either rise up to meet the occasion or you fall and suffer the consequences. For these next few years that you're at U.A. I will grill that lesson into your tiny little brains. Your duty is to rise up to the occasion, and go, just like our school motto says, above and beyond." He paused, smiling savagely.

"Plus Ultra."

.:.

The first test was a simple seated toe touch.

Unsurprisingly, the highest scorers for this test were all females, save for the exception of Katsuki, who surprised everyone by demonstrating surprising amounts of flexibility, able to go beyond his feet. He still didn't beat out Mina and Momo, though. Those two girls' torsos practically melded into the ground, showing off their flexibility, resulting in Momo getting first and Mina placing a close second.

When it came to Izuku's turn, he tried his best to reach for his toes, but he could only touch the bottom of his ankle. His workouts with All Might primarily focused on strength, never on flexibility, so Izuku surmised from this test that he could probably use a few more stretches in his workout routine.

He wondered what All Might would think about flexibility. Izuku just couldn't imagine All Might being flexible.

.:.

The next test was sit ups.

Now this was more favorable. Izuku never neglected ab day, so he was confident in the speed and precision of his sit ups. His work over the years paid off in first place for Izuku, followed unsurprisingly by Katsuki and Todoroki tied at second and Momo at third.

.:.

The third test was a grip strength test.

Izuku decided to go last, just in case something bad happened to the device when he used it. His fears came true when he channeled the full strength of his Quirks through his hand, crushing the device completely and crumpling the steel around his hand.

Aizawa just marked it as N/A and gave him first place. Second place had gone to Momo, who had made a mini hydraulic press for the test out of her body, and third went to Mezo Shoji, who had scored 540 kg.

.:.

Next was a fifty meter sprint.

Izuku channelled all of his power into his legs, exploding forth and using two strands of Blackwhip to slingshot forward. This proved to be too fast for him to keep up with, and he ended up crash landing at the finish line, tumbling forward without any control for about ten, twenty meters. It hurt like crazy and his legs creaked under the pressure, but he was sure he hadn't broken anything. He still got first place with a time of 2.3 seconds, followed by Tenya's 3.04 seconds and Momo's 3.9 seconds.

Momo had constructed a bicycle for the test, though. She had excused herself, gone behind a building, and reappeared with a fully formed bicycle. Aizawa allowed it, since like the hydraulic press, it was technically her Quirk at work.

All Izuku could do was admire how versatile her Quirk was.

.:.

The fifth test was a standing long jump test.

This one was notable for how many students jumped entirely out of the pit. The pit itself was only five meters, so a couple of students had jumped out of the pit and thus earned them an automatic N/A and first place.

First had been Katsuki, who had used his explosions to boost him way past the pit. Tsuyu Asui had just managed to jump it thanks to her Quirk, Frog, giving her extremely powerful legs and heightened jumping capabilities. Shoto used the ice side of his Quirk to construct a bridge and simply walked over it, and Izuku pumped 100% through his legs and bit through the pain as he leapt and cleared the pit.

As things currently stood, he could only safely use 100% once more in his legs, arms, and hands. Nothing was broken, which was a good sign that his third Quirk was holding things together, but he hoped he wouldn't be forced to use 100% in the remaining tests.

If it came down to it, he would gladly use 100% past his limit; it's just that he didn't want his classmates to see him get injured because he couldn't control his Quirk. Call it a pride thing or whatever, that was just how Izuku thought.

.:.

Luckily, Izuku's hopes came true with the next test: repeated side steps.

This one simply favored who was more athletic rather than what type of Quirks people had, but Izuku managed to get a slight edge over the competition by shooting out strands of Blackwhip in between steps, slightly accelerating his movement.

That extra little effort paid off with a first place victory.

.:.

The second-to-last test was the softball throw that Izuku had already done.

Surprisingly, Izuku placed second even with his score. He was far outclassed by Ochaco, who had achieved the frankly staggering score of infinity by making the ball float up unendingly. Third place had gone to Katsuki, who had blasted the ball for 705 meters.

Still, it shocked him to find someone who could score infinity on the test.

.:.

The final test was a long distance run of one kilometer.

Momo had everyone beat the moment she left to go around the corner and returned with a fully functioning, modified electric bike. After she showed up with a vehicle to a footrace, everyone else knew that they'd be fighting for second and third place.

In long distance, Tenya had Izuku beat. At 50%, Izuku was simply not faster than Tenya running in a straight line. He might've been quicker and more agile, but he definitely wasn't faster. Tenya placed second at 92 seconds, and Izuku placed third at 99 seconds. He had been chased all the way by a fire-blasting Katsuki and ice-surfing Shoto, who came in fourth and fifth respectively.

Momo had blown everyone out of the water with a time of 75 seconds, cruising along at a comfortable 48 kilometers per hour.

And just like that, the Quirk Assessment Test ended.

.:.

"Alright, gather around, come see your rankings." Aizawa yawned, muffling it with a well placed hand.

As his classmates anxiously gathered around to see the results on Aizawa's tablet, Izuku could have sworn he saw All Might peeking out from behind the corner of a nearby building. As soon as Izuku looked at him, though, All Might retreated behind the corner, leaving Izuku to wonder if he saw an illusion or not.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the tablet that Aizawa was holding. The tablet only had the top five results in place, and it read:

5—Tenya Iida.

4—Shoto Todoroki.

3—Katsuki Bakugo.

2—Momo Yaoyorozu.

1—Izuku Midoriya.

"Remember these names, gnats," Aizawa groussed. "As of right now, they're the top of your class. Aim to surpass them."

No one said a word. While Izuku was glad to not have been expelled, he didn't exactly appreciate being labeled as the best in the class on the first day and made an object to surpass. But, if he was being honest with himself, a small portion of him glowed positively with pride.

"U-Uhm, sensei," Mina bravely ventured, "if you're going to expel anyone, let it be me—"

"Oh, no." Aizawa stared at the group through his locks of black hair. A shit-eating grin appeared on his face. "I wasn't planning on expelling anyone in the first place."

The class let out a collective sigh of relief. A few people had the audacity to glare vengefully at their teacher.

"Whoa, whoa," Aizawa laughed, "what's with those faces? Fine, how about this: those of you who haven't made the top five are on thin ice from here on out. One mess up and you'll be kicked out. Just in case you doubt me, I'll have you know that I've expelled a whole class of students that I found lackluster. I'm not afraid to do the same this year."

Izuku gulped. U.A. must've really given their teachers the freedom to do whatever they wanted if Aizawa got away with expelling an entire class. He hoped that the same wouldn't happen again this school year. He could see himself getting along with everyone in his class save for probably Minoru Mineta and Katsuki.

Well, Izuku thought it was a successful first class. Although he'd have to address the strange… Quirk-like ability he had demonstrated when throwing the softball. Even now, the words visualize opposites haunted his mind.

He didn't know where he had heard it from, but he couldn't deny the familiarity of the voice, the very real emotions that it brought along with it. He had felt mind-numbing fear, raw, unforgiving terror, but, now that he had time to truly search within himself… a certain fondness, a certain respect for the voice.

It could very well have just been an aspect of One For All, like Blackwhip. The voice could have simply been a previous holder of One For All attempting to communicate with him, like the user of Blackwhip had all those years ago. Yet…

He knew that it wasn't a part of One For All.

With utmost certainty, he knew that it was not One For All.

It couldn't have been part of his unnamed third Quirk, either. That one negated bodily damage. This one was different, he could just tell. He didn't know how he knew, but he just knew:

This was an entirely new Quirk.

Well, shit, Izuku thought to himself.

All Might needed to know about this development.