As you prolly noticed by now, Izuku doesn't have One For All. He's not as powerless as he was at the start of the series.

"Did you pack your tissues?"

"Mmhmm."

"What about your handkerchief?"

"In my pocket, as usual!"

"What about your–"

"Mom!" Izuku half-whined, half-laughed in exasperation at his mom's antics as he tied his shoes. "At this rate I might as well bring the whole bathroom to school." He lifted his watch. "Shoot! I'm gonna be late!" He shot upright and bolted for the door.

"Izuku! Wait!"

He stopped himself, leaving the door half-opened as he turned around to look at his mom impatiently. "What?"

Soft teary green eyes greeted him as Inko gave her son a smile, and Izuku felt bad for the tone he used with her. "You're really cool."

Izuku's cheeks flushed, unsure how to respond to the compliment. He gathered himself and returned the smile with a warm grin of his own. "Thanks, mom! I'm off!"

BREAK

"Class 1-A... 1-A... Where is it? This place is too big." Midoriya grumbled to himself as he tried to navigate his way to his class. The one time he visited UA prior was during the Entrance Exam, and even then he had just caught a small glimpse at the size of the hallways. Probably for accessibility.

Green eyes landed on the brown sign at the top corner of a door and saw '1-A' painted in white. "There it is!" He ran up towards the class as fast as he could, and he was forced to crane his neck back to look at the large red 1-A painted on the extremely large door.

Yep, definitely built for accessibility.

His hand reached for the door knob, sliding it open when a thought occurred to him.

I hope I don't get grouped with the scary person.

There were already a number of students in the class, most of them sitting at their desks and chatting idly with each other. Green eyes scanned the room for for his designated seat and quickly made his way towards the desk just right behind–

"Tch, I almost thought you chickened out," Bakugo scoffed.

"Good morning to you too, Kacchan," Midoriya tried to smile. It came off looking like a grimace.

Another huff. Bakugo leaned backwards and placed a foot on the desk. He turned to face Midoriya with a crooked smile. "That makes it what – 705 wins for me and 699 losses."

Someone next to Midoriya blanched, but the greenette ignored that in favour of correcting his friend. "Actually, I have 700 wins. You're not purposely forgetting our first match, aren't you?"

The glare Bakugo sent Midoriya would have scared anyone. The blonde clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Of course, I'm not. Should I also include our scrims as wel–"

"Put your foot down at once!"

Midoriya sweatdropped at the interruption. He recognized that voice. Talk about bad luck. Sure, he knew that he would be classmates with Bakugo, the two of them pretty much confirmed that the moment they received their class placements. But to be in the same class with Mr 'Four-Eyes'... at this point the greenette was certain the gods hated him.

Bakugo, on the other hand, had turned around to face Four-Eyes, his smile back on his face and more sardonic than ever. "Huh?"

"Don't you think that's rude to the UA upperclassmen and the people who made the desk?" The stern-looking boy was practically chopping the air with his arms at this point. It reminded Midoriya of Karate chops for some reason.

"Nope!" Bakugo placed his other foot on the table, as if challenging the boy in glasses standing across from him. "I remember you, Four-Eyes. What junior high school did you go to, you side character?!"

Glasses, taken aback – either by the sudden aggression, or the nickname – straightened himself before placing a hand on his chest. "I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Iida Tenya."

"Somei, huh?" Bakugo's smile widened. "So you're a damn elite, then. Looks like I'm gonna have fun blowing that stick further up your ass."

"'Blowing the stick further–'" Iida blanched at the words. He took a precautionary step back. "Such violence! Do you truly aim to be a hero?"

That was when blue eyes met green. "It's you."

Midoriya straightened himself when he realized that Iida had turned his attention to him. "You there! Good morning!" Iida marched towards Midoriya's desk. "I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is–"

"I heard!" Midoriya quickly interjected while nervously waving his hands, causing Iida to freeze mid sentence. Realizing his sudden outburst, the greenette stammered his way into his own introductions. "My name is Midoriya Izuku. It's nice to meet you, Iida."

"Midoriya, you noticed there was something more to the practical exam, didn't you?"

Midoriya tilted his head to the side, unsure what Iida meant with the question.

"I had no idea," Iida continued, his hands waving around in a robotic fashion. He turned his head to the side. "I hate to admit it, but you are better than me."

The proclamation only served to confuse Midoriya even more, while Bakugo let out a scoff.

"Oh! That curly hair! You're the plain looking one!"

The trio turned to see a girl with shoulder length hair standing next to Iida. Midoriya almost jumped out of his seat when he recognized her. The girl from the Practical Exam.

The nice one who stopped him from tripping.

Blood rushed towards his cheeks when he realized how good she looked in a school uniform that he missed out whatever she was saying as she animatedly swung her hands around. Bakugo spared a glance at his friend and let out a snort upon seeing Midoriya covering his face with his arms.

"I wonder if today's just the entrance ceremony and orientation?" the girl added enthusiastically, not noticing the byplay in front of her. "I wonder what our teachers' like? Aren't you nervous?"

"If you're just here to make friends, then you can pack up your stuff now."

A deep, gruff voice stopped all conversations that were ongoing and. Every pair of eyes in the class turned to the door. Midoriya almost jumped out of his seat for the second time in as many minutes, Bakugo blanched and Iida's jaw dropped when they saw the creepy face sticking out of a human-sized sleeping bag.

"This is the Hero Course," the man continued, his voice tired as though he was missing days of sleep. He pulled a juice pouch and placed it in his mouth.

Twenty faces paled as they all thought in unison. What the hell is that thing?

The man stood up, unzipping his sleeping bag to reveal a black long-sleeved shirt with matching black pants with a scarf wrapped around his neck. But perhaps the most unnerving sight was his face. Sporting messy shoulder length black hair and his facial hair was equally stubbly and unkempt.

"Okay, it took you eight whole seconds before you were quiet." He observed while putting his sleeping bag away. "Time is precious. You kids aren't rational enough."

Midoriya's head was spinning. A teacher? That means he's a Pro Hero. But I've never seen a hero looking that worn out before.

Black, flat eyes looked around the class. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota. Nice to meet you."

There were several gasps from the students, and Midoriya's eye twitched in disbelief. Our homeroom teacher?!

"It's kind of sudden, but put this on and go out to the field." Mr Aizawa ignored the surprised reactions of his students in favour of reaching into his sleeping bag and pulled out a dark blue short sleeve shirt. Midoriya recognized the white and red markings as UA's PE uniform. "You'll find them in the locker room downstairs." And with that, he turned on his heels and left, leaving his students wondering just what on earth he was planning.

BREAK

"A Quirk Assessment test?!"

"But what about the entrance ceremony? And orientation?" The girl asked.

"If you're going to be a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events." Aizawa muttered. "One of UA's selling points is how it's unrestricted by school traditions, that includes how the teachers run their class."

The man turned to face the class. "You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right?" He pulled his phone out, revealing a list that Midoriya recognized as names of fitness tests. "Physical fitness tests where you're not allowed to use your Quirks. This country still insists on prohibiting Quirks when calculating the averages of those results. It's not rational." He pocketed his phone. "Well, the Ministry of Education is procrastinating."

"Bakugo," black eyes landed on the spiky-blonde haired teen. "What was your best result in softball throw in middle school?"

"Sixty-seven meters."

"Great. Try using your Quirk this time," Aizawa commented lazily while tossing a softball at the boy. Bakugo noticed that the ball had a digital bar in its center. "You can do whatever you want, as long as you stay in the circle."

Taking the cue, Bakugo made his way into the circle. He gave his arm a few stretches, feeling the joints loosen.

"Don't hold back," Aizawa prompted. Bakugo's lips curled up at that. "Well, then–"

"DIE!" came the shout as the teen released a huge explosion from his palm at the peak of his swing. The ball rocketed into the sky leaving a trail of smoke behind it. The force from the explosion pushed some of the students back.

Midoriya wore a deadpan look. Die? Seriously?

"Know your own maximum limit first." Aizawa said as he looked at his phone. It beeped. He turned to face his class. "That is the most rational way to form the foundations of a hero." Everyone stared at the device that their teacher brought up, mouths gaping at the number on display.

705.2m.

Some were in disbelief at the show of power "Over 700 meters?" A boy with yellow hair remarked. "Seriously?"

Others were shaking with anticipation. "What is this?" A girl with pink skin, pink hair, and yellow horns said excitedly. "This looks fun!"

"We can really use our quirk?" A boy with cylindrical elbows added. "That's the Hero Course for you!"

"Looks fun, huh?" Aizawa suddenly took a serious tone."You have three years to become a hero. Will you be maintaining that attitude the whole time?"

The class, just getting excited a few seconds earlier, were too stunned to speak. "All right, then." They felt chills running down their spine at the sight of their tired-looking teacher suddenly putting on a venomous smile. "Whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion."

"HUH?!"

"We're free to do what we want about the circumstances about our students," Aizawa explained as he lifted the hair blocking his face, revealing a lopsided evil grin that would have fit more in a villain than a hero. "Welcome to UA's Hero Course!"

"B-But it's the first day of school!" the nice girl tried to protest. "No, even if it wasn't the first day of school, this is too unfair!"

"Natural disasters, large accidents and selfish villains," Aizawa began listing out. "These are calamities that we can't predict. Japan has always been filled with unfairness. Heroes are the ones entrusted with reversing those situations. If you were counting on a friendly chat at the nearest Mcdonald's after school, too bad. From now on, for the next three years, UA will run you through the wringer." He lifted his finger into a beckoning gesture. "Go beyond. PLUS ULTRA. Overcome it with all you've got."

"The demonstration's over. The real thing starts now."

BREAK

All things considered, Izuku thought that the tests weren't exactly that bad. Sure, he didn't get first place in any of the last four trials, but he managed to do decently well all things considered. On the plus side, he's given the chance to observe his classmates use their quirks.

Iida was like a fish in water during the fifty-meter dash. Having literal car engines in his legs would give anyone an advantage. Bakugo and Midoriya finished top three in that, with the latter just a millisecond away from overtaking his friend. If anything, he didn't know what to make of the blonde haired boy who was shooting lasers out of his bellybutton.

As for the grip test, the multi-armed masked boy came first. Not that Midoriya would complain. It's not easy to challenge anyone who can easily produce a grip strength of 540kg, though the greenette may have felt a little hurt in his pride to know that his score for second place was still over a hundred kilograms.

If anything he would be annoyed with the long jump. Sure he landed outside the sandbox, but the smug smile on Bakugo's face when the blonde landed several inches further than he did really shouldn't had gotten under his skin as much as it did. So yeah, colour him annoyed. A short kid with sticky balls for hair took first in the repeated side-step exercise, using his Quirk to bounce himself so fast between the lines that he was a blur. And he ended up vomiting at the side at the end of it.

Which brought them back to the ball throw. The girl with chestnut hair went ahead and scored a freaking Infinity. Oh, Midoriya had to bite the inside of his cheeks or else he would chuckle at the sight of Bakugo's eyes twitching when Mr Aizawa revealed the infinite symbol on his phone.

No, he chooses life. Thank you very much.

"Midoriya Izuku," Aizawa called out. He tossed another softball to the teen. "You're up."

Midoriya walked up to the circle while juggling the ball with his right hand. He entered a pitcher's stance, and lifted his leg just and he cocked his arm backwards. His muscles tensed and joints loosened as he swung his arm. A thought occurred to him, and his lips curled into a grin.

"DIE!"

The ball rocketed off his fingertips, not unlike the throw that Bakugo demonstrated. The students gasp at the show of power, more so they were stunned by the fact that there wasn't any shockwave that accompanied his throw as the ball soared into the sky.

In the corner of his vision, Midoriya thought he saw Mr Aizawa move, but as he turned towards his teacher, he noticed that the man hadn't moved. Though black eyes were looking at him as if trying to decipher something.

Mr Aizawa's phone beeped, breaking the man out of whatever trance he was in and he showed Midoriya his result.

708.9meters.

Bakugo raised an eyebrow as Midoriya rejoined the group. "Oi... Deku..." Midoriya turned his attention to his friend, and he wasn't comfortable with the blank look the spiky blonde was giving him.

Midoriya let out a scream as Bakugo wrapped the greenette in a headlock and proceeded to give him a nuggie. "DID YOU HAVE TO FUCKING COPY ME?! DUMBASS DEKU! 'DIE'?! SERIOUSLY?! YOU SOUND LIKE A TOTAL DIMWIT SAYING THAT!"

"SAYS YOU!" Midoriya found himself countering. He reached for Bakugo's face and pushed. That seemed to aggravate the blonde further.

Most of the class sweat-dropped at the display. Aizawa glanced at his watch before letting out a tired sigh.

"That's enough!" He commanded, breaking up the tussle. "You're wasting time as it is."

BREAK

By the end of the day, most of 1-A were sore. Aizawa rounded them all back up at the front of the gymnasium. "Okay, I'll quickly give you the results. The total is simply the marks you managed from each test." He brought his phone up. "It's a waste of time to tell you verbally, so I'll just show you all the results at once."

He tapped on his phone, and a hologram projected into the air in front of him. Midoriya searched for his name, finding it at number five. Curiosity got the better of him and green eyes darted towards the name at twentieth.

'Minoru Mineta'.

"You-" the short boy with purple balls for hair whimpered. Tears prickled the corner of his eyes. "You're kidding me..."

"Oh, and I was lying about the expulsion." Aizawa suddenly added. Heads whipped towards him. The shit-eating grin he wore was more unsettling than the evil smirk he had given them prior to the start of the test. "It was a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the test."

While most of the students screamed in disbelief, a girl with a spiky ponytail chimed in. "Of course it was a lie. It should've been obvious if you actually thought it through."

The class was split between feeling outraged at their teacher, and feeling as though they were patronized by someone their age.

"We're done here," Aizawa announced. He made his way to leave the field. "There are handouts with the curriculum and such in the classroom so when you get back, look over them."

As a parting shot, he added, "Tomorrow will be packed with more rigorous tests. Be sure to prepare yourselves."

BREAK

The rest of the day passed in a blur. There wasn't much to do following Mr Aizawa's Test, so Midoriya spent most of the time familiarising himself with the syllabus and the semester's timetable. From the looks of it, the curriculum of UA High's Hero course consisted of the regular classes such as English and Maths in the morning.

Bakugo clicked his tongue as he and Midoriya started to walk towards the station. "Morning classes are gonna be so fucking boring."

"It's part of the required syllabus, Kacchan," Midoriya sweatdropped.

Another huff. Another sweatdrop.

Then Bakugo grinned. Maniacally. "Tomorrow afternoon can't come any quicker."

Midoriya perked up at that. "Oh yeah. We'll have Hero Trai– oof!"

He yelped as he bumped into a sturdy wall. Well, a sturdy wall that was Iida Tenya. The bespectacled boy turned around. "Oh, sorry about that. Are you okay, Midoriya?

"Watch where you're walking, dammit," Bakugo chided Midoriya, then turned to sneer at Iida. "And you! How can you not know that you're standing in the middle of the road, for fuck's sake?!"

Iida began chopping the air. "Is this the kind of language that a UA student should be using?!"

"It is for idiots like you!"

Midoriya rolled his eyes. "Guys, cut it out. I'm alright. Thanks for asking, Iida."

That stopped the bickering duo, though the tension didn't leave as they resorted to glaring daggers at each other. Iida fell in beside Midoriya, and decidedly tried to direct the conversation elsewhere.

"I really was taken in by Mr Aizawa," he said while holding his chin in thought. "I even thought, 'This is the best of the best', and such. I didn't think a teacher would encourage us with a lie."

Deep down, Midoriya realized that Iida wasn't scary, just earnest.

"Like Ponytail said, it was obviously a ruse." Bakugo, on the other hand, scoffed. "You're just to fucking blind to see it."

Iida gasped and turned towards Bakugo, his arms once again chopping the air as he tried to admonish the spiky blonde for his crass language.

"Hey! The three of you!"

The trio stopped in their tracks and turned to see the girl with chestnut hair running towards them. "Are you guys going to the station? Wait for me!"

Her smile blinded Midoriya, and he turned into a blushing mess the closer she got to them.

"You're the infinity girl!" Iida recognized with a start.

"I'm Uraraka Ochaco!" She introduced herself as she caught up with the group. "Umm... you're Iida Tenya, you're Midoriya Deku, and Bakugo Katsuki, right?"

Deku was pulled out of his blushing mess. "Deku?!"

"Huh?" Uraraka, seemingly surprised by the outburst, turned to a disinterested Bakugo. "Isn't that what you called him during the fitness test?"

"My real name is Izuku." Midoriya added timidly, his hands flailing around so much it's a wonder he hadn't smacked someone by accident. "De-Deku is what Kacchan calls me to make fun of me."

Iida directed righteous fury at the spiky blond in question. "So you've been insulting him all this time?!" which led into another spiel of bickering in the background. Uraraka placed a hand behind her head out of embarrassment as she apologized to Midoriya.

And then she added. "But, 'Deku' sounds like the Japanese word for 'You can do it!" and I kinda like it!"

"I'M DEKU!"

Both Iida and Bakugo practically choked on their own spit when they saw Midoriya's extremely comical red face. Iida was the first to recover. "You're accepting this too easily, Midoriya! Isn't it an insult?"

Unable to continue looking at the bright sun that is Uraraka's smile, Midoriya whirled around and covered his face. "It's like a Copernican Revolution. My whole world's been turned upside down."

Uraraka tilted her head to the side, not understanding a single word Midoriya had just said. "Copper-what?"

"Does it matter?!" Bakugo scoffed as he started walking. "Move your asses already, idiots, unless you wanna miss the train!"

BREAK

"Hey, Shota! How did the first day with the youngins go– HEY!"

Aizawa ignored Yamada's outcry and marched past his friend to make a beeline straight towards the principal's office with a purpose in his steps. He knocked on the door and opened it upon hearing Nezu's 'come in!'

"Aizawa!" Nezu greeted cherrily. "Is there anything I can help you with? Did you 'expel' any students on their first day?"

"No expulsions this time around," Aizawa replied, his tone almost dripping with sarcastic disappointment. "And as a matter of fact, yes. I want to know more about one of my students."

"Every information of your students have been compiled in the–"

"Class folder, I know." Aizawa finished for his boss. "But the class folder only discloses basic information that the homeroom teachers should know. I have a theory not related to anything in the folder and you are the only one who can provide confirmation to it."

"Well, let's hear it," Nezu prompted, his smile never leaving his face.

"Midoriya Izuku," the answer arrived almost immediately. "He finished in the top five in today's Quirk Apprehension Test. But more interestingly was his result from the softball throw. Over seven-hundred meters."

"It's not surprising that some potential heroes display raw power with their Quirks."

"It is when I had Erasure activated and directed at him." Aizawa countered, causing Nezu to fall into silence. The smile had left his face. "Yeah, I tried it. So imagine my surprise when the kid managed to pull that toss off."

When Nezu didn't reply, Aizawa tried to push further. "Sir, if I'm going to be teaching these students, I need to know exactly what I'm dealing with. Midoriya is one of them, isn't he?"

"... It seems you already know the answer to that question."

Taking that reply as the answer as all he needed, Aizawa bowed and turned to leave. He was about to open the door when Nezu called to him.

"Shota, I believe I do not have to stress to you the importance that this information isn't made public."

The man turned at that. "What about All Might? He's still the Top Hero."

The principal sighed. "If he's sharp enough, he'll piece it together. And I'm sure that he'll come to me with questions, the same way you did."

Aizawa couldn't help himself but raise a doubtful eyebrow at that. As far as he's observed, All Might may take some time before noticing anything at all.

Mmhmm. Aizawa was always the sharper tool in the shed.