Izuku stumbled into homeroom, still a little tired from patrol the night before. It wasn't as eventful as a few nights ago, but he was still up until 2am running around on the rooftops.

  Mr Aizawa greeted him from his desk as Izuku slumped down at his own.

  "The coffee should kick in in a minute or two." The hero said, placing a mug on Izuku's desk.

  "My hero." Izuku said, tipping his head back and chugging the hot liquid.

  "Your end of term exams are coming up soon. You have two weeks to prepare for both the written and the physical. I'll be upping your training in class, and your sparring will be taken over by.. someone else. Depending on how that goes, your exam may be.. different."

  Izuku could hear the 'harder' covered up by 'different'. He was ready for the challenge.

  Once the coffee kicked in Izuku and Aizawa headed to gym A, which had been recently repaired. They did the usual morning exercises, then quirk training for a few hours before getting food from the canteen.

  "Put your costume on and head to practice facility 2." Aizawa said, standing from the table and throwing his jelly packet into the nearby bin.

  Izuku nodded, quickly finishing his katsudon and returning the bowl to Lunch Rush, praising his cooking once again.

  Once he had his costume on Izuku walked over to practice facility 2, a cigarette already burning in his mouth.

  Knowing Aizawa, whoever was inside would attack on sight. Izuku surrounded himself in a vortex of smoke and knocked on the door.

  "Come in!" A feminine voice chirped.

  Izuku opened the door and walked inside, looking around. Aizawa was in the corner in his sleeping bag, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

  There was a pretty girl with periwinkle blue hair standing in the middle of the large room, wearing a skintight blue bodysuit. Probably her hero costume. That's why he was told to wear his then. A prevalent decoration on her costume were spirals. Her hair, her wrist guards, the pattern on her bodysuit. Something to do with her quirk?

  Beside the girl was a taller boy hunched over, making himself seem small. He had a white cloak, the hood pulled up to cover his face. He seemed to be.. trembling? Beneath the cloak the boy had rows and rows of pouches. An excessive amount. Unless he needed them? Ammunition? He'd only need one big pocket. Edible quirk triggers. Like the hero Fatgum.

  Both hero students seemed of similar age to Izuku, but they had to be upperclassmen. Second years then?

  Izuku froze.

  His smoke had moved without his input. Something was rising out of the ground directly behind him. Upper half of a humanoid figure. They were holding their breath, so it was just their presence and movements moving the smoke around. Male. Similar build to Izuku. Wearing a hero costume with a cape.

  Some kind of go-through-objects quirk. Goes through clothes too, that's why they were all wearing costumes.

  The figure extended their fist, but met a wall between them and Izuku in the smoke.

  There was a bang, a loud "Ouch!", and the figure sank back into the ground.

  Izuku condensed the smoke around him into his costume's exhaust pipes. There wouldn't be a second attack.

  A muscular blonde boy popped out of the ground a few meters away, cradling his fist.

  "Wow! Miro didn't even touch him! Did you see? Tamaki, did you see that?" The girl exclaimed, shaking the cloaked boy.

  "I want to go home.." Tamaki said quietly.

  The blonde boy, Mirio, got to his feet and shook his hand one last time before turning to Izuku, a big smile on his face.

  "Man, I got a bit too eager there!" He exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. "I wasn't expecting you to notice me! How'd you do that?"

  Izuku scratched the back of his neck.

  "Um, I can.. feel, where the smoke I control is. By phasing out of the ground you displaced the smoke without my input. I could tell it was a person and not just the concrete being used like Cementoss does it because I can make out the outline of objects inside my smoke by sensing where my smoke is blocked by the object?" He ended the explanation making it sound like a question. Mirio grinned.

  "That's awesome! You've already trained your quirk far beyond what it was during the sports festival, and it's only been two weeks!" He exclaimed.

  "You watched the first year festival?" Izuku asked.

  "Of course!" The girl exclaimed, bouncing forwards. "We wanted to see the first year that survived Mr Aizawa's Purge! And you really didn't disappoint! What's your quirk called? How does it work? You held off Mr Aizawa during the first event! That's super impressive! Have you fought him before? Did you win? Did you use your quirk or was it just hand to hand?"

  "Nejire slow down, I'm sure he'll answer one at a-" Mirio tried to stop the flow of questions, but Izuku just blinked for a second before answering.

  "It's called Smoke control. Basically I can.. control smoke. I have fought Mr Aizawa before, he taught me how to fight because my schedule is so fluid and can line up with his cat naps. I haven't won yet, but I'm getting close, until of course he kicks into a higher gear again. We've fought with just hand to hand and just quirks, but mainly a combination of both. Does your quirk have something to do with spirals? It's probably an emitter, so some kind of energy manipulation that turns into spirals?"

  Everyone stared at him a moment. Even Tamaki peered out from his hood, and Aizawa's eyes opened.

  Nejire beamed, bouncing on the spot in excitement. Mirio just laughed heartily. Tamaki pulled his hood back down over his small smile. Aizawa shuddered and muttered something like "Oh god, there's two of them." before going back to sleep.

  "My quirk is called Surge! It uses my stamina to create spiral energy blasts! I only use about 20 percent at a time because it uses so much stamina, but I've been getting better! I can even use my quirk to fly by shooting energy out of my feet!" Nejire exclaimed, jumping and floating over to Izuku. "Nobody's ever kept up with me before! It's great to meet you, Midoriya right? I'm Nejire Hadou, but everyone calls me Nejire! It's also my hero name!"

  Mirio walked over and gave Izuku a firm handshake.

  "I'm Mirio Togata, call me Mirio! My hero name's Lemillion, because that's how many people I'm aiming to save! My quirk is Permeation, and I can basically phase through anything!" He said enthusiastically.

  Mirio gestured to Tamaki, who still had his hood over his face.

  "That's Tamaki Amajiki. His hero name is Suneater! His quirk's really cool, but he'll have to tell you that himself. He's being just a little.. chicken!"

  Mirio guffawed at his own joke, while Nejire just rolled her eyes with a smile.

  "Manifest." Tamaki said quietly, barely peeking out of his hood to speak to Izuku. "I can manifest the things I eat somewhere on my body. If I eat chicken, I can manifest wings."

  That was all he would say, and retreated back into his hood.

  Mirio clapped Izuku on the shoulder.

  "All four of us have an exam in two weeks, so we were hoping you would like to spar with us to prepare! It's totally cool if you say no though!" He said.

  Izuku glanced between Mirio, Nejire and Tamaki.

  "But.. why me? I mean, I'm just a first year. You're second years, I think, and have way more experience than I do! I won't even pose a challenge to you even if you're handicapped or something!" He said.

  Mirio just grinned.

  "Go a round with Nejire. Quirks, martial arts, the works. First good hit wins. Make up your mind after that." He said.

  Izuku nodded hesitantly after turning to Nejire, who seemed eager to fight.

  The greenette backed up a few meters, slipping his mask on and pulling his hood up, letting small wisps of smoke exit the exhaust pipes. Mirio and Tamaki were leaning against the wall beside Aizawa, all three watching intently.

  "Ready?" Mirio asked.

  "Yeah."

  "Yup yup!"

  "Start!" Mirio called.

  Nejire launched into the air, golden spirals whirling from her hands and feet,  zooming across the room towards Izuku. He let the girl get a little closer before pushing the smoke out in a huge explosion, engulfing most of the room. Nejire stopped, then put her hands together, facing outwards.

  A second later a huge shockwave blew the smoke away from her. Izuku jumped from platform to platform, sailing through the air towards his opponent.

  Spotting him, Nejire zoomed forwards, her hands outstretched again. Not wanting the shockwave from before to hit him, Izuku gathered the smoke around him and created a pair of strong walls stacked between Izuku and Nejire. The shockwave shattered the first shield, but dissipated upon hitting the second. Izuku blew up the smoke behind him, launching him at Nejire, who was charging up a third shot.

  She was too slow. Nejire's eyes widened as Izuku launched out of the smoke towards her. His fist met her midsection, the smokey gauntlet covering his fist dampening the blow slightly, but not completely. Nejire squeaked in alarm, spiraling wildly away through the air.

  "That's it! Midoriya wins!" Mirio called.

  Nejire reoriented herself and floated down to the ground, a smile on her face. Izuku hopped between a series of platforms, landing beside the periwinkle girl with a rather bemused expression.

  Mirio jogged over, clapping Izuku on the shoulder.

  "See? We might have a year on you, but you're practically on an even footing with us! You've pretty much been Aizawa's personal student for almost a month!" Mirio exclaimed. "The three of us really struggled in our first years to even use our quirks the way we wanted. Permeation would activate at random, and the fine tuning for little changes was impossible. Surge used up almost all of Nejire's stamina in one burst, and she couldn't regulate it yet. Manifest only worked for one or two minutes at a time, and the manifestations weren't that big or strong. We spent most of our first year catching up to our peers in terms of quirk control. Now we're working on catching up in technique. You see the similarities?"

  Izuku nodded. The four of them had similar problems, and had so far worked to similar points. The older three student's quirks were much more finicky to use than Izuku's, which was the only reason he'd been able to catch up to them in terms of battle prowess. They would be able to help the other train for the exams in two weeks without the youngest holding them back.

  "So? Are you in Midoriya?" Mirio asked.

  "I'm in. And call me Izuku." Izuku grinned.

  Mirio's smile matched Izuku's. Nejire beamed, bouncing on the spot. Tamaki cracked a small smile.

  "Then let's get started! POWERR!!!" Mirio cheered, sinking into the ground whilst striking a heroic pose.