Forest

Upon arriving at the locker rooms, Izuku quickly realized that changing out in the open would mean showing his scars to the other boys in his class, and while he certainly wasn’t ashamed of his scars he really didn’t want to have to deal with the inevitable questions about them and opted to change in a stall. He noted that Denki chose to change in a stall as well which he was curious about, but certainly wasn’t going to invade the boy’s privacy by asking questions. 

Hitoshi and Izuku are the first to arrive out on the field, the other boys taking more time because they are talking amongst themselves or, in Iida’s case, trying to herd the others out. Shouta is already standing on the field with his usual apathetic expression, Izuku and Hitoshi exchange a glance agreeing that that certainly won’t do. 

“Yo Dadzawa!” Izuku calls. The pro just looks at him. “How are you my dude? Are you doing well? The other boys are still getting ready, Iida is doing his best but they just keep talking. What’s up with the measuring device in your hand? Oh, this is a test isn’t it. Do you want to see my dance moves? I’m sure that Nedzu would like them, if you don’t.”

“Problem Child, what are you doing,” Shouta sighs, raising an exasperated eyebrow. 

“Distracting you,” Izuku grins.

Shouta whirls around to find himself face to face with his son. Izuku takes this opportunity to run over and join Hitoshi in trapping the pro. The erasure hero decides, unwisely, to turn his attention back to Izuku and Hitoshi leaps onto his dad’s back, nearly knocking Shouta over. Hitoshi grins again, quickly snatching the capture weapon from around Shouta’s neck and tossing it to his green haired friend.

“Woah! This thing is so cool!” Izuku exclaims, eyes alight as he examines the scarf. He then proceeds to place it around his neck, and slump into it like Shouta does. “How do I look?”

“Amazing,” Hitoshi laughs. “You even got his posture down.”

“Give that back,” Shouta deadpans, but Izuku noticed a quickly suppressed quirk of the erasure hero’s lips. “Problem Child, I swear.”

“Don’t swear,” Hitoshi calls from his back, which actually does elicit a small smile from Shouta.

“How does this thing work?” Izuku asks, attempting to manipulate the scarf like Eraserhead.

“That’s not at all how,” Shouta says, watching in amusement as Izuku tangles himself in the capture weapon.

“Oh wait! I think I got it!” Izuku says, after untangling himself. He proceeds to throw the capture weapon around Shouta and Hitoshi, who is still on the dark haired man’s back. “Yes!”

“That is most inappropriate behavior! He is your Sensei, you should treat him with respect and dignity!” Calls a stiff voice to Izuku’s left.

Looking over Izuku sees that everyone from his class has finished changing, and is watching their shenanigans with either amusement or confusion. Or both. Mostly both. Other than Iida of course, who look scandalized.

“What he said,” Shouta deadpans.

“My bad Mr Sir Aizawa Sensei the Great,” Hitoshi says, struggling to keep a straight face.

“Yamazawa, Midoriya,” Shouta scolds, looking at the boys.

“Okay okay, sorry,” Hitoshi says, not sounding one bit sorry, and sliding off his dad’s back as Izuku retracts the capture weapon.

“Here Aizawa-Sensei,” Izuku grins, bright and blinding, handing the capture weapon back to the hero.

Shouta just sighs and the boys walk to join the rest of their classmates. Izuku notices a calculating gaze from a girl with a high ponytail, but elects to ignore it. Hitoshi and Izuku sigh as they see Iida approaching, clearly preparing to scold them for their behavior, but the boys are saved when Shouta starts speaking.

“Now that you are all here, we can begin. Today we are going to be doing an athletics apprehension test. There will be a series of tests, in which I would like you to use your available resources to obtain the highest score you can. Yes Kaminari?” Shouta asks, noticing as the hyper boy bounces up and down with his hand raised. 

“Does that mean we get to use our quirks?”

“Yes.”

This elicits a chorus of cheers from much of the class, though those with less physical quirks are much more subdued. Izuku quickly realizes something, Shouta had said ‘use your available resources’ not specifically ‘your quirk.’ He grins, already analyzing his classmates quirks and the rest of his surroundings for their usefulness.

“Katsuki Bakugou, come here,” Shouta calls, grabbing a ball from the cart nearby and handing it to the boy. “I would like you to throw that ball, get the highest score you can. Without hurting yourself or anyone else of course. The only parameter is that you can not leave that circle on the ground.”

Bakugou’s grin is practically feral as he steps into the circle and starts winding his arm to throw. Much of the class is watching with anticipation, excited to see what the blond can do.

“Die!” Bakugou screams, launching the ball with a huge explosion. 

Izuku hears a murmured ‘die?’ from someone near him, and if he hadn’t already somewhat known the boy, he too would have been alarmed.

Shouta simply turns and shows the device in his hands, Bakugou had managed to throw the ball nearly 700 meters. 

“Woah!”

“That’s so cool!”

“This is going to be so much fun!”

The last comment came from the pink haired girl Izuku met earlier, Ashido. Izuku and Hitoshi both cringe, knowing that that comment is not going to go over well with Shouta.

“Fun?” Shouta asks, everyone immediately falling silent. “This is fun to you? Is hero work just fun to you? Natural disasters, violence, villains, is that fun? This is not fun, this is important. This is serious. We need this information to help you grow as heroes. If you are simply here to have fun, you can walk out right now. If anyone is not here to be serious, and learn, they can leave. How is this for fun? The person in last place will be expelled immediately.”

Izuku looks around at the terrified faces and can’t help but be slightly amused. Unless Shouta sees no potential in one of them, he won’t expel them even if he claims he will. And based on Izuku’s observations, everyone here has potential. The only person other than Hitoshi and Izuku who isn’t white as a ghost is a girl with a high, black ponytail. The same girl he noticed looking at him and Hitoshi earlier. He meets her eyes and she gives him a small smile, which he returns, pleased that one of his classmates has already figured out Shouta’s ruse. Izuku is glad though that, as terrified as they seem, no one has opted to say anything in response. He is sure that someone saying Shouta was being ‘unfair’ or something along those lines would not bode well for the class.

“Alright, next up is Denki Kaminari,” Shouta calls out, this time garnering no response from the class other than movement from Kaminari. 

Izuku is last to go, those with well equipped quirks had achieved impressive scores and those without doing worse, though most were fit so they had performed better than the average citizen would have. The highest score thus far was Uraraka, who had gotten infinity by sending the ball up into the atmosphere. 

“Izuku Midoriya,” Shouta calls out finally. Not that the erasure hero would ever admit it, but he is rather excited to see what the boy is going to do to get around his quirklessness.

“So I may do this by any means necessary as long as I don’t leave the circle?”

Shouta simply nods so Izuku turns back towards his class.

“Hey Uraraka?” Izuku calls out. “Could you come over here please?”

The girl looks confused, but nods and quickly walks over.

“Can I whisper something to you?” Izuku asks in a hushed tone. With Uraraka’s affirmative, he leans forward and near her ear. “Okay so, Aizawa-Sensei said we could do this by any means necessary, right?” Uraraka nods slightly. “I’m going to tell you something but I would like you to keep it from the class until I choose to tell them, please?” Uraraka nods again. “I’m quirkless.” The brunette’s eyes widen slightly in surprise, but she simply nods once again and continues to listen to Izuku. “Therefore, my score on this probably won’t be fantastic on my own, but he said we could use any available resources, and allies definitely qualify. So I was wondering if you would mind using your quirk on my ball? You could use your quirk and I will throw it?”

Uraraka takes a moment to process and then leans away, nodding and smiling brightly at the boy. “Yeah of course!”

Izuku grins, relieved that the girl is being so nice. Izuku pushes down his rising panic at having just whispered to, and asked a favor of, someone he just met. Not to mention told her about his quirklessness. He can panic later, he has a test to do well on right now. 

“The ball please?” Izuku asks politely, turning to Shouta who hands it to him.

Izuku takes it and holds it out to Uraraka, who touches it allowing her to activate her quirk. Izuku proceeds to wind his arm back and throw the ball with all his might, while Uraraka activates her quirk. The ball goes much further than it would normally, until the brunette finally releases her quirk. Izuku, of course, certainly did not expect her to get him an infinite score like she got for herself. She actually let the ball go for a lengthier time than he expected her to before releasing it, and he shoots her a grateful smile before turning back to the class who looks surprised.

“Why would you do that?” Iida says, moving towards Izuku and waving his arms around. “This is an apprehension test! You should not use someone else’s quirk! You should have used your own! You are being disrespectful by not demonstrating your own skill-”

Iida is cut off by Shouta. “Actually, what Izuku did was completely within the parameters of the test. He used teamwork and cooperation to get a higher score than he alone could have achieved, which are both important skills for hero work.”

Iida looks appropriately abashed, turning to Izuku. “I am sorry Midoriya! I should not have jumped to conclusions! It is embarrassing of me to have-”

Iida is cut off once again, this time by Izuku. “It’s okay, no worries Iida.” Izuku assures, smiling and trying not to let his annoyance at the boy show. He is sure that Iida means well, but he seriously needs to calm down. 

“So Midoriya,” Shouta says, and Izuku returns his attention to his homeroom teacher. “Your distance was 1,319.8 meters.”

“How the hell did you get a better score than me!?” Bakugou roars, his voice overpowering the gasps and praise of the rest of the class, and charging at Izuku with his quirk activated. 

Before Shouta can react (as Izuku later realized he surely would have) Izuku’s instincts kick in. As Bakugou launches himself at Izuku, Izuku actually moves towards the blond instead of away, ducking to avoid the explosions. The green haired teen, still crouching, quickly sweeps his leg around one of Bakugou’s legs and maneuvers himself to elbow Bakugou in the back. The blond falls, face forward, barely catching himself, but Izuku is faster. Before Bakugou can even move, Izuku is on his back, legs anchoring the other boy to the ground with his forearm across his neck. Bakugou growls, trying to move or at the least explode Izuku, but his hands are pinned under him and Izuku is strong.

Blinking, Izuku realizes what he did and quickly moves off Bakugou, standing and backing away. Looking over he sees his entire class gaping, and Shouta is looking at him with a look Izuku can’t discern.

“Sorry, it was instinct, I didn’t mean to,” Izuku says quickly. “Are you okay?”

“Shut up!” Bakugou yells, before stomping back to the class.

Finally, Shouta looks away from Izuku. “Bakugou, if you attack a classmate again outside of training it will have serious consequences. We do not condone that kind of behavior at UA. And Midoriya let me handle it next time, okay? We don’t want anyone being hurt due to sparring outside of designated times,” Shouta says, before seemingly realizing that sounds like he cares and quickly adding, “That’s too much paperwork.”

Izuku just smiles slightly at the man’s attempts to keep up his emotionless front for the class and walks back over sheepishly.

Hitoshi is the quickest to recover. “Wow! Zuku! Where did you learn that kind of thing? That was really cool!”

“Oh, my dad,” Izuku lies quickly, his hand awkwardly on the back of his neck. “It really wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t mean to. I hope Bakugou is okay. I didn’t intend to hurt him.”

“Calm down dude,” Kaminari chimes in. “Bakugou didn’t seem hurt, and that really was super cool!”

“Yeah!” Ashido squeals, bouncing up towards Izuku. “That was so cool Midoriya! You should show us some of those moves, they look like they would be useful!”

Izuku shifts awkwardly as more people join in on praising him, he doesn’t know how to handle compliments. The only compliments he ever gets are from Himiko, and the occasional offhanded comment from Dabi, and he knows how to handle those two.

“It’s- I mean- I suppose- yeah I could show you sometime. It really isn’t a big deal. I’m sure you guys would be doing better than me really quickly,” Izuku stutters out finally. The majority of the class exclaims their thanks at this and Izuku receives a hug from an especially enthusiastic Ashido. 

“Don’t be so hard on yourself Zuku,” Hitoshi says softly, before his face twists into a smirk.”Or else I’ll have to fight you.”

“I’m not being hard on myself,” Izuku says quietly before returning Hitoshi’s smirk. “And you would lose.”

“Oh would I now? Okay. Fight me.”

“Bet,” Izuku replies, his face breaking out into such a bright grin that some of the nearest people literally look away.

Shouta clears his throat. “Glad to see everyone is doing okay, but you guys will have a time for a match another time. For now, we have a test to complete.”

“Sorry Aizawa-Sensei,” the class says in unison.

The rest of the tests go largely without incident. There was, of course, the moment that the sparkly teen, Aoyama, threw up from overuse of his laser quirk, and the moment that Ashido accidentally destroyed her own top with her acid and had to be quickly covered. Luckily, the girl with the ponytail that Izuku made eye contact, Yaoyorozu, quickly created a shirt for the pink girl. So overall, it could have been worse. Thus, largely without incident.

The class is gathered, staring at the screen in front of them, most of them vibrating with nervous energy.

“Here are the results,” Shouta deadpans, swiping the device in his hand as their scores show up on the screen.

“Oh my goodness!” Izuku mumbles, turning to Hitoshi. “Toshi! I’m in fifth! That’s so much better than I expected! And you are in sixth! Good job!”

“Good job Zuku,” Hitoshi grins, turning to hug his friend.

Izuku then turns back to the board to check everyone else’s scores. In first place is, unsurprisingly, Yaoyorozu, who’s quirk is insanely useful. In second is the other recommendation student, Shouto Todoroki. Izuku had immediately recognized him as Endeavor’s son, and he desperately hopes that Todoroki isn’t anything like his father. In third place was Bakugou, who did not seem pleased in the slightest with his score and is ranting to himself about how he should be first. Right above Izuku was Iida, but Izuku also isn’t shocked at that development considering the boy grew up in a hero family. In seventh, following Hitoshi is Uraraka. Izuku grins at that. Scanning the rest of the board, he isn’t surprised by any of the placements, all having been exactly what he expected. Except for himself, of course, who he had bet on being much lower. Izuku finds that he was correct about last place, an invisible teen name Tooru Hagakure. She doesn’t seem to have a ton of training, and her quirk isn’t physical, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t very useful.

Izuku turns to walk over to the poor girl, who was sobbing and being comforted by the nearest students. He kneels down in front of her. “Hey, Hagakure right?” He asks, and the girl nods in reply. “I’m Izuku Midoriya, but you probably figured that out when Aizawa-Sensei spoke to me earlier.” Izuku, at least, had taken stock of everyone’s name, pronoun, and quirk, as they took their tests so he naturally assumed others did too. He would later find out he is incorrect. “You did really well Hagakure. Seriously,” Izuku adds, though her can’t see the girl’s expression he can practically feel the disbelief radiating from her. “It’s not your fault that your quirk isn’t physical, and you probably don’t have a ton of strength training. You aren’t expected to, either. Don’t worry, I don’t think Aizawa-Sensei is going to expel you. You have potential. And if he does, believe me I will fight him myself,” Izuku grins softly at the girl, hoping to have somewhat eased her worry.

After a moment of quiet sniffles, Izuku is surprised when the floating clothes come shooting at him. He feels invisible arms wrap around him, and he hesitantly and awkwardly returns the hug.

“Thank you,” Hagakure says, pulling away. “Sorry if I surprised you with the hug.”

“No worries,” Izuku says, smiling brightly and pretending he didn’t almost stab the girl on instinct and then take a moment to figure out what to do. Izuku had determined that he really needs to get better at interacting with people without stuttering or stabbing, considering neither of those are ideal. “Come on. Let’s hear what Aizawa-Sensei is going to say.”

He reaches a hand out in Hagakure’s general direction and waits for the girl to take his hand before pulling her up, not noticing the many smiles being sent his direction from his classmates. They appreciate the boy and how gentle he seems, though they are surprised by such a stark contrast from his normally gentle and hesitant behavior and the moves he pulled on Bakugou. 

“Now,” Shouta says. “You all did okay, and no one is being expelled. It was a logical ruse.”

Shouta is smiling at the class, his grin stretching across his face in a way that was both terrifying and hilarious. The people who didn’t hear Izuku are all baffled by their teacher’s reveal, but Hagakure just reaches over and squeezes Izuku’s hand once again in thanks. Izuku doesn’t really know how to respond because he doesn’t think he really did much, so he just smiles at the girl.

“You are all okay but today was just the beginning,” Shouta continues, ignoring the small uproar entirely. “So be ready for harder work tomorrow. This is the hero course. This will not be easy.”

Izuku just grins at that, excited for all he is going to learn.

“Remember that you guys have hero training tomorrow, so be ready. Now go get changed before Mic kills me for making you late to his class.”

Some of the class laughs at that, and they all rush off towards the locker rooms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Zuku! Hitoshi!” Comes a loud voice from across the cafeteria. 

Izuku turns away from his class and stands from the table to quickly throw his arms out, wrapping them around an enthusiastic and grease covered Mei. He catches the girl, who had leapt into his arms after running full speed at him, and spins quickly to maintain balance before setting her down. Most of his class, minus, of course, Bakugou and the usually apathetic Todoroki, Shouji, and Tokoyami, were gaping at him. Though Shouji and Tokoyami’s eyes both seemed slightly wider than normal.

“Hey Mei-Mei!” Izuku grins. “It’s nice to see you!”

“Sup,” Hitoshi says, attempting to turn back to his phone before Izuku snatches it out of his hands. “What!? Hey!”

“If you actually interact, maybe you’ll get it back,” Izuku grins, waving Hitoshi’s phone in front of the purple haired teen’s face before tucking it into his pocket. Hitoshi just sighs.

“Ooh! Is this your class? Hero course 1-A right?” Mei says, as Izuku sits back down and shifts to make room for Mei. 

“Yeah! Class, this is my friend Mei Hatsume! She’s in the support department!”

There is an echo of greeting towards Mei, who quickly leans forward and starts observing people.

“So Zuku,” Mei grins, turning back to her friend with a knowing smile. “Tell me about their quirks!”

Izuku’s face lights up with excitement, and the class looks slightly confused. They surely can’t know much, they had only seen their apprehension tests, and there wasn’t much to show off. 

“So, we will go in order of who you see here. The spiky blond is Katsuki Bakugou, his quirk allows him to create explosions. I kind of know him already so I know some stuff but basically, he sweats nitroglycerin which he can explode using his hands! Based on his occasional grimaces though, it seems to affect his hearing when he uses it too often or too close to his face, which isn’t ideal but makes sense.”

“Shut up idiot!” Bakugou snarls, but stops when he remembers that attacking the green haired teen would get him in trouble and opts to just stay there and growl. 

Mei who has been enthusiastically nodding along, motions for Izuku to continue.

“Next to him is Eijirou Kirishima. His quirk is hardening, it allows him to harden and seemingly sharpen, his body. It’s rather fascinating, but like any physical quirk it has its limitations, I believe that if he has to hold it for too long his hardening will weaken. I’m sure that he could increase his time limit though with some quirk training. The pink haired girl next to him is Mina Ashido, her quirk is acid! It’s so cool, she can produce acid from her hands and feet. If you are up to it, we should definitely work on making her some acid proof clothing, not just her hero costume, which is hopefully acid prof. She accidentally burned off her top in class today.” 

“Ooh! I have so many ideas already!” Mei grins, and Izuku looks at her nodding excitedly in agreement.

“That’s Kaminari,” Izuku says, motioning to the electric blond who nods enthusiastically and waves in greeting. “His quirk is an electric quirk. It allows him to generate electricity all over his body. Though I believe, based on how he avoided using it around others in the test, that he can’t control the direction of it unless channeling it through something. Uraraka said her quirk is called zero gravity! It allows her to manipulate the gravity of anything she touches with all five fingers!” Izuku moves on quickly before the brunette realizes he said she manipulates gravity, not erases it. “Then we have Iida, whose quirk is the engines in his legs! I don’t know much about them other than that he can go really fast with them.”

“Oh! Oh!” Mei says excitedly, raising her hand like she’s in class but not waiting for a response. “Is he related to Ingenium?”

“I believe so-”

“I am!” Iida says, cutting off Izuku in his excitement to speak of his family. “I am very proud of my brother and his accomplishments and I hope to be a hero just like him.”

“Speaking of pro heroes,” Izuku says, trying to get Iida to be quiet. Izuku truly has nothing against the boy but he reminds him of the kind of people that talk to distract you from their true purposes, and in the streets that often means you are about to be either mugged or killed. “Todoroki over there, with the two toned hair, is the son of Endeavor. His quirk allows him to control ice on one side, and if I am correct in my assumption, fire on the other. Though I haven’t seen him use his fire, I’m sure he uses the two to counteract each other-”

“I will never use my fire,” Todoroki interrupts, before standing and walking away. 

Izuku is concerned because he realizes quickly why he doesn’t get the same bad feeling about Todoroki as he does Endeavor. Todoroki isn’t like his father, but he also doesn’t seem to have gotten away scot free from his life with the pro. “Todoroki!” Izuku calls quickly. “I’m sorry if I offended you! That wasn’t my intent!”

“I’m not here to make friends,” Todoroki says, not turning back around.

“Oh,” Izuku says quietly, trying not to cry. This is the first group of kids his age that he has interacted with in forever and he has somehow already upset one of them, well two but he isn’t counting Bakugou.

“Hey! Don’t worry about him! You didn’t do anything wrong,” Denki says quickly, probably noticing the tears in Izuku’s eyes.

“Right, yeah, of course,” Izuku says, quickly composing himself. “So anyways there is also Ojiro who’s quirk is his tail, Hagakure who’s quirk makes her invisible, and Shouji who can make limbs can replicate other body parts on them. They are all fascinating quirks but I didn’t have much of a chance to analyze them. I also don’t know much about Sato’s but it seems that by eating sugar he can convert it into strength so it makes him much stronger. Kouda’s quirk is also one I don’t know much of but he can speak to and control animals. I wonder if that extends to insects,” Izuku ponders, and shakes his head before he can get lost in his thoughts. “Then we have Aoyama, whose quirk is the laser on his stomach. It seems to be painful to him though, so hopefully we can help with support gear. Over there is Sero, his elbows are dispensers for his tape. It’s really fascinating. I’d love to study the properties of that tape at some point. And then Asui’s quirk is frog, I don’t know too many details but it seems rather self explanatory.”

At that Asui laughs lightly, “True.”

“This is so cool! Continue!” Mei says quickly, looking at Izuku expectantly.

“Okay!” Izuku says, smiling and back on his rhythm though his energy has slightly died down after his interaction with Todoroki because his mind is slightly preoccupied. “So our last three. First, we have Kyouka Jirou! Her quirk is her earphone jacks that she can plug in and hear things through, and also extend. I also believe that she can expel some form of soundwave through them but I’m unsure at the moment. Then we have Tokoyami! His quirk is Dark Shadow! It’s a sentient quirk, he is behind Tokoyami right now! I’m guessing that given he is a shadow he is weak to light and also gets stronger in the dark. Finally, there is Yaoyorozu! I’m sure she could help us if we ever need it, she’s really smart. Her quirk allows her to create any object from her body, as long as she has enough energy and substance and understands its molecular structure. I overheard you talking to Jirou earlier by the way, which is how I know that,” Izuku grins, looking at Yaoyorozu who’s confused expression immediately slips into a smile. “Plus she knew that Aizawa-Sensei didn’t mean it when he said he would expel the person in last place during our test. The only other people who realized were me and Toshi.”

“Oh my goodness! I can’t wait to make babies for all of you!” Mei says, finally exploding and letting out a high pitched squeal. “I’m gonna go brainstorm, but I’ll see you after school?”

“Yeah definitely,” Izuku laughs, wrapping Mei in a hug. “Now go create stuff you mad scientist!”

“Seeya Mei,” Hitoshi says, smirking lightly.

After Mei sprints off, the class turns back to Izuku.

“She seems nice! The real question here though is how the heck did you know so much about our quirks?” Ashido asks, and most of the class nods at the question, having been wondering the same thing.

“I just really like quirks! I have always loved to analyze things and so I got decent at it during my free time. It’s not a big deal. I hope I didn’t weird you guys out or anything,” Izuku says, the awkwardness returning to his posture now that he is no longer in his element.

“Don’t worry bro!” Kirishima says, grinning at Izuku. “We aren’t weirded out! Just surprised! It’s crazy that you remembered all of our names and quirks after one class.”

“Not to mention pronouns,” Kaminari chimes in, before quickly sitting up straighter looking panicked. “Not that any of us should worry too much about pronouns or anything I’m just saying you remembered them it seems from Aizawa-Sensei and introductions and stuff.”

“Oh yeah,” Izuku says quickly, trying to take the attention away from the stiff Kaminari. He doesn’t know why the other boy panicked, but he certainly wants to help the boy calm down. “I definitely remembered those. I would never assume someone’s pronouns, I just picked them up from Aizawa-Sensei talking to you. Unless I already had spoken to you and gotten your pronouns, of course, like with Toshi or Uraraka.”

“You seem to be close with Yamazawa,” Ashido teases. “What’s going on there?”

Izuku and Hitoshi make confused eye contact before looking at Ashido again and blanching.

“Oh wait, no, ew,” Hitoshi says quickly.

“I second that response,” Izuku laughs. “I met Toshi a little while ago now, when I first started my job at the library. We haven’t known each other long but feels like I’ve known him forever.”

“Yeah,” Hitoshi says, grinning at the shorter boy. “Zuku is like family.”

Izuku freezes, shocked that Hitoshi would call him family, before looking at Hitoshi with a grin more blinding than any the purple haired boy had seen yet. “Yeah. Family.”

“Wait that’s so cute,” Uraraka gushes. “You guys are so sweet.”

“Am not,” Hitoshi says, returning to his usual attempts to pretend that he has no emotions.

“Don’t go being all stoic on us now Shinsou,” Ashido teases. “We have seen through the cracks in your facade.”

“Oh my gosh, hush,” Hitoshi says, but a hint of amusement seeps into his tone. 

“Fellow classmates! We only have ten minutes of lunch left!” Iida says tensely. “Please hurry so that we are not late for our next class! That would be most disgraceful of hero students!”

At that everyone startles and they fall into companionable silence as they quickly scarf down their food. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Izuku is sitting in his seat, rather excited for hero studies but also worried. He knows that All Might is teaching heroics, and while he does respect the man for his importance in society, he also knows that the man has no teaching experience and can be rather, to put it nicely, thickheaded. Izuku’s attention is immediately drawn to the door when he senses someone coming. Noticing Izuku’s movement, Hitoshi puts his phone away, which he did get back from Izuku, and turns his attention to the door as well.

“I AM HERE,” All Might yells, slamming the door open. Most of the class jumps in surprise, some people (namely Ashido and Uraraka) even scream. “Oh sorry for startling you, students,” All Might apologies quickly, walking to the front of the class.

Now that the startle is over the class is starting to murmur excitedly about the fact that they have ‘the All Might teaching them.’ 

“We are going to head to Ground Beta today!” All Might announces, receiving a chorus of excited responses from the new hero students. “But first!” All Might presses a button that pops cabinets out of the wall, revealing a bunch of cases. “Your hero suits! Get ready and be at Ground Beta in fifteen minutes!”

The class rushes forward to grab the cases, excitedly chattering as they head down to change. Izuku quickly enters a stall and excitedly opens the case, smiling as he pulls his hero costume out. He has essentially the same black everything-proof shirt he made, but this one is skin tight, long sleeved and turtle necked and sweat wicking. He pulls on black cargo pants, which are very useful for storing his knives and other miscellaneous weapons, that are very similar material to his shirt. He has, also black, reinforced boots that go up to mid calf for bracing and support, which also have the same sticking technology as the boots he wears around. Not that anyone knows his everyday boots have that, but that’s the goal after all. Over his shirt he pulls on an open leather jacket, that is of course properly anchored to his shirt so it won’t flap around and get in his way, which has many hidden pockets throughout it. Izuku had Mei add his signature silhouette of a forest but on the inside of the jacket because he found it amusing but did not want to give himself away of course. Other than the basics, he also has black gloves on, that are much more elaborate than they seem, a metal mask that functions just like his other one hanging around his neck, and a belt around his waist holding even more weapons. He has a lot of them. There is also a hood tucked into the back of the jacket that can be quickly pulled up to cover either just his hair or every piece of exposed skin on his face. This is useful because if there is a quirk that needs skin contact, no one will be able to get to it.

Izuku steps out of his stall after looking down and making sure everything was in place and walks out the door to the training ground.

“Oh wow! You look really cool Midoriya! Kinda like a more stealthy version of hawks,” Uraraka compliments, bounding up to him. “I like my costume but it is rather… tight. They must have gotten my measurements slightly wrong.”

“Thanks,” Izuku says, shuffling awkwardly. “I wasn’t really trying to look cool, just be practical. Oh, and I’m sure you can go to the support course and ask about changing your costume!”

“Oh, really? That would be great! Thanks, Midoriya!” Uraraka grins brightly, and Izuku can’t help but return it.

“You look cool, Zuku,” Hitoshi says, appearing behind Izuku and startling Uraraka. Izuku, of course, already knew he was approaching. 

“That’s what I said!” The brunette pipes in.

“Uh, thanks,” Izuku says awkwardly, turning to look at his friend. Hitoshi is wearing a black jumpsuit with a belt around the waist and combat boots. Its resemblance to the purple haired boy’s dad’s costume is amusing. 

“You look like Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku laughs. “At least you have gear for your voice though! I’m glad you are wearing the mask that Mei-Mei and I made you!”

“I do not,” Hitoshi says, blushing slightly, “and yeah thanks for the mask! I really appreciate it!”

Before the group can continue their conversation they hear a loud voice begin to speak. 

“I see you are all here!” All Might’s voice booms across the area. “You all look very heroic!”

Izuku takes this opportunity to look at his classmates’ hero costumes. Some of them are okay, but overall they have a lot of issues. The most glaring of which being Yaoyorozu, who’s outfit provided absolutely no protection and was definitely was over-sexualizing a minor, and Hagakure who was literally naked except for her gloves. The other problems were largely a lack of protection, support, or practical use. Those problems could be fixed later. He thinks he will talk to Yaoyorozu and Hagakure after class.

Izuku focuses his attention back on All Might who is now looking at a pile of notecards, which he begins to read from. ‘Seriously?’ Izuku thinks. ‘He needs notecards to tell us what we are doing today?’

“So today we are going to be doing combat training!”

“Without basic training beforehand?” Yaoyorozu cuts in.

“Yeah, isn’t that a little strange?” Jirou asks, twirling her earphone jacks around her fingers.

“Well,” All Might flounders for an answer. “I see what you mean of course, but sometimes the best way to learn is action and experience!” This is enough for most of the class, except Hitoshi and Izuku who exchange apprehensive glances. “So moving on! Today’s activity is a team activity! You will be placed into teams of two and one team will act as the villains, the other as the heroes!” All Might’s enthusiasm is giving Hitoshi a headache. “The villains’ goal is to guard the nuclear weapon that will be in the building, but the heroes’ goal is to stop them! The hero team will have capture tape, and they win if they capture both the villains by wrapping it around them, or if they reach the missile before time runs out! The villains win if they capture the heroes or keep the heroes away from the weapon the whole time! The teams will have five minutes to discuss strategy before the exercise starts, and I will draw teams at random!”

The class, who had been nodding along absorbing the information about the exercise is startled at the number one hero’s last statement.

“Why are we not being paired up based upon who you think we would work best with and quirk compatibility?” Iida asks quickly. “That seems illogical.”

“Well, you don’t always know who you’re going to be working with before you arrive at a scene!” All Might explains confidently.

“Yes, but isn’t it logical to be paired in ways that will assist us for our first hero lesson?” Yaoyorozu asks, looking concerned and probably developing the same apprehension towards All Might’s teaching ability as Izuku has. 

“Oh, yes well, let’s get started!” All Might says quickly, completely ignoring the question that time and beginning to draw names at random.

When Izuku and Hitoshi are paired up in Team C, they exchange excited grins. Izuku even hears Hitoshi say quietly, ‘oh fuck yeah’ which makes the green haired boy smile. 

“Our first pair up is going to be Team C as the heroes-” Hitoshi and Izuku nod at each other with identical grins “-against the villain team, Team A.”

Izuku is the one who swears under his breath this time, but not for a good reason. Team A: Iida and Bakugou. Izuku is momentarily scared but then he remembers his easy takedown of Bakugou the prior day. The green haired teen is promptly excited again, turning to his purple haired friend with an absolutely shit eating grin.

“Let’s fuck shit up,” Hitoshi says, holding out a fist.

“Yes. Let’s,” Izuku responds, fist bumping Hitoshi.

After seeing Izuku’s moves the other day, the class is in no way jealous of the two boys who have to go against him.