Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku jumped up and down in the passenger's seat, an All Might figurine clutched on his right hand and the ears on his bunny hoodie moving wildly on top of his head. He was talking about how his aunt Rumi had promised to bring him something from Hiroshima once she entered her break and came to visit, talking and talking about how she had such an amazing quirk and how he couldn't wait to play with her again.

Inko found it impossible to not look at the fur that was starting to grow on his temples, trying really hard to not distract herself from the road up ahead.

Izuku had complained to her about his legs hurting really bad below his knees and, when the painkillers only did so much, she had appointed a visit to their usual doctor so they could know why Izuku was in pain.
But, seeing the fur growing in his temples, she had her suspicions.
She needed to call Rumi as soon as they ended their appointment.

It seemed like Izuku was getting a mutation quirk.

The next day, Izuku woke up with a fever.

Their doctor had confirmed her suspicions, and said that Izuku's body was slowly changing to make room for the mutation that was going to take place. He had said to not worry, and gave her painkillers that were specifically made to deal with the pain that mutations could bring to the child.
Now everything that was left was for them to wait and see the scale of the mutation that Izuku would suffer.

Thanking the gods that today was her free day, Inko finished filling the bowl with cold water and took two clean towels, going to her kid's bedroom. Izuku was bedridden, the only giveaway that he was alive being the heavy panting that came from him. Inko hurried up and put one of the towels on his forehead, cleaning the sweat forming there and then cleaning his neck, wetting the other clean towel with the cold water and putting it on Izuku's forehead. Her kid whimpered at the cold sensation, and it broke her heart seeing him in so much pain.

She knew that getting a quirk was going to make him happy, but she couldn't help but wish that it could've been less painful for him.

Grabbing the bottle of medicine from Izuku's nightstand, she picked up the spoon next to it and opened the bottle. Filling the spoon with the syrup and making Izuku drink it was easy enough, but the grimace that her kid made after was a big enough giveaway for her to know that the medicine tasted terrible.

"I know, baby, I know," Inko whispered, combing her son's damp hair with her fingers and fighting back tears. "this is only until you get better, okay? And when you get better, I promise we'll go to that ice-cream place you like so much, yeah? So you have to promise me you'll get better soon. I'm sure Katsuki is worried about you, isn't he?"

And Inko continued to whisper promises, not once noticing how her son's legs were changing permanently.

Izuku had bunny ears.

It was two days after he had started manifesting his quirk, and Inko had already called the kindergarten to notify that Izuku wouldn't attend until he finished with the mutation. So far his legs were the biggest and most notorious change, with them being human until the knee, where they changed for bunny hind legs. The fur, however, took a large part of his thighs, and there was no assuring that they weren't mostly bunny than human until they went to the doctor again.
Oh, and he also had a tail.

Inko had, rather naively, thought that that was the end of his son's mutations, but of course that when she went to wake up Izuku so they could eat breakfast, the first thing she noticed were the ears pressing against his bed headrest, starting from where his old human ears had once been.
She had to fight the scream that formed at the bottom of her throat so it wouldn't escape.

She hoped this was the last mutation, however. She didn't know how much her heart could take.

Izuku was so, so, so excited! His quirk had finally finished manifesting, and he could go to school again! He couldn't wait until he saw Kacchan and showed him his new quirk!
There was no doubt now. The two of them would be the best hero duo the world had seen, he was so sure!

His mom had had to change his uniform, and it was still a little weird to walk on these new legs, and his ears were really sensitive to loud sounds, but it was just a matter of time until he got used to them! And once he got used to them, then he would surely start to train to become a hero.
Oh, maybe he could ask Aunt Rumi for pointers! She was a rabbit too, wasn't she? She had to have the best advice for a fellow bunny!

Izuku got giddy at the mere thought. He was so lucky to have his aunt's quirk! Well, a further mutation of it… but they were too similar to deny the connection!

The car came to a stop, and Izuku hurried up to take off the seat belt. He jumped to his mom, and she caught him, chuckling slightly. He joined her on the chuckling.

"Are you ready to go back with your friends and your teacher, Izuku?" she asked, and he nodded so eagerly that his ears bounced slightly, flapping against his mom's face.

"Yes, I'm ready! I can't wait to show Kacchan my quirk!"

His mom smiled and they both got out of the car. He was hopping alongside her, his ears moving everywhere and catching every little sound. The pavement felt weird under his feet, and his tail was twitching slightly, but he was more than ready for a new day!
His fur and his hair were shining, and he had a big smile on his face. He was really excited!

Speaking about his fur, it was the same color as Izuku's hair, a dark green covering the new additions to his body, except for the tips of his ears, that were black, and the underside of his tail, that was white.

They met with his teacher, who welcomed him with a big and kind smile. He giggled and, kissing his mom goodbye, went inside the classroom, his backpack bouncing with him.

"Kacchan!"

The blonde was already inside the classroom and Izuku hurried to his side, beaming with excitement. His best friend perked up, his face contorting in surprise and immediately started to check the changes on Izuku, which made him giggle once again.

"You have a tail!"

"I have a tail!" he repeated, his happiness being notorious on his voice.

"And you have bunny legs!"

"I do! And look, and look!" Izuku concentrated, his tongue peeking out of his lips, and then he started to thump his right foot on the floor, gradually picking up speed until his foot was nothing but a blur. The rest of the kids watched in amazement, and started to gather around the two friends.

"That's so fast!" Kacchan was watching in awe, and had a big smile on his face, his eyes shining. He then looked at Izuku's face, and higher up. "YOU HAVE BUNNY EARS!"

Izuku winced slightly at the volume of his best friend's voice, making his ears go backwards and slightly flat against his head. A few amazed whispers were heard, and Kacchan's hands twitched a little, almost as if he wanted to touch his ears.
Izuku blushed, and moved his ears forward, bowing his head a little.

"Y-You can touch them if you want…" As soon as the words left his mouth Kacchan moved, and started to softly pet them, making the blush on his face grew darker. A few people around them asked for a turn to pet them, but Kacchan didn't let them, claiming that only he could pet him.

And, honestly, he wasn't going to deny that.

The teacher soon came back and asked for order, and all of them scattered around the room, with only he and Kacchan staying together.

Kacchan kept petting his ears the rest of the day.

The next night, Izuku was bouncing on the couch, waiting for the call to connect. His mom was next to him, the tablet secured tightly on her hands, and her hair messily braided– something Izuku looked really proud of.

The sound of the call connecting resounded on his ears, and he was leaning against the tablet, part of his face appearing in a corner of the screen. His eyes and hair were the most visible, aside from his ears.
And when the person they were calling finally appeared in the screen, his ears moved forward, eagerly.

"Aunt Rumi! Aunt Rumi!" he called, and the girl –who was around 10 years old– immediately gasped, leaning against her own screen in an attempt to get a clearer look at him.

"Is that you, Izu?! Really?!" His aunt winced when someone off-screen scolded her about being quiet, and she dropped her excitement a little. "You're a bunny!"

"I am, I am! Just like you!"

"Izuku's quirk finished manifesting yesterday, and today he could go again to school." His mom explained for him, holding a small smile on her lips and ruffling his hair. He giggled.

"Oh, man, manifesting a mutation quirk is not funny. I'm so sorry, Izu. Did it hurt much?"

"Uh… A little. But mom was with me! And I have a quirk now, so I'm really happy!" Izuku smiled, and his aunt mirrored his smile.

"I can see that." His aunt then looked at his mom, a conspiratorial smirk on her face. "Does mom know?"

"She doesn't! I'm waiting for her to get here to surprise her." His mom exclaimed, her smile growing at the mention of grandma. Oh, right! Grandma didn't know! He couldn't wait to show her! "You better not tell her, Rumi."

"What, me? You wound me, sis! Always doubting me!" His aunt joked, and then all of them were laughing.

They continued the call, telling each other of things happening on their lives. Izuku told her aunt about Kacchan's quirk, and his aunt told him about this one person on her class with a quirk that could make barriers. He got excited at that, and started to ask all sorts of questions about the quirks on her class.

It was a little later when Izuku started to nod off, and they finished the call with promises of seeing each other soon.

Izuku couldn't wait to see his aunt and his grandma.

Summer break came shortly after his quirk manifested, and Izuku was bouncing all around the place, being careful to not knock anything down. He was going back and forth from his room to the living room, grabbing his action figures and other toys and placing them on the couch, just to go back to his room and grab his All Might blanket. He finally sat down on the couch, wrapping the blanket around himself to make a burrito, and waited for his Aunt Rumi to come.

He was so excited! She had only seen his ears when they talked on a video call, but that wasn't enough! Izuku didn't have a chance to show her his legs or all of the amazing things he could do now through a video call! That's why he was so excited for his aunt to come.
They were going to play, and then he was going to ask her about her quirk and then they were going to compare how similar they were and then they were going to train! She lived really far away, so she only came during summer break, but that gave them three months each year for them to train together! And that way they could surprise each other every time she came.

It was the perfect plan!

Izuku didn't even know when he dozed off, but his eyes stayed open while he rested. It was the sound of the door opening that woke him up, and he bolted out of the couch, the blanket almost making him fall.
When he saw who opened the door, however, his hops halted, and his ears immediately went back.
In just a split second he was on his toes and rushed to the kitchen, hiding behind his mom while his right foot started thumping in annoyance.

"What is it, Izuku?" His mom asked, worried, and tried to go to the door to check. Izuku didn't let her, however, clutching on her skirt.

"Grandpa." Izuku hissed, his thumping speeding up when said man came into the kitchen, even going as far as growling at him.

"Izuku, behave." His mom scolded him, cleaning her hands with a clean rag. Two taps on his hands were enough for him to let her go, but he stayed on his place, still thumping. "Hello, dad."

And when Rumi came too he rushed to go behind her, ducking under his grandpa's arm when he tried to stop him. His aunt allowed him to hide there and, by how her own ears were backwards as well, Izuku knew that she was annoyed too.

"'sup, Inko." Rumi greeted, not moving an inch. Izuku clutched her shirt when his grandpa moved, growling once again.

"Greet her properly, Rumi." he scolded, glaring at her. His thumping started again with that gesture, and he was pretty sure that his tail was twitching.

"Izuku, you're going to disturb the Koike family. Stop that."

Izuku didn't get why he was the one being scolded, and it sure as heck didn't make him happy. His thumping just sped up, making his mom look slightly annoyed and his grandpa to glare even harder.
Izuku answered with a glare of his own.

"Where's grandma?" he finally asked, his voice angry. Mom was sending him a warning look, but he didn't care.

Izuku didn't like his grandpa one bit.

The old man was always chastising everything his mom did, and was always scolding Aunt Rumi. He even yelled at Izuku one time, just because he didn't know how to button his shirt properly! It was his third birthday, and grandpa ruined it and he cried that night because he was mean!
He even caught the man saying that Izuku was a mistake that shouldn't have happened, and since that day he decided he wasn't going to be nice anymore.

If grandpa hated him, then he was going to hate him back!

"She's–" His grandpa started, but a growl from him stopped his words.

"I didn't ask you."

"Izuku!" Mom was angry now, and that only annoyed him further. This wasn't fair! He wasn't supposed to be here! "If you keep this behavior, then I'm going to ground you!"

"Then ground me, I'm not gonna stop!" Izuku finally yelled, but instead of going to his room he ran outside, his mom's callings being ignored by him.

Always on his toes, he ran faster and faster until he finally stopped at the park where he and Kacchan always played together. His lungs burned, and his eyes burned, and everything burned.
Izuku tried to calm himself down, but every breath that he took just grew more agitated and next thing he knew he was crying. He was crying, and yelling, and he was trying to make himself as tiny as he could, and it was so unfair! They were supposed to have a good time! Aunt Rumi was going to play with him, and grandma was going to read him bedtime stories, and then all of them were going to cook katsudon together! Even Izuku could help!

And then his grandpa had to ruin everything!

Was… Was he being a bad kid?

His mom always told him that he should be nice to everyone, even if they weren't nice to him. And he was! He was nice to everyone, even the mean kids on his class! He was nice!
But, something about his grandpa…

Something about his grandpa always made him hesitate on being nice to him.

Maybe it was because his grandpa didn't love him, but…
He just couldn't be nice to him.

His head snapped up when he heard steps approach him, already ready to bolt out of there, but calmed down when he saw that it was just Aunt Rumi. But soon enough that calm was replaced with guilt, and his tears came even stronger.
His mom had to be so worried! He never left the house like that, never!

He was a bad kid! Bad, bad, bad, bad–

"Shhh, Izu. You're not bad, 'kay? Don't say that." Apparently he was mumbling once again. Aunt Rumi came to him, and hugged him. She started to rock him, calming him down a little. "Why did you run away like that, hm?"

"I… I don't like grandpa." he murmured, looking down at his hands and playing with his fingers. A slight hiccup left his lips, and he furrowed his nose in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing. "He's mean to you and mom and me, and he never stops saying mean things."

"Man, don't I know that." Aunt Rumi grumbled, and started to pet his head. That calmed him down even more, and soon his tears were less. "You just have to ignore him, Izu. He never stops being like that, so you just learn to not defy him. It's better that way."

"But he's mean. I can't just let him be mean!" Izuku was always told to be nice, so why couldn't his grandpa be nice too? It wasn't hard! Even Kacchan was nice to his mom!

"You're a really good kid, Izu, but some people… They just can't change anymore." Aunt Rumi got up and brought him with her, smiling down at him. "What do you say we go back and help Inko cook, hm?"

Izuku just nodded and went with her, his steps less lively than they had been in the morning. His mom had hugged him once they got back, and sobbed about how worried she got. His grandpa didn't say anything, and just kept watching them from the living room.
They cooked together –without his grandpa–, and Izuku and Aunt Rumi did a pillow fort. His aunt and him trained the next day, and then Kacchan joined them on the training.
That was the routine for the three months they stayed, and Izuku said goodbye to his aunt, with the promise between the two of them that they would train every summer.
Izuku ignored his grandpa the whole time.

It wouldn't be until later in his life that he would disagree with the words his aunt had said that day.

Chapter Text

As it turns out, living with a quirk that’s more flashy than what you would like really is a test of patience.

Izuku found that out when he was five and his and Kacchan’s family were going to a shrine, the two of them dressed up in nice kimonos to celebrate Shichi-Go-San. He was wearing a dark green kimono so his tail wouldn’t be that notorious –his kimono had to be modified so it was comfortable to wear, and mom hadn’t allowed him to look at the receipt–, while Kacchan was stuck wearing a black one (”Why can’t I wear an orange one?!” he had complained and Auntie Mitsuki claimed that it wasn’t formal, so Kacchan had to oblige.). The promise of candy once the ceremony ended was enough to subdue any tantrums from his best friend, although he had been pouting all the way to the shrine.

Everything had been fine until they arrived to the shrine, that was really far from their neighborhood and full of people neither of them knew, where he had been immediately swarmed by kids looking at his ears, with the taller ones of the bunch even being rude enough to reach and touch them without his permission. The unwanted attention had been enough to freak him out and soon enough he was on his toes, leaping away from the shrine and into a konbini that was on the corner of the street.
He took refuge there until he was calm enough, but then freaked out because he was lost in a place he didn’t know. He had approached the cashier and begged them between sobs to call his mom, whose number he had memorized for emergency situations like this one, and five minutes later his mom and Kacchan’s family were barging into the konbini. His mom was crying and Kacchan was yelling at him for leaving like that, but, with his mom’s promise to hold him until the end of the ritual, they went back to the shrine. It looked like the children there had been scolded by their parents, and some of them hid from Kacchan– unsurprisingly.

Izuku decided that it was a good thing he only celebrated Shichi-Go-San once on his life, and not even the candy put the whole experience in a kind light.
It had taken three years until he joined his mom to a shrine on New Year again.

A similar occurrence happened at the start of middle school, when he and Kacchan entered the classroom after the Entrance Ceremony. Their teacher had gone to get an extra textbook to keep as a spare, and as soon as he left the chaos began. Students surrounded them and asked him all kinds of questions, some of which he couldn’t answer because how on Earth was he supposed to answer if he ate his own shit or not?. Whoever tried to touch his ears was warned with a few explosions from Kacchan and, once all attention was on him, he told the other students to kindly fuck off. The smarter ones paid attention and went to sit on their seats, but two of them apparently didn’t get the message and stayed with them, one of them even going as far as to sling an arm around Kacchan’s shoulder.
That, obviously, was met with more yelling from his best friend, but the two guys didn’t budge.

And that’s how Tsubasa-kun and Takeda-kun re-entered their lives, who he didn’t recognize at first because it had been so long since he saw them. Kacchan just said that he didn’t care and left it at that, but he knew that his friend was bad at remembering faces and names.

(It’s also how he got elected Class Representative against his will, but he was trying to look at the positives only.)

As promised, he and his Aunt Rumi trained together every summer, with the occasional addition of Kacchan when he was allowed to leave his house. His aunt taught him to embrace the bunny on him, explaining how trusting his instincts would pay off more often than not.
She taught him how to throw a punch, how to kick correctly, how to jump and land without hurting his joints, how to leap efficiently and how to detect noises without background noise hindering his attempts.

When she went off to become a Pro-Hero, their training summers stopped.

Seeing how his main source of training wasn’t available anymore, he went to find training on his own accords. First was a dojang where he learned Taekwondo. If lessons with his aunt taught him anything was to focus on his legs, as most of his power came from them. He also practiced Capoeira to become more agile and flexible, his enjoyment of the martial art being such that he even invited Kacchan to take part of his classes with his mestre, a Brazilian man named Joao with an amazing auditory quirk. He could make anyone listen to a song on their heads! That’s how he came to love a lot of traditional Brazilian songs, and even picked up a little of Brazilian Portuguese along the way.
Kacchan decided that the capoeira classes were actually useful to him and even implemented it on his quirked fight style– he was so graceful! The way he used his quirk to move around and not even look like he was struggling while doing that really made him train even more to come up with his own ways of fusing his quirk with the martial arts he was learning.

It was on his second year of middle school that he found a French fellow willing to teach him Savate, which later evolved to half of his class joining him on said classes, curious about learning a foreign form of martial arts. In the middle of his third year the guy opened a gym, so good for him.

Third year of middle school couldn’t be normal, because that would be unthinkable. Especially since it involved him and Kacchan.

He was finishing to pack his things, an impatient Kacchan in the door of the classroom waiting for him. The only thing he could hear, apart from the classmates whose turn it was to clean the classroom, was Kacchan’s foot tapping against the floor to show his annoyance, something he picked up from Izuku himself.

“‘Zuku, hurry the fuck up! If Joao yells at us again for being late I’m not going to cover up for your slow ass, again!” Tsubasa-kun and Takeda-kun, who were also waiting for him with Kacchan, snickered slightly. He could almost hear Tsubasa murmuring ’No one told you to cover up for him, though’, but decided to ignore it for the sake of not initiating another argument about whether or not Kacchan was whipped.

(He was, by the way. The answer would always be yes.)

“I’m going, I’m going!” he answered, packing his notebook with his notes about quirks. It was a precious item, as were the other 14 notebooks, and he wanted to take utter care of it.

When he finally closed his backpack and joined his friends, a sheepish smile on his face, the only thing he could think of was how lucky he was.

Earlier that day, at homeroom, the teacher had announced to the whole class how he and Kacchan were both going to apply for U.A. The class had contained their breaths, already knowing how competitive his blonde friend could be, but Kacchan surprised all of them when his only answer was a bark of laughter, followed by an arrogant ”We’re going to be the best Hero Duo to ever exist, so you extras better keep up with us!”.
Granted, that got the entire classroom to either glare at Kacchan or send him encouraging smiles, with the welcoming addition of Tsubasa-kun and Takeda-kun’s mocking laughs, but Izuku could only smile.

It really was encouraging to see that Kacchan believed in him.

The group of four got reduced to two when Tsubasa-kun got a call from his grandpa, who called him home, and Takeda-kun went to buy things his mom asked him to get– Takeda-kun didn’t take the capoeira classes with them, and went more as moral support, so it was okay if he missed one or two classes.
This meant that it was only he and Kacchan going to the classes, and Izuku wasn’t exactly complaining. It had been fairly long since only the two of them walked home –or to the gym, in this case–, always accompanied with the guys, so a blast to the past was always welcomed.

And maybe Izuku was a little nervous, but he was always nervous, so he could feign ignorance if asked about his behaviour.

When it was just the two of them, their conversations would often gravitate towards All Might. It wasn’t unknown that the two of them were big fanboys of the Number One Hero, so it was normal for them to talk about him.
And, ever since her debut, their fanaticism would also go towards his Aunt Rumi, known as Miruko to the rest of the world, and she was someone Kacchan was especially fond of. Both of them were fierce and rash with their heroism, so it wouldn’t surprise him if Kacchan ended up working with his aunt at some point. They would definitely make headlines, there was no doubt of that.

But for that to happen, they needed to graduate from U.A first.

It’s true that they trained because they liked to train, but it had been their dream to be heroes ever since they were little kids. That dream hadn’t changed at all, if anything it just got stronger, and the next stepping stone on that dream was to get into U.A. The Entrance Exam was in less than 10 months, and the extra pressure that that deadline put on them was why they were training even harder. Izuku started practicing Hapkido at the dojang where he had practiced Taekwondo, and Kacchan signed up to kickboxing classes.

(”I can’t be a one-trick pony.” he explained when Izuku asked, both of them eating pizza at a Domino’s at the mall. They were supposed to buy some fabrics for his mom, but she gave them money for food and food always came first with them. Plus, it was Kacchan’s cheat day. “If I rely too much on my quirk I’ll end up fucking my arms, and then what? I’m not an idiot, I know that if I end up injured after every fight I take part off I’ll come off as weak, and I’m not fucking weak”.)

The fact that they trained so much obviously came with the downside of not being able to spend as much time together as they did before, but they pushed through that with a little struggle. They were too used to do everything together, and if they didn’t grew up from that behavior it would definitely slow them down when it came to be the best Pro-Heroes possible once they graduated.

So, yes. He wanted to look at the positives only, or else he was going to end up crying at every possible opportunity. It ran in the family.

One of the classes they still took together were their capoeira classes, that they took every Monday and Friday after school. They had found a shortcut under a bridge that saved them at least seven minutes, so they made a habit of taking it whenever they were running late. Which was every time Izuku got stuck doing Class President things (he couldn’t convince his classmates to pick someone else, so he was pretty much fucked) and the Vice President, Akairo-san, had her kendo classes. Hers took place almost at the other part of the city, so Izuku took pity and assured her she could leave early those days– which subsequently made him late, but what was he supposed to do at this point.

They were going under that exact bridge when he heard something that definitely wasn’t a rat and, before whatever was after them took a hold of them, he grabbed Kacchan by his middle and leaped.

“What the fuck, ‘Zuku?!” So, obviously, doing something like this without a previous warning would freak out anyone, but Kacchan took one second to see Izuku’s frantic state and glanced back, putting on a combat stance when he realized what happened.

There, standing where they had previously stood, was a villain.

“Such a good quirk! You’ll definitely make a good host once I get a hold of you.” The villain was made of a mud-like substance, which, probably, didn’t give them a solid body. Attacking them head-front was a bad idea, since they didn’t know what their quirk could do.

An explosion later, and Izuku knew that Kacchan did just that.

“Kacchan, stop!” Izuku groaned, leaping to get a hold of his best friend and leaping once one of his feet touched the ground, going sideways this time.

“Fuck you! Let me beat their ass!” Kacchan protested, struggling to get off his strong hold on him without resorting to his usual tactic of punching whoever was grabbing him on the throat. “The hell you think you’re doing, huh?!”

“Shh–.”

“Don’t fucking shush me, you asshole–!”

“– Shh!” Izuku leaped them out of the way when the villain attempted to grab them once again, and Kacchan simply glared at him but kept quiet this time and Izuku took it as his cue to start talking– or, well, whispering. “Kacchan, think for one second. We don’t know anything about their quirk, what if their muddy appearance isn’t only aesthetic? Maybe they can trap us in their body, like quicksand! We need to attack a solid part of them, maybe–”

“Like their eyes?” Kacchan interrupted –rude–, whispering as well while glancing at the villain, keeping an eye out for any attacks.

“I’m running out of patience over here! Why don’t you brats make this easier for all of us and stay put?” But he ignored them, a conspiratory smirk forming on his face, one that Kacchan mirrored.

Now they were talking.

“Kacchan, on my back.” Izuku let go of his friend, almost crouching on the floor. The tips of his fingers were touching the ground, and his toes were firmly put as a preparation for his next move. The weight of a new body on top of his helped him calculate how much force to put on his legs and, once Kacchan was secured on top of him, he leaped.

Right at the villain.

The moment both of them were off the ground his hands went immediately at Kacchan’s legs, keeping him on place. His friend then let go of his shoulders –that he had grabbed onto to not fall off him once he started moving– and, when they were close enough, let explosions go off directly at the villain’s eyes. The force of the explosions was enough to halt their forward movement, even sending them backwards slightly, and Izuku took the chance to move them both back once again. Kacchan got off his back, but he stayed on his crouched position in case he needed to leap out of the way again.

But, hearing the villain’s wails and curses, he didn’t think that was going to be necessary.

“Now what?” Kacchan asked, already back at a relaxed position, because yes, he was that confident on himself.

“Well, we can’t call the police, we used our quirks without permission and that’s kinda what vigilantes do.” Kacchan scoffed, obviously not happy with his wording, but Izuku knew he was right and not even Kacchan’s unhappiness was going to make him back down. “I suggest we just–” But a booming laugh cut his words short, and he and Kacchan were quickly back to their fight stances, with him close to the floor in case he needed to jump and Kacchan with his hands forward, heating up in a second.

And then fucking All Might appeared at the entrance of the tunnel.

“Don’t worry, why? Because I am–! Wait.” He even stopped himself from finishing his catchphrase! That didn’t happen! Never! “Uh… What happened here?”

So, a little picturing: They were two teenagers on a battle stance, in front of a still screaming villain holding their eyes and cursing whatever came to their mind. With both of them not sporting even a scratch.
Yeah, he could see why All Might would be confused about what happened.

And Izuku was too busy freaking out to even come up with a coherent answer, so it was up to Kacchan to save both of them from eternal embarrassment.

“We just got here.”

… So that was a fucking lie.

Izuku hid his face on his hands, already making a plan to move to the mountains and change his name. The only problem with that plan was his quirk, and mutilation wasn’t really an attractive option when it came to change his identity. Could he dye his fur…? A bunny quirk wasn’t that uncommon, surely changing the color of his hair and fur could be enough to change his identity.
Would that fuck up his fur, though…?

“‘Zuku, stop fucking muttering.” Kacchan hissed out, glaring at him out the corner of his eyes.

All Might glanced between them, confusion clear on his face, but as soon as he understood what happened another booming laugh filled the place, his usual posture even being stricken.
Something told him that All Might misunderstood the situation quite a bit.

“No need to worry, my boys! This will be our secret, alright? You acted to defend yourselves, did you not?” All Might winked at them and reared back his arm, probably in preparation to attack the villain. Izuku understood he was giving them a window to get out of the way by not attacking immediately, grabbing Kacchan by his middle once again –which was met with protests from his best friend, because how dare Izuku be a good friend– and leaping to be besides the Pro-Hero, who punched the air once both of them were safe.

And quite literally destroyed the villain.

So, maybe the villain didn’t have internal organs, seeing as the tunnel didn’t look like a murder scene and instead just smelled like a sewer. Did that mean that they didn’t eat? Did they even have a brain?
Did they count as a human being and not a really big bacteria?

Those were questions that wouldn’t let him sleep that night.

All Might got a cola bottle out and started collecting the parts of the villain that were now scattered around the place, seeming quite unaffected by what just happened. Kacchan was mouthing ‘what the fuck’ repeatedly at Izuku now that the hero wasn’t facing them, and Izuku was equally freaking out, going as far as hopping on his place. A silent scream was leaving his mouth –not really– and his ears were forward, an enormous smile on his lips.
And maybe some tears were rolling down his cheeks, but Kacchan wasn’t going to comment on that, because he was a good friend, thank you very much.

(The classmates that said the opposite could, quite frankly, suck his dick– except, please not, because ew).

Both of them went back to a normal and totally not suspicious pose once All Might turned to face them again, the cola bottle now secured on a pocket of his pants. The hero still seemed like he didn't understand what happened on the tunnel but, to be fair, neither did Izuku.

Remembering that he was in front of All Might, something that didn't happen every day, he hurried to get a notebook out of his backpack, doing the same for Kacchan, and approached the Pro-Hero with both notebooks and a marker on hand, a nervous smile on his face.

"Excuse me, All Might? Can you please sign these?" He could perfectly imagine Kacchan rolling his eyes, probably mouthing something along the lines of ’Fucking fanboy’, but this wasn’t about Kacchan. And to think that Izuku was being a good friend and getting an autograph for him as well.

Fuck you, mental Kacchan.

The hero wasn’t being an ass like his mental image of his best friend, instead laughing good-naturedly and grabbing the marker to write an autograph on a clean page from both notebooks. Izuku was already planning to frame the autograph and display it front and center on his room back wall.
All Might gave everything back and patted him in the shoulder, which made him freeze in place and mentally screech. He would be on his deathbed, and he wouldn’t know how exactly he managed to mutter a nervous and stammered thanks to the Pro-Hero.

“Well, my boys, I need to hand this villain to the authorities! Thank you for helping me capture them!” All Might laughed his booming laugh, walking to the entrance of the tunnel and patting Kacchan in the shoulder as well. His best friend freezed on his place too, the poor thing. “I’ll be leaving, now! Good bye!”

And then All Might quite literally jumped up and disappeared, because no Pro-Hero could be normal in this economy.
Izuku turned to face Kacchan, both of them in absolute silence before screaming a mutual ’WHAT THE FUCK’ and huddling over their autographs, freaking out over the signature and what just happened.

Only for the moment to be ruined by his phone ringing. He took it out to see what was interrupting the best day of his life, noticing that it was Joao calling.
And now they were freaking out for a totally different reason.

“...Fuck!” They both screamed, starting to run towards the gym were his mestre was definitely waiting with a punishment for their tardiness.

They had to do 20 burpees, but you know what? They met All Might, it was worth it.

(They woke up the next day with their whole body sore, but it was still worth it).

(Kacchan whined the entire day, though).

Chapter Text

Training alone could be bothersome, Izuku found out.

He didn't even mean training in the classes he had without Kacchan, because in those he at least had his other classmates. He meant when he was completely, utterly alone, with a punching bag or a training regime scribbled on his spare notebook, the one with random stuff written on it– at least five pages had different katsudon recipes, and he didn't even cook.
But, spare mystery notebook aside, he didn't like training alone.

He got distracted easily, his enhanced hearing proving to be a problem when it came to counting his reps. And when his hearing wasn't the problem it would be his bunny instincts, making him raise his guard at the most minimal strange movement he could catch on his peripheral vision. Whenever he trained on his house, the force of his legs would often bother the Koike family, and he officially had to stop when they got a noise complaint and he had to go down one floor and apologize to a very sleep deprived Marika Koike and her newborn.

So now, he had to get creative.

In the mornings before school he went on runs, training his stamina and his brain to filter whatever noise his ears picked up, electing to get selective with his hearing. During free periods at school, he did push-ups and sit-ups in the back of his classroom, earning confused stares from his classmates the first days he did it– after a week they simply started ignoring him, chalking up his weird behavior to Izuku being Izuku. Whenever his mom asked him to buy something he jogged to the konbini, and he and Kacchan had now taken to take races to the gym whenever they had training together.

It wasn't perfect by any means, but it quickly became his routine. This was how he chose to train to become the best hero ever, and now that his body showed the fruits of his labor, he would keep up like this.

It was the price to pay to be a hero.

Two months after his unconventional way of training started, he was now an expert on ignoring background noise. His classroom was filled with the chatter from his classmates, laughter and shouts floating around the place along the aroma of food, but Izuku was now unconsciously ignoring it. His ears were facing towards his friends, where Tsubasa-kun was explaining something with excited hand gestures to Takeda-kun and Kacchan, his winged friend making Takeda-kun laugh at the gestures he was making with his hands. Kacchan was making a disgusted face, glaring at his bento with a forlorn look on his eyes.

"– and then the cyst just fucking exploded! There was pus just gushing out and some blood. It smelled so bad, like rotten flesh or something! Then–!" Kacchan angrily pushed his bento box away from him, putting the lid on with more force than necessary.

"Well, there goes my fucking appetite." his best friend angrily muttered, glaring daggers at Tsubasa-kun and Takeda-kun. Neither of them took the bait of Kacchan's seeming anger, however, with Takeda-kun even cackling mockingly at Kacchan.

"Man, you have the weakest stomach ever."

"I fucking don't! I just know better than to discuss cyst popping while eating, you disgusting fucks!" Some heads turned around at the sound of Kacchan screaming, more curious than cautious at seeing what caused their blonde classmate's rage this time.

Izuku laughed quietly, earning a betrayed glare from his best friend that just made him laugh even more.

"And what are you laughing for, huh?!"

"I-It's just… you just confirmed that you actually have a weak stomach." he wheezed out, hiding his mouth behind his hand and laughing even more.

"I didn't! What the hell, anyone would be disgusted!"

"To be fair," Takeda-kun started, snickering when Kacchan's glare was directed his way at the sound of his voice, "Izuku finished his food while Tsubasa was explaining how to check if a cow is pregnant."

"The smell is pungent, man." Tsubasa-kun added, his own snickering making Kacchan even more angry.

"He doesn't fucking count! For all we know, 'Zuku eats his own shit and doesn't tell us!" Tsubasa-kun and Takeda-kun started laughing out loud at that, with Tsubasa-kun even hitting his desk between wheezing gasps, while Izuku stopped his own laughing to gape at his best friend in disbelief, hitting his arm repeatedly with no real intent of hurting him.

"You know that's not true, Kacchan, stop! That's disgusting!"

"Then take back that bullshit about me having a weak stomach!"

"But you do!"

Their lunch hour ended with the four of them roughhousing around, with Kacchan having his arm around his shoulders and giving him a noogie between his ears. No matter how loudly Izuku complained, Kacchan didn't let go of him until the bell rang, claiming that he was going to 'kick his ass' during their capoeira class until he took back what he said about his best friend having a weak stomach.

It was the last time the four of them laughed together.

After a week of absence, Tsubasa-kun was reported missing.

Even with one of his friends missing, Izuku couldn't afford to stop.

He cried with Tsubasa-kun's mom, wondering where he could be. He cried with Takeda-kun, searching all of the places the four of them used to spend time together, hoping to find him there.

He cried with Kacchan holding him in the safety of his room, All Might posters looking down on them and his hands fiercely clutching the Miruko hoodie Tsubasa-kun had gifted him for his birthday that year.

"This is why we're becoming heroes, 'Zuku." Kacchan whispered, his own voice strangled and wavering, one of his hands cradling the back of Izuku's head, as if he was afraid he was going to be the next one to disappear, "We're becoming heroes so we can help everyone. So we can find everyone. We're going to find him, 'Zuku. We have to."

And Kacchan was right. They were going to be heroes so they could help everyone, to give them hope that everything was going to be alright. So another parent wouldn't spend their nights crying in front of a framed photo wondering where their kid could be, like Tsubasa-kun's mom had been doing ever since he didn't come home that Friday afternoon.

And if he wanted to be a hero, he had to train.

Every morning, he woke up one hour before so he could go even further on his route. He pushed himself farther, not stopping even if his legs felt like they were burning and his lungs hurt with every breath he took.
Slowly breaking his old body apart, so a new and stronger one could take its place.

When his morning runs took him to a beach filled with trash, he stopped on his tracks and stared at the waste field in front of him. Panting and sweating, he stared at the small expanse of ocean he could see through the sea of trash, and his eyes watered.

Last year, their families went on a beach trip during summer break.
And the memory of Tsubasa-kun's laughing face while playing in the ocean made the decision for him.

The next day, Izuku was in front of the beach with garbage bags and thick construction gloves in him. He started filling the bags with the smallest objects, carrying the full bags on his back to the entrance of the beach two at a time. Every day, the small path he had started would get a little bit cleaner, and two weeks later he reached the sea.

From there on, it was a matter of making his way through the garbage.

Filling bags and carrying them, searching through the sand for anything that could be buried beneath, and then pulling the big pieces of trash that got buried and washed by the waves. Once he ran out of small stuff to clean, he made his way up through the big stuff.

Microwaves, TVs, computers; anything he could carry, he took with him to the entrance of the beach. And if he couldn't carry it, he dragged it; couches and fridges usually received this treatment, with him putting the smaller stuff still around on top of them to make his garbage dragging more efficient.

Halfway through the beach, Kacchan joined him.

His best friend had gotten curious, claiming that lately Izuku looked like a zombie. And he couldn't blame him for making that remark, really, knowing that the dark circles under his eyes were notorious even five miles away. And if it wasn't the dark circles that sold him off, it would be the way his fur was slightly matted on some parts of his legs, when usually Izuku prided himself on the care he took of his fur, which tended to look shiny and healthy.

So instead of just brushing his friend's concerns off he simply grinned, resting his cheek against the arm he had draped on top of his desk.

"Why don't I just show you?"

The two of them used the afternoons after class to clean the beach, going there despite the way their muscles were screaming after their respective classes at their gyms or dojos. Kacchan made it more efficient, taking a look at the work Izuku had done so far and pointing at different strategic points where they should start now that it was two of them, and sighing dejectedly once he found out that Izuku had even made friends with the garbage disposal men responsible for the route where the beach was located.

Not once during their cleanups did Kacchan question why Izuku was cleaning this beach with such fervor in the first place, but the way he stared at the ocean with a nostalgic air told him that his best friend had come to the same conclusion as him.

Once they found Tsubasa-kun, they would come to this beach together.

During one of their cleanups, Kacchan asked something that almost made him drop the truck tire he was carrying to the entrance of the beach, his best friend busying himself taking apart an IKEA dinner table.

"D'ya think Aunt Rumi is gonna recommend you to U.A?"

He stared at the back of Kacchan's head like he couldn't quite process what his best friend just asked, his entire body freezing like a deer in headlights and his breath stuttering for a second. Kacchan wasn't even aware of the turmoil his question had generated, busy cursing under his breath at the leg of the table that refused to come off.

Was his aunt going to recommend him?

She was already a fairly popular hero, number 7 on the hero rankings despite working by herself. Everyone knew that hero Miruko was a force to be reckoned with, and her opinion regarding the strength of others was highly appreciated, seeing as how she was strong enough to go head to head with other heroes like Death Arms or even Endeavor without his fire. And recommendation students weren't that strange, either; U.A was notable for taking two per class every year, with the recommendation students usually having ties with heroes themselves or powerful families involved in the hero business.

There was no reason for Izuku to not be a recommended student himself.

The idea left a sour taste on his mouth, regardless. The idea of all his hard work being overlooked just because of his ties to a popular hero… It made him nauseous. He had worked so hard ever since his quirk manifested, with Aunt Rumi herself training him until she couldn't anymore; what was the point of that training, then, if he couldn't prove himself on the entrance exam? If he couldn't show the world that he was worthy of becoming a hero?

Izuku hated to be underestimated. People had done that his entire life just because he was a bunny, because his mutations gave him a cutesy look. People had often said that he couldn't be a hero because bunnies weren't strong, and that Miruko was just a fluke despite her having shown time and time again that her strength was something to be afraid of, to be grateful that she was on the side of the heroes.

If Izuku became a recommendation student… Would people underestimate him once again?

Tightening the grip on the tire he was carrying, he simply went to the entrance of the beach to drop it off, silently seething at the probability of people underestimating him once again. His steps were harder than necessary against the sand, leaving imprints on when, usually, his steps tended to be light enough to only kick some sand back. Looking at the pile of trash Kacchan and him had collected for the day, his resolve hardened, and he squared his shoulders before going back to his best friend.

Izuku wasn't about to waste his potential.
Not that way.

"I hope she doesn't." he says once he gets back to the spot they had been cleaning, stopping Kacchan on his tracks; his best friend had hoisted the disassembled table up, and was about to carry it before Izuku spoke, "Recommend me, that is. I want to prove to everyone I'm worthy of being at U.A, no matter who's my family. I'm going to become a hero on my own merits."

Kacchan nodded, a knowing grin on his face, and continued to carry the table to the entrance, not before calling out behind him.

"Correct answer, bunny brain."

They continued to clean the beach after that in an amiable silence, only the sound of their steps and the trash being carried filling the air. It wasn't until the sky was dark without a single star in sight and their clothes were heavily scented with trash, that they stopped for the day. They were three quarters of the way to go, and if they continued at this rhythm, it was a really plausible thing that they could finish the whole beach before the entrance exam.

Izuku silently wished they found Tsubasa-kun before that.

The streets were bustling with people going to their homes and teenagers still in their uniforms walking together, whether from the karaoke, the arcade or somewhere else. A group of giggling schoolgirls walked past them, one of them showing something in her phone to the other three, and the sight of wings on the back of one of them made his throat close up a little bit.

None of them said anything the whole way home, both of them in their own world of problems. Izuku was still thinking about that question Kacchan had asked back at the beach, now aware of the probability of that happening. He didn't know what Aunt Rumi was going to do; was she going to recommend him? Was she not? She had gone to a hero school herself back in Hiroshima, so she knew how hard it was to get into one. Would she try to make his dream come true? Would she take pity on him? But Aunt Rumi wasn't one to pity others, she hated to be pitied in the first place. She had hated being at grandma's funeral because of all the pitying looks people gave her, after all.

But, if not pity, then…

"You're muttering again, 'Zuku." Kacchan interrupted his train of thought, an almost fond look in his eyes while he stopped his steps just meters away from the residential complex where Izuku lived, "If you're that afraid of what Aunt Rumi is gonna do, why not just ask her?"

Izuku stopped at that, surprised at the fact that such a simple solution hadn't come to mind at all. He deflated, a tired groan making his way past his lips while he hid his face in his hands. Seriously, it really was that simple! Aunt Rumi always said she was a phone call away if he or Kacchan needed something! And here he was, overthinking everything again!

His best friend laughed mockingly at his despair, and Izuku simply headbutted his chest in retaliation. This only caused Kacchan to laugh harder, the traitorous bastard, and Izuku just groaned harder in response.

"Stop laughing at meeee." he whined, giving repeated small headbutts against the chest of his best friend to make him stop. Because he was a ram now, apparently.

"Then stop being so stupid." Kacchan answered, and that caused him to headbutt him harder than before. It backfired, though, because Kacchan's chest was built like a brick house, and he was just a bunny.

Now he understood why some of his female classmates complained about Kacchan having a bigger chest than them.

Holding onto his friend's arms to steady his dizzy self, he glared up at his face. Kacchan was simply smirking in mock, however, and Izuku couldn't help but pout at the blatant disrespect he was experiencing.

"Stop being such an asshole, jeez." he complained, letting go of Kacchan and stepping back until their personal space was a thing that existed again, "Will you stay the night?"

"Can't today, ma is making curry." Kacchan said nonchalantly, shrugging slightly, and Izuku understood his reasoning completely. Auntie Mitsuki's curry was worth a war.

"Okay, save me some?"

"Mhm, only if you convince Auntie to make okonomiyaki tomorrow."

"Deal."

They went their separate ways after that, the promise of Kacchan texting once he came home left unsaid between them. His mom greeted him with freshly made rice and vegetables, asking him to take a bath before eating because he, once again, was smelling bad. Kacchan texted him he had made him home just before he started his bath, and after eating and brushing his teeth, he went to bed.

He couldn't sleep, however.

He had an important call to make in the morning.

His call was answered to the sound of wind whistling against the microphone, making him put his phone away from the base of his ear before the sound gave him the urge to go run. It was obvious that his aunt was in the middle of hopping from rooftop to rooftop when she answered her phone, her favorite way of traveling when she was in her patrol. He waited until his end of the call stopped sounding like a fan and the voice of his aunt called for him to put his phone against the base of his ears again.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite nephew!" Aunt Rumi greeted him with a smile on her voice, making him snort slightly at her phrasing.

"I'm your only nephew, Aunt Rumi."

"Wrong! Katsuki is my second nephew, I've adopted him." A startled laugh made his way out of him in a sputter, making him cover his mouth so his mom wouldn't hear him cackling this early in the morning.

"Make sure Auntie Mitsuki never hears you say that." he warned, some laughter making his words shake slightly, but the only answer Aunt Rumi had for his warning was a loud and resounding,

"Hah! I'll make sure to say it when she's present, then! She still owes me a rematch for besting my spicy vegetarian curry!"

Izuku did laugh at that, earning a distant 'watch your noise this early, Izuku!' from his mom and a mocking laugh from Aunt Rumi, who most surely heard him being scolded just now. He pouted, but secretly he was just stalling so he could mentally prepare himself for the big question.

Unfortunately for him, Aunt Rumi saw right through him even without being there.

"What's the matter, Izu? You never call without a reason to."

Cursing mentally at his aunt's ability to read him like a book, he fell back against his bed and groaned loudly. Rumi laughed once again at his misery, because Izuku always makes the mistake of getting attached to people that love to make fun of him, but waited for him to speak when he was ready nonetheless.

Remembering that feeling of nausea that had attacked him back at the beach at the thought of getting underestimated, he took a deep breath and started talking.

"Kacchan asked something yesterday while we were training." he started, staring at his ceiling so he couldn't get distracted by anything on his room while he was gaining courage to ask this to his aunt, "He said that, because you're my aunt, you could technically recommend me to U.A. That way I could enter the school without having to go through the usual entrance exam, just because there's a hero in my family."

"Is that so?" Aunt Rumi hummed, the stillness around his aunt's voice telling him that she had gone somewhere quiet just to take his call.

"And– and I realize that I should be lucky to have that option open for me, really, but just the thought of getting to where I want to just because of who's my family– I don't like it. It makes me nauseous." he bluntly stated, his brow furrowing slightly just at the idea of any of that happening, "I've trained really hard to be where I am now, aunt. We both know that. You yourself trained me until you couldn't anymore! To think that all my effort could be overlooked just because of my ties to a hero… Please don't do that to me."

The last portion of his speech was quieter than the rest, his voice losing conviction when he realized just how quiet the other side of the line was. He gnawed at his lower lip while he anxiously waited for his aunt to say something, his eyes watering in frustration.

He realized just how unfair things were. Just because he was the nephew of a popular hero, there was a big possibility of him skipping the entrance exam to such a prestigious school like U.A. He could just flaunt his status as the family of a hero, and it could get him what he had wanted for so long in just the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, people like Kacchan had trained their whole lives for an opportunity to simply take the exam, and that still didn't guarantee them a place in the school.

What kind of system was that, where the ones born into a hero family were privileged enough to take things away from others with just a snap of their fingers?

Just the thought of having the world served to him on a silver platter because his aunt was Miruko was enough to make him want to vomit.

He had trained hard just like every other kid dreaming of being a hero. He was blessed to have a quirk that could help him in his dream. Some of his classmates and friends had to abandon their dreams of being heroes because their quirks were deemed 'not good enough' or 'weak'. Izuku had seen some friends just shatter inside when they learned that they couldn't pursue the dream that almost every kid had since childhood. He had held some of them while they cried, had accompanied them when they went looking into other options for their futures.

Having seen that, having lived that, how could he dare to demand things to be given to him just because of who his aunt was?

How could he dare take things for granted?

"I'm really proud of you, Izu." his aunt suddenly said, such softness in her voice that he had never heard before that it made the few tears that had gathered in his eye finally spill down his temples.

"Huh?"

"I was never going to recommend you." his aunt admitted, some laughter underlying her voice, and that statement had him sputtering lightly, "You know I value hard work over everything, so I wasn't going to hand you success just because you're my sister's son. That's just not how it works with me." A gentle laugh sounded on the other side of the line, and Izuku could just picture Aunt Rumi putting some strands of her hair behind her ears, "But the fact that you actually called to ask me to not recommend you… It speaks loudly of who you are as a person, and that fills me with pride."

The tears were now flowing freely down his face, and he had to sit up so he could breathe correctly and not choke on his sobs.

Just how much could he love his aunt? How much could she trust in him? He was worrying over nothing, that much was clear now, but what she said…

She was actually proud of him.

He had made someone proud of him.

"I can't wait to see what kinda hero you become, Izuku. You better keep making me proud."

The sky was clear that day, blue and white painting a warm canvas over his head. The uniform over his body was comfortable, his modified pants letting his tail wag freely with excitement. Kacchan was hunched over beside him, carrying both of their bags over his shoulder despite Izuku's insistence that it wasn't necessary. Students were milling around, some in groups and some alone, walking towards the school or staring at the entrance like he was doing at that moment.

Bold, shiny letters reading 'U.A' looking down on them, filling his heart with excitement.

"This is it, Kacchan," he exclaimed, his entire body vibrating in eagerness, "we made it to U.A!"

"Of course we did, you nerd," his best friend answered, his voice a low growl signaling how stupid he thought the remark was, "what else were you expecting?"

Izuku simply smiled as an answer, earning an eye roll out of Kacchan. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he took it out to see what it was. There was a notification floating on his lockscreen, a message from Takeda-kun wishing them good luck, and another from Aunt Rumi, saying that they better pass the exam because she had already bragged about her two nephews acing it.

He chuckled at the message from his aunt, staring at the lockscreen behind the messages with a small smile.

It was a photo taken a week before, of Izuku and Kacchan standing on a beach, each of them holding a full garbage bag.
And the beach behind them was completely clean.

He locked his phone again, staring at the entrance with conviction, and took the first step towards the school.
Towards his future.

Always beside Kacchan.

"Let's do this."

Chapter Text

The path to the auditorium where their introduction was taking place was filled with high school students from all over. Some were in a group, like a pink-skinned girl, a black-haired guy and a brown-haired girl were, whereas others were alone like a guy with a birdhead. There were others walking in pairs, like him and Kacchan were doing, except they were doing the exact opposite of what other students going to take the exam were doing.

Whereas everyone else was nervously laughing or speaking quietly so as to not disturb others, Izuku and Kacchan were loudly making their way down the path, bickering like the pair of insufferable teenagers that they were.
And Izuku wondered why their classmates never wanted to spend time with both of them.

They were speaking about nothing and everything, taking confident steps towards their future, always together. Right foot in, left foot out; always in-sync even if they didn’t mean to, their hearts beating to the beat of the same hopeful song about their futures.

’This is where we’re going to become heroes.’

Multiple heads turned their way as they kept walking and talking to their destination, neither of them paying mind to the attention they were getting. Some people frowned at their boisterous way of behaving, believing them to be nothing more than two guys too full of themselves, but the rest saw two guys that were completely calm and not freaking out, joking and roughhousing around, and thought ’Ah, I wish I could be that calm.’

And in seeing their calmness, everyone else followed along.

For they, Izuku and Katsuki, became embers without meaning to.

And they lit up a sense of peace in the hearts of everyone who saw them.

The written exam had been laughably easy, or so Kacchan kept claiming, but Izuku was inclined to agree. He had been the first one on his classroom to turn it up to Cementoss —Cementoss! It had taken all his self-control to not start asking questions about his quirk at a hundred miles per hour!—, the hero doing nothing more than acknowledge him with a nod before Izuku left the classroom to look for Kacchan. Once he found his best friend, who had been the first one to finish on his batch as well, they went off to the next part of the entrance exam.

The auditorium was filled to the brim with excited students, hushed conversations resonating everywhere and filling his ears with more information than he could process. Pressing his hands against the base of his ears did absolutely nothing more than amplify the noise by a tenfold, because acoustics are a really fun thing that his ears liked to introduce him to more often than not, so with a miserable whine, he pressed his forehead against Kacchan’s shoulder, seeking refuge on his best friend.

Said best friend immediately laughed at his misery and made Izuku question if he had made a good choice at staying this guy’s friend for ten years.

“Don’t be rude to me right now, Kacchan, I can and will kick your ass down those stairs if you tempt me.” Izuku whined once more, guiding Katsuki to where they were supposed to be sitting down, some of the other students giving them a passing glance at the wording of Izuku’s threat.

“Do it, you won’t.” Kacchan countered, which made Izuku pout because, yeah, sure, he wouldn’t actually kick him down the stairs, but threatening each other was just something friends did for the fun of it, wasn’t it? At least Takeda-kun insisted on that being wrong, but Kacchan never backed their friend, so it must mean that Izuku was right.

“Shut up, who gave you the right to sass me.”

“Auntie did, she says someone has to keep your ego down.”

“My ego? Are you sure she wasn’t talking about you?”

“Haaaah? Is there something you wanna say to me, ‘Zuku?”

“Yeah, you smell.”

“And you stink.”

“And you–”

“Excuse me!” Another voice interrupted their bantering, making both of them turn towards the source of the voice. Standing at the stairs was a tall guy with blue hair and red eyes— not as pretty as Kacchan’s, if Izuku may add—, who looked as if a stick had been stuck up his ass. Izuku immediately furrowed his nose, not liking this guy. “The rest of us are here in our paths to become heroes, so if you’re not going to take this seriously I suggest you respect those of us that do, at least!”

Ex-fucking-scuse me? Where did this guy get off in saying that his and Kacchan’s dreams to be heroes weren’t serious? Why was he judging them as though he knew them, when this was the first time they would even exchange a single word? His nose twitched along with his ears, and his foot started to tap the floor in annoyance. Kacchan was quick to place a hand on his leg, trying to make him calm down so he wouldn’t lose his cool.

So if berating this stranger wasn’t something he was allowed to do, Izuku would do the next best thing.

He crossed his arms, looked straight ahead with an annoyed pout on his lips, and ignored the guy.

The offended gasp coming from the walking hall monitor was music to his ears.

“What the fuck do you know about us to say that we’re not taking this seriously, hah?!” Kacchan snarled, offended on behalf of the two of them, and now Izuku was looking at him, cocking his head to the side in curiosity, making his ears flop, “There’s no one in this room who takes this more seriously than the two of us, so may I suggest taking your unwanted opinion and shoving it up your ass until your hand comes out of your mouth, Four Eyes?”

“Kacchan–!”

“How dare you–!”

“Don’t you start, ‘Zuku–!”

“ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!” A sudden shout interrupted their confrontation, making the three of them— and all the people that had started staring— look to the front of the auditorium, where none other than Present Mic was standing, his signature grin and easy-going attitude being enough to interrupt the fight, “Save that for the entrance exam, little listeners!”

“I truly apologize!” Hall Monitor exclaimed, bowing a perfect 90 degrees and making Kacchan scoff beside him, “It was not my intention to halt the start of your presentation, sir!”

Beside him, Kacchan simply muttered a throwaway “whatever” and went to sit down again, having gotten up in the intensity of his verbal lashing towards Hall Monitor and, having nowhere else to sit down without interrupting even more of the presentation, the blue-haired boy sat down beside Izuku, glaring at him and Kacchan at the same time. Izuku simply went back to ignoring him, moving so he was closer to his best friend than to this entitled stranger.

If he was mentally sticking out his tongue at the boy, that was for him to know and no one else to find out.

Present Mic— THE Present Mic, now that he was on his own mind it gave him the chance to silently gush at the hero in front of him— went on to explain the practical exam portion of their entrance exam, pointing out the robots and how many points each one of them was worth. His ears shot up— earning a throwaway “hey!” from someone behind him— at the zero pointer, immediately going through all the possibilities for such a huge robot to be worth nothing. Were they supposed to simply ignore it? Or would it look for people like a heat-seeking missile, fighting them even more ferociously than the other three robots? Perhaps it was supposed to act as a distraction, making it hard to maneuver around it as to not make it so easy to gather up points–

“‘Zuku, you’re muttering again.” Kacchan interrupted his train of thought with a whisper against his left ear, making him flick the ear at the proximity before a small smile graced his lips.

“Sorry, Kacchan.” he whispered back, not even throwing a glance at the Hall Monitor who, surely, also heard his muttering. What he thought was of no importance to Izuku.

Looking at the papers on their hands with their information, Izuku pouted at the fact that he and Kacchan would be fighting in separate zones. He immediately cheered up, however, when realizing that it would mean he wouldn’t need to save any points for his best friend. He could destroy robots left and right without having to keep in mind that Kacchan needed to score points as well.

A grin found its way to his lips, looking more and more excited at the prospect of letting loose with each passing second of Present Mic’s presentation about the exam. Beside him, Kacchan looked just as excited, sharing the grin that Izuku had on his face. They were mirrors of each other, twin flames burning brighter and brighter, blinding anyone that dared to look their way without being aware of what was happening.

The only correct answer now would be to aim for the first place.

And, being separated, he and Kacchan would be fighting tooth and nail to obtain it.

Unfortunately, he would be sharing zones with Hall Monitor, but that went as simply as ignoring him again once the boy tried to lecture him about his manners as soon as they made it to their battle center, scoffing. What was this guy’s deal? Couldn’t he simply ignore him like Izuku had been doing the whole time? He didn’t want to channel his inner Kacchan and yell at this guy to shut his hell hole, but if things continued like this he would need to do so.

Fortunately there would be no need for violence, as Present Mic’s voice once again called for their attention. The hero didn’t say anything after that, however, prompting Izuku to crouch down into a running position thanks to the anticipation and, as soon as the Voice Hero yelled “GO!”, he started hopping in ahead of multiple people.

Hall Monitor had an engine quirk, making him the quickest of the bunch with clear distinction, but that only egged him to be quicker on his feet than normal. Aunt Rumi had always instilled in him the importance to be quick, as bunnies naturally are, because leaning on their natural instincts and abilities would be more fruitful in the long run.

And thank God for his aunt’s lessons.

Shifting his feet so he would be on his toes, Izuku started leaping quicker and farther, quickly catching up to Hall Monitor. A grin had made it to his lips and he glanced to his side where the other boy was, noticing his slight surprise at seeing someone catching up to him. This time he couldn’t contain the need to stick his tongue out at him, an outraged expression morphing the blue-haired boy’s face.

Barking a laugh, Izuku took a sharp turn and went away from the boy, looking for robots to destroy. He was itching for a fight now and, seeing as fighting another student was a hard no, the robots would have to do.

He wondered how Kacchan was doing.

(In the other battle center, Katsuki had just destroyed his third robot with a sharp “Five!” being shouted, propelling himself away from the destroyed robot in search of another one.

On the ground, a black-haired boy awed after him, a soft “So manly…” leaving his lips.)

For the next eight minutes, his time was spent destroying robots and hopping people away from incoming danger, namely robots coming down and people not being fast enough to get away from them. He counted 32 points on his mind, utterly pissed off at such a low number. Hall Monitor was at 50 last he heard the boy count! Izuku cursed softly under his breath, disappointed that he was so far behind, but not regretting his actions. Even if he spent a good amount of time rescuing other people, if the alternative to gathering more points was kids getting hurt, then he would sacrifice his points any time of the day.

It’s what a good hero was supposed to do.

Preparing himself to go looking for a lone three-pointer, a panicked shout stopped him in his tracks. Swivelling his ears to look for the source of the sound, he spotted a brown-haired girl trapped under rubble, the huge zero-pointer looming over her. Before he knew it, he was running towards her, his hops long and fast, quickly calculating the best way to go about it. Even if his legs were strong, there was no way a kick from him would make even a dent on the huge robot. Not even going at full force would make a difference. He localized a stop sign and grabbed it on his way to the fallen girl, skidding to a stop next to her and quickly getting on his back.

“Hi! I’m Izuku, I’m gonna save you!” he said with a huge smile, trying to calm down the panicking girl. She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes, and he braced his legs against the piece of rubble, “As soon as I push this enough crawl out of there, okay?”

“O-Okay!” The girl nodded again, thankful someone was helping her, and that was all the confirmation Izuku needed to get his plan in motion.

Using the stop sign as a lever, he gathered all his force on his legs and pushed up, straining against the huge piece of rubble. Grunting, he strained himself until the debris made it up by a few centimeters, and the girl quickly army-crawled away from her death trap. Once she was out Izuku quickly got out as well, turning around and gathering the girl in his arms. Crouching, he breathed out and then started hopping away, just in time for the zero-pointer to step down where they had been just mere seconds ago.

Once a good distance away, Izuku let the girl down, who swivelled on her feet before putting a hand to her mouth.

“Woah! Are you okay?” Izuku asked, worried over the state the girl was in. A loud buzzer signalled the end of the exam, disappointed groans and frustrated shouts sounding all around them and making him press his ears against his skull.

“I’m–” The girl dry-heaved, making Izuku start to rub circles on his back, “I’m okay. Just overused my quirk.” she explained, pale and sweating as she was, but she mustered enough strength to smile up at him, her lips still a little wobbly, “Thank you for saving me! I thought I was a goner for sure.”

Izuku returned the smile with the same force, a little bit nervous about being around a girl despite this not being a strange occurrence thanks to his “cute” quirk, but one had never been so close to him. If Kacchan could see him, he would be teasing him for sure.

“N-No problem! It’s what we’re here for, right? To be heroes!” he exclaimed, a small laugh making it past his lips at the end of his sentence, and the girl looked awed at him. Her energy seemed to be slowly returning to her, and she laughed with him, nodding her head a couple of times.

“R-Right! To be heroes!”

Across from them, a blue-haired boy was looking at them with a calculating look on his gaze, before turning away.

Izuku, however, was none the wiser.
And even if he was, he wouldn’t have cared.

Chapter Text

“77 points?!”

They were in Dagobah Beach after coming home from the entrance exam and changing clothes, sharing their respective experiences on the exam, and Kacchan had just shared his result of his mental count of the points he had been accruing for the 10 minutes that the practical portion of the exam had run its course. Takeda-kun was with them, eating a lemon gelato while listening to them talk— Kacchan had chocolate, while Izuku had strawberry.

He worried his lower lip between his teeth, his nose twitching. It was kind of disheartening, knowing how far-ahead Kacchan had been to him in terms of points. He had been hopeful that the 32 points he ended up racking up could be enough, but listening to what Kacchan had been able to accomplish didn't really paint a pretty picture for Izuku. Would his points be enough for him to make it into the hero course? There had been students with less points than him, but Hall Monitor racked up over 50— how many points were enough to make it into the course?

Takeda-kun frowned beside them, his spoon hanging from his mouth where he was eating a spoonful of gelato, before talking around it, “What kind of hero exam doesn't have you be heroic?”

Both Izuku and Kacchan turned around to see him, making Takeda-kun shrug slightly before talking, taking the spoon out of his mouth, “I mean, you're gonna train to be heroes, right? Why would they not give you guys a scenario where you can be heroic instead of just racking up points? Seems kinda unbalanced for people without physical quirks.”

“Huh.” Izuku breathed out, thinking over what his friend was saying, and even Kacchan seemed to be deep in thought if the frown in his face was any indication.

Takeda-kun was right. The hero exam was extremely biased towards those with strong, flashy quirks— Kacchan’s explosions, Hall Monitor’s engines, that blonde guy's stomach laser, Izuku’s own bunny mutation— whereas there was more to heroes than flashy quirks. A guy with purple hair had been dejected at the sight of robots, but did his best by taking people out of danger and running around in search of easy points, even if he couldn't actually destroy anything with his quirk. It had made Izuku frown, watching him fight tooth and nail until the end. How was that fair, for an entrance exam to crush someone's dreams so quickly?

And then Izuku thought more deeply about it.

Strong quirks weren't everything. Kariage, one of Kacchan’s old friends, had a strong quirk, but an awful personality. He would've made an awful hero. Endeavor, too, was an example of strong quirk mixed with an awful personality— the Flame Hero could be quite rude when he wanted.

Was U.A just a quirkist school in disguise?

Izuku looked at Takeda, who was eating his lemon gelato. His quirk let him stretch his fingers, but that was it. It wasn't a flashy quirk and, in Takeda’s own words, it was quite useless. It was a good thing that his friend had never been interested in being a hero, or else his dream would've been crushed from the beginning. If he had applied to U.A’s hero course, what would he have done? If he could stretch his entire limbs it would be a whole different story— he would be like Mr. Fantastic, one of the first heroes to ever exist in the post-quirk era— but unless a quirk awakening happened, Takeda-kun was stuck with just his fingers.

So truly, what was the point of U.A’s entrance exam? To just weed out those with weak quirks? But what about what truly made heroes heroes?

What about saving others?

He looked at Kacchan, frowning around a bite of his own strawberry gelato, before asking, “Kacchan, did you save anyone during your exam?”

“Hah?” Kacchan snarled, before huffing in annoyance, “Obviously not. They were just extras in my way.”

Izuku sighed dejectedly, looking at the sand and then at the people still at the beach. The sun was setting down, painting the sky in purples and oranges, meaning that they would need to soon go to their homes.

Tsubasa-kun was still missing.

But with what Takeda-kun had said, Izuku was more hopeful. Surely a school as prestigious as U.A was smart enough to take heroic acts into account when letting students into their hero course. Surely he would make Aunt Rumi proud by not flunking his entrance exam.

Surely things would work out.

Taking another spoonful of gelato, Izuku looked at the horizon, the wind blowing on his hair and making his ears flop slightly.

Nothing would get in his way of being a hero.

Because waiting for the results would be hell otherwise, Izuku and Kacchan spent the two weeks of waiting training. It was currently Wednesday, so Izuku was jogging all the way to his kickboxing classes, while Kacchan was training at his home-gym since he has no classes on Wednesdays.

His kickboxing teacher was a retired underground hero named Sunako Kurone, whose quirk allowed her to teletransport to shadows— it was called Shadow Step, as Sunako kindly explained to him when he asked. She had to retire from heroics when it was known she was in a romantic relationship with a vigilante, but she simply shrugged at the Hero Commission and opened a gym, where she taught multiple martial arts. Her husband, a man with a mutation quirk that made him look like a minotaur that simply went by the name of Bull, taught boxing at the same gym, and that's how the couple made a living.

He was paired with a fellow hero prospect, a girl named Hanako Miechi with a quirk that allowed her to turn everything she touched with all five fingers invisible— and had Izuku gushed once he found out her quirk, analyzing all possible applications for her quirk in and outside the field. Apparently she could even turn herself invisible, but doing so gave her a headache that became more unbearable the longer she held onto the invisibleness, so she and Izuku had taken to brainstorming after kickboxing lessons to find a way to lessen her headaches.

A well aimed kick at his side made him snap out of his mind, and Hanako honest to God giggled at him and stuck her tongue out. Her long, purple and yellow hair was, once again, in two matching braids, as that seemed to be the girl's signature hair style.

“Earth to Midoriya, do you copy Midoriya?” Hanako asked, a shit-eating grin on her face, and Izuku groaned, retaliating with a right hook that she easily swatted away.

“Sorry, I'm not in my best game today.” he lamented, blocking the next kick from Hanako and answering with a kick of his own, which got blocked with a pained grunt. His kicks packed a punch.

“Duh, I can see that. What got you that distracted? Is it your results from the entrance exam?” she deduced, doing a right-left-right combo with her punches. One actually got him good, which made him sputter and make distance between him and Hanako.

“Yeah, I'm so nervous. I don't know when we'll be getting the results, but it could be anytime this week.” Izuku confirmed, doing a frontal kick with his left leg, making Hanako jump backwards to avoid the hit. “How do you think you did in Seiai’s entrance exam?”

“Ugh, don't remind me– hey!” Hanako interrupted herself trying to avoid his punch, glowering at him in mock offense, “Don't remind me of the entrance exam. That written exam was absolutely devastating for my self-esteem. My dad will be so disappointed, he stayed up late studying with me so often.”

Izuku nodded, understanding his friend's peril, his ears shooting up when Miss Sunako called for a five-minute break, “Oh, thank God, your punches were starting to sting.” he teased, earning himself a swat on the arm from Hanako, “I'm joking, I'm joking! But, ugh. I understand where you're coming from. The practical portion for me has me so nervous, like I don't know if I scored enough points to actually pass, you know?”

“Points?” Hanako questioned, tilting her head to the side, stretching her arms over her head.

“Um, yeah. We had to destroy robots worth different amounts of points. What did you do at Seiai?” he asked, his curiosity piqued now.

“We ran a rescue simulation. Apparently they change the entrance exam every three years so students don't get complacent. I was lucky we had a rescue simulation, my quirk was built for rescue.” She squirmed her fingers around when saying that, showing off her quirk in a certain way.

Izuku gaped, excited at the prospects of a hero exam that changed so often. Did the people in charge of the exam recycle ideas or were they new scenarios every three years? Hero work was constantly changing, so the idea of the exam changing as well was one that made sense.

And it only highlighted how unfair the U.A entrance exam was.

Izuku glowered, annoyed now. If Hanako had decided to take U.A’s entrance exam, she would've been at an extreme disadvantage. She could turn things invisible, that was such a huge changing factor in rescue operations! She was built to be a perfect rescue hero! But not even her kickboxing training could put her on even footing with robots, and she would've been forced to just rescue fellow students like that purple haired boy had been. Rescue alone didn't seem to be what U.A prioritized, making Hanako virtually useless despite having such a useful quirk.

Now he was pissed off at a what-if scenario, great.

“Man, maybe I should've taken Seiai’s entrance exam instead.” he lamely joked, making Hanako frown in confusion.

“But Seiai is an only-girls school.”

His mind, however, was somewhere else entirely. He was sure that going to U.A was the correct choice, the school's legacy speaking for itself, but Izuku was just… so disheartened. Everything so far had painted the school in such a negative light which, in turn, dimmed his enthusiasm at going to the school. Would they look down on him for having a mutation quirk? Izuku would be no stranger to a school doing that, various of his teachers earning a spot on Kacchan’s shit-list for being assholes to him. But if that happened at U.A…

Izuku sighed, looking at Sunako.

She had been a recommendation student at U.A. Her twin sister, Hinata, was still an active hero by the name of Sundrop, but she had taken the normal entrance exam. Miss Sunako had explained that their parents were willing to recommend both of them, but Hinata had been adamant at proving herself, earning a staggering 124 points, a record that was only behind All Might and Endeavor’s own scores. Sunako, on her part, had beaten everyone at the race by shadow stepping to the shadow of the teacher taking their times, winning the race before it could truly begin.

Both sisters were terrific and yet, had Sunako not taken the recommendation entrance exam, she never would've been a hero.

With every passing moment, he was questioning more and more if going to U.A was the right choice.

The letter came on a Friday.

Him and Kacchan were making it back from their capoeira class, Kacchan sporting a sore shoulder from an over-extension he miscalculated. His best friend was angry at himself for such a rookie mistake, but thankfully he hadn't dislocated his shoulder. Izuku knew better than to try and talk the blond out of his self-flagellation, opting instead to text his Aunt Rumi now that she was out of her patrol.

“Aunt Rumi says hi.” he said, deciding that their aunt was a safe enough topic to try and break Kacchan out of his rumination. It worked, too, if the way that his red eyes lightened up was anything to go by.

“Tell her she still owes me a rematch.” Kacchan answered, moving his hurt shoulder in circles to break the tension still present on his muscles.

Izuku gasped, offended on behalf of his aunt, “She does not. She won that fight fair and square.”

“I was fucking 12, there was nothing fair about that fight.” he countered, but Izuku simply “hmph”’d, earning a glare from his best friend, “What do you mean ‘hmph’?!”

“I meant what I meant.” Izuku said, finding himself in a headlock not even a second later. Kacchan wasted no time in giving him a noogie, making him whine and try to get Kacchan off of him, “Stop, stop, I yield! Stoooooop, you're gonna tangle my hair!”

They continued roughhousing all the way to Izuku’s, where Kacchan had elected to simply sling his arm across his shoulders like Izuku was his arm-rest. He ignored this, of course, not even bothered by the closeness of his best friend.

By which he meant that his heart was going at a hundred per hour and threatening to make it out of his chest.

Being able to hear your own heartbeat every waking moment was weird. Izuku was used to tuning out this sound, but there were occasions where he purposely listened to his own heart in order to calm down. If he was too freaked out by whatever was troubling him, he fine-tuned his hearing to the next heart, which was usually Kacchan’s.

Would it be weird to say that he had Kacchan’s heartbeat memorized?

Thanks to being able to hear his own heart, however, he knew how nervous he was at that exact moment thanks to the proximity of Kacchan, but it was a good nervous. It was the kind of nervousness that made him smile and feel butterflies in his stomach, the kind of nervousness that pushed him to do better in everything he put his mind into.

The kind of nervousness that only Kacchan could induce in him.

Once they made it to his apartment building they separated, to his chagrin, but Izuku plastered on a huge smile anyway.

“I think mom is making stir fried vegetables and chicken today, wanna come eat?” Izuku asked, silently hoping that his friend would say yes.

“Let me ask ma.” Kacchan answered, taking out his phone and starting to text with Auntie Mitsuki.

It went like that for probably two more minutes before Kacchan clicked his tongue, obviously annoyed, and Izuku deflated in defeat.

“No?”

“She says there's something important she needs to show me.” Kacchan said, sulking, putting his phone away and crossing his arms, “This better be important, she knows I love Auntie Inko’s stir fry.”

“Aw man.” Izuku whined, throwing his head forward, suddenly sad that he wouldn't be able to spend more time with Kacchan, despite the fact that they spent as much time together as possible. “I'll try to convince mom to make stir fry tomorrow, how's that sound?”

“Sounds like the best idea you ever had in that tiny brain of yours.”

“Never mind, fucking perish.”

Kacchan said goodbye and promised to text once he made it home, so Izuku turned around to go to his own house. He took the stairs in twos, opening the door to his and mom's apartment.

“I'm home!” He called out, putting his training bag on the genkan— despite the many times his mom had told him not to do that— and entered the home.

“Welcome home, I'm in the kitchen!” His mom called back.

So funny thing about having bunny feet: he couldn't wear shoes. None of them fit him properly and the one time they got custom shoes for him— which had been expensive and such a waste of money, but thankfully happened when he was young— he ended up hating the things, not liking the sensation of his feet being trapped and not allowing him to properly walk. After that both him and his mom had compromised on letting him go barefooted, with a cleaning mat being placed on the genkan specifically for him.

Cleaning out his feet with the mat and some wet wipes that were always available on a small table in the genkan, he went to the kitchen where his mom was finishing the food. The aroma of stir fried vegetables and chicken made his nose twitch, his stomach grumbling with hunger.

“Wash your hands before eating.” mom scolded, making him chuckle before turning to go to the bathroom, “Oh! Before I forget! A letter came for you, I put it on your desk.”

“A letter?” he asked, before gasping and running towards his room, earning himself a scolding from mom, who reminded him to not run inside the apartment.

But that didn't matter, because, if he was right, it meant that his letter from U.A had arrived.

Don't get him wrong, he was still disheartened with the school and everything he had learned from the entrance exam, but that didn't diminish the effort and enthusiasm he had put into making it into this school. He hadn't even gone to his second choice, so sure that he and Kacchan would make it into U.A without an issue.

Sure, he was less and less confident about that with each passing second, but what can you do except pray.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, taking it out and reading Kacchan’s message that he had made it home, and he hesitated before texting back.

ENTRANCE EXAM RESULTS ARE HERE, BE THERE OR BE SQUARED

WHAT

Laughing to himself despite how nervous he was to open the letter, he decided to stop procrastinating and get it done with. Taking a deep breath, he opened up the envelope, finding two things inside— a letter and a small disk. Curiosity got the best of him and he took the disk out, putting it on his desk and pressing the button in the center of it. A hologram presented itself and Izuku had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing this correctly.

“I AM HERE TO PRESENT YOUR EXAM RESULTS!” All Might— All Might! Was he a teacher at U.A?! But he would've known if that was the case, U.A would surely have announced such huge news, right?— was the center of the hologram, wearing his signature yellow suit that Kacchan always said was a fashion crime, his enormous smile always in place, “Young Midoriya, such an exemplary show of the control you have over your quirk! You're sure to make an extraordinary hero!

“Surely you saw the true meaning behind this exam! To show how truly heroic you are! And that's why I'm excited to show you your results!”

All Might vanished from the hologram to show a table with the first ten positions of the exam, his eyes zeroing on his own name.

Izuku Midoriya | 32 Villain Points | 44 Rescue Points | 76 Total Points

He was just behind Kacchan, who scored the 77 points he had claimed back at the beach, and Izuku had to clean the tears that were threatening to fall. He rapidly blinked away the tears, nearly missing the rest of the message.

“Welcome, Young Midoriya, to Your Hero Academia!”

Safe to say, he quickly went to Kacchan’s house.

When he told his mom the good news, she cried with him, no doubt happy and excited for her son. But it was just a matter of seeing how much his ears were twitching— and he really had to get better at controlling his ears, they gave him away so much— for her to smile and clean the tears from his face.

”Alright, go to Katsuki. I know you're dying to share the good news with him.”

So now he was here, being hugged to death by Auntie Mitsuki, who had both him and Kacchan in a headlock.

“My boys! First two spots at the entrance exam, you're truly something, huh?! We have to celebrate! Oh, Izuku, why didn't you bring Inko, this is something that happens only once! Hold on, let me call her–” She finally let go of them, both him and Kacchan coughing up a storm at being freed from their prisons.

“You crazy hag, you almost choked me to death!” Kacchan cried out, earning himself a swat in the head from Auntie Mitsuki.

“Shut up, you brat! I'm happy for you, you better– oh, hello Inko!” Auntie Mitsuki quickly changed her tone when speaking with his mom, walking away from them and chatting away on the phone.

Izuku loved her, but she was scary sometimes.

Sighing, he sat down at the couch, Kacchan following his example. He was quick to whine, however, and leaned against his best friend, making him laugh mockingly at Izuku.

“I can't believe you beat me for one point! Ugh, that's such bullshit!” he continued whining, which in turn only made Kacchan laugh louder.

“Hah! That shouldn't be news, you're always going to be behind me, ‘Zuku!” he exclaimed, his arrogance shining when he, once again, was number one at something.

“Shut up, you didn't even score rescue points!”

“Don't need to rescue anyone if I defeat all the villains, now do I?”

“That's so untrue and you know it!”

They continued bickering all the way until his mom made it to the Bakugō household, bringing her stir fry with her— to the absolute delight of Kacchan— and both families reunited to eat together.

They celebrated, clearly happy for their sons, and in turn Izuku and Kacchan regaled them with stories from the entrance exam. His mom scolded him for being rude to the Hall Monitor, but Izuku countered by saying that the guy was rude to them first. Auntie Mitsuki rebutted by saying that he was looking out for the rest of the students that were surely getting distracted by their bickering.

“The two of you tend to live in your own world, not caring what happens around you, and that has landed you in trouble more often than not.”

That had Izuku blushing at the thought of other people being so aware of how often he and Kacchan lost themselves to their conversations, only aware of the outside world enough to not be involved in an accident, and that only made the second place sting even more.

It always felt like he was trying to catch up to Kacchan.

Don't get him wrong, he loved his best friend, but always placing second behind him was sure to cause an inferiority complex in him. Was he not good enough to beat his friend on something, anything, at least once in his life? Was he perpetually going to be chasing after Kacchan? Will he be cursed to not be able to show off because all eyes would be on Kacchan?

He scoffed, eating some stir fried broccoli, not noticing the concerned glance Kacchan was sending his way.

Even their parents were gushing over Kacchan’s score, despite the fact that Izuku had scored almost the same score. Key word being almost, he supposed. Almost wasn't good enough, it wasn't the best placement, it wasn't 77 points.

He glared down at his plate, before feeling a hand on his leg. He looked up, noticing Kacchan’s questioning gaze. Izuku shook his head, telling him it was nothing, but Kacchan simply frowned, not believing him.

And that, exactly that, was why he couldn't hold this against Kacchan.

His best friend was someone that strived to be the best in everything he did, not caring about anyone else besides Izuku. They were always in each other's orbit, circling each other like a planet around the sun, a celestial dance for everyone to see.

Kacchan would always be the sun.

And, if it meant he was happy, Izuku would always be his shadow.

Chapter Text

That morning, he woke up like he always did: tangled in his covers, his hair a bird’s nest and to the incessant pounding on his room’s door by none other than Kacchan. Like always, he cursed the fact that he was friends with the blond, not before flipping off the door and getting up to start the day.

It had become some sort of routine for Kacchan to wake him up so they could go on a morning run before school. They had started running together after, quite literally, running into each other when their paths met, and so Kacchan had claimed it was stupid they were training separately, when soon they wouldn’t have enough time to actually spend with each other.

Izuku could understand the reasoning, but it didn’t mean he had to wake him up at the crack of dawn every single day without pause for the last three months.

Cursing out loud, he opened his room’s door and went to the bathroom to take a shower, not once acknowledging his best friend and slamming the door behind him, earning himself a scolding from his mom for being noisy this early.

His mom worked as a night shift nurse at Musutafu General Hospital, always arriving home just in time to let Kacchan in so he could wake Izuku up. After some heckling from Izuku, she had signed herself for some self-defense classes and Pilates, which ensured his mom stayed healthy and always prepared for the worst. Izuku may be a worrier, but at least this way his mom was one less thing he had to worry about in the near future.

He wasn’t stupid— despite what Kacchan would claim—, he knew that being a hero came with risks not only for himself, but for his family as well. Aunt Rumi had to hire personal bodyguards for Grandma and Grandpa, claiming that some hate mail had made it to her childhood home and she needed to protect her parents, and, if Izuku was going to be a hero worth his weight, personal threats from villains would be a daily occurrence for him. He would try to protect his mom against everything, that much was obvious, but limelight heroes were often followed by paparazzi even after finishing their shifts, while being in civilian clothing, some even when spending time with their families. Endeavor was one of the most notorious cases, the man as private as he was, hiring bodyguards for his home and his children.

It got worse for him, however, when his oldest son died.

It was all over the news, how the oldest of the Todoroki clan died in a horrific fire on Sekoto Peak, which the Flame Hero refused to comment about. Paparazzi, however, were hungry for a piece of knowledge on the incident, and followed the second oldest, Fuyumi, asking her for a comment on the matter. No one had seen Endeavor as angry as he had been when telling— demanding, truly— the paparazzi to leave his family alone, or his fury would ensure that no one would have a job the next following day if his children were accosted by them ever again.

It showed, in a really twisted way, how much the hero cared for his family, going so far as to promise bodily harm on those looking to profit from his children’s suffering, but it served its purpose and the Todoroki family was left alone after that.

It showed Izuku the ugly side of being a hero. The refusal to let heroes have privacy, the constant threat on their families and loved ones, the fact that anyone could decide one day that his home was no longer allowed to be his safe haven and could defile it in the vilest of ways. Izuku, despite how much he wanted to be a hero, would never put his mom through that hell, and decided that she needed a way to defend herself.

Her job, demanding as it was, served as a reminder that something could happen to her at any given moment, and Izuku doesn’t know what he would do if anything happened to his mom.

Inko Midoriya didn’t deserve that pain.

Finishing his shower, he exited the bathroom and put on running gear, finishing with some weights on his ankles and wrists, and said goodbye to his mom, who was just going to sleep, before leaving for his run with Kacchan.

Their running route hadn’t changed in three months. They always went to Dagobah and ran around the beach, the resistance from the sand working as a way to train their stamina and power, before making it back to Kacchan’s just in time to take another shower and train at his home-gym.

If they went to the same places that Tsubasa-kun had liked to frequent when he wasn’t missing, that was for them and only them to know.

They made it to Dagobah Beach and started to run along the place, not saying anything aside from the well-timed pants and huffs. Knowing when to breathe was one of the first things they had to learn when starting to train at the beach, the terrain so different from asphalt that, at first, it had felt impossible to tackle it without changing their training routines, but time and patience proved to be vital when working on different terrain. Kacchan had taken mountain climbing to train his stamina and breathing, while Izuku had taken meditation to circular breathe and know when to exhale and inhale.

It had been surprising, just how important it was to learn how to properly breathe, but that only meant that now they were the best on endurance runs during P.E, so a fair pay-off in Izuku’s book.

“Kacchan,” Izuku started after a pant, looking at his best friend from the corner of his eye, “why didn’t you save anyone during the entrance exam?”

It had been nagging at Izuku this whole time. Kacchan knew how important saving others was when it came to being a hero, a lesson instilled in them by none other than their Aunt Rumi, so it had come as a surprise when his best friend had elected to simply ignore everyone and instead score as many points as possible. That seemed so unlikely for his friend, who claimed he would “Win to Save” as soon as he was a pro-hero. Not saving anyone during his portion of the exam…

An annoyed huff was Kacchan’s response, which irritated Izuku to no end, before his friend started actually talking, “None of those extras needed saving.”

Agree to disagree, Izuku was sure that at least someone had needed to be saved during the exam, but he knew how narrow Kacchan could see the world when he was concentrating on something. He had a one-goal approach to everything he did, zeroing in victory at all costs and not caring about any possible collateral damage. He had become better at that with therapy and Izuku’s advice, but he knew that his friend still struggled with something as simple as breaking concentration to look at his surroundings and assessing the situation. Maybe someone had been trapped under debris like the brown-haired girl had been, but Kacchan had been so preoccupied with scoring points that he hadn’t noticed.

He sighed, pensive. They needed to work on Kacchan’s situational awareness once they were in U.A, if their dream of being the best hero duo to ever exist was to become true.

Which it would be. Izuku would make sure of it.

Telling Kacchan that he wasn't the best at something, however, was a sure way to get blown up by the explosive blond he called best friend, so he would do his best to write down the advice on a notebook dedicated solely for Kacchan and present it once a teacher called him out. It felt underhanded and Izuku hated it, but he wasn't sure of how well received his observations would be. Despite being friends their whole lives, Kacchan could be unpredictable sometimes and Izuku valued life way too much to risk it on something that didn't need to be worked on with particular urgency.

(Izuku didn't know, however, that if he was the one to say it, Katsuki would listen to anything he had to say.

Izuku didn't know.

It would prove to be a mistake.)

By mutual consensus, Kacchan didn't wake him up that day. He simply woke up with his alarm, did his morning routine, got dressed in the U.A uniform mom had bought just days prior after paying for modifications on the pants, kissed his sleeping mom on the forehead and left for school.

Kacchan and Takeda-kun were waiting for him at the bottom of the apartment building, Takeda-kun in a generic high-school uniform. Despite having good enough grades to try and get into U.A’s General Course, his friend had claimed that it was time to go into the world on his own, like a baby duckling leaving the nest alone for the first time.

Well, he didn't quite phrase it that way. His exact words had been “I can't keep living on you guys’ shadows for my whole life, I need to be someone more than the best friend of the Wonder Duo.” Izuku could understand not wanting to live in someone's shadow his whole life, so with a threat from Kacchan— “If you replace us I know where you live, Fingers.”— the three friends found themselves in different schools for the first time in years, changing their routines in a way that would never be the same.

“Kacchan! Takeda-kun!” he called out, hopping the last few stairs to get to them faster, “Good morning!”

Kacchan grunted in greeting, but Takeda just grinned at him before talking, “We've known each other enough time for you to give me a cutesy nickname as well.”

Izuku gasped, stars appearing in his eyes, and he excitedly hopped on his place, “Really?! Truly?! You mean it?!”

“Would I say something I don't mean, Izu?” Takeda retorted, which Izuku had to grant him. His friend was known to be quite blunt when he wanted.

“Okay! Well, your first name is Yushirō, so I'll call you Yucchan!” Izuku was vibrating in excitement. He loved when he was able to call his friends nicknames! Not nicknames like Kacchan’s, but nicknames that meant that his friends were close to his heart. That he was close in their hearts as well.

It felt improper to call Tsubasa-kun a nickname like that when he hadn’t given him permission before disappearing, so he didn't.
He would ask permission once they found him.

“As touching as this is, and truly, I'm moved to tears,” Kacchan interrupted, his voice flat and sarcastic, which had Yucchan snorting and him flipping him off, “if we don't get a move on we're gonna be late and I refuse to be late on my first day because you two were having a homoerotic moment.”

That remark had Yucchan cackling out loud, while Izuku sputtered in scandal at the mere suggestion, “We were not!”

“What, Izu, are you saying I'm not good enough for a homoerotic moment with you?” Yucchan joked, and now Izuku was sputtering for a whole different reason.

“That's– I didn't– what the hell, guys!”

They started walking shortly after to the train station, where they said goodbye to Yucchan and boarded their train to U.A, maneuvering around the packed wagon with some difficulty. His tail was twitching in annoyance at feeling like a packed tuna, not to add that his heart was speeding up at being so close to Kacchan. He tuned his hearing to Kacchan’s heartbeat, trying to find something calm, but instead found that his best friend was as, if not more, agitated as him. His heartbeat was like a drum in one of the songs João taught them during their capoeira classes, strong and fast, threatening to make it out of his chest.

But when he looked at Kacchan’s face, his best friend was simply looking out the windows, his face impassive, left hand holding his and Izuku’s school bags despite his protest that it wasn't necessary. Yucchan had snickered at them when that happened, saying something under his breath about old married couples that Izuku didn't quite catch because he was busy trying to get his bag back from Kacchan.

Izuku had clearly lost.

But why would Kacchan’s heartbeat be so fast if nothing of importance was happening? They were close thanks to the packed train, so he would know if someone was doing something to agitate Kacchan, but that wasn't the case. Everyone was either on their phones or reading something, so no one spared a glance at the two kids with U.A uniforms. Kacchan was wearing his with just enough adherence to the dress code to not get in trouble, while Izuku had his tie corrected by his blond friend. “I can't believe I'm friends with someone that doesn't know how to fucking tie a simple knot.” he had said, his hands doing quick work of the mess that Izuku had made of the knot before. He muttered the whole time, Izuku catching things like “unbelievable” and “doesn't even know what a Windsor knot is, surely.” which had Izuku pouting the whole time that interaction lasted.

That's why he used clip-on bowties when he went to hero events with Aunt Rumi! To avoid this entire situation! It's not his fault he didn't have a father figure growing up to show him how to tie ties!

He wondered what Kacchan was thinking about to have his heart speeding up like that. Did he like someone? But surely Izuku would know if that was the case, right? They shared everything with each other, no secrets between them. That's how their friendship worked, that's how it always had worked. From the fall in the river— “I didn't need saving, but thank you for coming anyway.”— to their fight with that villain almost a year ago— “Next time give me a warning before grabbing me, you know I hate feeling like I'm not in control.”—, Kacchan always shared what was in his mind with Izuku, needing an outlet unless the thoughts piled up in his mind and made him irritable for having so much “unnecessary bullshit” clogging his thoughts.

Izuku would know if Kacchan liked someone.

Or at least he hoped so.

The train came to a halt in their station, so they made it out and started to walk towards the school. They talked about recent hero debuts meanwhile, while Izuku gushed about rankings. Aunt Rumi had made it to the 6th spot! She was flying through the hero rankings! Kacchan was equally as excited in his own way, grunting in approval at their aunt’s standing, claiming it was just “a matter of time” before she made it into the Top 5.

The thought had Izuku vibrating.

A gasp to their right, but Izuku didn't think it was directed towards them, before steps made it to them and Izuku turned towards whoever was walking this way. It was the brown-haired girl from the entrance exam! She had a huge smile on her face, waving at them— perhaps just at Izuku— while she made it to where they were walking.

“Who's that?” Kacchan asked, confused, and he was about to answer before the girl called out.

“Izuku-kun!”

“Izuku-kun?” Kacchan muttered, a murderous edge to his words, and Izuku mentally groaned at thinking he would need to calm Kacchan down before he committed murder in plain daylight.

“Kacchan, behave.” Izuku whispered, the only answer he received being a scoff, before fully turning towards the brown-haired girl, “Hello! I'm glad to see you're okay!”

“Thanks to you!” she easily answered, extending her hand forward so he could take it. He noticed she had her pinky out while taking his hand, which made him think she had a five-point contact quirk, “I'm Ochako Uraraka! Thanks for saving me during the entrance exam!” Uraraka presented herself, making Izuku smile before taking the hand on his own.

“I'm Izuku Midoriya. This is Katsuki Bakugō, he's my best friend.” Izuku introduced them in turn, a grunt from Kacchan being the only acknowledgement from his friend.

“Hello!” Uraraka waved at Kacchan, who only grunted again, and she frowned slightly.

“Ah, you'll have to forgive him, he's not really a talker.” Izuku nervously chuckled at that, scratching the back of his head, but Uraraka simply waved it off, laughing in turn.

“It's okay, it's okay!” she assured, smiling that blinding smile of hers, “I'm in 1-A! Which classroom are you guys in?”

“Oh, we're in 1-A as well!” Izuku answered, his own smile taking place on his face. He glanced at Kacchan, who was just looking at the conversation with an impatient look in his eyes. Whoops, that's right, he didn't want to be late on the first day, “Say, Uraraka-san, would you like to walk with us to the classroom? Kacchan doesn't like to be late.”

“Kacchan? That's such a cute nickname!”

“Don't call me that.” Kacchan retorted in a low growl, but Uraraka simply shrugged like she didn't listen to him.

“But sure! I'd like to walk with you guys, I don't like being late either.”

“Fuckin’ finally.” Kacchan muttered, starting to walk, him and Uraraka having to jog slightly to catch up with him.

Izuku and Uraraka did most of the talking, excitedly sharing their own thoughts about how the school year was going to be, with Kacchan occasionally interrupting one of their tangents to add his own opinion. Izuku was just happy that he had made his first friend within U.A, and that he was having a conversation with a girl without stuttering! His nervousness around girls had been the stuff of legends, so he was glad that it was slowly subsiding to make way to normal conversations.

He couldn't take more teasing from Kacchan on the subject.

The three of them made it to the classrooms, huge doors accommodating all body types, and some tension left Izuku’s shoulders. Surely if they were this accommodating then he wouldn't face any bullshit for having a mutant quirk, right…?

Kacchan must've sensed his discomfort, because he was putting a hand on his shoulder, making him face him before whispering.

“If anyone gives you shit, I'll explode them.” he sentenced, as easily as he would breathe, and Izuku had to stop his heart from hammering on his chest at the feelings that were threatening to bubble out.

“Please don't explode anyone, you'll get in trouble.” Izuku whispered back, but now he had a smile on his face.

Kacchan always knew what to say.

Beside them, Uraraka uttered a simple “huh” before announcing she would go inside and look for her seat. Izuku waved goodbye, but that was the prompting Kacchan needed to open the door to the classroom and go inside. Izuku followed, looking at the people already inside, and instantly groaned.

The Hall Monitor was here.

Said boy instantly locked eyes with him and speed-walked to them, Kacchan immediately putting himself between them, a snarl on his face.

“What d’ya want, Four Eyes?” Kacchan barked, a scandalized expression decorating the Hall Monitor’s face.

“I'm simply looking to apologize!” The blue-haired boy declared, his hand doing a weird chopping motion that had to be some sort of stim, “You must've seen the true meaning behind the exam, to score the highest amount of rescue points! My fury didn't let me see clearly and I missed the nature of the exam! I hate to admit it, but you were better than me!” By now all eyes were on them, making Izuku cower slightly. He didn't really like having all eyes on him.

“A-Ah, no–” he was quick to deny, moving his hands in a placating manner. Kacchan growled between them, clearly sensing his discomfort, “I simply did what heroes do, you know? I rescued anyone that looked to be in danger.”

A calculating look decorated Hall Monitor’s red eyes, before he nodded, “I see! I'm Tenya Iida, from Somei Academy! I hope we get along!” Iida then did a perfect 90 degrees bow, to the amazement of their fellow students.

“Um–” Is it obvious he's uncomfortable? Because he's uncomfortable. He doesn't know what's happening, “I'm Izuku Midoriya. This is–”

“Don't introduce me to him, ‘Zuku.” Kacchan interrupted, making Izuku blink before nodding. “I'm Katsuki Bakugō, and if you pull that stunt from the entrance exam again I'll blow you into smithereens.”

“How unbecoming of a future hero!” Iida exclaimed, obviously alarmed by the threat, the chopping motions making it back in full force, “To threaten a fellow student not once, but twice, is to go against what heroes do. You must stop this instant!”

“Hah?! Are you telling me what to do, Four Eyes?!”

“Kacchan–!”

“I am, if it means you stop acting like a villain!”

“Did you just call me a villain?!”

“Did you just call Kacchan a villain?!”

“Enough!” A voice called, coming from a yellow sleeping bag that had just stood up from the teacher's desk. A squeal made it out of his lips, moving to hide behind Kacchan. What the hell?! “I was waiting for you, Problem Children, to stop and sit down, but it looks like I'm going to have a problematic class this year as well.” The man sighed, clearly tired out of his mind, and opened the sleeping bag from inside, stepping out, “Get dressed in your gym uniforms and meet me at the P.E Grounds.”

“Uh… what about orientation?” Uraraka asked, raising her hand, whimpering slightly when the man— their teacher?— looked at her.

“If you're looking to become a hero, you can't waste time with platitudes like an orientation. Now move it, all of you.”

Afraid to summon the wrath of this weird individual— who was definitely their teacher, there was no other way around it, who else would be as weird as a hero teacher at U.A?—, Izuku was one of the first ones to leave the classroom and go to the locker room to get changed. Kacchan followed after him and soon enough the whole classroom was walking towards the locker rooms to change into their gym uniforms.

Izuku had to blink in confusion, not really understanding what was happening anymore. It didn't even register when he got changed, just that Kacchan was guiding him towards the P.E Grounds because Izuku was now in a weird mental state. On one hand, it still didn't fully register that he was at U.A, studying in class 1-A of the hero course. On the other hand, hobo Jesus in the yellow sleeping bag looked strangely familiar, but he didn't remember where he saw him and it was pissing him off. It was like an itch he couldn't scratch, ever present in the back of his mind but impossible for him to reach.

He had to be a hero, that much was obvious. But he was no hero that Izuku knew, and that was already a red flag. Izuku knew almost every hero in Japan, be it by name or by face— Yucchan claimed that it was almost scary, the amount of information he was able to retain on his head when it came to remembering people, but how else was he supposed to be accurate when it came to his analysis? He needed to always be sure he knew who he was writing about, else his notes would get ruined because he didn't triple check his knowledge.

Not being known by Izuku meant one of two things: he was an underground hero or he was retired. It was more plausible that he was an underground hero, as they tended to avoid the spotlight as much as possible and, therefore, were only known by those who really dug into the world of underground heroics. The only underground hero he actually knew about was Miss Sunako, his kickboxing teacher, and she was already retired, leaving the name Moonwalker behind when the HPSC deemed her to be a liability.

Izuku frowned, thinking about that. He wanted to be a hero, there was nothing else he wanted in the world, but working under the HPSC after everything Miss Sunako and Aunt Rumi told him about the organization… Well, that was going to be interesting.

But he was getting sidetracked.

He was inclining towards the theory that hobo Jesus was an underground hero, based on the fact that he was virtually unknown to Izuku. Even if he was retired, retired heroes didn't disappear from the spotlight that quickly, their names usually hanging around for a couple of years after their retirement, and their teacher didn't seem that old to have passed that threshold. So underground hero it was.

Izuku clicked his tongue, annoyed. He always meant to get more into underground heroes, but his training regime was as busy as it could get and nights before his mom's shift were the most time he could spend with her, so he prioritized. But now it proved to be a disadvantage.

He didn't like not knowing who he was going to have as a teacher.

They reached the P.E Grounds relatively quickly, all things considered, and their teacher was already there, waiting for them. He looked miffed that he had to wait for them at all, as if he expected for them to teletransport to the place after getting dressed.

His ears swiveled, taking in the noise, the murmured chatter from their classmates, before zeroing on Kacchan’s heartbeat.

Much better.

“Took you kids long enough.” Their teacher sighed, a tablet on his hand, a weird white scarf having made it to his neck somewhere between the classroom and his walk to the P.E Grounds. “I didn't introduce myself before, as you hooligans were being noisy, but I'm Shōta Aizawa. I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next three years… If you make it that far.”

Scattered murmurs could be heard across the grounds, an invisible girl raising her hand— or, well, he could deduce that from the movement of her uniform— before asking, “What do you mean if we make it that far, Mister Aizawa?”

“I'll get to that.” Mister Aizawa conceded, taking a softball out of his pocket and showing it to the class, “I'll be doing a quirk apprehension test. I'm sure that all of you during middle school had physical exams to show your prowess, but those are done without quirks. I personally don't see the point in that.” The teacher shrugged, throwing the ball to Kacchan, who caught it without issue, “You, Bakugō. You were number one in the entrance exam. What was your record for the softball throw?”

“67 meters.”

“Alright then. This time, you'll throw with your quirk. As long as you're within the circle, I don't care what you do. Try to impress me.”

Oh, no. Mister Aizawa challenged Kacchan. That could only end in disaster.

The blond made it to the circle, stretching his muscles, readying his stance and then, “DIE!”

An enormous explosion left his hand, launching the softball all the way to the other side of the P.E Grounds, the robotic voice of the small robot beside the circle chiming, “705.2 meters.”

“Kacchan, that was amazing! But why did you yell that?!” Izuku immediately exclaimed, earning an eye-roll from Kacchan and absolutely no explanation as to why he yelled “die” when throwing the softball.

How rude.

“705.2 meters? That's insane.” A guy with blond hair said, the red-haired boy beside him nodding in agreement.

“So we're allowed to use our quirks? This is going to be so much fun!” A pink girl said next, her grin showing her enthusiasm.

“Fun?” Their teacher muttered, before a dangerous grin formed on his face. Izuku’s ear quickly flattened against his skull, sensing the danger that would come, “If you're so sure this is going to be fun, why not up the stakes? The student who comes last in the apprehension test will be expelled.”

Scandalized murmurs and whispers started to sound across the grounds, with Izuku watching Kacchan’s expression. His best friend seemed mainly aloof, but there was a pinch of worry in his eyes. Izuku squared his shoulders, ready to protest that crazy statement from his teacher, but a voice to his left beat him to it.

“Expelled? That's too cruel!” Uraraka chimed, her expression one full of concern, and several other students chimed their own agreement after her.

“The job of a hero is a cruel one. Natural disasters, villains, even other heroes– you have to be ready to face each one without any doubts. If you're only doing this because it's ‘fun’, you'll have no potential to be a hero and I won't want you in my class.”

The class seemed mollified after that explanation, some concerned looks still being thrown to their teacher, but Mister Aizawa didn't seem to care about that, walking towards the section that looked geared towards a type of run.

“Well then, with that out of the way, let's begin.”