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Chapter Text

Shouto Todoroki didn't want to be a Hero.

It wasn't because Endeavour was a burning trash can filled with manure of a father obsessed with beating All Might. And it wasn't his mother's mental breakdown that resulted in his face being permanently scarred, though that didn't exactly help. He just hadn't exactly been interested in being a Hero in the first place. He'd watched All Might with a bit of amazement but had just... never been interested even before his father had insisted on it.

No, Shouto wanted something completely different. 

Ever since he'd seen a snowboarding competition on the television, Shouta had known what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He wanted to be a professional snowboarder and just spend the rest of his life up various mountains, away from his father.

Unfortunately he had been born the son of the Number Two as the latest in a series of eugenics experiments to try and surpass All Might. As a result, Shouto had been subjected to training comparable to professional Heroes since he was old enough to walk. He hadn't had much contact with his siblings beyond brief glimpses in the halls and seeing Fuyumi in the kitchen after the housekeeper retired.

He had thought that repeatedly requesting snowboarding gear for his birthday and asking to meet a professional snowboarder would be enough. Instead Endeavour had acknowledged that it would be even faster to snowboard on his ice rather than form it under his feet and had declared it his idea all along. Shouto honestly wanted to scream at this point.

He really enjoyed snowboarding. One of the happiest moments of his life was when the teacher Endeavour had employed had said he could go professional and had asked Endeavour to take him to the Nationals. And then had been disappointed when Endeavour had flatly ignored that request.

Endeavour tried to put on a paternal smile, instead grinning like a serial killer. "So, Shouto. Just to remind me, what's your future career going to be?"

"Professional snowboarder," Shouto deadpanned.

Endeavour nodded sagely, the words clearly passing through his ears and turning into what he wanted to hear. "Ah, yes, Number One Hero. Just as I thought." He glared down at Shouto. "Now, my perfect masterpiece, you have to get ready for the U.A Recommended Exam."

His brow furrowed further. "And don't try your ridiculous temper tantrum there. You are above the rest of the students and you must continue to prove it!"

Shouto snorted. He had categorically refused to use his fire in training in the vain hope that not doing so would frustrate his father to the point of giving up. That and he still disliked his father for pushing his family to the breaking point. "As I said before, I swore I wouldn't use my fire in combat. I don't need it, especially since I don't even want to be a Hero in the first place."

As usual, Endeavour didn't hear him. He just snorted, preparing to go into another lecture about wasting potential. At this point Shouto had heard them all. "You will eventually surpass me, Shouto. This foolish temper tantrum could potentially get you in serious trouble at U.A! They may even expel you from the Hero Course if you keep it up, and that would reflect badly on me as well."

Shouto's head whipped up. "Wait, what was that?"

Endeavour blinked. "...They may expel you?"

Internally, Shouto cackled madly. This was perfect - an expulsion from the Number One Hero school in the country? Such a black mark would render him toxic goods for the entirety of Japan's Hero courses! It would even count as a serious problem overseas, since All Might was considered the Global Symbol of Peace!

He had been given an opportunity.

"What's that look for, Shouto? Do you not understand how serious this is?!"

Shouto blinked, schooling his face. "Ah, yes. Expulsion, that would be bad."

Endeavour shook his head, a ferocious snarl on his face. "If you understand it, you'd better get your head in the game, Shouto! I didn't make incredible, passionate love to the woman I love multiple times, sometimes while she cosplayed as All Might, and produced three failures before you for nothing!"

"...What?"

"Nothing!" Endeavour glared at him harshly. "I'm intensifying your training. You cannot fail this exam!"

"Understood," Shouto dully stated.

---

After an incredibly hard written exam, Inasa looked over at Todoroki. Sure, Endeavour had been incredibly rude and had refused to give him an autograph several times, but maybe his son would be different? "Hey, wanna-"

"Let's get this over with," Todoroki stated dully.

He blinked. From the sound of it, it didn't sound like Todoroki was that passionate about this incredibly hot-blooded competition. After a second he shook his head. Well, it wasn't the exam yet. Maybe he was saving his energy for that?

As Present Mic announced the tests he couldn't help but grin. The atmosphere was electric, and everybody here was ready to give it there all-!

As soon as the buzzer started Todoroki shot off with a flat face, creating ice behind him to shoot ahead. Inasa stared, briefly, then shot off with his own wind. This was a bit more like it!

The rest of the course he was too distracted with pushing ahead and giving it his all. Even if Todoroki's icy glare chilled him slightly, he would just have to push past it and make friends with the guy!

Coming up to the finish line, he grit his teeth, pushing more and more wind behind him, just passing the finish line before Todoroki. He panted in exhilaration, turning to Todoroki. "Aw yeah, I won! Wonder what the next time'll be like?!"

Todoroki barely reacted. "Alright. Keep it up. Nice work."

Inasa's brain short circuited. "Huh?"

"Passing's all that matters, it's just a test," Todoroki muttered. He spared a glance and Inasa shuddered at seeing how little passion there was. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Todoroki didn't actually want to be here...

Todoroki turned away. "Maybe if I don't pass I can go through the General course. Gotta hope for it,"  he muttered, almost too quietly to hear. Unfortunately Inasa's sensitivity to wind currents meant that it was audible to him.

Inasa was aware that he was shaking with barely repressed anger. Forget Endeavour's eyes, this guy didn't even want to be here! Sure, Endeavour was way too cold but at least he wanted to be a Hero. He couldn't say the same about this guy. Did the teachers at U.A not see how little he cared?

Disgusted, he stomped away. If U.A couldn't even tell that this guy didn't want to be a Hero he wouldn't be there. Maybe Shiketsu would have a better appreciation for hot bloodedness.

---

Shouto stared at the gates of U.A, bag in hand. Endeavour had insisted on having him driven to the gates by his chauffeur, and it had only been because some people had come by that Endeavour hadn't hugged him or said anything embarrassing. Instead he had coolly sent Shouto off, once again demanding Shouto use his fire. 

That didn't matter. For Todoroki had a plan.

As said before, he didn't want to be a Hero. U.A was regarded as one of the best schools for Heroics not just in Japan, but worldwide due to All Might's sterling reputation. Getting an expulsion from the Hero course from U.A was practically a death sentence for any other Hero course in Japan. So alll Shouto had to do was get expelled from the Hero course, then he would be free to pursue his dream job of being a professional snowboarder. And there wouldn't be anything Endeavour could do about it.

U.A even had Eraserhead, a teacher who had expelled hundreds of students in only a few years of teaching. He had apparently expelled an entire class slast year! Shouto really hoped he was in Eraserhead's class. That would make his plan easier.

As he walked to his class he felt pretty light. How hard could it be to get expelled from the most prestigious and hard working Hero school in the country anyway?

---

Chapter Text

Shouto stepped into what was only temporarily his classroom, taking a look at the Hero course students there. The girl with black hair from the exams was there - she seemed like she would be competent, so he just had to hope the loud, annoying wind guy was in the other class. She was trying to ignore a purple goblin/Oompa Loompa that was gawking at her and the rest of the girls in class. For a moment he briefly appreciated what it was, then he got roughly shoved from behind.

"Outta the way, Candy Cane. Make way for Bakugou Katsuki, the Future Number One Hero!" A blonde guy with spiky hair shoved his way in, striding like he was God's gift to mankind.

Shouto's eyes narrowed. He had some stiff competition to beat if he wanted to get expelled. Still, it was early days yet. Maybe he could do worse than them all?

A guy who Shouto would describe as a walking rectangle with glasses ran up to the annoying blonde guy as he flopped into his chair and kicked his feet up. "Excuse me! Remove your feet from that desk this instant!"

"Oh? What ya gonna do about it?!" The blonde snarled.

At that, the doors opened and a fluffy haired guy with freckles came in, immediately wincing when he saw Bakugou and the other guy - Iida, he'd introduced himself as. Shouto barely spared him a glance. As his brief classmates mingled, Shouto started to think seriously about how he was going to get expelled. Clearly he needed to be ruder than the blonde who, even now, was acting like such a jackass to the rest of the class.

Acting more like the purple goblin was out of the question. He didn't want to preface any move with reading off the Sex Offender Registry. At least the green haired guy - Midoriya - and Iida seemed to be getting along, judging by their attitude.

"Oh! It's you, the plain guy from the exam!" Shouto watched impassively as a brown-haired girl came up to the plain guy with freckles. He flushed tomato red at her words, stammering at a million miles a minute.

"If you're here to socialise, then leave already. Save us all the trouble." A flat voice drawled.

Shouto had to admit, he hadn't been sure about what looked like a giant caterpillar making its way up while the brown haired girl chattered to her friend from the exam. The guy inside it looked half dead as he sucked an entire packet of jelly down before getting out. He glared flatly at them. "It took you eight seconds to calm down - you're not very rational, are you?"

It took him a second to realise, then his eyes widened. It was Eraserhead - he remembered his father describing the man as 'competent but an absolute slob.' Couldn't be anyone else, with the hair that looked simultaneously dry and greasy, the unkempt stubble and smelling like a combination of stale sweat, coffee and cat fur.

"Right. Get into your gym uniforms and meet me on the grounds."

Shouto followed the rest of the class to the changing rooms. Inwardly he couldn't help but smile. Maybe Eraserhead would expel him?

---

Eraserhead glared at the class. They had actually managed to get to the grounds within ten minutes, so per the agreement with Nedzu he couldn't expel them for that (he still missed the looks of horror on his last classes' faces when he had said that taking eleven minutes to get changed meant they couldn't be Heroes).

"Right, we're doing a Quirk Assessment test."

"Um, but shouldn't we go do the orientation-"

"Not needed. You don't have time for that stuff if you actually want to be Heroes," he cut Uraraka off as she spouted such trite necessities. They didn't need that - not if they wanted to be the best they could be. Maybe if Oboro hadn't been at the orientation he would still be alive. 

"Here at U.A, we're known for our freestyle approach to education. If we teachers deem it necessary for your learning process we will do whatever is needed to make you the best you can be."

"Can I go to the orientation then?" Todoroki extended his hand, face flat as one of Cementoss' walls.

Eraserhead sighed. There was always some wise guy in his class. Maybe Nedzu would let him expel him for being an insufferable smartass. "No. Just for that, you stay here."

"Damn it," Todoroki flatly stated. Kaminari sniggered.

Eraserhead felt a headache start. "Right. Anyway, you know all those no Quirk allowed fitness tests you did in middle school? Seated toe touches, softball throw, standing long jump, the fifty metre dash, endurance running, the repeated sidestep, grip strength and upper body training. You're presumably familiar with these."

When the class hesitantly nodded he sighed. "Well, not allowing Quirks is ridiculous. They want to pretend that Quirks don't exist for the sake of their precious averages, but they're only delaying the inevitable."

Shouta pointed at Bakugou. "Bakugou, how far could you throw a softball in Middle School??"

"Bout 67 metres," the blonde flatly stated.

Shouta tossed him a ball. "Go into the circle and use your Quirk to throw that ball as far as you can. Do whatever you need to in order so long as you do0n't leave the circle."

"Got it, sensei," Bakugou growled. A feral grin splitting his face, he swung his arm, and launched the ball with the force of a cannon. "DIE!" He screamed, the rest of the class staring at him with wide-eyed expressions.

Shouta looked down at his phone, then held up the final result. "750.2 metres," he drawled. "We have to know what your benchmark is before we can push you to exceed it."

As expected, his class broke out into cheers. "Whoa! This is awesome!" Kaminari cheered.

Kirishima grinned. "Man, this is so manly that we get to use our Quirks!"

"So cool!"

Shouta grimaced slightly. Time to hit them with reality. "Oh? Awesome, you say..."

As one, the class gulped. Shouta glared at all of them. "You think your three years here will be all fun and games? Very well, I guess I'll play a game." His eyes bored into theirs. "Whoever gets the lowest score in this assessment will be expelled."

---

Upon hearing those blessed words, it took all of Shouto's willpower not to break out into maniacal laughter. Privately he thanked every God he could imagine for this opportunity.

His classmates who wanted to be Heroes felt differently. Midoriya looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. The brown haired girl stared at Eraserhead plaintively. "W-what? But - that's not fair-"

"Life isn't fair," Eraserhead cut her off bluntly. "Anybody who says otherwise is selling something. Are Villain attacks or natural disasters fair?"

The brown haired girl looked away. Eraserhead smirked. "As Heroes, your job will be to correct life's unfairness. Here at U.A, we're going to put you through the wringer for the next three years. That's Plus Ultra for you."

Shouto resolved then and there that he was going to get the lowest score possible. And for added measure, he wasn't going to use his fire at all -Eraserhead had to know what their Quirks were! Looking at the purple midget, though, Shouto knew that he had his work cut out for him to score lower then him. Still, he wasn't going to take this seriously and just dick around as much as he could.

As he came up to the 50-metre dash, he took a deep breath then shot ice behind him to propel him forwards as slowly as he could manage. He still beat the invisible girl he had been paired with by a significant margin.

Inwardly he winced while Eraserhead duly tallied his score. It was early days yet. All he had to do was score lower in every other event and then Eraserhead would expel him. He just had to stay strong.

"Todoroki, can you melt the ice you've left behind?" Eraserhead asked tiredly.

"No, I can't." Todoroki shot back. Privately he was elated - this had to be some kind of test from Eraserhead to get him to use his fire. He had to know what Shouto's Quirk was since he was their teacher.

Eraserhead looked at him, then sighed. "Somebody get to melting this ice for the next contestants."

Shouto stared at him, confused as Yaoyorozu pulled out what looked like a space heater from her stomach. Was... this a bluff? Maybe it was. He went into the Grip Strength event still pondering it. Maybe if he broke the grip strength tester he'd be expelled for wrecking school equipment. Covering it with ice, he turned to Eraserhead expectantly.

"Not bad," the teacher said flatly.

He wanted to scream in frustration, instead choosing to 'accidentally' drop the machine and let it break. "Whoops," he stated flatly. Eraserhead just sighed, waving him on.  It was as if Eraserhead wasn't seeing his definitely disruptive and rude behaviour or something.

---

Shouta wasn't really paying much attention to his class beyond the results they put out. His eyes were on a real prospective problem instead.

Midoriya Izuku, the boy who had gotten in with nothing but Rescue Points for destroying the Zero Pointer robot and his own body. He had been assigned to Shouta to hopefully train that Quirk of his in an environment where his teacher could stop it before shattering his limbs. A couple of teachers had asked to have him put in Shouta's class, stating he had potential. Shouta saw it differently.

Somehow he had made it to fifteen without even bothering to train his Quirk control. The thought made his blood boil. So as he saw Midoriya gear up to break his bones yet again, he activated his Quirk just as he threw.

"I erased that Quirk of yours," he stated flatly.

"O-oh! You're Eraserhead... the Erasure Hero..."

Shouta didn't react to being identified. "I was watching that exam and I just find it irrational how you passed when you can't even control your Quirk. Were you going to break yourself again, hoping somebody would help you?"

The boy broke into a sweet. "N-no, I wasn't-"

His Capture weapon lashed around the boy, dragging him closer. "Whatever your plan, you would have just made yourself a burden to those around you with your move. A while ago, a certain hotblooded Hero saved over a thousand people during a natural disaster, becoming a living legend."

His flat stare bored into Midoriya's eyes. "You've got that same reckless streak. But unlike him... you use your Quirk once and break yourself. You cannot become a Hero like that."

Midoriya looked at him shakily as he closed his eyes, ending his Erasure. "Give it another go, Midoriya. Get it over with."

He felt eyes on the back of his head, but chose to ignore the feeling. Doubtless his students were wondering what he'd said to Midoriya. Let them wonder. Midoriya was either going to break himself completely or not use his Quirk and fail-

SMASH!

---

Shouto stared, admittedly impressed when Midoriya's ball shot through the air like a cannon. The green haired guy had been his biggest worry, since he had only gotten impressive human scores without doing something with their Quirk.

"Sensei... I can still move!" Midoriya cried, holding up a finger that had discoloured to an ugly purple-red from bruising. Shouto had gotten worse injuries than that but it still hurt, looking at a limb that disfigured. Midoriya seemed to have problems with a body that wasn't prepared to handle his full output. Like Touya.

Eraserhead grinned at that. "You really did that..."

"DEKU! QUIRK! EXPLAIN, NOW!" Bakugou screamed, wide eyed, charging at Midoriya. He got maybe three steps before the explosions in his hand whiffed out and cloth wrapped around him.

"Bakugou, you get one warning. You try something like that and you're expelled," Eraserhead stated flatly. "And stop using your Quirk, my eyesore getting dry over here."

Shouto sighed. While outright assaulting a classmate to get expelled had crossed his mind, he had discarded it because he didn't want to be anything like the old man. That, and due to his training he could easily kill somebody in unarmed combat.

Now he just had to perform worse than Midoriya and Mineta in every other event. Somebody wh was crazy enough about being a Hero to break their finger definitely deserved to stay more than he did. It shouldn't be hard if he didn't use his Quirks for any of the remaining events.

---

"Moving along, time for the results." Eraserhead stated flatly, projecting a hologram. Shouto looked at the bottom, only to not see his name there. Dismayed, his eyes crawled up the scoreboard until...

His name was in second, just behind Yaoyorozu's. How? Did-did Eraserhead not notice him fooling around? Was the man even a qualified teacher? Or had his training been so good that he performed so well even when he was trying to fail?

Shouto had done everything reasonably possible in the last couple of events. His Quirk hadn't helped with upper body training or the seated toe touch, and he had deliberately faked being tired in the last event despite having run further distances with a pack full of rocks on his back. He had even left huge lumps of ice around without melting them!

Midoriya looked like somebody had told him Christmas was cancelled. Shouto clung to a small scrap of hope. Maybe he could still be expelled if he appealed for Midoriya to not be expelled-

"By the way, I was lying about expelling somebody," Eraserhead offhandedly mentioned.

Midoriya stared. Iida stared. Uraraka stared. Shouto stared.

...What?

---

Shouta grinned at them. "That was just a logical ruse to draw out your full potential."

Iida and Midoriya screamed so loud they shook in place. Even Todoroki looked stunned. Next to them, Yaoyorozu shook her head. "Well, of course he wasn't going to expel anybody on the first day. It doesn't take that much effort to figure out..."

He decided to let her think that. Nobody here had zero potential. Even Mineta had proven to have something worthwhile for him. "Anyway, we're done here. All the relevant curriculum details are back in the classroom, go there and check it out. Midoriya."

The green haired boy blinked in surprise, tears in the corners of his eyes. "Y-yes?"

Shouta held out a slip. "Go see Recovery Girl to get that finger fixed up. Tomorrow's trials won't be any easier."

As the green haired boy ran off, Shouta saw Todoroki come up to him. He sighed, feeling his sleeping bag calling for him. "Todoroki-"

Todoroki stepped in front of him, face as blank and impassive as it had been at the start of the day. "How come I didn't score lower than Midoriya? I wasn't really trying-"

"Surprising but not that bad. If your father trained you then I'm sure you know what your limits are already without needing a Quirk assessment." God, Shouta was tired. He missed his sleeping bag.

Todoroki shook his head, pressing. "But you read my school records right? They show I can get higher-"

Shouta shook his head. "I don't bother with reading those. Besides, you came in second, and as I said I'm not expelling anybody today." All these students had potential for Heroics, and having announced that he couldn't go back on his word without destroying some trust. "Look, just go to class and leave me alone."

God, he wanted to go to bed so bad.  Though he had to admit, he might have to check through the school records to see who Midoriya's Quirk councillor was. Whoever had thought Midoriya had acceptable levels of Quirk control was not an educator he would trust.

Then All Might popped out form behind a corner to talk at him. Shouta wondered what he'd done to deserve this.