Chapter Text
Shinsou Hitoshi was never the social type.
His only interaction in the first day so far was with some other student that bumped into him, and while neither quality nor quantity of the conversation was great by any extend of the imagination, he still counted it as a win.
He moved along the hallways as quickly as he could, making it to his new classroom for the next year or so. ‘1-A’ it read.
He took a deep breath and walked in.
The class was kinda big (bigger than his old one). The desks were arranged in an arc, one behind the other. There were a few girls in the back, whispering, and a few groups of boys chatting and sitting at the desks, two of which were arguing quite loudly about the propriety of school decor of all things.
He took a seat at the back, by the window. Away from everybody, as usual, when he noticed one of the many faces in the room seemed familiar, it was the strange boy.
He still seemed somewhat out of it, but he wasn’t really looking at anything in particular. He seemed to be just staring into space.
He continued to look around the classroom and saw other faces that seemed familiar from his testing site, they didn’t show any indication of remembering him, he took that as a good sign and ignored them completely.
He finally made it to UA, everybody doubted him but that doesn’t matter now, he was here and he was gonna prove everybody wrong.
Suddenly, a voice woke him from his thoughts.
”if you came here to make friends, you can just pack your bags and leave right now…”
Shinsou looked around, trying to find where it was coming from, at last, it was some guy in the floor.
The guy stood up and looked at the whole class. Everybody was looking at him, at least half in silence.”Almost half a minute. This is the worst time I’ve ever seen in all my years of teaching”
Shinsou was slightly intimidated by the sudden speech, but the more he looked at the guy the more he seemed familiar. “We’re skipping the introductions. Everyone go to the courtyard, we’re having an exam” The class moved out of the classroom quickly, everyone discussed what the hell was going on, some people were worried, some were enthusiastic, the others were just curious, Shinsou was among them.
He went to the courtyard and saw a floating robot with a screen at the front and a bunch of cameras all over it, pointing at the floor, it looked cool.
”Class 1-A, my name is Aizawa Shota, your homeroom teacher until the end of the year. I will be your proctor for the exam today. And let me be clear. There are no restrictions regarding the usage of your quirks during the test”
Shinsou looked at the screen, finding his name quickly with a ‘score’ space right next to it. “today you’ll be evaluated, to see that it wasn’t a fluke that you got in”
As all the chatter died down, everyone’s eyes were on the screen. “Last place’s expelled”
Shinsou felt a chill down his spine as everyone else seemed surprised, “No way right?” Said one pink student, “it’s obviously a joke” said another one with black hair.
No matter if the expelling was a joke or not, this was still an exam.
”From the time I give you your goal, you will have exactly 8 minutes to retrieve it”. Aizawa said, and as soon as he finished talking, the screen which was showing the scores, changed into a map of the school, three markers appeared, and on top of each was an arrow labeled “goal”.
”There are different objects in each of the locations, all varying in attributes and worth a different amount of points. Your mission is to get them here and rack the biggest amount of points you can. To your marks, I’ll start the timer now”
Shinsou looked around, he could feel his heart beating faster. He was so fucking nervous. The others seemed just as nervous, they were all trying to get a hold of themselves, some were quietly talking to themselves, others were just staring at the ground.
The screen changed into three points, each with a goal.
”You can pick which one you want yourself, the order does not matter. Remember, you have eight minutes. GO!!”
Shinsou started running, everything felt too fucking fast.
—
Iida Tenya was very tense.
Don’t get him wrong, having an exam on the first day was exciting. To compare his progress against his classmates? What a great opportunity beautifully crafted by the school board… but still, expulsion on the first day was a bit much.
He made an educated guess that he would (at least) be within the top three of the fastest students, so he took a bit more time than others to decide what location to go for.
He knew that there was no way to tell who would go where, but he decided to go for the furthest one first. Maybe, just maybe, there would be a benefit for being the first one there.
He stretched for a minute before taking off, no need to pull a muscle just yet.
He didn’t run into any of his classmates once he got to his location and found his goal inside a square building in the northern campus limit, it was a book with a red bookmark (a library book on ‘How to be the best’), it had a little mark that read “100 points”. He tried to look for more like it to bring back, but this one was the only one he could find.
He grabbed it and started to run back. He was out of breath after just a few minutes, which was a little weird, and he stopped for a short break to keep his head clear, if at all possible.
He saw the trees shaking, and the floor coming up. Next thing he knew, he was pressed against the cold dirt floor.
…
He woke up two minutes later, with dirt all over his uniform, and missing one red book.
—
Shinsou was looking for his next goal as he had arrived sixth to the east location, and had to look all over the classroom to find a ‘score’ object. He saw some students that were already on their way back, carrying very strange objects (one of which was a massive vault that seemed to weigh more than a thousand pounds, with a petite girl carrying it without breaking a sweat).
Unable to find anything at all, he looked at the door sadly, thinking how just as his life was starting to look bright, it would all come crashing down because he failed the first real test at his dream school. He felt a stray tear come down his cheek, and in anger, he decided to kick the door. It was so unfair, he didn’t have any flashy quirk designed for this sort of test, it was very stupid of him to even attempt…
he felt himself spiralling, so he decided to look up and breathe. he looked at the other person with him searching the classroom, or well, tried (her being invisible and all) to distract himself and noticed some small sniffles sounds coming from her direction. She must’ve been having a breakdown as well, this was a very stressful situation for all of them, so he decided to get out of his pity party and continue searching.
in the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a little etiquette coming out of the lightbulb. It was tiny, so he quickly gathered some boxes and climbed up to take it. He paused for a second. As taking the lightbulb would make the girl’s search harder or even impossible…
steeling himself, he decided expulsion would be worse than making this girl sad, and in his situation, she would do the same.
He removed the lightbulb from it’s place. Quickly leaving behind him the darkened room.
—
The only other person in the room was Toru Hagakure.
She was crying.
She couldn’t find the goal at all! She looked everywhere! And now, she would fail this exam, and this would all be her fault! She was never going to make it! Why did she want to be a hero so badly?! She didn’t deserve it!
she kept crying as she slowly slid the wall down, She closed her eyes and screamed, letting her emotions get the best of her. She almost didn’t even notice the lack of visibility in the room, as her tears and messy hair blocked her vision.
”-uo ok?” What? she looked at the direction the voice came from. She could recognize that voice. It was a boy. Her eyes were still blurry from tears, and as soon as she had wiped them, she looked at the boy.
He was looking at her, with a small object in his hands. “I’m sorry… would this help you stop crying?”
She looked at the object, it was a small red book, with a bookmark labeled ‘100’. This was exactly what she was looking for!!
She jumped up and hugged the boy, who stiffened at the sudden change of attitude. ”thank you, thank you, thank you!!” She couldn’t stop thanking the boy, who was very uncomfortable, it was very obvious he had no idea what to do.
”you should get going… there are, only two minutes left for the test…”
“Thank you!” She cried, “Thank you so much, you saved me!!”
“it’s not that big of a deal, really” the boy said, “I’m sorry you feel so stressed, but I hope this makes up for it”
Hagakure looked at the boy, and then at the book, and then back at the boy. She smiled as she tucked the book in her backpack, she started running out of the room, “I’m sorry you had to see me in that state… I’ll definitely remember this!”
“Don’t worry, everyone panicked a bit at the start” The boy said. He smiled while watching her run away.
He was sure to miss those 100 points, but thankfully, he already had a replacement.
—
Aizawa Shota was feeling unusually angry.
He just wanted to throw the damn students against a wall, or maybe through one. He didn’t know. He just wanted to throw them.
He sighed in frustration, tried to calm himself down. Five minutes had passed, and no one had come back with their goals. They had to have finished by now.
He knew he was just being impatient, but he couldn’t help it, he decided to check the status of the students in his phone (cameras were distributed in all of the locations, what a joy).
He saw two students who were on their way there, and one he thought was behind them, all of them coming from the eastern location. Six were coming from the northern location, ten others were coming from the southeast location.
that leaves… one student left unaccounted. that was fine, the cameras couldn’t possibly cover every inch and cranny in the school. Everyone was coming to review the results.
A moment later, all twenty students were accounted for, each holding the objects they retrieved from all locations.
Aizawa immediately saw the red book, the book with the 100 points on the bookmark. It was the red book that was supposed to be the reward for being the first one on the northern location.
”Your scores will be calculated right now… look for your name in the board” after a few seconds, the scores we out in display.
”no… way” he heard one of the students say, she was the first place girl, a score of 100 clearly visible besides her. Everyone was agitated and the student with the gravity quirk almost flew her vault out of student property. So he decided enough was enough. “The test is over.” He flashed his quirk and stopped all the babbling of the students. “If I catch any of you still using your quirk, you’ll be automatically expelled. No ifs or buts”
the students blinked at him for a few seconds, before quickly agreeing.
“Toru Hagakure” He asked, the girl quickly responding “Yes sensei?!”
“Congratulations on getting first place” He said, smiling. He showed a less amicable smile a second later. “Or that would be the case, had the scores been so simple. All of you must’ve learned something from the entrance exam after all.” The scores suddenly got obscured in the screen, showing only Hagakure’s score.
”A hundred points from the object by itself, no points added from heroic demeanour and ten points added from swiftness on retrieving the object”
A big ‘110’ score got updated. “The maximum score is 300. Let’s just hope you’re not the lowest score now”
The girl broke a cold sweat. Now she just had to wait for someone to get a lower score.
”Now. With the actual rankings.” The board didn’t update, but it wasn’t meant to. This would be a personalised review.
”Ochaco Uraraka.” He called out, a girl quickly stepping forward “You’re the first Ranked student. 90 points base from the object retrieved, 50 points from swiftnes in retrieving said object, and 60 points from heroic behavior.” He smiled as sincerely as he could. “You helped other classmates and got one of the best times in the class. Keep it up, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you.”
The student was visibly surprised, happy at the praise and relief, but mostly just relieved.
”Next up.”
“Tsuyu Asui” the girl stepped forward, she displayed an impressive poker face. ”40 points from the object obtained, 40 points from swiftness in retrieving said object, and 20 points from heroic behavior.” He kept going down the list, he went at it at random, not wanting for students to get a false sense of confort by being called early.
Minoru Mineta was the worst ranked student so far, with barely 20 points in total. 40 points from base object, -20 points from unheroic behavior, and 0 points in swiftness, being one of the last students to make it back.
”and lastly.”
“Izuku Midoriya” a boy with green hair stepped forward, eyes wandering, “100 points from object retrieved, -100 points from unheroic behavior, 0 points from swiftness.”
The students fell silent.
Aizawa decided to give the last word. “Congratulations to the top three, the class is dismissed.”
The students started filing out, until one of the students stopped, it was Midoriya Izuku.
”Am I… expelled?”
Aizawa sighed. “I’m afraid you are. You can take your belongings and leave before the next class starts. I hope you achieve success in all your future endeavours.”
The headache was killing him.
—
The boy with the lowest score retrieved his belongings as quickly as he could and left the class. Jirou was pretty confused by the development honestly, how could someone even get minus a hundred heroic points? She didn’t know the guy, but even the purple shit achieved a positive score.
she turned to one of the guys near her “any idea what’s up with that?” ”oh, I don’t know, I didn’t even speak with the guy” the boy shrugged, “the teacher didn’t elaborate either”
Jirou continued hearing her classmates conversation, everyone was just as confused, speculating what on earth could’ve given him such a score.
“I heard that students sent from the hero safety commission are usually denied entry to the school, maybe it was a similar case?”
”I keep forgetting Hawks is not an UA alumni”
”so, it was rigged?”
”maybe”
”but even if he was with the commission, he would’ve been denied access before taking the entrance exam, not in the middle of a class!”
”then what could even amass such a score?”
”did anyone see him while the test was running?”
”no. Didn’t “
”I did! He even helped me during the exam! If it wasn’t for him I would’ve only had ten points…”
”he helped you? Then… wouldn’t that amass a positive score? Or at least, not the worst score possible?”
”may I ask a question…”
”Hagakure”
”Yes Hagakure, did the student tell you where he found the object he gave you?”
“No, we were in such a rush, I only thanked him after the fact”
”well you see… I asked sensei if there were duplicate objects in the exam, of course, I didn’t want to demerit other’s achievements. And he told me that no, there weren’t.”
”what about it?”
”well you see, I was the one to first get the red book, It was placed in the northern location, and having a speed quirk, I was the first to get there, but I fell unconscious out of the blue, and my object was nowhere to be found.”
”so you think…”
”I’m sure that was the reason he got unheroic points.”
”wait but that makes no sense, why would he take your object and give it to someone else?”
”maybe a change of heart? A guilty conscience?”
Jirou decided she had heard enough. She was confused at the time but she knew there was something else going on.
She took out her textbook and put on her 34 dB Shooting Ear Protection Earmuffs to block the sound. She’s been having a slight headache for a while, and she’s got the rest of the day to think things through.
—
“Sigh…” He was stuck in a room, the only light came from a television that was in front of him. The screen was on a news show about some disaster, about some people, about some law. Izuku listened carefully, but couldn’t place it.
His handler spoke in a monotone voice, not angry, but not kind either. It was like static, nothing really made sense.
He absentmindedly noded. “.d..ou…regr… i…?…” The click of a button being pressed by the person in the room
The television makes no noise. the room is silent. A bottle clunk-clunks against the table, it echoes down the room.
Izuku picks it up, drinks it.
”Do you regret it?”
”Getting kicked out on the first day?”
”do you?”
”I don’t”
”we’ll get this sort out then.”
Izuku goes to sleep.