Izuku was about to engage in the scariest mission he has ever had to face. Not fighting Endeavor, not some high level drug lord or a mafia takedown, but highschool. The horrible reality that is fighting 19 other people, all at once, constantly, every second of every day. Izuku thanked whatever deity out there for the fact that he was very good at masking his presence, because as he slipped into the room, and then into his seat he went unnoticed. After dealing with Tenya and Katsuki arguing without noticing he was in the seat behind them Izuku's head snapped to the door. He had sensed a new presence, a powerful and yet very familiar presence, he shyly smiled when he saw Shota laying in his sleeping bag at the door to the room. Izuku had also noticed that two other students' gazes had shifted to the door, the purple-haired kid sitting behind him, and a kid with a bird head sitting across the room from them. Izuku was about to open his mouth to inform the other students that the teacher was here before he locked eyes with Shota, and the pro hero shook his head no.
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Shota sighed as he finished his coffee, deciding it was time to go check out his class this year. He slipped himself into his sleeping bag, choosing to lazily wiggle to the classroom instead of functioning like a healthy adult. He was making his way down the hall, very happy due to the fact that he had both his kids in his class, so that he was able to thoroughly torment them, and that he had gotten his request concerning the green-haired kid from the exam. He sighed as he got closer to the door, he was masking his presence to see how long it would take for his students to notice him and shut up, he wasn’t expecting much from anyone except his kids, because he had taught them to notice these things. But to his disbelief when he made it to the door, three heads immediately snapped to face the door. Both his kids, and the green-haired boy from the exam.
‘The hell? I knew he was good, but he shouldn’t have been able to sense my presence immediatley.’ Shota thought to himself as all the other kids continued to yell and not notice him. After seeing who was at the door both of Shota’s sons turned their attention back to what they were doing (reading a book, and staring out the window). But the green floof continued to look at him, and Shota definitely saw the shy smile the kid gave him before opening his mouth, presumably to tell the other students Shota was here, but Shota caught his eye and shook his head no first. The kid nodded his head, and Shota absolutely saw the smirk that spread on the kids face, after the interaction the kid simply turned to look out the window like Hitoshi was.
Izuku turned his head to look out the window, just like the purple boy sitting behind him had. Izuku didn’t hear Shotas voice, so he presumed he was waiting to see how long it took for people to notice he was there and shut the hell up.
It took the class of hero hopefuls about 10 seconds to realize and quiet down. Izuku was disappointed, and so, it seems, were Shota and the two others who noticed him.
“It took all but three of you eight seconds to notice I was here and shut up, I expect better next time. Now get changed into these and head out to the field.” Shota said, and pulled the gym uniforms out of nowhere. The first three to get down to the training room, and out to the field were, unsurprisingly, Izuku, Hitoshi, and Fumikage. The three arrived together, and at the same time that Shota had.
“Problem children.” Shota muttered as he shot the three students who were depriving him of the sweet few seconds of alone time he wanted a dirty look. Two of them smiled even brighter than before and one of them raised his head a little bit, both actions taken as if to mock their teacher. Shota grunted as the four waited for the other students to arrive, finally students started to trickle their way out onto the field. Izuku realized that the next two besides the ones he came with were both recommendation students, one with hair tied up into a tight high ponytail, and the other one who resembled a human peppermint. Then Katsuki came out, almost blowing up at the sight of Izuku, and Izuku hadn’t bothered to pay attention to the rest. But when he felt two new presences next to him he looked over as Ochaco and Tenya waved to him, he lightly smiled at the two. When all 20 students were there, Shota cleared his throat to get their attention.
“My name is Shota Aizawa and I will be your homeroom teacher.” Shota said, yawning at the end of the sentence.
“Aren’t the teachers here all pro heros? I don’t recognise you.” Katsuki says, rather irritably.
“That’s EraserHead, he’s an underground hero asshole.” The green floof muttered, but only Shota, Fumikage, and Hitoshi actually seemed to hear him.
“I’m an underground hero, I don’t work in the public eye very often, you may recognize my hero name, EraserHead.” Shota says, much more politely than Izuku would’ve put it. Some of the students nod in understanding.
“Aizawa-Sensei, what are we doing out here?” A girl from the second row of students, who seems to have an invisibility quirk, asks.
“We are going to do a quirk apprehension test.” Shota looked at his roster for a second before looking back to the students.
“Bakugo, you got number one on the practicals, how far could you throw the ball in middle school?” Shota asks as Katsuki steps forward proudly.
“65 meters.” He said, staring directly into Shotas eyes.
“Without your quirk?” Shota asks, Katsuki nods.
“Do it with your quirk this time.” Shota says, dropping the ball into Katsukis hand. Katsuki smirked and positioned himself in the circle, so he could throw.
“DIE!” Katsuki screamed as he threw the ball.
‘Damnit Katsuki’ was all Izuku thought as some of the other students paled out the battle cry of sorts.
“705 meters.” Shota says, blankly looking at his class.
“You’re doing the same thing as you did in middle school except you can use your quirks this time.” Shota said to his class.
“Woah this’ll be so fun!” Ochaco said, and Izuku mentally slapped his forehead in response to his friend.
‘Fun, you think this is fun? This is obviously a test, if you aren’t focused you could get expelled, don’t you know about this guys track record? And this isn't just about quirks, this is about ingenuity, and determination, it’s about gauging your potential as a hero.’ Izuku thought, resisting the urge to sigh, but ultimately failing, Shota looked at him for a second before turning back to Ochaco.
“You think this is fun? Well then let's add something, whoever comes in last place is expelled.” Shota said, trying to instill fear in his students. Shota was admittedly taken aback when a certain Izuku Midoriya smirked, and a flame lit up in his eyes.
“What that's not fair!” A pink-skinned girl shouted from near the back of the class. Shota was about to respond but that was when Izuku snapped.
“Fair?” Izuku quietly laughed, his nerves still getting to him despite how pissed he was. Everyone immediately looked at him, which didn’t do anything for how nervous he was, but he just couldn’t seem to stop himself.
“You’re one complaint is that it isn’t fair? Aren’t you trying to be a hero? Does that title mean anything to you? I get it, we are still students, but we aren’t infants. You should know by now that being a hero means that nothing is fair, that's the whole reason the job exists. The downfall of being a hero is that we have morals, we have people to protect, villains? They don’t have that, if you don’t fight with your all, despite the fairness of the situation, you’ll lose, they’ll use you as a means to an end, or just push you aside, and lives could be lost because of that. I don’t want to come off as rude, we are all here to learn, but you shouldn’t be so naive. If I’m right this isn’t just a test of quirks, but a test of potential.” Izuku quietly mutters out, sinking into himself more as he goes on. The whole class is staring at him.
“Midoriya is right. Now let's all get started.” Shota says, and Izuku visibly perks up when the teacher finishes talking.
First was a endurance run, presumably to test physical endurance, and speed. Izuku managed to get first place in that one, due to that fact that he was running around doing vigilante work basically every night. Tenya got second, a girl named Momo got third, and a boy named Shoto got fourth. Next up was the grip strength test, to test well… grip strength. A boy named Mezo got first, a boy named Rikido got second, a redhead by the name of Eijiro Kirishima got third, and Izuku landed himself comfortable at fifth in that test. Next was the standing long jump, which Izuku got first in, due to the fact that he jumped from building to building every night. Shoto got second, Katsuki got third, and a boy named Yuga got fourth but he all but keeled over after landing. Next up was repeated side steps, Izuku landed himself at 9, a bit disappointingly. First was Shoto, second was Katsuki, and third was Momo. Finally the last one was the pitch test. Ochaco got first, considering the ball went on forever essentially. Shoto got second, Izuku got third, Momo got fourth and Katsuki got fifth. Then the final results were shown.
Number one was Momo Yaoyaruzu, Second was Shoto Todoroki, Third was Izuku Midorya, Fourth was Katsuki Bakugo (who was pissed at not beating Izuku), and Fifth was Fumikage Tokoyami. The person in last place was the girl with the invisibility quirk, she looked destroyed (at least as far as Izuku could tell by her slouching, she is invisible after all), like she was about to cry. But she didn’t, she just stood there, slowly becoming uncomfortably straight, and waited patiently to be expelled. Izuku could respect her for how she was handling the situation, so he felt really bad for her, and was already planning ways to comfort her if Shota was being serious (which Izuku sincerely doubted he was).
“Okay, get inside and go to your next classes.” Shota said, and everyone started to leave, except for Toru, and weirdly Izuku. Izuku was discreetly waiting to either comfort or congratulate the girl.
“Also no one is expelled.” Shota said while walking away, pretending to not realize that there were only two students left on the field. Toru let out a huge sigh of relief and turned to go change, and ended up falling into step with Izuku. Izuku could tell something was bothering the girl, and when he was done changing he waited for her, so they could walk to class together. When he waved her over to him in the hallway she froze for a second but then ran up to him as they made their way back to class.
“Is there something wrong Hagakure? You seem kind of down.” Izuku says looking at the invisible girl.
“It’s just that I got last and I can’t help but feel like I don’t belong here.” Toru says, sniffling and willing her tears not to fall. Izuku grabs her shoulder but doesn’t stop walking, she looks back at him.
“Don’t you remember when Aizawa-Sensei admitted that it wasn’t really a test of quirk, but a test of all-around potential? Well one, it’s not your fault that your quirk wasn’t suited for those tests, and two Aizawa-Sensei has a track record for expelling whole classes of students, so if he didn’t expel you regardless of your test results then you must have just as much potential as everyone else in that room, maybe more. Who knows? Only time will tell, the important thing is that you’re here, and that you know that you deserve to be here.” Izuku shyly says, smiling at his classmate. And he can tell that she’s smiling back, even if she is invisible.
“Thank you, Midoriya, that means a lot, it really does.” Toru says, turning to look in front of her to see the rest of the class talking animatedly not too far ahead of the two.
“Here, let's exchange numbers, I’ll cheer you up when you need it in exchange for you putting up with my bullshit rants, about my bullshit problems.” Izuku says, fishing his phone out of his pocket. The statement makes Toru laugh, and she hands him her phone. The two exchange numbers and hand each other their phones back.
“Hey, your quirk is invisibility, right?” Izuku asks, curiously cocking his head at his classmate. Toru nods her head.
“Yeah but I can’t turn it off, I’m always like this, so I don’t even get to know what I actually look like.” She says, obviously insecure.
“But that's not what really matters, is it? As long as you know who you are right? As long as you’re happy with who you are. I’ve known you for less than an hour, and you seem like an amazing person, and if it’s any consolation, I think you’ll also be an amazing hero.” Izuku says, shoving his hands into his pockets, looking at the ceiling, and continuing to follow the crowd of his peers.
“You’re really good at the pep talks Midoriya, thanks again.” Toru says, grateful for the words of her new friend.
“No problem, plus think about all the possibilities with your quirk. You would be amazing on stealth missions, because no one can see you, reconnaissance would be easy as pie, you could sneak in and out without causing any ruckus, and imagine how many hostages you can save if the villains don’t even know you’re there. Plus if you learn hand-to-hand combat your opponents won't be able to defend or dodge your attacks, because they can’t see you!” Izuku says, rambling about the usages of Toru’s quirk. Toru laughs at his excitable state.
“I think we are gonna be good friends Midoriya.” Toru says when they get to the door.
“Me too Hagakure, me too.” Izuku smiles as they split up to go to their seats.
Izuku now has three friends at school, turns out his first day wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be.