Today was the day.

I took in a slow breath of the crisp morning air, jog put on hold for a short series of stretches. This early in the morning, the sun not even beginning to peek over the horizon to warm things up, the streets of the city were barren excluding the occasional passing car or others like me, getting in an early workout session.

I hadn’t seen enough of it to have a real opinion about Musutafu, Himiko and I having arrived late the other night, but I’d be getting properly acquainted with the place once school was over.

Dropping my leg, I lowered my whole body, stretching out the other.

Naturally, with the start of the school year, that meant I wouldn’t be able to train nearly as much as I had these past couple months, but this was U.A. Quirk use, specialized training, and experience was all going to be the norm.

Especially with everything involving All For One now closing in.

Raising myself and taking another deep breath, I took off jogging beneath the countless streetlights.

Today should be pretty interesting.

XOXO

Fingers hooked around my collar, I adjusted it a bit without messing up the standard red tie that every single person around us wore before doing the same to my dark satchel. I could have done without the tie part, but I actually liked the school uniform; it was simple and saved me the effort of picking what to wear.

“Mmmm.” Humming just one of many tunes I always heard from her, Himiko walked hand in hand with me. Besides the convenience, it looked good on her, she one of the many girls that opted to wear dark stockings along with it, hers one of the versions that stopped just below her dark skirt, a bit of her thighs visible.

What really caught my eye was her hair.

“It really looks that weird?” Himiko asked, catching my eye. Rather than her perfectly brushed and combed out hair, she’d thrown her growing hair up into two messy buns reminiscent of her canon looks. “I didn’t feel like going through all the work of the usual, so I just threw it up. I’m thinking about cutting it. Think I should?”

“No, you look good.” I said, the novelty of it drawing my eye more than anything else. “You should keep it.”

Smiling fully, not bothering to hide her teeth despite the many students around us, Himiko fell in closer, pressing the arms of our interlocked hands together. “Alright!” She said, somehow embarrassed enough by that for her face to turn a little red. I really didn’t understand how she could go so far with some of her teasing then suddenly find her embarrassment from a simple compliment.

But, even as touchy as she always was, holding hands in plain view of so many other students was new too.

“Tsu said she’s already in class. You think we’ll be able to choose our seats?”

“Who knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if one our teachers chose them or they just used our student numbers.” I said, once again reminded by these little changes what this all represented for her.

I was focused on all the other students, All Might, and the stuff involving All For One, but this was a whole new school. Himiko didn’t have some reputation to uphold or real need to be careful about what she did, least it be pointed out as odd and her parents told to be sure everything was alright.

Good for her.

Like so many others we made our way through U.A.’s entrance gate, through the far busier courtyard compared to the Recommendation Exams, and through bustling halls, until we found ourselves standing outside a tall sliding door.

1-A.

Beyond the labeled door were people we’d be spending the next three to four years alongside. Himiko slid it open without a care, both of us stepping in and looking around. It wasn’t any different than the room I’d taken the written portion of the Recommendation Exams in, a simple large space with rows of desks for the students on one side and another longer desk alongside a podium in front of the board for the teachers.

A handful of students were already here and in seats.

“Tsu!” And Himiko didn’t waste a second before leading the way to the person we both knew, both of us stopping at the desk in the front row and opposite to the doors.

“Good morning, ribbit.” Tsu said, looking between us. Her uniform was more or less a reflection of Himiko’s, high socks in place of stockings and her hair tied in that intricate bow style she usually had. She pointed towards the seat to her right, Himiko’s full name displayed on a small card in its corner. “I think we’ll be sitting next to each other.”

“That’s great-“ Himiko looked between the nearest desks to their pair, my name no where amongst them. “-but too bad Katsu’s not with us.” She complained once she dropped into her seat, her school back hooked onto its side. “It would’ve been better if we could just pick our seats.”

While they talked, I looked around.

Bakugo, his sandy blonde mess of spikey looking hair pretty recognizable, sat at the back left of the class, feet kicked up on his desk and something of a glare in place as he sized up the others.

There was that one girl with the earphone plugs that were a part of her actual ears on the opposite side of the class towards the middle. The one guy with the bird like head and used Dark Shadow was seated among the middle of the class. And-

A wave put my observations on hold. Yaoyorozu, at the right back end of the class, was giving me a friendly smile, pointing to the desk beside her once I met her dark eyes. Random thought but if it weren’t for her pupils and she had a monkey tail, between how dark her eyes were and her black spikey hair, she’d make a convincing saiyan.

“I think I found my seat.” I said. “I’m going to go set my stuff down.”

Walking between their desks, I made my way through the rows and down the columns until I was at the desk beside Yaoyorozu’s, my name printed out across a small card as expected. “Morning.” I said, satchel slipped off and hung off the side of the desk. “Looking forward to class?”

“Good morning, Akaguro. Having to wait so long after our exam did make me rather antsy.” She admitted, nodding. “I’ve heard that U.A. faculty can have unorthodox approaches to class, but they’re supposed to be among the most effective teachers, so yes, I’m quite looking forward to seeing how things work here.”

Despite knowing what I did, I was right there with her. While the show did have a focus on the whole school setting, between the time skips and major events, the nitty gritty of what attending U.A. involved was a mystery until I read up more on the place. The basic classes, extracurricular stuff, and other things the place had in store between major things would be interesting to tackle firsthand.

Should be far more of challenge compared to everything back in junior high.

While we talked more students entered the class, the room soon filled with more oddly familiar faces. There were some conversations but unlike Yaoyorozu and I or Himiko and Tsu, most didn’t know each other, either attempting introductions or keeping to themselves for now.

Not all of those introductions went over smoothly.

“Get your feet off of that desk right now.” Loud, a single voice carried over the scattered conversations, drawing everyone’s attention. Tall, glasses, dark hair, and a straight posture, Iida Tenya stood in front of Bakugo’s desk. “You haven’t even been here for a day. That’s no way to treat the equipment of this illustrious academy, you cretin.”

“Tsk, you got a stick up your ass or something?” Bakugo retorted, no attempt made to follow the direction.

Even if he technically hadn’t started it, Iida going out of his way to be a stickler for proper respect, it was no surprise the first bit confrontation in this room involved Bakugo of all people. Their budding arguments continued to grow, only coming to a stop once the front doors to the classroom slid open once more.

Messy green hair and a freckled face. With an expression that was indistinguishable from someone seconds away from a nervous breakdown Midoriya came off exactly how I expected. Completely out of his depth and a bit of a mess, his uniform far from the best put together.

His transformation across the entire series, even if he never changed at his core, was something else.

“It’s him.” Iida said. A declaration like that turned Midoriya into the center of attention, every eye on him.

Yeah, he might become one in the future, but right now he wasn’t some world saving hero, the tight grip Midoriya had on the straps of his bookbag turning shaky as his eyes darted about, breaking into a nervous sweat over looks alone. He was the picture perfect definition of an anxious freshman.

“I’m Iida Tenya.” Iida abandoned his argument with Bakugo, heading straight up to Midoriya and extending a hand. “Your actions during the entrance exams were nothing short of admirable. Looking back, I can’t help but curse myself for retreating without thought of those who might’ve been unable to. But you were different; from the beginning you understood the point of the exam was to test our heroism.”

That was definitely what people called glazing. If everything was as expected, Midoriya was just such an unnaturally kind person that he could toss self preservation to the side to save strangers at a dime. I’m pretty sure he assumed he’d failed the exam right up until his acceptance letter came in.

“N-No, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” Midoriya was quick to wave off that compliment, panicking more under the attention.

Lucky for him, he didn’t remain the center of attention.

“Quiet down.” A low but commanding voice from beyond the doorway, Midoriya jolting and twisting around in surprise. I didn’t need to see him to know who that was.

With Aizawa here, our unorthodox first day at U.A. was really about to begin.

XOXO

Cosplaying wasn’t something I ever bothered with. They could make for interesting and sometimes funny sights but watching what others put together showed off was about the extent of my interest in that whole thing.

“Damn dude, you’re built.” Plain black tank top just pulled over my head and slipped on, I adjusted the ends while looking over to my side.

“Right back at you.” I said nodding to Kirishima, the redhead just finishing slipping on his own, the short sleeved zip up shirts we’d be wearing over them in hand. Given what we we’re all training for, everyone in the empty classroom we guys had been thrown into to change was built to some degree, but it was pretty obvious who worked out the most.

If Bakugo hadn’t rushed ahead, that guy almost childishly eager about getting to whatever Aizawa had in mind, I wondered if he would’ve made a big deal about Midoriya who wasn’t far off from us, quietly changing into the gym uniform like everyone else. That lean physique of his was already a mismatch for his low confidence.

“What do you think is going on, anyways?” Kirishima asked as we slipped on and zipped up our shirts now fully in the school’s gym uniform. My other set of memories made it such an odd thing to put, so many using U.A. gym uniforms as low effort cosplay material. “I’m pretty sure there’s supposed to be an entrance ceremony, but I’ve never heard of any school needing us to change into P.E. uniforms for it.”

“Maybe they have some kind of competition planned for it” I said shrugging. “U.A. is supposed to do things differently compared to other schools.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Now I’m kind of fired up.” Together the both of us stepped out of the curtained classroom and out into the distinctly quiet halls of the school. “Names Kirishima Eijirou. How about you, man?”

“Akaguro Katsuya.”

As we made our way down the nearby stairwell, other footsteps soon following behind us, Kirishima proved himself to be, as expected, a cool dude. Easy to talk and motivated but neither too high strung or low energy. Once we made our way outside and towards the rear of campus, we were among the first in the slowly gathering class to reach Aizawa, our homeroom teacher waiting on us at a field of packed dirt between all the distant buildings spread across it.

I caught the dark haired man’s eye for a moment and I got the oddest sense it wasn’t by chance.

I guess I did score high in the Recommendation Exams, but I don’t think that called for much special attention from him specifically. The only other big thing I’d been involved in was that abrupt run in with a criminal last year; U.A. having information on a barely televised incident involving one of their students made sense.

The Mysterious Stranger ever making another appearance would result in plenty of scrutiny no matter how it went down.

“Hey, dude.” Kirishima said, pointing off in the distance. Classes of other students, all still in the school’s actual uniforms, were headed towards a distant building away from where we were gathering. “Are we really headed to the entrance ceremony like this?”

“Maybe they’re general studies?” I guessed, shrugging again.

“It would make sense for hero course students to participate in something outside of the usual.” Kirishima and I turned. Yaoyorozu, in the same outfit as us, stood behind us, chin cupped as she observed the distant classes. “But I still think this is a little strange. I don’t see anyone outside of our class gathering here.”

“So, we’ve got no idea what’s going on.” Kirishima decided. He shook his head before slamming his fists together. “Whatever. It just means we’ve got to go with the flow and do our best.”

“That’s one way to think about it.” Yaoyorozu said though she still looked concerned about the whole situation.

“We’ll get a-“

A familiar weight hit and settled on my back, my vision blacked out and words cut off. “Guess who.”

“Hello to you too, Himiko.” It wasn’t like there was anyone else who would jump on me out of nowhere.

Rather than dropping off, she secured her arms around my neck and dropped her chin on my shoulder, looking to the other two, Tsu stepping up on my other side, both in gym uniforms. “Who are your friends?”

“Kirishima and Yaoyorozu.” I said, pointing to the two in order before pointing over my shoulder. “The one on my back is Toga and that’s Asui.”

“Yaoyorozu? She’s the one you took the Recommendation Exams with, right? You didn’t say she was so good looking.” Himiko leaned a little forward and smiled at the two, careless of much she was pressing herself against me. “You guys can just call me Himiko. I don’t really care about all that formal stuff.”

“Same here, ribbit. I’d prefer if you called me Tsu.” Tsu said, giving the two a wave.

While they carried out more proper introductions and the class more or less fully gathered, some talking amongst their own groups, something Aizawa was preparing to quiet down, I took notice of something I hadn’t been too sure of at first.

Two students from the original class 1-A were missing.

XOXO

(A/N: I was actually going to keep going but it was running longer than expected and I realized I actually wanted input on something. Straight up what two side characters do you think should get the cut? Anyone already mentioned and a few others can't but plenty of 1-A can be moved around or removed without affecting the plot.

True side character energy.

Anyways, as I'm writing pretty far ahead in my unedited stuff, Mineta and the one sugar guy I still can't be bothered to look up the name of got the boot. I think I'll still be sticking by that but if anyone wants a chance to argue a case for them, this is the time. Haven't fleshed out the MC relationship or given every too much page space so it wouldn't be much trouble to change around/cut/add stuff around if you want to convince to keep one of them.

Anyways, see ya around.)