Chapter Text
Sora’s one of the first people in her class to arrive. There’s a handful of others, but not many. She takes her seat, pulling out her book. It’ll be interesting to see how her life evolves while she’s at UA.
A blond boy stomps in. Sora wrinkles her nose as he flings his feet up on a chair. A taller boy with glasses marches over.
“Take your feet off that desk now!” Glasses orders.
“Huh?” The blond sneers at him.
“It’s the first day and you’re already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property, you cretin!”
“You’re kidding me, right? Your old school put a stick up your ass? Or were you born with it.”
Wow. This guy’s awful brash for a hero hopeful.
Glasses pauses before he speaks again. “Let’s start over. I’m Tenya Iida, from the Somei Private Academy.”
“Somei, huh? So you must think you’re better than me. I’m gonna have fun tearing you a new one.”
“You would threaten me? Your own classmate? Are you sure you’re in the right place.”
They both fall quiet as a green-haired boy enters the room. Sora arches an eyebrow. The new guy doesn’t look like much, but there’s gotta be something that makes two loudmouths shut up so quickly.
“Good morning!” Iida says loudly, striding across the room.
Sora shakes her head slightly. If nothing else, UA’s going to be interesting. Good interesting or bad interesting, that waits to be determined.
“Welcome to UA’s hero course,” a man says. He looks like a hobo. “It took eight seconds before you all shut up. That’s not gonna work. Time is precious. Rational students would understand that.”
Sora flips to one of the older pages in her book. Page eighteen. Eraserhead. The scarf is a dead give away. She makes a quick note.
“Hello, I’m Shota Aizawa. Your teacher. Right, let’s get to it.” He digs around in a sleeping bag he’s holding, pulling out a gym uniform. “Put these on and head outside.”
***
Outside, they gather in some sort of sports/training area.
“You’ll be starting out with a Quirk Assessment test,” Aizawa says.
Shocked murmurs float through the air.
“But orientation!” a brown-haired girl says. “We’re gonna miss it!”
“If you really want to make the big leagues, you can’t waste time on pointless ceremonies,” Aizawa replies. “Here at UA, we’re not tethered to traditions. That means I get to run my class however I see fit. You’ve been taking standardized tests most of your lives. But you never got to use your Quirks in physical exams before.
“The country’s still trying to pretend we’re all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel. It’s not rational. One day, the Ministry of Education will learn. Bakugo, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam. What was your farthest distance throw with a softball when you were in junior high?”
The angry blond from earlier speaks up. “67 meters, I think.”
“Right. Try doing it with your Quirk. Anything goes, just stay in the circle.”
Bakugo takes the softball from Aizawa, stepping up to the circle.
“Die!” he yells, creating an explosion in his hand.
“All of you need to know your maximum capabilities. It’s the most rational way of figuring out your potential as a pro.” Aizawa lifts the device in his hand, revealing a count of 705.2.
“Woah, seven hundred and five meters, are you kidding me?” A blond guy says.
“I wanna go!” the pink girl says. “That looks like fun!”
“This is what I’m talkin’ about, usin’ our Quirks as much as we want,” a guy with weird elbows says.
“So this looks fun, huh?” Aizawa says. Everyone goes still. “You have three years here to become a hero. Do you think it’s all going to be games and playtime? Idiots.
“Today you’ll compete in eight physical tests to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last has none, and will be expelled immediately”
Sora takes a deep breath. She’ll be okay, theoretically. As long as she doesn’t lose control.
“Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs. Understand? If that’s a problem, you can head home right now.”
“You can’t send one of us home,” the short girl protests. “I mean, we just got here! Even if it wasn’t the first day, that isn’t fair!”
“Oh, and you think natural disasters are? Or power hungry villains, hmm? Or catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities? No. The world is full of unfairness. It’s a hero's job to try to combat that unfairness. If you want to be a pro, you’re going to have to push yourself to the brink. For three years, UA will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So go beyond, Plus Ultra style. Show me it’s no mistake that you’re here.”
***
The first event is a 50 meter dash. Sora’s up against a literal invisible girl. Her best move she’ll save for later, but right now, all she needs is a little firepower.
She mimics Bakugo’s method, creating flames in the palms of her hands to launch herself forward. It’s certainly effective, scoring her a time of 3.57 seconds.
Her quirk is useless in the grip strength test, but very effective in the standing long jump. Repeated side steps, nothing she can do. With her fire, her softball throw is decently impressive, although still not seven hundred and five meters.
The green-haired boy steps up to the circle after Sora. He powers up, electric sparks coursing along his arm. When he goes to throw, however, his power disappears.
“What gives?” he says. “I was trying to use it just now.”
“I erased your Quirk,” Aizawa says, scarf floating around his head. “The judges for this exam were not rational enough. Someone like you should never be allowed to enroll at this school.”
Sora can see the moment the boy puts everything together.
“Those goggles… I know you! You can look at someone and cancel out their powers. The Erasure Hero: Eraserhead.”
“Eraser?” someone asks. “Who’s that?”
“He’s an underground hero,” Sora says. “The kind of hero who stays out of the spotlight.”
“You’re not ready,” Aizawa continues, like he was never interrupted. “You don’t have control over your power. Were you planning to break your bones again? Counting on someone else to save your useless body?”
“No, that’s not what I was trying to do--”
The scarf whips out and grabs Greenie, dragging him in.
“No matter what your intentions are, you would be nothing more than a liability in battle. You have the same reckless passion as another overzealous hero I know. One who saved a thousand people himself became a legend. But even with that drive, you’re worthless if you can only throw a single punch before breaking down.
“Sorry, Midoriya. With your power there’s no way you can become a hero.” He releases Midoriya. “I returned your impractical Quirk. Take your final throw. Hurry and get it over with.”
“Wow, that was harsh,” a guy with weird elbows says.
“You can say that again,” a guy with golden hair agrees. “Aizawa’s ruthless.”
“He’s not wrong,” Sora points out. “I mean, he was kind of a jerk about it, but Aizawa’s got a point. If whats-his-face can’t get a handle on his Quirk, it’s too dangerous for him to be in the field.”
Midoriya flings the ball, an incredible amount of power behind it. Sora whistles softly. Impressive, although his finger is an unpleasant shade of reddish.
“Mr. Aizawa,” Midoriya says. “You see? I’m still standing.”
“He threw it over seven hundred meters!” Goldie exclaims.
“Woah,” Elbows says. “That was insane.”
“He must have channeled all of his power into a single finger for his throw,” Sora muses. “Incredible. The timing and precision that must have required. He must have a computer in his brain to figure that out.”
“Hey!” Bakugo shouts, charging at Midoriya. “Deku, you bastard! Tell me how you did that or you’re dead!”
Aizawa flings his scarf out. It wraps around Bakugo, holding him back from attempting to murder Midoriya.
“What? Why the hell is your damn scarf so strong?” Bakugo demands.
“Because it’s a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. Stand down! It’d be wise to avoid making me use my Quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eye.”
Sora hums, making a mental reminder to note that down in her book later. It’s an amazing power, but that’s a nasty drawback.
“You’re wasting my time now,” Aizawa says, releasing Bakugo. “Whoever’s next can step up.”
The next two tests are a sit-up and a seated toe touch. Then, finally, the distance run.
Sora stretches her arms, transforming as she moves. In the air, she’s almost as fast as Iida, touching down less than a half-second after him. Iida’s face contorts in clear disapproval. But Aizawa doesn’t tell her off, so apparently she didn’t break any rules.
Afterwards, they all gather around Aizawa. With little preamble, he displays their rankings on a hologram. Sora immediately scans for her name. Eleventh. Not half bad. Well, technically it is half bad, but that’s irrelevant.
“And I was lying. No one’s going home,” Aizawa says. He grins at them. “That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the tests.”
“I’m surprised the rest of you didn’t figure that out,” an elegant looking girl with a ponytail says. “I’m sorry. I guess I probably should have said something.”
Ya think?
“That’s it, we’re done for today,” Aizawa says. “Pick up a syllabus from the classroom. Read it over before tomorrow. Midoriya. Take this and go have the old lady fix you up. Things are gonna be tougher tomorrow when your actual training begins. Make sure you’re prepared.”
The class meanders back to the classroom. It doesn’t take long for conversations to break out while everyone collects their stuff.
“That shapeshifting thing you did in the distance run was pretty cool,” the red-head says.
“Thanks,” Sora replies. “I can’t do it for very long, or very often, so I have to be careful of when I transform.”
“I thought your Quirk was a fire Quirk,” Goldie pipes up. “At least, that’s what it looked like.”
“It’s a little of both,” Sora admits. “My Quirk is called Phoenix. I can turn into a phoenix, control fire, and create two types of flame, normal and healing flames. Also, if I get injured, my Quirk heals me.”
“Oh, dude, that’s so cool,” Redhead says. “All I got is this power that allows me to turn myself to stone.”
“And all I have is a run of the mill electric Quirk,” Goldie says.
“My name’s Sora Tanaka, by the way.”
“Nice to meetcha. I’m Eijiro Kirishima.”
“Denki Kaminari.” The blond grins. “Is Aizawa intense or what?”
***
Their first proper heroics class takes place the next day after lunch and a full morning of core classes. But it gives Sora a chance to at least learn the names of all of her classmates.
“I am here! Coming through the door like a hero!”
All Might himself swings into the classroom.
“I can’t believe it’s really All Might!” Kaminari says.
“So he is a teacher!” Kirishima says. “This year is gonna be totally awesome!”
“You know this means we’re going to be the first class of students to learn from the top hero himself, right?” Sora points out.
Everyone’s thrilled.
“Welcome to the most important class at UA High!” All Might bellows. “Think of it as Heroing 101! Here you will learn the basics of being a pro! And what it means to fight in the name of good! Let’s get into it! Today’s lesson: You’ll pull no punches!” He pulls out a card that says battle .
“But one of the keys of being a hero is… Looking good!”
Shelves with cases slide out from the wall, and everyone loses their minds-- Sora included.
“These were designed for you based on your Quirk registration forms and the request you sent in before school started. Get yourselves suited up and then meet me at Training Ground Beta!”
“Yes, sir!” The class choruses.
***
Sora strides out into the training grounds. Her costume is awesome. It’s a red bodysuit with a golden fire pattern on it and a hooded amber half-cape that connects to an armband on each wrist so it almost looks like wings. She also has a pair of golden boots and a crown-like golden circlet that can connect to her cape’s hood.
“They say the clothes make the pros, young ladies and gentlemen, and behold! You are the proof! Take this to heart. From now on, you are all heroes-in-training. Now, shall we get started, you buncha newbies?”
“Your costume is beautiful,” Yaoyorozu says. “What inspired it?”
“Ah, thanks. My mom’s support company made it,” Sora replies. “Phoenixes have been symbols of royalty and fire for millennia, and I wanted to acknowledge them both. Plus, it’s made of a fireproof fabric. What about yours?”
Yaoyorozu sighs. “I need a lot of visible skin to use my Quirk properly. Although, I would have preferred it less revealing.”
“Now that you’re ready, it’s time for combat training,” All Might says.
“Sir!” Iida says. “This is the fake city from our entrance exam. Does that mean that we’ll be conducting urban battles again?”
“Not quite,” All Might replies. “I’m going to move you two steps ahead. Most of the villain fights you see on the news take place outside. However, statistically run-ins with the most dastardly evildoers take place indoors. Think about it. Backroom deals, home invasions, secret underground lairs. Truly intelligent criminals stay hidden in the shadows.
“For this training exercise, you’ll be split into teams of good guys and bad guys and fight two-on-two indoor battles.”
“Isn’t this a little advanced?” Asui points out.
“The best training is what you get on the battlefield!”
“But remember,” All Might continues, “you can’t just punch a robot this time. You’re dealing with actual people now.”
“Sir, will you be the one deciding who wins?” Yaoyorozu asks.
“How much can we hurt the other team?” Bakugo asks.
“Do we need to worry about the losers getting expelled like earlier?” Uraraka asks.
“Will you be splitting us up by chance or comparative skill?” Iida asks.
“Isn’t this cape très chic?” asks Aoyama.
“I wasn’t finished talking!” All Might complains. He pulls a script out of his back pocket, earning a snicker from Sora.
“The situation is this: The villains have hidden a nuclear missile somewhere in their hideout. The heroes must try to foil their nefarious plans. To do that, the heroes must either catch the villains or recover the weapon. Likewise, the villains succeed if they protect their payload or capture the heroes.
“Time’s limited, and we’ll choose teams by drawing lots!”
“Isn’t there a better way?”
“Think about it,” Midoriya says, in his deranged rabbit costume. “Pros often have to team up with heroes from other agencies on the spot, so maybe that’s the reason we’re seeing that here.”
“Yes, I see. Life is a random series of events. Excuse my rudeness!”
“No sweat. Let’s draw!”
Sora ends up in Team J with Kirishima
All Might reaches into two boxes, one labeled Villain and the other labeled Hero . “I declare that the first teams to fight will be… These guys! Team A will be the heroes. Team D will be the villains. Everyone else can head to the monitoring room to watch.”
***
Sora and Kirishima are in the second to last match as the villains, up against Asui and Tokoyami.
“You protect the weapon, I’ll go hunt down the heroes?” Kirishima offers as a plan.
Sora shakes her head. “Won’t work. The nature of my Quirk means it’s too dangerous to use openly around a weapon we’re trying to protect. I think our best bet is if you protect the weapon, I’ll handle Asui and Tokoyami.”
“Works for me!” Kirishima says, knocking his fists together. “Either way, we got this!”
“All right!” All Might’s voice echoes through the speakers. “Let’s begin the indoor combat training! Team H and Team J, your time starts now!”
Sora grins as she enters the darkened building. As she creeps through the halls she tries to remember what she knows about Asui and Tokoyami’s Quirks. Asui has a frog mutant Quirk, while Tokoyami has a sentient shadow that he has some control over. Both have a weakness to fire.
“Now, Tokoyami!” a voice shouts from behind her.
Sora takes a half-step to the side, scanning her environment. Tokoyami leaps at her from the ceiling. Reflexively, she shoots a stream of fire at him. She just barely manages to redirect it away from her classmate.
Interestingly, Tokoyami draws back. But now Asui’s nowhere to be seen.
“Kirishima, I think Asui’s headed to you,” she warns. “Be ready.”
“Gotcha. I’m on it.”
Dark Shadow lunges at Sora. She leaps back, landing on a crate. Without a second thought, she launches a fireball next to Tokoyami. Dark Shadow cowers away from the flames.
“So fire’s your weakness,” Sora muses. “Fire… or light. Either way, this is a bad matchup for you.”
Tokoyami tries to coax Dark Shadow into attacking. Dark Shadow’s barely started to muster up the courage when Sora lights her hand up. The shadow shrieks.
Sora tilts her head to the side. Then she shoots flames all around Tokoyami-- not close enough to be dangerous, of course. At one point, he tries to run, but Sora’s fire cuts him off.
She turns to flames to weave through the ring of fire. With Dark Shadow all but nullified, it’s easy enough to get Tokoyami in capture tape.
“Tanaka has captured Tokoyami!” All Might announces. “Tokoyami, please leave the building.”
Sora cuts off her flames, although she keeps her hand lit up, just in case. Tokoyami just walks off.
“Hey, I could use a little help here!” Kirishima says.
Without a word, Sora takes off back through the building. Asui and Kirishima are locked in a battle. Apparently tired of it, Asui flicks her tongue out, using it as a grapple of sorts. Sora transforms, flying to intercept the frog girl. She shifts back just in time to not burn Asui.
When they hit the ground, Asui slips out of Sora’s grasp. She leaps away, headed for the weapon.
“Got her!” Kirishima shouts.
He manages to catch Asui, getting her in capture tape just moments before her hand hits the weapon.
“Kirishima has captured Asui! The villain team wins! Everyone, return to the monitoring room so we can assess your efforts.”
Kirishima gives Asui a hand up. “Sorry about that, I might have gone a little too hard there.”
“It’s all good,” Asui replies. “It was the assignment.”
“Plus I didn’t try to light you on fire,” Kirishima says, shooting a playful grin back at Sora.
“Hey, I was trying to think on the fly,” Sora protests. “At least I was trying to win.”
***
“And the MVP of this exercise is-- Young Tanaka! Can anyone tell me why?”
“Sir.” It’s Yaoyorozu. Again. “Tokoyami was taken out quickly, while Kirishima very nearly let Asui get away. Asui did well, of course, but let her teammate fight Tanaka alone. If she had gone for the decisive victory, Tanaka would likely have been able to stop Asui from even getting to the room with the weapon. Furthermore, if this were real, leaving another hero to fight a villain without discussing it first would likely end badly.
“Although Tanaka had her weaknesses, like choosing to toy with her first opponent instead of going for the swift victory, she still showed incredible skill and control of her Quirk, especially when she deactivated her transformation at the last second and when she redirected her flames before hitting Tokoyami.”
“Very good!” All Might says. “Remember, students, there’s a difference between going for an endurance battle and toying with your opponent. Now, on to our last match of the day!”
***
After battle training, they all hang out in the classroom, going over results and notes from All Might.
“Wow, Yaoyorozu, you’re really smart,” Kirishima says. “You analyzed all of those fights dead on.”
“It’s all fairly simple,” Yaoyorozu says. “I’m sure anyone could have seen the same.”
Sora raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t argue with the other girl. If she wants to be super humble, whatever.
“Okay, but you girls have some awesome Quirks,” Sero interjects. “I don’t know which one’s cooler, Creation or Phoenix.”
“Phoenix,” Ashido says. “Sorry, Yaoyorozu, but Tanaka can fly. That automatically wins in my book.”
The door slides open.
“Hey, it’s Midoriya,” Kirishima announces. “Good to see ya back, super! Ha! Man, I don’t know what you were saying during that match, but you were all fired up, huh?”
“I can’t believe you held your own against Bakugo,” Sero says. “He’s super strong.”
“You did a great job dodging,” Ashido pipes up.
“You guys really turned up in the first match, so none of us held back in our rounds either,” Sato says.
“I was so impressed by your strategies,” Sora says.
Aoyama leans toward the group. “You were far from elegant, but I suppose--”
“And the dodging was like, whoa!” Ashido cheers, cutting Aoyama off.
“Hey, I’m Eijiro Kirishima. We’ve been goin’ over training results while you were in recovery.”
“Hi, I’m Hanta Sero.”
“More importantly, I’m Yuga--”
“I’m Mina Ashido! And I just gotta say, your dodging was awesome!”
“Tsuyu Asui. But please, call me ‘Tsu.’”
“The name’s Sora Tanaka.”
“Hey. Sato.”
“Um, hey guys,” Midoriya says hesitantly.
“And my name’s Mineta!” the weirdo shouts, leaping into the air.
“Where the heck did you pop out of?” Kirishima asks.
“UA’s shiniest star here…” Aoyama pouts.
“You might sparkle, but you sucked it up in training,” Sato points out.
“If you get a chance, I’d like to sit down with you and talk analytics and hero stats,” Sora offers. “I’ve noticed you know a lot, and I want to fill in some of the gaps on mine.”
“Oh, yeah, that sounds cool,” Midoriya says. “What kind of information do you keep?”
“I usually focus more Quirk or hero history, it’s something not enough people talk about.”
The other door opens, and Kaminari and Uraraka walk in, both with armfuls of textbooks.
“So, anyway, wanna grab a bite sometime?” Kaminari asks. “What kind of stuff do you like?”
“Anything sweet. Hey Deku!” Uraraka darts over to the group, leaving Kaminari to pout. “Why didn’t she heal your injuries?”
“Oh, uh… well, it has to do with how much stamina I’m using,” Midoriya explains.
“Stamina?”
“Um, where’s Kacchan?”
“He left as soon as the bell rang,” Sora says. “We tried to stop him, but he’s in a bad mood.”
“At this point, I think Bakugo’s always in a bad mood,” Sero says.
“Mm. Fair point.”