Chapter Text
Yuuta’s first step into U.A.’s gates involved him not raising his foot high enough and bumping it onto the slightly raised edge of a brick below, causing him to stumble for balance.
It was absolutely mortifying. As Yuuta looked down at the shiny bricks of the most prestigious school in Japan, he wished for nothing more than to dig a hole and bury himself in it. But, because Yuuta was a totally normal and well-adjusted person, he continued forward.
Everyone saw that, he thought despairingly to himself. Now everyone thinks I’m a huge loser and will point and laugh and then I’ll have to drop out and move to Africa.
Despite Yuuta’s initial trip up, the rest of his walk toward his classroom was uneventful. It was nerve-wracking to explore the halls, which felt too big for a teenager who hadn’t hit his oncoming growth spurt yet.
The walk was no problem; the issue was when Yuuta opened the humongous door and was instantly trapped in place because two of his new classmates were having a loud argument in the middle of the classroom.
He wasn’t expecting much– he’d been attacked upon introduction before– but this was quite different.
They were loud and energetic. One of them seemed determined to insult and ignore as much as possible, and the other was doing karate chops into the air with way too much passion for not even nine in the morning.
Yuuta could only stand there, opening and closing his mouth, raising and lowering his arm in a never-ending loop of uncertainty and awkwardness.
Behind him, three presences approached. Two of them stopped right behind him, looking over his shoulder and also freezing at the argument. They, despite Yuuta’s internal pleading, did not say anything and just looked on.
And then, instead of addressing the elephant in the classroom, they began chatting with each other while Yuuta blocked the way inside. Yuuta might’ve teared up a little. In his second glance backward for help, he locked eyes with a yellow caterpillar on the ground.
“If you want to pretend to be friends, go somewhere else. This is the hero department.”
Then, going through metamorphosis, the yellow caterpillar stood up and transformed into a homeless man.
The instant everyone was distracted by the low voice of the man, Yuuta had escaped to his assigned seat. Said seat, of course, was the one that stuck out at the very back by the window, despite the classroom being arranged in a neat square shape, because he was hated like that.
“Okay. It took eight seconds before you were quiet. Time is limited. You kids aren’t rational enough.” The worn-down man glanced around the classroom. Despite his haphazard appearance, Yuuta could see the sharpness in his eyes. “I’m Aizawa Shota, your homeroom teacher. Nice to meet you.”
And while everyone was baffled by the strange entrance and introduction, Aizawa– their homeroom teacher– dug several gym uniforms out of his sleeping bag and began handing them to students.
The way he crept up to the classroom was quite skillful, Yuuta distantly noted as he accepted the clothing. Yuuta had previously been told that his ability to sense presences was lacking, so he’d trained with deathly intent to cover the gap up. If it had been him before his training, he would’ve missed the teacher’s presence.
Before long, all of the students were lined up on the field looking at the teacher in shock.
“What about the entrance ceremony? Orientation?” One distraught student cried.
On the other hand, Yuuta stood and stared at the sky thinking about how ‘orientation’ seemed so easy here. He hadn’t been thrown in a sealed room with a knife or anything of that manner.
Wow. The sky is a nice color today. He thought.
“DIE!”
Wow. The sky is a nice color today. Yuuta thought harder, ignoring the sound of explosions and the very heroic roar.
“All right. Whoever comes in last out of the eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be expelled.”
Yuuta blinked back down to Earth, staring silently at Aizawa as his classmates around him let out disbelieving shouts of shock.
Expulsion…? That was better than execution. Though, based on the shrieks around him, Yuuta was probably the only person other than a certain junior of his to feel that way.
Caught in the whirlwind, Yuuta found himself standing in front of the 50 meter dash. Only a few students had gone before him, a few demonstrating interesting techniques to go faster.
Yuuta quickly followed the lead of the other teenager running– a red-haired teenager who flashed him a bright grin–bending down and getting into ready position. He took a breath in and concentrated.
“And…go!”
With an explosive burst, Yuuta tore from the starting position and dashed across the finishing line. Soon after, the machine chimed out his time: 1.12 seconds. Running the numbers in his head, Yuuta ignored the clamour around him.
Not bad, though it made him think about a certain someone who could run 50 meters in 3 seconds without cursed energy. Both Yuuta’s classmate and junior had insane physical stats that he could never compare to without his cursed energy boosting him.
The rest of the tests followed in a similar manner. With simple manipulation of cursed energy, Yuuta was consistently coming out first. The long distance running had ended up as a tie between him and the girl on the scooter, which Yuuta thought was an interesting application.
Though, Yuuta mused while watching his classmates complete the ball throw, he couldn’t beat infinity. Stepping up the circle, Yuuta accepted the ball, staring at it for a brief second in concentration.
With a slight twist of his cursed technique, the ball in his hand vanished with the quick application of Limitless.
Without the Six Eyes, he was essentially just sending it randomly flying. The number output by the machine was better than most of his classmates, but still. Yuuta really thought he couldn’t beat Infinity.
Despite the slight hiccup of a teenager breaking his finger– which Yuuta quickly treated with bandages and a slight application of reversed cursed energy– and a different teenager going into a frenzy about it, the tests went smoothly.
When their results were calculated at the end, sure enough, Yuuta’s name was at the top.
His output was much better than the last time he was this age. Yuuta nodded to himself, thinking about where he needed improvement as his classmates cried out in relief around him about Aizawa’s ‘fib’.
Yuuta quickly retreated after Aizawa indicated it was okay for them to leave, a little baffled. It hadn’t even reached lunch hours yet– were they already being dismissed from school? It seemed the answer was yes, as Yuuta soon found himself standing in front of the school gate looking up how to return to his apartment.
An eventful day, he thought to himself. On his right, a familiar head of green passed.
“Ah, did you manage to get your finger fixed?” Yuuta asked, blinking slowly.
The green-haired teenager startled in place before both he and Yuuta jumped with a loud voice from behind him.
“Yes, how’s your finger?” The glasses-wearing teenager from the morning incident asked, concerned in his voice.
“Ah, I, uh, I got it fixed. Recovery Girl was really skilled.”
“Recovery Girl?” Yuuta asked. Looking at the green-haired teenager’s finger, it was completely healed over.
“The school nurse!” Glasses said, “You should’ve seen her at the end of the physical entrance exam. Did you not get checked on?”
“Ah…no.” Yuuta had immediately fled the zone when the exam was over, terrified of the piercing gazes around him. “Well, I guess if she works at U.A. she has to be skilled…”
“All the teachers here should be skilled, they’re pro-heroes! Speaking of the teachers, Aizawa-sensei sure fooled us earlier. He made me think ‘this is what it’s like to be at the top’! Our own instructor, deceiving us!”
Yuuta blinked at the bespectacled teenager. Aizawa had most certainly not been lying and it was only the determination of the green-haired that had caused the pro-hero to change his mind.
“It’s you guys!” A girl ran up to them, the trio turning to face her direction as she approached. “Are you heading to the station? Wait up for me!”
As the group began to cheerfully converse, Yuuta, trapped in by proximity, could only smile with sweat going down his back. When they introduced themselves and looked at Yuuta for his turn, Yuuta could only awkwardly mumble it out.
Still, despite Yuuta’s general anxious state where he looked physically miserable, his new classmates made an effort to include him in the conversation. For the first day? Not bad at all. Maybe he would come to like this school after all.
Never mind. Yuuta hated it here.
“Apologies, it’s a class of twenty-one students when it’s typically twenty!” All Might said unapologetically into his face. Around him, Yuuta’s fellow students gave him pitying looks. One person even slapped him on the back.
“Wait, how’s that going to work?” Yuuta said helplessly. “Is a team going to have to fight twice? Why can’t you just make one group a group of three? Please?”
“It should be fine.” All Might dismissed, his bright smile unwavering. “Young Okkotsu came out first in the entrance exams! It would be a welcome experience for any team to have a go against you!”
“No…” Yuuta cried out but alas, All Might had already walked away to start the first round. “But, they’re… they’re going to be tired… That’s…But…”
Someone gave him another pat on the back. It did actually make Yuuta marginally feel better.
“Huh!?” A voice sneered behind him and when Yuuta turned around, he was met face to face with the angry blond from the first day. Bakugo Katsuki, if he remembered correctly. “You? This bean sprout beat me out of first place?”
Bean…Bean sprout.
Before Bakugou could jump Yuuta like a chihuahua with rabies, Yuuta was saved by the bell. The blond gave him one last dirty glare before stalking away to head into the practice field, as it was his team that was designated as the first villain group.
The destroyed building was a little much for an exercise, though. Yuuta eyed the monitors as his classmates gasped around him, clambering due to the sheer strength of the blond’s quirk, but also because of Midoriya and Uraraka’s clever victory.
The rest of the exercises were not quite as eventful, but gave the entire class a good eye of each other’s quirks.
As more and more teams went, the more Yuuta began sweating. Was he going to be last? Really…?
“Last but not least, Okkotsu-kun and Team J? You guys went a bit earlier than everyone else, so you’ve surely had ample time to rest!” All Might declared, grinning brightly at Okkotsu and the aforementioned Team J, two boys with the names of Kirishima and Sero.
Team J looked exhausted, exchanging hesitant glances with each other and Yuuta. A yellow-haired boy– Kaminari Denki– gave them both a sympathetic pat on the back.
Despite being a solo runner, Yuuta’s own exercise wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Sero and Kirishima, despite their initial energy, had quickly tired and had slower reflexes. It was simple for Yuuta to stalk into the building, get lost briefly in the winding hallways, and dodge past the duo to tag the bomb.
“Well, there’s not much to say.” Yorozuya said with a frown, “Okkotsu had good movement but both Kirishima and Sero were too tired from their previous battle to react to him entering, and therefore both parties didn’t learn much. I feel like designating an M.V.P in this situation is unfair. Why didn’t you make a group of three?”
That’s what Yuuta had been saying!
Kirishima groaned as he rubbed his lower back where Yuuta had firmly planted his foot before he could activate his quirk. Sero was in no better condition, still looking out of breath from when Yuuta had thrown him to the ground. Both stared at All Might in askance.
“W-well, a villain isn’t going to wait for you to properly recover before attacking! You need to learn to be your best even if you aren’t feeling it!” Despite All Might’s very correct and logical words, the Pro-Hero refused to make eye contact with the class.
“This is our second day of school, and we’re still in training. Are villains going to attack that fast?” Kaminari whispered behind him.
Fast was the next day, apparently.
Though it hadn’t been villains, but rather, frenzied reporters searching for a scoop on the Number 1 hero in Japan. Sweat dripped down Yuuta’s back as he stared at the busted open school gate from where he sat alone in the classroom, eating lunch.
Alarms blared all across the school as the security went off, telling all the students to evacuate the premises due to intruders. Yuuta remained firmly in his seat, having watched said intruders dissolve the gate and tear into the school like a frenzied pack of wolves.
It was completely dissolved too. Unnaturally so, Yuuta noted with a sharp eye. Like a beaver had gnawed and shredded the large bulky metal gate.
Sure, the reporters were pushy enough so Yuuta had taken the back way in (read: he jumped over the wall where no one could see him other than a camera that he waved at), but they wouldn’t be so irresponsible to dissolve what was likely a multi-million yen piece of technology and security.
It was fortunate enough that he could see the teachers standing firmly in front of U.A. 's actual doors, scowling and preventing the reporters from actually entering the school.
Still, the dissolved door was incredibly suspicious. Yuuta had a bad feeling in his stomach– literally, his gastritis was back with a vengeance.