"Wear these immediately, then meet up back at the P.E grounds."

Not long after you'd stepped into the classroom, a scruffy, disheveled male had stepped out of a sleeping bag, of all things, to introduce himself as your homeroom teacher—Aizawa Shouta. From what you could see through the dark hair draping his expression, he had incredibly bloodshot eyes and overall just gave off the impression of someone who was chronically fatigued.

Still, in spite of how confused you were, you realized that was probably just how things went at U.A. You couldn't afford to get too tied up in the small things, and prepared to head off and change into the uniformed tracksuits that had been handed out.

Uraraka smiled as the two of you headed for the doorway, but you didn't the miss the small cry the freckled boy let out as the ash blonde slammed him aside on his way out. He was left chuckling awkwardly and quivering a bit.

You felt your brows pull up into a frown.

—

"A QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST?!!"

The class had all chimed out in unison, unable to hide their surprise. Uraraka was included in the buzz, and had taken to hopping up and down as she called out to Aizawa.

"But what about the opening ceremony?!" she protested. "And the guidance counselor meeting!"

Your teacher barely spared her a glance. "If you want to be heroes, you don't have time for all the frilly niceties. This is U.A—we have the freedom to do things as we wish."

A weary sigh escaped your lips.

Guess pretty much anything goes here.

Meanwhile, Aizawa had already jumped to another topic.

"Softball pitch, standing long jump, 50 meter dash....and so forth. These are all activities you know from middle school; physical tests where you were banned from using your Quirks. That being said, those tests were not able to accurately gauge your performance levels, and we intend to rectify that."

Aizawa's black eyes briefly scanned the crowd before stopping over one individual in particular.

"Bakugou," he spoke, addressing the blonde male with the attitude problem. "How far could you pitch a softball in middle school?"

He shrugged. "67 meters, why?"

"Well, try using your Quirk this time around. As long as you don't exit that circle over there, anything goes."

Your teacher proceeded to hand him a softball, with which to carry out the throw. The blonde—whom you now knew as Bakugou—had begun revving up his arm in preparation. You couldn't help but bite down on your bottom lip, feeling a tad nervous as to what exactly he was going to do. What kind of Quirk would a guy like that have, anyways?

"DIEEEEEE!!!!"

Well, you didn't have to speculate for much longer, since Bakugou had pulled back his right arm and thrown it forward as he let out a vehement roar. You could barely see anything through the plumes of smoke that had formed, but the deafening, explosive sound was still ringing in your ears.

Fitting enough, you supposed. A loud Quirk, for a loud guy. And who was he telling to die in the first place?

The softball was still surging upwards, carried on through the air by the explosive propulsion. It seemed to disappear straight through the clouds, and you had no idea how in the hell they were supposed to measure the distance it had traveled; not until the device in Aizawa's hands beeped.

He held up its display for the rest of the class to see, and your eyes widened.

"705.2 meters."

—That was the distance the softball had gone with the help of Bakugou's Quirk. It was actually pretty amazing when you thought about it; not that far off from being a full kilometer.

"705 meters?! That's unreal!"

"Awesome!"

"This looks like so much fun!!"

Your classmates were all cheering up at the top of their lungs, positively giddy with excitement. It was hard not to share in their enthusiasm, but one cold glare from Aizawa was all it took to ruin the atmosphere.

"Fun...you say? So you were just planning on spending your next three years here having a jolly good time? What happened to becoming heroes, hm?" His charcoal eyes narrowed from behind the coarse strands of hair dangling across his face. "In that case, I'm going to make a new rule—the person that places last at the end of this apprehension will be judged as 'hopeless' and instantly expelled."

Uraraka nearly let out a squeal from beside you, and you felt her hand roughly clamp down onto your own. Her fingers were quivering, and honestly, you were feeling pretty damn nervous yourself.

You shook your head.

No, it's fine. I'm still here for a reason, and I'm not going to allow myself to get discouraged right off the bat.

Letting out a sigh to steady yourself, you squeezed Uraraka's hand and flashed her a crooked smile.

"Alright. Let's do our best."

[Trial 1: 50-meter dash]

The very first obstacle standing your way was none other than an old-fashioned sprint—except this time, Quirks would be allowed.

Uraraka had already run first before you, but she still wasn't used to using her zero-gravity on herself without getting nauseous, so there wasn't too much she could do. You figured she'd be able to fully use of her powers in the later trials. Besides, you couldn't exactly afford to worry about others right now.

The sprints were carried out in groups of three, and you were next to step up to the plate, eyes widening involuntarily when you realized who you were smushed in between.

On one side, there was the curly-haired, freckled boy—he was currently shaking like a leaf in the wind, and you didn't want to surprise him for fear that he might faint. On your other side was Bakugou, who was practically glaring through you so that he could direct his animosity the other boy's way. It was clear that there was a lot of history there, and you honestly didn't much like the feeling of being their divider.

"It's fine," you mumbled to yourself, dropping to a crouch. "Just focus on yourself, and breathe."

After a few seconds of building tension, the starting signal could be heard. You furrowed your brows and allowed your body to become imbued with a golden, faintly pulsating light. Immediately, you could feel the sensation of becoming weightless, and moving along a practically different plane of life as you rushed forward and appeared on the other side.

The little robot in charge of measuring time beeped at your arrival.

"[First Name, Last Name]—1.19 seconds."

You might've been imagining it, but you thought you heard a low growl coming from behind you. Bakugou was hot on your heels, finishing the dash with 4.13 seconds. The freckled boy arrived a bit more slowly; he'd just been running, apparently, and finished with 7.02 seconds.

Bakugou's sharp, crimson orbs fell onto your frame. You instinctively glanced away, but you were fully aware of the fact that he was glaring a hole into your back.

Why? What's he mad over now? I didn't even do anything...

"T-that was amazing...." a voice called out to you, and you turned to see the curly-haired boy breathing heavily as he walked over towards you. "H-how did you manage to get over there so fast...?"

"Huh? Oh," you smiled. "It's my Quirk. I can manipulate light, and if I invest enough energy, I can actually travel at the speed of light for a limited time. It's a little difficult, though." You chuckled and rubbed at the back of your neck. "I always end up feeling tired afterwards, and I get a bit of a headache, too."

The boy had to bite down on his lip to stifle a gasp. "But still...that's incredible. You're incredible—a-ah, I mean, your powers are incredible...!" He began stammering out incoherently, and his cheeks were gradually flushing a warm red. You noticed him blushing earlier when he was talking to Uraraka, too. Maybe he wasn't much used to girls?

You smiled again. "Well, I'm sure your powers are just as amazing, um...sorry, what was your name?"

"M-my name...?" he jolted. "Ah—it's Izuku. I-I mean, Midoriya Izuku!" Every second he just seemed to blush deeper, and you couldn't help but giggle.

"Then, Izuku-kun's fine, right? I happen to like that name, and you seem to be pretty close with Uraraka-chan, so we're practically already friends."

Izuku frantically mumbled something out about how there's no way he would consider himself close to Uraraka, since he barely knew her (and he was blushing so hard by now that steam was coming out his ears), but you couldn't help but steal a glance over towards your side. Immediately, you stiffened.

Bakugou was still glaring at you with those murderous eyes.

—

Before long, it was time to move onto the fifth trial of the day; the one that Bakugou had demonstrated earlier.

[Trial 5: softball pitch]

Uraraka had just gone earlier, and managed to score an infinity, of all things. You'd wasted no time in rushing to her side and wrapping her in a big hug while she flushed from the embarrassment. Your own softball pitch had gone over easily enough, but you hadn't managed to end up with a particularly outstanding score. At the very least, you knew that you wouldn't be placing last, but...

"Midoriya's not doing too well, is he?" Iida commented.

He'd just about echoed your thoughts, and you really couldn't think of a single trial where Izuku gotten a hero-like score. You hated to imagine it, but there would be a good chance that he'd end up in last place if he didn't manage to turn things around.

"No fucking shit he's not gonna do well!" Bakugou barked. He'd apparently moved next to you at some point, and you unknowingly took a step away. "He's a Quirkless fucking guppy, is what he is!"

You frowned.

Quirkless? No, that can't be right. Uraraka-chan told me how he blew away that big robot away during the entrance exam...

You didn't know why, but Bakugou appeared convinced that Izuku was totally and utterly helpless. His crimson eyes were narrowed, like always, and his jaw was rigid and taut. It was clear that he was hoping for the boy to fail, but there was something beneath the anger that stood out to you.

Worry...?

Before you could speculate any further, an ear-shattering blast rang out through the air. Your eyes darted back to the ring where Izuku had been standing—he was now hunched over and clenching his hand into a tight fist, and you felt your breath hitch as you noticed his finger. His finger, which had turned an ugly, blackened shade, was very clearly broken. You'd missed exactly what had happened while you were eyeing down Bakugou, but he wasn't holding the softball anymore. Which would mean that—

"—705.3 meters," Aizawa announced, lifting up the device once more to the class.

You heard Uraraka let out a cheer of glee; Iida merely speculated as to what kind of Quirk would wound its user in such a way. Actually, you would have probably begun hopping up and down in excitement as well, if not for the ash blonde standing beside you.

Now open-mouthed and looking bewildered, all Bakugou could do was stare straight ahead in Izuku's direction. You didn't know exactly what was going through his head, but if he'd really meant what he said earlier, than he actually thought that Izuku was Quirkless, for whatever reason.

But he did have a Quirk. And Bakugou didn't seem happy with this at all.

"What the fuck...?" he croaked, arms quivering by his sides. "What the literal fuck?! How the fuck is that even possible?! HEY—EXPLAIN YOURSELF, DEKU!!"

You caught the small explosions sparking up in his palms early enough to know exactly what he was about to do. Without even thinking, you let out a small cry and latched onto Bakugou by the arm in a desperate attempt to pull him back, but soon found that your strength was no match for his own.

Bakugou forced you aside, slamming his fist into your shoulder as he blew you back and made you tumble to the ground. He glared down at you with such hateful, blood-red eyes and teeth so gritted that you nearly teared up. And then he parted his lips to speak.

"Get in my way, and I'll fucking kill you."

Your vision went white right then and there. All other sounds were senselessly drowned out by the blood pounding furiously in your ear. The mark on your hip was already burning.

Of all people, your soulmate had to be him.