Shouto accompanied her on the walk to the train station. Fuyumi had too much work to do with the upcoming school semester and Natsuo had already left for college, which suited Akira just fine. She didn't want to think about how she'd perform if she knew her siblings were actually going to be there. She'd probably choke and then what? Shouto was just dropping her off at the station since he'd already taken his recommendation exam a few weeks ago.

Enji had been less than impressed with his second place ranking, despite it still securing his spot at U.A High, despite the first place student not even choosing U.A in the end.. Instead, he just used it to once again drill into the boy that he would be undefeatable if he would stop being childish and use his fire.

"Do you really think I'll be that good today?" Akira broke their comfortable silence. She would need to place first in the rankings, Enji would accept nothing less from her. She wasn't his actual child, she couldn't get away with anything less than the best—

"Of course," Shouto said without hesitation. "Forget what that bastard said."

She stumbled over her thoughts, caught off guard. "But—"

"You'll do great," he insisted. "Better, even, than me. They'll all see how stupid it was that you weren't put up for recommendation and dear old dad will get called out for it."

She furrowed her brows in concern. "You really think I'll be that good with this quirk? Shouldn't I—"

Shouto glanced at her, his eyes sharp. She swallowed the rest of her words. "Please, sis, not this again." His gaze fell on her duffel bag. "Did you remember your gloves?"

Akira sighed loudly, but nodded regardless. "Yeah. Sorry, I'm just frustrated about it. I wish it could be different."

"I know." He brought up a hand to her shoulder in a comforting gesture, though his hand on her scar made it feel quite the opposite. It just reminded her of the circumstances behind it. "We'll both become the best with only half our power. I'm right here with you."

"You're right," she relented, offering him a soft smile. "We're in this together."

She decided to push back the thoughts that had been nagging at her ever since she submitted her expression of interest to U.A's hero course. The thoughts that told her she shouldn't hold herself back, that she should grow up already, it was her quirk and there was no need to be scared of it. The slight tug on her neck, of the taught scar she'd had for as long as she could remember, reminded her that it absolutely was something to be scared of. Something she had no control over.

Shouto was right, he had always been right. She could make do with her quirk as it was, she didn't need to go pushing her luck.

--

Akira was bursting with energy. After the uneventful written portion of the exam, after listening to one boring looking boy grate on her nerves by mumbling under his breath for most of the practical lecture, after having a stiff-looking boy interrupt said lecture to try and call U.A out on an error, Akira was left with nothing but barely contained anticipation. With how well prepared she had been for the written exam, she was feeling more confident now in her abilities to pass the practical than she had all morning.

She had been assigned to Battle Station A. Most of the people in her batch weren't particularly interesting, though there were a few standouts that she made sure to identify. A boy with a bird head caught her attention, as well as a boy with six arms that towered high above everyone. Mutant quirks always fascinated her in their diversity. They weren't so much of a surprise as emitter class quirks were.

One boy in particular looked angry being there and glared at anyone who got within his very large personal bubble. He looked ready to commit murder and Akira decided then and there that she'd keep her distance. She didn't know what his quirk was, but just going by the animosity he radiated she didn't like her chances if she were pitted against him. Present Mic had said fighting between participants was strictly prohibited, but this boy looked like he didn't give a shit. His feral grin did nothing to ease her and she briefly wondered what his motivations behind becoming a hero were.

Another boy looked like he was ready to pass out on the spot. He also looked like he'd been recently electrocuted, his purple hair standing on end and defying gravity in an impossible fashion. She wondered if he actually had been electrocuted and that was the only reason he was awake. He didn't look particularly threatening, though it was possible his quirk could give him an upper hand.

"Right, let's start!" the unnaturally loud voice of Present Mic boomed around the entire fake city. Akira heard him loud and clear, but he was definitely nowhere to be seen. "Get moving! There are no countdowns in real battles! Run, run, run listeners! You're wasting air time here!"

Akira immediately sprung forward, raising a wall of ice behind her. The ice towered high, caging in her fellow examinees with a shout of surprise. Without looking back, she wasn't able to focus the barricade to properly trap her competitors, but it would give her at least a few seconds advantage. That's all she needed, it would give her time to secure the early bird advantage and figure out a plan of attack. Complaints from her group fell on deaf ears as she ran down the street, taking a right turn just as she heard a loud explosion from behind her.

She had no time to pay the explosion any attention. Several one pointer robots jumped out from seemingly nowhere and locked onto her immediately. She struck out with frigid air, freezing their mechanics. She summoned more ice, blossoming crystals within their cores to tear them apart—

An explosion rang loud in her ear and suddenly Akira found herself slammed into the ground from the force. She smacked her elbows hard, jarring up along her arms painfully, as she was thrown on her ass. With her ears still ringing and her vision slightly shot from the sudden brightness, she saw her frozen robots crumpled in defective heaps on the ground, utterly destroyed. The angry boy stepped into her view, wearing a pleased, slightly feral grin at the destruction he'd wrought.

She ran her mouth faster than her brain could tell her it wasn't the wisest idea. "Hey, those were mine!"

The smile on the boy turned down instantly, a sneer on his lips and anger in his eyes directed down at her. "You pull a shifty move like that again and I'll fucking kill you, rules be damned," the boy growled at her in warning, his hands popping with small scale explosions. "Stay out of my way, extra."

By the time Akira found her feet, the angry boy was gone.

Adrenaline fueling her, Akira ran off to secure actual points this time. Anger caused her ice to be overly destructive, which was a bonus since no hot headed angry boy could come along and snatch her points. Who did that angry boy thing he was, taking her points right out from under her nose. And giving her a death threat! Just what kind of hero did this angry boy intend to be if he would so casually throw such threats? A tenacious one. Her gut dropped at the thought that he would most likely pass the exam with such ferocity.

As she rounded yet another corner, caught up in her own thoughts, she found a two pointer. She readied herself for assault instantly, but the robot paid her no attention. Weird. Another step forward and the robot reared back, revealing the tired looking boy. He was cornered against the building wall, looking utterly terrified and frozen in place.

Akira moved before she could think. It wasn't about taking the points, not this time. If it had been the angry boy, it probably would have been. But, she had no beef with this tired boy, so jumping in to destroy the robot wasn't about the points. No, it was about saving the boy, since he didn't look like he was going to make a move against the agile robot, neither to attack nor to flee. Her ice surged forward and destroyed the robot in seconds.

"You aren't going to get any points just standing there!" Akira shouted, masking the slight panic she felt at the sight with tactless humour. Her attention was yanked away from the boy as a three pointer stumbled into view, a little ways down the street. "Hey, you can take that one! Fair's fair for stealing your two pointer!"

The boy looked down the street and blanched. He nearly snapped his neck looking back to Akira. "I— I can't." He sounded so heartbroken, so frustrated, so defeated. So many emotions all wrapped in two and half words.

Akira frowned. She approached the boy, keeping an eye on the three pointer. It lumbered slowly towards them, but wouldn't be a threat for at least another thirty seconds. She had time to figure out what was troubling the tired boy. "What do you mean? Are you hurt?"

The boy scowled, turning away from her. "My quirk isn't combative like yours. I wasn't blessed with something so heroic."

She tilted her head in confusion. It wasn't uncommon for quirks to not have combative properties; in fact a vast majority of them weren't. "Why are you here then?" It came off blunt, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't a secret that the practical side of the entrance exam into the hero course was primarily combative, so why was this boy trying if his quirk couldn't be used in combat?

He didn't have any time to respond as an impossibly loud stomp shook the ground, tearing both their attention away from each other to down the street. The three pointer wasn't there anymore, instead crushed to dust by the imposing step of the zero pointer. While its movements were slow, the distance it covered was massive; it would descend upon the pair in mere seconds.

Moving before thinking, Akira grabbed the boy by the wrist and booked it. In hindsight, she was thankful he had long sleeves. Despite Shouto's reminder about her gloves, she'd forgotten to put them on.

The two ran as fast as they could, the tired boy finding his feet and not dragging behind Akira anymore, his height giving him advantage as he overtook the girl and helped her along. It became clear very quickly that they weren't going to outrun the beast of a robot as one of its heavy footfalls fell mere metres away from them. The shockwaves from the stomp interrupted their step and set them off balance and suddenly they were eating shit.

Akira took one look at the boy, trying to find his feet to continue scrambling away. She looked back up at the impossibly huge robot and made her mind up. Rolling onto her back, she threw her arms up and icy air rushed forward. In unison, ice surged along the ground, finding the robot's base and crawling up the structure. Akira put all her effort into making it cold, colder, colder than she had ever dared before, knowing it would take more ice than she'd ever created to put the robot out of commission.

It didn't even look like her ice was having an affect. The robot reared back, sights set on Akira's prone form on the ground, but she didn't back down. She felt the ice forming on her arms as she continued to lower the temperature, but she didn't stop. She barely even heard Present Mic's announcement, she didn't register how many minutes remained. All she could focus on was calling upon more ice, more than she had ever before.

Just as a tendril of hopelessness began to coil around her heart, as tears pricked at her eyes out of sheer desperation, the nagging feeling that she might actually die right there as the robot's hand began to come down on her, she felt hands grab her under the arms. The boy pulled her across the ground, just far enough away that when the robot struck the ground, she was out of harm's way.

Akira didn't even spare the boy a glance as she poured more ice into the machine, feeling her muscles lock as the cold tensed up her whole body. And then, it was working. The robot creaked and groaned as it tried to move, but its joints were jammed with ice and its inner workings were frozen solid. It broke down as its own mechanism tore itself apart from the inside out.

"I-is i-i-it—?" she stuttered, her ice tapering off as she reached her limit.

"Yeah, I think you did it," the boy replied, his voice wavering. He looked down at her with a mixed expression, both impressed and terrified of the power she possessed.

Akira sighed with relief, letting her arms fall to the ground. Her teeth were chattering and if she wasn't careful, she'd probably bite her tongue off. Despite that, she needed to get back onto her feet, to make sure the tired boy was okay. What kind of hero would she make if she couldn't recover from a desperate attack?

"--and that's it! Time's up!" came the booming voice of Present Mic, followed by a siren, calling an end to the examination. It was such a lackluster announcement, so sudden and unexpected after taking down something so impossible.

The boy hovered awkwardly over her. Akira struggled to sit up, to find her feet, but she'd severely overdone it. If she couldn't warm herself up soon, she'd probably get frostbite from how much ice that had built up on her arms and hands.  

"Uh, do you need a hand?" the boy finally asked, holding his hand out.

"N-n-no, it's f-fine. I'm just c-cold. Th-thanks though."

The boy pulled his hand back, bringing it to the back of his neck awkwardly. He looked away, to the group of students that had congregated nearby. They'd seen the entire show. "Thank you," he eventually said, not looking at Akira again. Before she could respond, before she could ask if he was okay, he began to move away, to join the crowd and await further instruction. She'd probably never see him again, and part of her was troubled by that.

Still, the exam was over. She estimated a total of thirty five points, though in all honesty she had lost count at one point. There had been other things more pressing than keeping track. Her stunt with the zero pointer would probably earn her a lot of spotlight, though, not that she'd even been thinking about it in the heat of the moment. All she could think of was saving the tired boy, she hadn't even considered her own safety in that wild, desperate attempt. Just what had possessed her to do that?

--

Akira hadn't seen Enji all week. It was both a relief and a stress, since she had no idea when the man would turn up next and rip into her for her performance. She didn't dare think that she would be praised for her efforts against the zero pointer. He'd probably tell her off for taking so long to take it down, for putting that tired boy in harm's way in the first place. Hell, he'd probably tell her off for making enemies with the angry boy from the start. Yeah, there was no way she was going to get anything other than criticism for her performance.

She guessed she'd find out after the test results were out, which... yeah, that was today, wasn't it?

That was probably why she was out in the courtyard, distracting herself and procrastinating the inevitable, sparring with Shouto. Sparring was putting it very loosely, since the pair practiced their ice more than anything. It was how Akira had managed to gain such control over her ice in the first place, training it against her brother.

They were evenly matched, though Akira's ice had more facets to it than Shouto's. She had to be careful to not freeze the air too much, since breathing in the frigid air hurt like a bitch and was actually really dangerous. She found that one out the hard way, felt the ice prick at her chest and a feeling not unlike dying washing over her. At least she knew the limit.

Fuyumi watched in awe at her siblings and their mastery of their quirks. She hadn't had the drive or passion to master her quirk to such a degree, instead choosing a more practical career. Still, she was so very proud of her younger siblings. She shouted her praise to them, calling their attention. They backed off each other immediately as Fuyumi approached them.

"You two are terrifying," Fuyumi remarked with a giggle. She waved an innocuous letter as she walked over, offering it to Akira with a warm smile. "It's for you, sis, from U.A."

Akira felt her heart hammer in her chest and she looked at the offending letter like it would combust. "Oh. Right. Yeah, that was today, huh." Stupid. So stupid.

Fuyumi just laughed at her. "Don't pretend you haven't been looking forward to it all week. Go on, open it. I can't wait to tell everyone my baby sister's going to U.A. as well!"

Akira chuckled as she took the letter. "You sound so confident that I passed."

"There's no doubt that you did," Shouto spoke up. "I'm interested to see how they scored the regular entrance exam as opposed to the recommendation one."

"Boring," Fuyumi poked her tongue out, leaning on his shoulder. "This isn't about you, mister big shot. Quit trying to steal Akira's limelight."

Shouto sputtered. "I'm not, I was just saying—"

"I'm just teasing you," Fuyumi relented. "Now, come on, Akira! Open it up already!"

Akira breathed deeply, letting out a long, drawn out sigh. "Well, it was nice living here," she deadpanned as she tore open the letter.

--

Alone in her room, sitting on her futon, Akira stared down at the letter in her hands, the rankings teasing her. Just one point above her sat the unknown Bakugou Katsuki, the one person to upstage her in the exam. She had no idea who he was, no idea how he had managed to score so highly on villain points alone.

It was only the top ten rankings that had been published, but the other eight below her meant nothing to her. It didn’t matter that one kid got in on rescue points alone, not when the first place was dangled so close to her nose like that. She didn’t even take in any of the other names, she had nothing to gain from knowing them.

Enji had drilled into her at an early age that she needed to be the best, that by being the best it would shine a light onto his teachings. That even an orphan could do well under the tutelage of the number two hero. It was a given that Shouto would excel, a natural born genius with a powerful quirk. Akira didn’t know what she had inherited from her parents. She knew nothing about them, only that they died on the job and were praised for such an honourable death. A hero’s death.

It hadn’t always been like this. It felt like forever ago, but Rei and Touya had made life a whole lot easier, a whole lot happier.

Hot, heavy tears welled in her eyes, spilling down onto the paper. Whoever the fuck this Bakugou guy was, Akira vowed to upstage him. Her frustrations were probably misplaced, she probably shouldn’t blame this Bakugou for her problems, but it felt a lot easier to do so. If he hadn’t performed so well, if he had just missed a single two pointer, then Akira might have—

Who was she kidding. She’d never be enough. She was just an orphan.

She choked back her sobs of helpless frustration, her vision blurring through wet eyelashes. The paper felt hot, burning in her hands. She tossed it aside and threw herself into her pillow, rubbing her face into the fabric.

Yes, she was an orphan, but she wasn’t without family. Enji was just a bastard, even Shouto thought so. She shouldn’t put so much stock into what Enji thought of her. She would still succeed. She would become a better hero than Endeavour. She would become a real hero. She would protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

The scorched paper drifted delicately across the room, a faint smell of smoke permeating the air.

--

Shouto had come by before turning in for the night to check up on her, to reassure her that she had done a good job, that the old bastard had no right to treat her as lesser. It wasn’t the first time that Enji had gotten under Akira’s skin, though she was pretty determined to make it the last time. As the man liked to remind her, he wasn’t her father. That, in itself, was a small blessing.

“Fuck him,” she ended up spitting with venom. She threw a gentle fist to Shouto’s shoulder, a grin on her face. “I’ll surpass you and piss him off even more.”

Shouto simply shook his head at her with a gentle smile. “Get some rest. You look like shit.”

She poked her tongue out as he left her room, fondness tugging at her heart.

--

The first thing Akira noticed when she stepped into the classroom was the angry boy, shortly followed by the bird headed boy and the huge boy with six arms. She really needed to learn people's names, it was getting tiresome thinking of them by their characteristics. It made her wonder what people mentally called her. Probably something equally as dumb.

Several pairs of eyes fell on her and Shouto and her brain kicked into mild panic. Maybe she should have arrived separately to Shouto. Don't be stupid, it made no sense to come earlier or later than him. They'd still catch the same train and still come to the same classroom. At least having him by her side made her feel a little more confident, but she wasn't stupid. He was under the spotlight. Recommendation student, son of the number two hero to boot. He was the student to compete against. He had so many expectations to meet.

So did she. It wasn't a secret that she was adopted into the Todoroki family. Akira didn't pay attention to the media, not after she found a click bait conspiracy article, debating her lineage and claiming her to be an illegitimate child. No, she knew the world had its own expectations of her. Fuyumi had said they were covering her exam results, so did everyone already know her?

Maybe she should have worn her tie properly, despite the physical discomfort of having the material rub against the scar. The open collar made her neck more visible and she was very much not looking forward to prying eyes and questions all over again. Middle school had been enough.

She nervously fiddled with her gloved fingers, suddenly doubtful. They weren't part of the uniform, would she be asked to take them off? It hadn't been a problem in middle school, but would U.A be different? What then? What if she—

Shouto stepped forward and returned her to the present. It seemed barely a second had gone by as she processed a myriad of stress, all of which was suddenly silly. He quietly glanced at the vacant tables, finding his assigned seat at the back of the room. He gave her a small gesture to the seat diagonal from his. Two seats behind the angry boy.

Akira nearly flinched when she noticed he'd not stopped glaring at her. The glare was piercing, crimson eyes looking at her with so much undiluted hate. She narrowed her eyes in turn. She hadn’t done anything to deserve such a heated glare. He’d already gotten her back by stealing her points, so why did he think he had any right to be angry with her? He got in still, didn’t he?

If she blinked, she would have missed his expression shifting to one of mild shock before rearranging into something even more aggressive. He hadn’t expected her to meet his glare.

She was so consumed with this staring contest, with this silent, mental war waging between her and the angry boy that she hadn't realised a boy with glasses and a stiff posture had approached her until he was right in her face.

"Good morning! My name is Iida Tenya. You seem lost. Do you need some assistance?"

She blinked at him stupidly, caught off guard. "Kagami Akira," she replied automatically. She looked over at his recently vacated seat, which was on the entire opposite side of the room to the angry boy. She looked back to Iida, his expression growing more concerned. "Yeah, actually,” she recovered, cocking an eyebrow. “Swap seats with me."

He hadn't expected that. His expression turned to disapproval, eyebrows furrowing and eyes turning sharp. "I'm afraid I can't do that. They're assigned seating. It would be disrespectful to the faculty of this academy!"

She frowned and it suddenly hit her. This was the stiff boy from the lecture before the exam, the one that tried to call U.A out for printing errors. She mentally slapped her face. Of course he'd be such a stickler for assigned seating.

"Right," she dismissed, waving off the topic.

Rather than weave through the chairs and tables, she rounded the front of the class and came up the side, walking straight past the angry boy. She felt more than saw his glare on her the entire time, and she half expected him to call her out on something, but his aggressive tone never came and he didn't move from his kicked back position, feet propped up on the desk.

As she sat herself two seats back from him, in front of a very pretty girl with a high ponytail and next to the bird headed boy, Iida stormed right through the maze of desks. Destination: the angry boy.

"Take your feet off of that desk now!" Iida demanded, both earning and losing a point in Akira's books. Earning one, since he was squaring up against such an angry looking boy and losing one for being such a square. She couldn't help the chuckle at her own stupid joke.

"Haah?"

"It's the first day and you're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property, you creep!"

"You're kidding me, right? Your old school put a stick up your ass or were you born with it?"

She really couldn't help the audible snort. Despite what she thought of the guy, she couldn't have said it better herself.

Iida glanced at Akira, suddenly realising he was creating a scene and earning an audience. He cleared his throat and went for a different approach. "Let's start over. I'm Iida Tenya from the Somei Private Academy."

Somei? That would explain why he was so severe. Not that Akira was one to judge too harshly, she and Shouto had gone to an equally prestigious school.

"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?"

At least Akira wasn't the only one to think that of the angry boy. From what she'd seen so far, he reminded her all too much of—

She was ripped from her thoughts as the door opened to reveal one of the plainest looking boys she had ever seen. With all eyes on him, he freaked out, flushing in embarrassment and avoiding any kind of eye contact as he greeted everyone with an awkward, "um, hi!"

"Good morning!" Iida called out, forgetting all about his argument with the angry boy. He very quickly and very robotically marched over to the front of the class. "My name is Iida Tenya and—"

"Yeah, uh, I know," the boy interrupted, waving his hands nervously. He seemed to realise how rude the interruption was, taking a moment to look even more embarrassed. "I'm Midoriya Izuku. It's super nice to meet you." He didn't sound all that convincing.

"Midoriya. You realised there was something more to the practical exam, didn't you? You must be very perceptive, and I completely misjudged you. I admit, as a student, you're far superior to me."

What was he talking about? She gathered that these two must have been in the same battle station, but what would that plain looking boy have possibly done to impress someone as uptight as Iida?

Another addition to the ragtag group up the front joined the class, but being on the other side of the room, she couldn't hear the conversation through the doorway. Not that she was particularly invested in eavesdropping on the trio. She was more interested in exactly what kind of surprises that little guy had tucked up his sleeve. After all, appearances were deceiving. She should know.

"—taking down that big one with one punch—"

Wait, did she catch that properly? She’d heard something preposterous, that an examinee had taken down a zero pointer with one hit, but she didn’t believe it. That thing had been almost impossible for her to stop, the event replaying in her mind very vividly. If it hadn't been for that tired boy... God, she didn't even know his name!

She knew she wouldn’t have been the only one to take out the robot, it would be silly to think she was that special, but... this guy? The plain looking boy from the lecture, the one that had annoyed her with his incessant mumbling, he was the one to compete against? She was surprised to have even recognised him, given that he had no outstanding features, unlike the other boys from her group that stood out.

“The way the ice girl took out our zero pointer was impressive as well,” the boy with the bird head spoke up, earning the attention from the growing crowd at the front as well as the rest of the class. “I apologise for using such a crude nickname, my name is Tokoyami Fumikage,” he added, addressing Akira directly.

She stiffened in her seat. She should have expected such a call out, but it still caught her off guard. “Uh, it’s fine,” she remarked lamely. What a stupid response. Suddenly, she felt really awkward. People were really referring to her as the ice girl. Should she admit that she’d been using equally as dumb nicknames for everyone? That would probably make it even more awkward. Great, now everyone was looking at her expectantly. “It’s Kagami Akira.” Yeah, that was better.

"Kagami..." Midoriya mused quietly, trailing off into inaudible mumbles. It irritated her slightly, having the boy mutter on about her like she wasn't even there.

Before she could decide to ignore what was going on, the three up the front startled in surprise and a— wait, what the fuck? A yellow sleeping bag was moving towards them? Wait, was it talking? Akira resisted the urge to pinch herself to see if she was still sleeping.

Holy shit, she was such a dumbass. As it spoke, a person stepped out of the bag, although person might have been pushing the description. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. His black hair was an absolute mess, his stubble prominent and his eyes bloodshot. His black jumpsuit looked too comfortable to be real clothes, they were probably pajamas in disguise. Hell, even the scarf taking up his entire neck and shoulders could probably double as a pillow in a pinch.

“It took eight seconds before you all shut up. That’s not gonna work. Time is precious. Rational students would understand that.”

He paused, letting his words sink in, as he stepped further into the classroom. He gave a tired glance to the entirety of the classroom, looking entirely underwhelmed at what he saw. Akira could have sworn his bored gaze fell on her for a split second longer than anyone else. “Hello, I’m Aizawa Shouta. Your teacher.”

Akira frowned, something in the back of her memory demanding her attention. Aizawa rang some kind of bell, but why? She'd never actually heard the family name before, nor had she ever seen this man in her life. So, why did she feel like she should? She shook it off, deciding it was just first day nerves.

“Right, let's get to it,” Aizawa continued, rummaging around inside the sleeping bag. He pulled out a gym uniform— wait, he really couldn’t have twenty sets stashed in there, could he? Just what kind of teacher was this guy? “Put these on and head outside.”

--

She joined the other girls to the locker rooms, keeping to herself. She didn't know how to talk to people and she was still feeling flustered about before. At least she wouldn't have to introduce herself individually to anyone anymore, everyone had been staring at her earlier. Instead, she quietly observed the others, paying enough attention to catch their names.

Of course, all good things can't possibly last and Akira found herself the focus of one pink girl's attention. She had horns growing through her pink hair and her sclera were black, which might have made her look unapproachable, but her overly bubbly personality rang loud and clear and obliterated any kind of unapproachable factor.

"Kagami, right? My name's Ashido Mina, but you can call me Mina if you like!" she practically bounced up and down in her excitement. "Did you really take down your group's zero pointer? That's crazy!"

Akira could barely keep up with her. "Uh, yeah, I did," she answered with a rising blush at the praise and attention. She wasn't used to such positive reinforcement.

"That's so cool!" Mina laughed. "Remind me not to mess with you! Your quirk's ice control, right?"

"Y-yeah," Akira managed, hating how it sounded. It was technically true, so she wasn't outright lying. It still made her feel icky. "Is your quirk... uhm?" She had nothing. Pink skin and horns could be anything.

Mina giggled, skipping a little ways ahead as they neared the locker rooms. "You'll just have to wait and see!"

Akira felt more than saw the eyes on her as she quickly changed as casually as she could. The last thing she wanted was to have attention drawn to her scar, but that's exactly what happened when she'd slipped her shirt off and the marred skin of the left side of her neck was revealed to span her collar bone, her shoulder and down the length of her bicep, to her elbow and down her forearm. It was big, it was obvious and it reminded her of things she'd rather forget.

To her relief, none of the girls asked her about it, even though it was clear as day that they wanted to know. Unfortunately, the shorter sleeves of the gym uniform revealed more than she'd like. She'd have to remember to wear her compression bandage more.

Mina continued to prattle in her ear on the way back to class, though this time the other girls also joined in on the conversation. Akira very happily took the backseat, merely listening to the others talk and nodding along where she figured it would be required. People were hard.

Thankfully, the girls didn't seem to mind. Mina was very good at holding the conversation, and Tsu bounced off her just as easily, no pun intended. Ururaka was equally as excitable and bubbly as Mina, whereas Jirou and Yaoyurozu were more relaxed.

By the time they met back up with the boys, Akira felt more comfortable amongst the girls, but it didn't stop her from joining up with Shouto while Aizawa led them all outside.

"I think I just made some friends," Akira admitted quietly, with a hint of confusion. "I mean, I'm already on a first name basis with Mina and Tsu?" She gestured to the girls in question. "I didn't think it worked like that?"

Shouto shrugged with indifference. "I don't know, I'm not really interested in making friends. We're here to become heros, right?"

Akira faltered slightly. "Yeah, I guess." She glanced over at Mina, who gave her a wide grin in return. She smiled back gently, turning her attention over to their teacher.

Again, he looked entirely unimpressed with his new class. “We’re going to start with a quirk apprehension test.”

That was unexpected. Akira figured the school would want to have some kind of quirk assessments, seeing as the hero course would be more driven in quirk usage than anything she'd experienced in middle school, but weren't there procedures first? Didn't they have to attend a school-wide assembly first? Some kind of orientation?

Akira wasn't the only one to have such doubts. Uruaka was the only one to voice hers though. “But orientation! We’re gonna miss it...”

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, his surprisingly piercing gaze locking onto Uruaka. “If you really want to make the big leagues, you can’t waste time on pointless ceremonies. Here at U.A, we’re not tethered to traditions. That means I get to run my class however I see fit."

He paused for a moment, dragging his gaze to the rest of the class. “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."

Another pause, letting his words sink in. Finally, he turned his attention to the angry boy. “Bakugou, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam.”

Akira froze as all other eyes fell on the angry boy. Aizawa kept talking but suddenly she couldn’t hear a thing. All her focus was zeroed in on the boy that had upstaged her, the boy that she had already known and hadn’t even realised it was him. Not only was this the boy that had stolen the first place from her by two points, it was the same boy that had stolen her two one pointer robots from the entrance exam.

Those two points... from the very beginning, he had stolen victory from her.

She outright glared as Bakugou stepped forward to the pitching ring. She felt so angry, so foolish that she hadn’t even realised the angry boy that had been bothering her since the start, the angry boy that had given her nothing but contempt since the moment she met him, was the very same Bakugou that had beat her. So stupid.

She knew what to expect. As he tossed the ball, backing it up with an explosion much larger than the one that had knocked her aside previously, Akira didn't so much as flinch. The heat washed over everyone and the ball careened through the air, very quickly disappearing from view. She was, however, reluctantly impressed with the raw power behind the throw and found herself understanding how he had managed to place first in the exam.

“All of you need to know your maximum capabilities. It’s the most rational way to know your potential as a pro hero.”

Akira stayed silent as some of the class erupted in chatter. Had it not been for the bombshell known as Bakugou Katsuki, she probably would have been part of the chatter. As it was, she was deep in thought, agonising over the revelation that the unknown boy that had bested her turned out to be not so unknown.

“So this looks fun, huh?”

Aizawa’s mocking question broke through her reverie. She shook her head to clear her mind; now really wasn’t the time to be getting lost in her own head. She could worry about it until it crippled her in the anxiety of it, but it wouldn’t do her any good.

“You have three years to become a hero. You think it’s going to be fun and games?” Aizawa grinned, though it wasn’t a friendly one. “Idiots. Today you will participate in eight physical tests to test your potential. Whoever comes last has none, and will be expelled immediately.”

The threat weighed heavy on her class. Akira cast her attention to her fellow classmates, wondering just who was going to be kicked out on the first day.

“Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs, understand? If that’s a problem, you can head home right now.”

Despite Aizawa outright stating they were standardized tests, Akira was still caught off guard by just how normal they were. She was already pretty athletic, quick on her feet, though she did lack physical strength. She never needed to be overly strong because she had her quirk.

Speaking of her quirk, it wasn't especially helpful to her in the tests like this. She couldn't really use ice to assist in the ball toss or the fifty metre sprint. Definitely not for the grip test or the toe touch. She had ideas of what she could use it for if she could use the full range of her quirk, but... it wasn't worth it for a mere quirk apprehension test.

She wasn't just going to lose. She was still aiming to win. To rub it in Bakugou's face that he wasn't going to beat her again. Except his quirk was a lot more useful, had a lot more practical uses that gave him an advantage. The more she stewed on it, the more frustrated she felt.

In the end, Yaoyurozu placed first, much to Akira's surprise. The ponytail girl hadn't seemed like someone to compete against. No one had, so maybe that's why Akira only placed tenth. It was such a disappointing position, a very far cry from the top spot that she had been aiming for.

Was it her quirk? Or was it her complete disregard for her classmates? She had been so quick to dismiss everyone, focussing entirely on Bakugou, she hadn't even considered someone other than Bakugou or Shouto could beat her. Yet here she was, middle of the pack, her pride wounded with only herself to blame.

She wasn't the only one disappointed, she could see it in the firm expression Shouto cast her with. Hell, even the teacher she had known for all of half an hour looked at her with disappointment. Even Bakugou seemed disappointed, like he had expected her to be some prime competition only to be let down.

She was so disheartened that she barely paid attention to the wrap up of the lesson. Turns out no one was being expelled, Aizawa had just pulled a fast one on them to get them to give it their all. Midoriya had gone so far as to somehow break his finger in the ball toss, which Akira found to be somewhat strange, though not something she hadn’t experienced before. She had her fair share of injuries from quirk misuse.

As the class finally broke away to begin their proper school day, Aizawa called out to Akira with a small gesture for her to stay behind. She didn't have it in her to see Shouto's reaction. She had no idea what Aizawa wanted, though no doubt it would have to do with her performance. Considering she had placed second in the entrance exam, she should have definitely placed better today. Maybe he saw her lack of potential and was going to expel her. She certainly felt like it if she couldn't beat half her class.

"Kagami," he started with an emotionless tone, his gaze boring into Akira. She was used to piercing glares, but this one was different. She couldn't say how, exactly, but it felt warmer than the glares she received from Enji. "You have a lot of potential. That doesn't mean you can look down on your classmates. They're going to be your allies, not your competition."

She flushed, both with frustration and embarrassment. This wasn't the conversation she was expecting to have and it just made her all the more flustered. "I know that—"

"I don't think you do," he quipped, arching an eyebrow. "I think you got yourself so wound up in wanting to beat everyone that you lost your focus."

She opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out. He was right and nothing she could say would change that.