All For Some

Chapter 16: The Hero Exam

Izuku looked up at the UA wall and the tall buildings behind it with empty eyes. If the people around knew all that he had done... Was it really right for him to be here?

"Izuku!" A familiar voice called to him. Izuku turned towards it and responded.

"Toshi?"

Right or wrong, coming here was his best option. Izuku joined his friend and spotted Tenya inside the gate.

"Hey TN!" Izuku shouted, but the taller teen didn't respond. Izuku looked at Hitoshi.

"I don't think that's it," Hitoshi responded. Izuku pulled out his friend notebook and crossed out the name idea. By the time he got the notebook back into his backpack they had already reached Tenya. Izuku glanced at Hitoshi.

"How have you rested for the exam?"

"Better than you from the look of things."

"Huh?" Izuku stared at Hitoshi, uncertain about what to say.

"You look like you haven't slept since the last time we met up. I would know."

"Hitoshi is correct. You have seemed increasingly tired and quiet for the past few days," Tenya said. "It is a very bad time to be tired even with your skill. Is this about the incident on Sunday, or did something else happen?"

Unknown to Ida, the words stung Izuku. They would hate him if they knew.

"Uh, n... nothing happened," he stuttered for the first time in a long while.

"You think so lowly about us that you think we would believe that." Shinso poked Izuku's shoulder.

"It's really nothing... The whole UA and entrance exams and All Might being a teacher here and I saw Death Arms in the news bragging about how he'd save anyone in need. I've gone through every nightmare in the past few nights, including one where that guy on Sunday managed to..." Izuku paused. He was only partially lying. "And then there is..."

"What the hell are you doing here villain!?"

Izuku froze mid-sentence. After a brief shock his expression turned even more tired than it had been, undoing whatever impact Hitoshi's and Tenya's presence had. He turned around to face Katsuki Bakugo for the first time in ten months, since the walking garbage fire had told him to kill himself.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I told you I was going to be only person from our school to get in UA. Don't think that has changed just because you left for a few months! Do you really think they would even consider having a villain like you in this school?"

"I could ask you the same?" Midoriya asked. His expression was blank, but he had inched closer to his friends. Whether it was to feel safer or be ready to protect them wasn't completely clear even to himself. Bakugo stared at him, even angrier than before.

"What are you blabbering nerd."

"He is saying that it is your actions that are villainous, and not worthy of a hero, not Izuku's," Tenya said, waving his hand.

"Oh, what would you extras know about either of us?" Bakugo said.

"Everything relevant," Hitoshi interjected. "Yes, that includes his quirk and everything you have done for the past ten years. Your idea of a hero has to be pretty twisted to think you could be one."

"Really, you claim you know what this Deku's quirk is about, but you have no idea. You haven't actually experienced it."

"Yes I have," Hitoshi said. Bakugo froze, staring at him. "Izuku has borrowed my quirk several times and helped me a lot with it. I don't' see what the big deal is. Felt a bit strange being quirkless the first time, but it didn't bother me much."