The Emperor's Dragon

Friends and Prejudice

"Izuku, please do not use your quirk on the Apprehension Test." Mr Rikujo sounded tired as he said that.

"I'm not, Sir," Izuku immediately replied.

"Yeah, he can't sir! His quirk is Fire Proofing," one of the others said. Izuku thought it was Shigeru but wasn't completely certain.

Mr Rikujo looked at Izuku in askance.

"That is my Quirk, Sir," he answered the question.

"No other aspects of it?" the Physical Education teacher asked.

"No Sir."

The man sighed and made several more notes on his tablet.

"How did you throw so far?" The question was put to Izuku. This time he knew it was Naoki asking.

"It wasn't that far," Izuku whispered. Compared to what Tomura could throw, he hadn't thrown the ball that far at all. Of course, compared to what he could throw when he could use his quirk it wasn't that far either.

"Dude! I think you beat Setsuna!"

"Who's Setsuna?" Izuku asked.

"Oh, I forgot, you're new. Setsuna Tokage," Naoki gave him the explanation. "She's in one of the other classes. She can throw like super far and she's super fast."

"Ah," Izuku nodded while the rest of the class went through the ball throw. Mr Rikujo had announced that they would start the year the standard tests. He'd hinted they'd finish the year with the standard tests so that they could see improvement.

"Still, how did you throw it that far?" Shigeru asked. Izuku knew it was him since he'd been called by Mr Rikujo.

"I do some physical training," Izuku admitted.

"Hero training?" Naoki gasped the question, and Izuku could hear the awe in his voice.

"Just training," Izuku dismissed it. Tomura would call it grinding but Kurogiri always called it physical training. From what he knew, Kurogiri's name was probably closer to what was publicly acceptable.

"Must be intense."

"Not really," Izuku shook his head. They were being called up in groups of five to run the 50m dash. "Just constant," he explained. Kurogiri had him doing training almost every day. Izuku could see that it was paying off now. Sometimes Tomura was with them but the older boy usually trained during the day. When Tomura was there, they worked on basic fighting. Izuku had gotten very good at dodging Tomura's hands, especially since the boy didn't wear his gloves. He'd lost enough t-shirts to dust that he knew he never wanted to let Tomura reach him.

Naoki couldn't say much more because he was called up with Izuku. After they'd run, with Izuku coming in first, the other boy was gasping for air too hard to keep asking questions and Shigeru's group was called.

"You're not... even... panting!" Shigeru managed to say when he returned, glaring at Izuku. Naoki had managed to get his breathing under control but he glared as well. It had taken significantly longer for him than for Izuku.

"Practice," Izuku dismissed it. "What is Setsuna's quirk?" He asked.

"Lizard tail or something," Naoki replied at the same time as Shigeru managed to gasp out, "Lizard Tail Splitter."

Green eyes blinked. "What does it do?"

"It's kind of gross. She can split off bits of herself and move them around."

"And regenerate them. She's already training to be a hero."

"That's fantastic!" Izuku gushed. "There's so many applications."