10 Steps Ahead

Battle Trials

At the end of the day, I went to Ground Beta where class 1-A would be having their class. My classes with support and business before were mostly just assessments. We had to do a bunch of safety tests in support, Mei wasn't too happy about that, but it was needed considering Mei's tendency to explode things. The hero class was probably going to be different though, if the place is any clue. Nezu said I would analyse them, but I could only do that if I saw them in action.

It made sense that they would already be fighting each other. It felt like they were going pretty fast, although they did already use their quirks the day before. Since a good chunk of heroics are battles, it's a good idea to get the students used to the idea of using their quirks right off the bat. And it's not like the teacher would let the kids do real fights with each other yet, the first day would probably be going over basic techniques since most hadn't had any fighting experience.

I frowned, I don't know who the heroics teacher would be. Nezu said that Aizawa-sensei (The Eraserhead!) usually does it for his homeroom, but this year there would be a new teacher helping out both hero classes. A lot of the teacher's here were heroes, even those outside of the hero course, so it could be anyone. It's most likely not anyone in the top 10, as amazing as the heroes here were, none of them have that high of a standing and I doubt-

My thoughts were cut off when I saw All Might standing at the entrance to the mock city. Instead they were replaced with him saying 'It's too dangerous' on repeat like he did that day. My blood turned to ice as All Might approached me. "Young Midoriya, you must be the analyst student. You must be quite smart to catch the eye of Nezu. We will be watching the battles in the monitoring room with the rest of class 1A, if you have any questions feel free to ask," All Might said. 'He doesn't remember me,' I realized. I suppose it makes sense, I was just some random kid asking a question he probably heard a hundred times. I don't get why I expected him to remember, or why it hurts that he didn't.

I masked my panic with a smile (just like All Might's-) and nodded. I opened my notebook to edit some random page, anything to avoid having to talk to him. Seeing him now after that day made me realize how different and fake he was compared to what he was like in his small form. I tried to pretend that the rooftop conversation never happened, that All Might was still the hero that he was before. But here I am terrified of the words All Might is saying in case they destroy me a second time. I really am pathetic.

Well it can't get worse than this.

....

I take that back. As the class enters the training grounds one face sticks out. Kachan, in his hero costume (wearing my gauntlets, oh my god Kachan is wearing something I made!-) yelling at the red haired kid. And he was coming towards me. Oh no, he's going to be so mad when he sees me at UA.

As if the universe heard my thoughts, Kachan turned to look straight at me. I could see the flash of anger in his eyes right before he ran at me and grabbed me by the shirt. "What the hell do you think you're doing here Deku? I told you not to try to get into UA, you really think someone like you can be a hero," he yelled.

"N-no K-Kachan-n, I'm not trying to be a hero anymore. I'm in Gen Ed, I swear!" I try to explain, flinching from the threatening pop of his hands.

"Young Bakugo, that is no way to treat a classmate. Young Midoriya, is an analyst that will be giving you all advice on how to use your quirks but you shouldn't use it on him," All Might says. Kachan glares at me, but he drops me. He stalks back to where the rest of his class is grumbling about how he doesn't need help.

"It's an honour to have you assisting our class. I am Iida Tenya, your insight would be most appreciated," he says, making a hand chopping motion. His hero costume looks a lot like Ingenium's, wouldn't there be some copyright problems with that in the future?