Izuku blinks his eyes open at the sound of his alarm. His very special alarm. You see, most people have alarm clocks or phones that they set their alarms on. Izuku has Ruffles.

"WAWAWAWAWAWAWA-"

The aquatic slugcat is silenced by a pat to the head.

"Morning, Ruffles."

"Morning!" She chirps back. Wait, what?

Izuku sits up and whips his head towards the blue blob sitting at his side.

"Did you just talk?" He asks incredulously. All he gets in reply is a chitter and a seemingly confused head tilt.

Must've been imagining it.

He doesn't notice her barely suppressed snickers as she scurries away.

____

The first full day at UA is surprisingly normal. The only thing that makes it different from middle school is the fact that all the teachers are pro heroes. There's also the fact no one here bullies him for his quirklessness, he supposes. This is extremely exciting for Izuku, for as you know, he is obsessed with heroes.

It's the middle of English class (which is taught by Present Mic!) when it happens again.

"Izuku!" Izuku startles at the sound of his given name. He glances in the direction the voice came from, but the only one there is Banana, staring up at him innocently. He shrugs it off, turning his attention back to the front.

____

"Midoriya! Come sit with us!" This comes from Uraraka, who's waving him over from where she's sitting next to Iida.

Izuku hesitates, but only for a second before he's trotting over to join them, closely followed by the slugcats.

Before he's even had the chance to sit down, Ruffles is on the cafeteria table, thoroughly inspecting Iida. He seems slightly affronted, although he doesn't say anything, much to Izuku's relief. Explody doesn't like when people tell any of her adopted children (Marshmallow, Banana, Ruffles, and Izuku himself) not to do something, even if they're polite about it.

After a moment, she turns around, staring at Izuku. Her pink eyes bore into his soul as he shifts uncomfortably. A second passes, and she nods approvingly before backflipping off of the table.

Uraraka giggles. "Wow, she can be pretty intense!"

____

"I am here... Coming through the door like a normal person!"

"All Might!" The class choruses excitedly. The much quieter chirp of "Ah Might!" a few milliseconds later remains unheard.

Izuku thinks he might vibrate out of his chair. Sure, he sort of knew All Might was teaching foundational heroics, but he also sort of didn't know, and he thinks this might be the best moment of his life and he's going to be taught by All Might- Izuku realizes these words are coming out of his mouth as sound waves, and to prevent this, he closes his mouth.

"Um- ah, yes! I will be teaching your Foundational Heroics class here at UA!"

Most of the class is too excited to notice the number one hero's slight awkwardness, but Izuku, though just as awestruck as the rest of his class (perhaps even more so), definitely notices. He pulls out his notebook titled 'UA Teacher Analysis' and flips to a new page. If one were to open the book to the first page, they might notice small writing that reads 'For legal reasons, none of this is blackmail. ' Izuku quickly takes out his pencil and scribbles the name 'All Might, civilian name unknown' at the top of the page, writing 'new to teaching???' below it.

"Anyways, uh, the support department has finished all of these-" he gestures at a wall of cases that had extended from a different wall. "Your hero costumes! Put them on and meet me at-" he glances at something. "Ground Beta!"

____

A few minutes later, Izuku had finished changing into his hero costume. Which he may or may not have had help designing. Help in the form of slugcats. It consists of a dark green and black hoodie-like top with lighter, yellow-green highlights and small ears at the top that were definitely not Black Hole's idea, paired with a set of durable black pants. He has black combat boots with golden laces (another one of Black Hole's ideas, he's surprisingly good at costume design), and a belt with various sheathes that would fit small knives and a few long, thin ones that would be the perfect fit for Vampire's bone spears. There's padding around his elbows and knees, and the hoodie-thing has those strange symbols the slugcats always drew on the walls running up the sleeves. One to five on the right, six to ten on the left. They're all the same gold color as the laces. Black hole is seriously good at costume design.

Izuku joins the rest of his classmates, analyzing their costumes. There are some that... let's just say they're in dire need of a redesign. Is Hagakure's costume just gloves and boots?!

"Oh, Midoriya!" Uraraka moves to his side. "Your costume is so cool! I wish I had been more specific with mine, I didn't want it to be this tight. It's embarrassing!"

Izuku looks her over. The overall design of the costume is good, but its practicality is questionable. Heroes shouldn't have to run around in high heels if they're trying to save people. Not to mention the fact he doesn't see any sort of protective measures.

"Yeah, you might want to take that into the support department later..."

"My! All of your costumes look amazing! Now, let me explain what we're doing. It will be a two on two battle trial, one team playing the heroes and one team playing the villains! The setup is..." He pulls a set of flash cards out of nowhere, and begins to read.

"The villains have hidden a nuclear bomb inside of a building. It's the heroes' job to either capture the weapon or the villains before the timer runs out, in fifteen minutes. The villain team will have five minutes prep time before the heroes are released! Any questions?"

"How will the teams be determined?" Izuku can't tell who says it.

"By lottery!"

The girl with the ponytail, Yaoyorozu, nods.

"That makes sense. You never know who you're going to be working with on the field."

"Exactly, young Yaoyorozu! Any more questions?"

"Are you going to expel someone like Aizawa-sensei did?"

"Isn't my cape magnifique?"

"Speaking of Aizawa-sensei expelling someone, what are we going to do about that?"

All Might pauses.

"That's a good question! Someone could sit out, be on their own team, go twice, or-"

"O-or," Izuku interrupts nervously, "Fluffy could go instead."

The green slugcat stares at him with what might be exasperation, but nods, accepting it.

"Oh! Um..." All Might pauses. "Is everyone okay with that?"

What's likely the entire class barring Katsuki nods.

"Alright then! It's time to draw teams!"