Izuku trembled as he walked up to the classroom door. Two of his classmates had also made it into the UA hero course. Their quirks were strong, and they were quite skilled with them, so it wasn't surprising that they'd made it.

  What was surprising was Izuku earning the highest score. His Villain points wouldn't have been nearly enough on their own to even get admitted to the course, but his Rescue point count had been overwhelmingly large, to the point that he would have earned a place without Villain points.

  Suffice to say, the two 'star students' were not happy about the underdog's success.

  Izuku clenched his fist and took a breath, opening the door and stepping through.

  It was utter pandemonium.

  Students were using their quirks, jumping around the room on the desks, and being generally rowdy. And there was a.. caterpillar.. man.. staring at him from the corner of the room. They locked eyes for a moment.

  Izuku just kept his head down and snuck across the room to his desk at the front.

  It didn't work.

  A familiar voice called out from the desk behind Izuku's, and was quickly joined by the one beside it.

  "Deku. Must be pretty relieved you made the cut huh?"

  "I bet he cheated his way in. What did you-"

  "Five minutes." The caterpillar man said. "I've been here five minutes and only one of you noticed me. Disappointing. Put your PE uniforms on and get outside. You have five minutes."

  ___

  Aizawa combed a hand through his hair, looking towards the main building. He already had excuses for 13 out of the 19 he wanted to expel. Two for bullying, Six for using their quirks as they pleased in the classroom, and five for 'misconduct', which was code for 'horsing about in my classroom'.

  He was surprised when Midoriya noticed him in the classroom. He was once again pleasantly surprised when Midoriya was the first one out onto the field. He had a determined look on his face, which Aizawa smirked internally at. Good. His apprehension test 'ruse' should work wonderfully here.

  Aizawa was praising God internally when three of the remaining six students to have an excuse for were late. The majority of the class were late, but that was just ticking more boxes for their expulsion form.

  "You'll be doing a quirk apprehension test." Eraserhead said, his sadistic leer hidden beneath his capture weapon. "Whoever comes in last place will be expelled."

_______

  Izuku had already 'smoked' after he left the changing room. He'd kept the smoke in his lungs, ready to breathe out and use at a moment's notice.

  The first test was a 50 meter dash. Izuku inverted his Monomolecular blade so that rather then cutting, he was able to push off the almost completely solid mass with his right foot, giving him a good start.

  The second test was grip strength. Izuku used the same method as before in combination with his own physical strength to achieve a much better score than he would have otherwise.

  The endurance run, standing long jump, sit ups and sideways steps went by pretty normally. He didn't have good enough control to use his quirk in those tests.

  The ball throw went very well. Izuku tossed the ball into a thick black cloud of smoke which became somewhat solid and carried the ball off into the distance. It was a struggle to maintain the solid state for longer than just a few seconds, but he got it a good 2,300 meters before he lost control and dropped it.

  Once his classmates had their throws, Aizawa called the students over to give them their scores. Izuku's gaze moved down the hologram until he locked onto his own name.

  19th place. He'd just barely beaten the person in last, who he didn't know. It was only a matter of tens of points, which was very, very close. He'd need to work hard to ensure he didn't cut it so close again.

  Then, Aizawa surprised him.

  "All of you can go pack your bags and leave. You're expelled from the hero course." He said, ignoring the cries of outrage. "You can try to get transferred to Gen Ed, but it's not likely to happen. I want you all off campus in 5 minutes. The consequences of being late this time will be worse than expulsion. Midoriya, stay behind."

  After a few seconds of loud protests from the ex-students, Aizawa glanced down at his wrist.

  "Four minutes thirty six until I can legally arrest you all for trespassing. Then you'll never become a hero at any hero school."

  They cleared out pretty quickly after that. The moment they were out of sight, the hero turned to Izuku.

  "You are not expelled. You're the only one who actually put any effort into the test whatsoever. Go and get changed back into your uniform. Your syllabus is on my desk." He said.

  Izuku stared at the hero for a moment before speaking up.

  "But.. why me?"

  Aizawa raised na eyebrow.

  "Why you, what?"

  Izuku tilted his head, thinking over his words.

  "Why keep just me in the course? Some of their quirks were amazing, and if they passed the exams then they must be skilled with them."

  "Laziness." Aizawa began. "Arrogance. Pride. Yes, their quirks were powerful. But it's because they were born with quirks so powerful already that they're not fit for the hero course. They didn't bother to train or improve their quirks. The moment they got to the level that made them top dog in junior school, they stopped trying to improve and instead maintained that level."

  Izuku nodded hesitantly, understanding the man's point.

  "But.. just because they're a little arrogant doesn't mean they can't become a hero!"

  "Let's put it this way. Each and every one of your classmates were given swords, spears and shields at birth. You were given a rock. They were happy with their swords, and didn't bother trying to use them to forge something better. You on the other hand, took that rock and chipped away at it, somehow forging Excalibur."

  Izuku was stunned. Aizawa gave a small grin.

  "I've seen your file kid. All of the staff has. What you've done with your quirk? It's impressed every hero currently in that building." He pointed at the main UA building. "You're almost pro material already. You created a monomolecular blade from scratch using a smoke control quirk. From the way you kicked off the smoke during the 50 meter dash and carried the ball a minute ago, I can tell you just figured out how to solidify smoke on the fly for a single stupid test. Your classmates just used their quirks the same way they've always used them during that test. You pretty much just reinvented your own quirk to suit your needs. That is what we look for in potential heroes."

  Aizawa patted Izuku's shoulder as he passed.

  "See you tomorrow kid. Make sure you get your syllabus, but you're free to go. Have a long nap, we're going to be sharpening Excalibur all morning. It's going to be hell."

  The hero didn't need to hide his grin at the enthusiastic 'Yes sir!' as he walked away.

_______

  "So Eraser!" Midnight said. "Got any students left for me to teach art to?"

  "Just the one." Aizawa yawned, pulling his sleeping bag out from under his desk. "Midoriya. I managed to expel the other nineteen before the end of the apprehension test."

  Cementoss grumbled, handing 100 yen over to Present Mic.

  "Great!" Midnight squealed. "Teaching one on one is much better than a class full of kids! I can tailor the lesson plan to his progress specifically, oh this is amazing!"

  Aizawa rolled his eyes, laying back under his desk and snuggling into the yellow bag.

  That kid would make a great hero. He'd make sure of it.