This chapter was written by Shonaku

His body screams in agony, begging him to stop carrying heavy metal on his back. But he ignores it. He keeps running with the heavyweight still on his back, his spine aches, feet becoming numb, lungs desperately trying to get more oxygen. That's what it's like for him for 8 and a half months.

He kept avoiding and distancing himself from everyone, except for his mother of course. Every time Ochako would attempt to talk to him, he just ignores her and focuses on himself. And he just avoids Bakugou thanks to his increased speed and stamina he gained thanks to his training, allowing him to just run out of the school building without running into the ash-blonde bomb boy. He let himself fall behind by focusing on what others think, time that he should've been using to be stronger. Not by focusing on how others can succeed.

Inko noticed this ever since he told her that he would be training and bringing junk to make weapons out of them. The cheerful, expressive boy she raised is barely present. There were small moments where his old self appeared when she asked him to help and when she thanked him for helping. Her guess that he finally had enough of being pushed around. While she is proud that he is standing up for himself, another part of her felt extreme guilt for not doing better to help her son.

Izuku drops the remaining metal into the pile of other trash he's picked up from all the cleaning he's done today. From the beginning, the beach looked like a waste dump, now it's back to its former self. The beach looks beautiful.

He took a long look at the beach, gazing at the sparkling water with the sunset making the sky look gorgeous. He smiles, feeling something he hasn't felt in years, pride. He feels proud of himself for the first time in many, many years.

"Wow! You manage to clean the whole Beach!"

Izuku turns around to the source of the voice, turning out to be Yagi. "Oh, It's you," Izuku said bluntly. Toshinori is used to this behavior of his after seeing him progress over the months. "Don't be like that now. You cleaned the entire beach all by yourself! That is something to be proud of!" he stretches his arms out dramatically, trying to make the accomplishment grand, but all it did was made Izuku scoff in annoyance. "I was having a moment until you showed up," Izuku said as he picked up his backpack, walking away from the blonde hair skeleton.

Toshinori sighs at the response, "He is very hard to read." After Izuku is no longer in sight, he starts walking through the beach, admiring its beauty.

"Um, Sir?"

Toshinori flinched slightly, he didn't expect anyone else to be out this time. He turned around to the source of the voice, and it was no other than Ochako Uraraka.

"Hello, young lady," He said.

"Hello," Ochako replies. She looks around the area, hoping to find a certain green-haired teen. She was barely able to finish all of her work from this week and went out to the beach to hopefully find Midoriya. She's worried about him, ever since the day he became silent and cold, not like his usual stuttery, kind self, she sees ever since she transferred over to his school.

Much to her amazement, the beach is completely clean, not one speck of trash is left. 'He did it...' she thought in awe. A long time ago, she read in an article that this beach used to be beautiful and always wanted to visit. Back then, of course, she was deeply disappointed and disgusted on how this beach looked when it was filled with garbage. Now it looks exactly like how it was in the pictures she saw. And it was all thanks to him.

"Sir, Have you seen a boy around my age? He has black hair with Green Highlights and has freckles on his face," she asks, silently hoping that he had.

"Yes I have actually, are you talking about Young Midoriya?" he answers.

"Yes! That's him! Do you know where he is right now?!" she jumps forward a bit, eager for his answer. "Well, you just missed him. He left back to his home after he finished cleaning this beach," Toshinori shrugs as he points to the exit. Ochako's head and shoulders slumped down, disappointed that she just missed him.

"Why are you looking for him if I may ask?" Toshinori didn't think that she has ulterior motives but is curious as to why she's looking for him. Lifting her head back up, she gives herself a few moments whether or not to tell him her reason, "Well, he hasn't been acting himself lately and I want to find out why so I can help him!" she said, decided to give him a vague yet honest answer. Determination is all over her face when she looks at the man, making him chuckle at her spirit.

Realizing how late it has gotten, she runs to the exit. "Well, sorry that I couldn't help much," Toshinori said to the running brunette. "It's okay sir! I'll find him soon!" she exclaims.

1 month past by. And Izuku made sure to put that into good use. He somehow found an abandoned warehouse and thought it would be perfect for more training. No one will be there, so no more Toshinori.

Izuku stands, Glaring at the steel pole in front of him, he puts on the Metal Knuckles, a simple weapon he made with from the trash he's collected. Ever since he finished the beach, he decided to work on his combat. And the way he's been doing that is punching and kicking wood and metal very fast until they break. Next on the ground is a large broken piece of redwood that he attacked endlessly with his bare fists and kicks.

He dashes to the pole, landing a solid hit in the middle, following with a side-jump kick to the side. He resumes the attack after he flips himself up from the ground. Each Punch, each kick are fueled with anger. Every time he punches the pole, he imagines Bakugou's face getting hit, distorted, bleeding, and bruised to the point where it's unrecognizable. He wants to overpower the tormentor, he wants him to pay. For making his life brutal, for taking away the things he loves. He wants nothing more than rising above him.

Izuku yells as he punches the pole one last time with all his strength to it, somehow managing to punch through the thick metal. He pants for air as he pulls his arm out. Dropping down to the floor to rest, he takes off the gloves, which are now bruised and bloody all over. He clenches his hand, checking how bad the damage did him. Turns out, not that serious. Satisfied, he exits out of the warehouse.

'Exams are in a week. Gotta study for the written portion,' Izuku notes as he reaches the apartment. He starts thinking about what he should glove he should make next as he climbs up the stairs. The Metal Knuckle was powerful but shouldn't be his only reliance so he has to make alternate versions with their own specialty to give a wider range of options.

Just when he was about to take a turn, his eye caught a small glimpse of a familiar brunette. He quickly hides out of reflex. Slowly, his head peeks out a little bit to see if she went inside. She hasn't but the look of her face said something else. She sighs as she reluctantly goes inside, not noticing him.

Feeling relief, he exhaled a breath of air that he didn't know he was holding. Thinking back to her expression, he felt a small feeling of guilt but immediately shrugs it off. He shouldn't be feeling sympathy for someone who is friends with the ash-jerk. Especially one who is- No. He slams his head into the wall, leaving a dent into the concrete. The mere thought of it stabs his heart, he keeps telling himself that she is nothing to him now. But all that did was hurt his heart more and more.

'What am I going to do with this pain?'

Here he stands. UA's entrance Exam. He looks ahead, the school that he dreamt of going for so long. Taking a deep breath, he takes one step forward.

Only to trip instead. Quickly, he puts his hands forward to catch himself and uses them to jump forward, landing on his feet swiftly.

"Wow! That was so cool!"

Izuku looks behind him only to see her again. He's unsurprised to see Ochako here. He remembered her saying that she is aiming for UA a long time ago.

Not thinking twice, he walks ahead, leaving the brunette behind. "Hey wait! Midoriya!" Ochako says as she runs to the green head teen. Before she can utter another word, Izuku said, "Better hurry if you don't want to be late."

He sped up, leaving the speechless brunette behind. She sighs out of a mixture of emotions. Sadness and frustration.

"Why are you even bothering round face?" Ochako groans as the use of that nickname that she hates oh so much. "I told you to stop calling me that," she said sternly as she turns around to the ash-blonde. "It's clear he doesn't want to be involved with you, so why waste your time?" Bakugou said nonchalantly, being very careful with his word choices when speaking about Izuku.

"I'm just worried is all," she replies as she walks back to the entry dorm.

"He's not even your friend yet you're trying to reach him?! Haha!" Bakugou laughs snarkily as he walks ahead of the brunette.

'You just don't know who he really is. But for me, I want to know more about him. Who he really is,' fueled by determination, she marches forward, ready to accept any challenge that is ahead of her.

"Okay, participants Better get ready because we are going t rock this city!!" Present Mic yells as the participants stretch. Ochako looks around, hoping to find Midoriya to wish him the best. She founds him stretching and putting on some sort of weird gloves. Suddenly a firm grip on her shoulder stops her from moving, she looks behind to see a tall teen wearing glasses that looked very uptight.

"That boy is trying to concentrate. Are you trying to distract him from ruining his chance from getting in?" He said as he looks at the girl strictly.

"What? No! I wa-"

"AND START!!!" Present Mic yells as the gates open. WIth Izuku and a few others immediately running forward. Ochako realizes that the test has begun and sprints towards the fake city, hoping to find and destroy some robots.

Izuku looks left and right until he ran into a one pinter robot, guessing that the middle is the weak point, he sprints while pulling his fist back and launching it forward to the robot, managing to break through the metal. 'I guess all those blisters and blood loss was worth it,' Izuku thought as he pulls his fist out of the broken robot, feeling satisfied with the result.

Several minutes went by of Izuku slowly gaining more points, unfortunately, the ones he founded were 1-pointer along with the rare occurrence of a 2-pointer. Even still, he still believes that he's low on points. Just before he began running for the next robot, the ground shook violently.

'What the?'

People around started to run away to the entrance where they will be safe. Izuku finally looks up and is completely surprised by the source of the earthquake. It was the Zero Pointer Present Mic briefly mentioned, stated that they should run away and shouldn't even try to fight it. Now Izuku sees why. Because it is Humongous.

"Isn't it a bit much?" Izuku said before he sprints off to the entrance.

"OW!"

The voice of pain made him stop cold at its tracks. Slowly, he turns around, hoping it isn't who her.

"Ochako," Izuku said quietly, feeling his heartbreak apart at the view of her being in great pain. Her feet are buried beneath a pile of rubble. She tries to get up but only to fail. Eyes shut, tears escape out of her while whimpering at the debris squeezing her already broken legs even further.

Izuku looks up, only to see the zero pointer getting closer to her.

In one second, Izuku felt his feet slowly moving, then sprint at the next. He quickly lifted the small debris out of the way with a bit of effort put into them.

Feeling the weight above her crushed legs lightened, Ochako opens her eyes and turns around, beyond shock to see Izuku lifting and throwing the debris off of her while the Zero Pointer gets closer and closer to them.

"Midoriya?!" she yells. Izuku ignores her sudden outburst as he puts all his strength to lift the last, yet biggest piece. His knuckles turn white, feeling the blisters forming under his gloves, but he does his best to ignore it and put all of his strength to the giant rock. With the Zero pointer getting closer and closer, Ochako feels the weight in her legs slowly going away. She looks at Izuku at pure awe, watching him slowly lift up the rock and throwing it away to the side. He did it, he really did it.

Panting for air, he quickly picks the brunette up in bridal style and runs away as fast as he can. Ochako blushes a little from this situation but she tries to not let it go to her head.

"Almost there!" Izuku yells, catching the brunette's attention. She looks ahead and turns out he was right. He outran the Zero Pointer and made it to the entrance gate.

"TIMES UP!" Present Mic yells just when Izuku puts her down gently. But right at that exact moment, before she can even thank him, he collapses.

"MIDORIYA!!!"

Anxiously walking back and forth in his room, Izuku being nervous was an understatement. After he blacked out, he was healed by Recovery Girl and was sent home right after she gave him some gummies.

His school gave him and the rest a week off as a reward for completing all their hard work. It is also the week where Participants get the mail to see if they make it or not. And he is dead nervous about the results. Did he pass or fail? He can't put down these thoughts to rest.

Suddenly, his mother opens the door catching him off guard. "Izuku! It's here!" she exclaims. Eyes widening, Izuku quickly went up to his mother who was holding the letter out to him. He grabs it gently. He stares at it, right now, in his hands is the certification that he'll get in and become a hero. He sat down at his chair, with his mother watching him from behind. Not wasting any more time, he opens the letter. A Metal-looking ball drops down to the floor, much to Izuku's confusion since he was expecting a written letter.

A Projection came out, showing someone that he never expected.

"IT IS I! ALL MIGHT!!!"

"All Might?!?!" Izuku and Inko yell in unison at the sudden reveal of the number 1 Hero.

"I AM HERE TO TELL YOU OUR RESULTS! YOU HAVE PASSED THE WRITTEN EXAM WITH FLYING COLORS! SO CONGRATS ON THAT!"

Izuku knew he did well on the written exam, but that's not what he's focused on. The practical is what really matters to him.

"AND AS FOR THE PRACTICAL! WHILE YOU HAVE DISPLAYED SOME AMAZING COMBAT! YOU ONLY DESTROYED 9 1-POINTERS AND 1 2-POINTER! ONLY BRING YOU TO 11 POINTS WHICH ISN'T ENOUGH!"

Izuku tightly clenched his hands in frustration. "I knew I didn't destroy enough," he said lowly.

"HOWEVER! THAT IS NOT YOUR FINAL SCORE!"

"What?!" Izuku snaps his head back to All Might. How is it not his final score? All that was said was to destroy robots to earn points!

"HERE AT UA, WE HAVE A SECRET POINT SYSTEM FOR THOSE WHO ENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO SAVE OTHERS! AND YOUR ACTION TO SAVE YOUNG URARAKA EARNED YOU A TOTAL OF 25 RESCUE POINTS!! MAKING IT A TOTAL OF 36 POINTS!"

The sudden realization of what's being told brought a small smile to his face with tears forming.

'I made it to the hero cour-'

"SADLY, EVEN WITH THE ADDED PONTS. YOUR SCORE WAS OVERSHADOWED BY THE SHEER AMOUNT OF OTHER HIGHER POINTS. HAVE THEY NOT BEEN SO HIGH, THEN YOU WOULD'VE MADE IT TO THE HERO COURSE. INSTEAD, YOU'LL BE PLACED IN GENERAL STUDIES. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING."

The projection dissipates, leaving the room in dead silence. The smile he had on earlier vanished, the tears stopped flowing, and the once hopeful look of joy in his eyes became dead cold. Lifeless is all he feels.

Inko, who had been watching the whole time, quietly walks to her son. She believed in her son that he could make it. While he did made it to UA, he didn't make it to the hero course, something that he longed ever since he was a child. Memories of him crying when he found out he is quirkless rushed back to her. The look of his bawling face, the begging look of his eyes, she hates seeing it.

She slowly wraps around him, trying her best to comfort him. "I'm so sorry Izuku..." she squeaks out as the weight of her guilt slowly destroying her. Her dam broke, rivers of tears crash out of her eyes as she tightens the hug. Slowly, Izuku hugs her back. Looking up, she saw the tears leaking out his eyes.

As if he read her mind, he said "It's okay mom. You didn't fail me. You never failed me," he quickly puts his head to her shoulders, letting out his cry of frustration, tightening the loving hug from his mother.

"Bakugou, Uraraka, Midoriya. Congrats on getting into UA. Especially you two," The principal points to the brunette and ash-blonde, "Getting into the hero course is something to be proud of." The three were called to the office to discuss UA. The principal only ever praised Uraraka and Bakugou, never Midoriya like he doesn't even exist. Why bother calling him in if he's just going to be ignored.

"School is dismissed. You can leave now," he said as he turns back to the computer. Not wanting to be next to the two, Izuku made his way out before the two could. Uraraka sighs while Bakugou scoffs at pure anger. He told him not to go to UA, and what does he do? Go to UA. He's gonna teach him a lesson when he doesn't to Katsuki Bakugou.

Izuku walks out of the school building, hoping that this day would just end already. Unfortunately for him, a sudden grip at his neck collar and being drag into the back of the school.

'Gee, I wonder who did this?' Izuku thought sarcastically, already knowing the answer to it.

"Knock-Knockugou! It's Bakugou!!!" Bakugou yells angrily as he shoves him up the wall. "I told you to not go to UA and kill yourself!! I was disappointed enough that you're still breathing but when you tried out for UA, I thought you would die trying. Sadly, you didn't die which pisses me off! Now do me a favor and go kill yourself!!!! " Bakugou launches a punch to his face in fury. But when he made contact with his face, all it did was tilt his head sightly. And what's even more shocking, is that pain is spreading to his fist. To Izuku, while it dud hurt to some degree, it was nothing as it was before when he was weak.

'What the?!' Confused, he tries again but is even More Shock when Izuku caught his fist, squeezing it to the point where Bakugou grunts in pain. The hair that was Covering his eyes the whole time is now uncovered. Izuku glares at him with a cold look, he's fed up with his bullcrap. This stops now.

He grabs Bakugou's other fist to stop him from punch again, then he drove his knee into his stomach, catching the explosion user off guard. "I have enough of you," Izuku said emotionlessly before he grabs Bakugou's head and slamming it into the wall effortlessly, knocking him out right then and there.

He drops him, watching the body slumped down unnaturally to the dirt. Izuku looks down at the unconscious blonde. Blood seeps down from his nose, he probably broke it. He smiles at the feeling of satisfaction, happy that he defeated Bakugou, a person that everyone around him praised for having a powerful quirk and being told that he will be the best of the best, now lying down defeated at the hands of a person with no power to begin with.

"You made my life unbearable to live through. Even taking away the things I love. All because I'm quirkless. No more. I won't let you get away with it anymore. I will stand my ground a continue to push onwards. So Goodbye Bakugou. It was unpleasant knowing you," is all Izuku said to the unconscious body.

"This feels nice," Izuku said as he walks out of the gate. Now no longer wanting the day to end quickly so he can savor the taste of victory, a feeling oh so new to him.

Little did he know, that he was being watched all this time by a certain brunette.

Groggily, Bakugou slowly wakes up. It has been 5 minutes since he's been knocked down unconscious, and to say he's feeling angry is an understatement. All that he feels, all he desires now, is torture to Izuku. 'I will make him pay. I will make sure to ruin his whole life when I get the chance!!!' Bakugou thoughts as he stomps his way out of the school gates. To his surprise, Ochako was there, but what he didn't notice is the glare on her face. Immediately when she saw him, she walks up to him quickly, a little too quickly.

"What do You want round fa-"

Ochako cuts him off by slapping his face with all her might, making him stumble back and feeling the weight of his body disappear, meaning that she used her quirk on him.

"SHUT UP YOU MONSTER!!!" She yells at him in pure anger and disgusts. The look on her face speaks nothing else other than hatred. "ME AND YOU ARE NO LONGER FRIENDS!!! I WANT YOU TO NEVER TALK AND LOOK TO ME AND MIDORIYA EVER AGAIN!!! YOU HEAR ME!?!?! YOU VILLAIN!!!" She slaps him again but even harder then before, she release her quirk, dropping him to the ground and storms off before he can yell. She grabs out her phone and deletes every picture that has Bakugou in it.

She saw everything. She was about to leave the school until he heard a loud shout, curious, she followed the source of it which was behind the school. She hid behind a tree that was close and watched to whats going on. And when she saw Bakugou slamming Midoriya into the wall and yelling horrible things to him, shock, disgust, and anger fueled her. She was going to step in but to her surprise (and to her relief) Midoriya fought back. Defeating the blonde like he was nothing. And when he said that he's quirkless, left her in awe.

She never met anyone who is quirkless, or even knew that he is quirkless at all. She never asked him about his 'quirk' because she didn't feel the need to. At the entrance exam when he was lifting and throwing the debris, she just assumed that he has some sort of strength quirk, but no. He did it in raw strength all his own, just to save her. She already thought of him as amazing, but now? She can't find the words to describe how truly amazing Midoriya is.

And the fact that she hung out with a monster instead of him angers her to the core.

'Why was I ever friends with him in the first place?! I should've known that he puts up an act just to make himself look good while he was truly a horrible person!' She heavily scolds herself. When he asked her if they could be friends 10 months ago, she thought 'Why not?' Oh, how she wanted to go back in time to punch herself for foolishly trusting a disgusting human like him. It all makes sense now. The time where Midoriya 'tripped' was just Bakugou attacking him and lying everything about it. As to why Midoriya was so cold and not like himself. It was all because of Bakugou, and a little bit of her as well. She thinks that he saw her and Bakugou having fun together at school which is probably the reason why he is so distant from her. After all, people who are friends with Bakugou are someone he doesn't want to speak to, and she can't blame him for that, making her guilt even more.

Even when the two don't hang out or talk much at all, she still sees him as a friend. Someone that she really wants to hang out with. His smile is one of the things she missed most about him, his smile is so bright yet kind, caring, and honest. He shows that he's a kind person at heart from all the talks they had during class time. And him saving her from the Zero Pointer, especially after he distance himself from everyone, proves of what kind of boy he is. A selfless, heroic boy that always put others than himself.

Right now, her strength to find and talk to Midoriya has deepened tremendously. She wants to say sorry, for not helping him, for not being there for him like a friend would.

She sighs as she climbs up the stairs to her apartment room. All that yelling took a lot of energy off of her. When she reaches her floor, her heart stops beating, feet frozen, and eyes widen at the scene in front of her.

Midoriya.

Midoriya was fumbling with the keys until he opens it and went inside, not even noticing her staring at him. The moment the door closes, Ochako slumps forward in the floor in pure shock.

"HE WAS LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ME THIS WHOLE TIME!?!?!"