As the proctors for the UA High entrance exam take careful note of the discrepancies between Bakugou and Midoriya's scores from defeating practice villains and heroic deeds, All Might congratulates Midoriya personally for making it into UA. As for how to better use his new quirk without breaking his bones, All Might suggests Midoriya try and envision an egg in a microwave: too much microwave radiation will break the egg, just as pouring too much of One For All's power would break his bones.
Come April, the school year begins, and Midoriya finds himself in the same class as Uraraka and another student he met at the entrance exam: Tenya Iida, a highly intelligent stickler for rules whose quirk gives him engines in his calves that improve his speed. Bakugou is also in the same class: before the school year started, Bakugou, enraged that Midoriya managed to get in, tried to intimidate him into not attending, but Midoriya stood up for himself, now possessed of a newfound confidence.
The homeroom teacher for Midoriya's class, 1-A, is Shota Aizawa, the pro hero known as "Eraser Head". Without missing a beat, Aizawa instructs the students to get into their PE uniforms and go out to the field for a test of their quirks, with the threat of expulsion for the student that performs the worst out of the entire class.
All Might, concerned that Aizawa may single out Midoriya, goes to the field to observe the test, which consist of a series of physical trials that the students excel at with their own quirks. All except for Midoriya, who refrains from using his quirk so he wouldn't injure himself.
His final chance to excel is a pitching contest, as the remaining trials are not well suited to One For All. As Midoriya prepares to take his pitch, Aizawa stops him with his quirk: "Erasure", which allows him to negate the quirks of anyone he focuses his eyesight on. Aizawa warns Midoriya that the risk of injury his quirk carries makes him a liability as a hero before granting him one chance to prove himself.
Midoriya, having nothing to lose, makes his throw. He activates One For All, but, instead of focusing the power in his whole arm, concentrates it on one fingertip in the final moments during which it made contact with the ball. The result is the longest pitch of the entire class, beating out even Bakugou! Even though Midoriya still broke his finger, the teachers are nonetheless impressed by the way he managed to minimize his injuries.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Berserk Button: Izuku managing to excel despite his [formally] Quirkless state becomes this for Katsuki. He becomes enraged and attempts to attack Izuku twice in the episode, once demanding to know how he got accepted into U.A., and the second when Izuku manages to win the Lob Throw test with One for All.
- Cassandra Truth: Goes both ways when Bakugo dismisses Midoriya as a "Quirkless loser" to Tenya. Tenya doesn't believe the claim because he already witnessed Izuku using One for All at the Entrance Exam, while Bakugo doesn't believe Izuku does have a Quirk now due to knowing him his whole life until Izuku's ball throw.
- Fingore: Already knowing the blowback of using One For All, and thanks to Aizawa stopping his first attempt, Izuku decides to risk breaking only his right index finger during the second ball throw, rather than his entire arm.
- Jaw Drop: Bakugo, upon seeing Izuku use his Quirk in front of him.
- Power Nullifier: Aizawa can disable other people's Quirks just by looking at them. Izuku was able to recognize this right away, realizing their teacher is the Pro Hero known as "Eraser Head".
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Thanks to her Zero Gravity Quirk, Uraraka gets "Infinity" on Lob Throw.
- Take a Third Option: Aizawa posits that Izuku can either use One for All to succeed in the Lob Throw, which would immobilize him and require his classmates to assist him off the ground afterward, or toss the ball without his Quirk and get a low score, stating that either way, he has no potential to be a hero. Instead, Izuku concentrates One for All entirely into his finger, launching the ball whilst leaving just that one finger broken for the rest of the tests.
- Too Awesome to Use: Izuku has to determine the right time to use his Quirk during the six fitness tests, since using it once will leave him too incapacitated to succeed in the rest of the trials.
