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Chapter 13 - Quirk Assessment Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-07-22 17:45:29 +0000 UTC“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ – Thought
“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world
“Text” - Attacks
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 13 - Quirk Assessment Part 2
"Alright, next up would be sit-ups. Pair up with someone, and then we'll start, but don't take too much time.” Aizawa told them as they moved to one of the open areas of the gym, one that had been prepared for them. Kirishima moved away from Tetsutetsu and linked up with Ashido, with Midoriya having guessed they knew each other. The same was true with Tetsutetsu and Tokage, as the girl all but grabbed him and dragged him away, the white-haired boy waving at them.
Midoriya was about to ask Aoyama to be his partner for this, but someone spoke before he could. "Excuse me." Midoriya turned to see that he had been Fumikage, the raven-headed boy looking him right in the eye with his straight back and calm, controlled demeanor.
“Is there something you need? Tokoyami, was it?” Midoriya asked, with Tokoyami nodding.
“Tokoyami Fumikage, that’s right. I was hoping that we could be partnered for this activity.” He requested, and while they didn't know each other, Midoriya didn't think too hard about it. After all, it was a simple exercise; if anything, he probably wished to work with him because he saw his performance in everything else.
"Sure, let's find a spot." Midoriya agreed as they walked together, finding a mat between Yaoyorozu and Kendo to their left and Bakugo and Kaminari to their right. The girls gave them a wave and nod while Bakugo ignored them, with only Kaminari happy to see them. Once everyone else had partnered up, Aizawa blew the whistle, and they started. For the Bakugo-Kaminari duo, his old friend let his fellow blonde go first and made his opinion known about Kaminari tapping out at just 39.
"I'd like to see you do better." Kaminari challenged him, his core hurting from how much Bakugo had told him not to quit at a baby number like 30. Bakugo looked him in the eye, then smirked.
"Move aside and let a real man show you how it's done," Bakugo told him as they swapped out spots and got started. Midoriya had to admit that if Bakugo was still the same brat he knew when they were younger, his mindset about exercise hadn't shifted, as his form was flawless. For him, he had let Tokoyami go first, and while he lasted much longer than Kaminari, he eventually conceded at 53.
"Perhaps it's time we swap." He suggested, though Midoriya could tell that he couldn't continue, so he nodded, and they wordlessly changed positions; with Midoriya starting his set, Bakugo already in the high 20s and climbing. Looking to his other side, he saw Yaoyorozu continuing without a word; though she seemed grimacing and a little sweaty, she kept going.
'She must have crazy strong core muscles.' Midoriya thought to himself, as she was proving to be one of the stronger students here, with not just an exceptionally versatile quirk but being in great shape, different from Kendo, who seemed to be built similarly to Ojiro, with a martial artist's body as Yaoyorozu had fat on her. Still, it complimented her form in the best way as while he hadn't actively been looking for it, he could tell that with maybe Hagakure, that Yaoyorozu has the most…mature physique, the kind he had heard supermodels in their late 20s claim they needed a quirk or surgery to have.
“Tall, curvy, great set of knockers, and in shape to boot? I like her, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her, up close and personal.” () pooped into existence as he worked, Fumikage being none the wiser to the fox spirit to his left teasing her master.
‘Perv.’ Midoriya took a breather, thankful that his redding cheeks could be quickly passed off as a result of the exercise. But if he thought that () would just give in, he was sorely mistaken as she leaned close to him, so much so that her lips were by his ear.
“Oh, don't try and act like you didn't picture your and Kendo's sports reversed, Yaoyorozu without most of her clothes and-!”
‘Alright, point taken!’ He screamed back at her from within his mind, almost going it out loud, which would have made the situation much more complicated to explain, especially as he had to work to keep his body done as his spotter would quickly notice if he popped a boner right now. Things weren't helped when he heard Yaoyorozu grunt to the side, having finished 94 sit-ups before she threw in the towel.
() He also noticed that and turned to smirk as he turned his head to Bakugo, who was still ignoring him. “Oh, don't be so embarrassed; you know Saiko would love to have a taste of her just as much, if not more, than you. Didn't she even promise to send you pics?” Fumikage looked up when he noticed Midoriya acting off, as he seemed a bit silent, contrary to how he was earlier. Dark Shadow popped out in time to hear the tail end of the () question, which only confused the raven-headed boy even more.
‘Think of unsexy things, unsexy things!’ Midoriya repeated repeatedly in his head as he worked, eventually finishing with 147 sit-ups. At the same time, Bakugo took the highest of the entire group with 175, which he seemed pretty proud of.
Line Break
When it came time for push-ups, they went in groups of 5, with Bakugo being in the first group and once more taking the top spot with 178. When Tetsutetsu commented that he barely was able to lift himself up after he was done, he screamed that Tetsutetsu was blind and weak since he gave up at 170, which nearly turned into an argument if not for Aizawa.
"You two act out again, and you'll have plenty of time to fight like hoodlums after I expel you, understood?" He threatened, though his demeanour and cadence remained as dispassionate as ever. All could tell from his eyes that he meant it. That was enough for Tetsutetsu to profusely apologise while Bakugo just ticked his teeth and back down, as perish the thought that he'll ever admit he was in the wrong.
“It’s stupid that they nearly took expulsion for that issue.” Todoroki dismissed as he walked off to the side, having finished with 158 push-ups himself, while Kendo shrugged with a smile, the girl having done 139.
"They seem like passionate people, I guess. Great when they work with you, but it's hard to handle disagreements." She stated. WBondo was silent as he felt he had been outshined by the rest, who had managed 130 at least, whereas the largest group had to stop at 73.
“Aoyama, Tokoyami, Kodai, Mineta, Shiozaki. You’re next.” Aizawa called out, Midoriya wishing his friend luck as Yuga waved back over his shoulder. Taking his spot at the far with Mineta, the shortest person, not just the group, but the entire first-year hero class, and Tokoyami to his right, they got into position, and with a blow of a whistle, they started.
"I'm gonna impress the ladies; I gotta impress the ladies," Mineta said to himself in repeat as he pushed himself up, Aoyama and Tokoyami looking his way in confusion as they wondered about his strange statements and slightly perverted look into his eye.
“Did you hear that?” Tokoyami wasn't the most social person, but he had enough friends and social awareness to judge that Mineta was probably thinking of something that belonged on an R-18 site or Playboy.
“Heard it, yes? But believe it, that would be a hard no.” Aoyama shook his head, as he thought they'll not have to deal with overly horny classmates once they completed high school and the hormones had time to settle in their young minds and bodies. His mistake was forgetting that college was famous for parties, drugs, and a whole lot of sex.
"He should focus more on his form than chasing girls; maybe he wouldn't be so exhausted already." Shiozaki hardly batted Mineta an eye as the group had reached the high 20s, but then, and Mineta was already struggling to keep pace.
"Harsh," Kodai noted; she seemed to be feeling the burn, but nearly as severely as the purple-balled-haired boy who once reached 33, fell on his face and groaned, having now set the lowest score for the entire class thus far. Kodai lasted a little longer, calling quits when she reached 42, calmly getting up and picking Mineta up as she went, the boy too tired to notice he was being carried by a pretty girl. Tokoyami seemed to be the middle of the pack as he was out after another 10, leaving just Shiozaki and Aoyama.
They didn't talk, but Aoyama did flash her one of his smiles which got him a deadpan expression in return, something that Midoriya couldn't help but laugh at as Aoyama was too much a player to not have a girl turn him down and hard to keep his ego grounded. Rejected, the guy moped for the rest of his push-ups; even when Shiozaki eventually got up at 94, he pushed himself till he hit 106. "Damn, I was hoping for 110, at least." He stated as he rejoined his group.
"You'll get there, man; you're much better than you were last year," Midoriya told him, with Aoyama looking at him out of the corner of his eye, an amused look on his face.
"Considering you're a fitness nut, it feels a little condescending to hear you say that." The franco-Japanese boy retorted.
Midoriya chuckled, not bothering to deny that he did enjoy keeping in shape a tad bit too much. Something that had started purely as practical so he could be a better hero, then become a hobby he took pretty seriously. However, Saiko seemed to enjoy that fact about him, which only pushed him to work even harder.
"I don't see it like that. You said it yourself, I'm a fitness nut, so I'm keenly aware of how to exercise to get the best results." He replied, with Tetsutetsu nodding along with him.
"He's right. No point pulling something just to look good. Besides, we still have other tests, and Aizawa-sensei doesn't seem like the type to go easy on you if you mess up early." He pointed to the corner where their teacher stood, looking over something on his tablet.
"No kidding, if I didn't know better, I would assume he would fail you on the spot if you missed even just a few of the tests," Ojiro added.
“Who said I wouldn’t?” Aizawa spoke up from behind them, scaring them half to death as Hagakure screamed out while Tetsutetsu and Midoriya fell on their asses.
“What the-! When did you get there?!” Ojiro yelled as he pointed at the man, and the rest of the class was just as surprised by the fact that their teacher could apparently teleport.
Aizawa ignored the question. “Ashido, Koda, Midoriya, Jiro, Ojiro. You’re next.” Midoriya and Ojiro blinked, sharing a confused look as they wondered if the man seriously thought he could pull that stunt and act like it never happened.
But looking at him, they saw he was still as expressionless as the grave, with no humor to be found, which confirmed that he thought they should continue, which they slowly did.
Line Break
Pull-ups were next, and perhaps unexpectedly, Tokage got the highest score as she detached her arms around the bar and floated herself up and down until she got bored, at 81. Fukidashi used his quirk to create a sound effect for bounce, which he used to lessen the load on his arms and get 48, no where near first place, but still the second highest.
Bakugo, this time around, grumbled as he took the 3rd sport at just 44; Aoyama heard him complaining about how he'd be doubling his exercise routine so he would not show up by extras. 'Does he still refer to people by that insult?' The blue-eyed blonde wondered to himself as Kirishima let go of the poll.
“Yeah, 42, that’s a new record!” Kirishima cheered as he locked hands with Tetsutetsu. Their quirks were active, making a hard clang as rock met steel.
“Nice, let’s see if I can’t break mine.” Tetsutetsu excitedly stepped forward, grabbing onto the poll with his quirk active just in his arms and getting to work. As he did so, Sero and Kamakiri both got done with their pull-ups. Kamakiri's eyes narrowed as he just barely missed what he had been going for after seeing the rest: a perfect 40, and instead, he got 39, whereas Sero got 42.
"Your quirk is an ominous one, Midoriya," Yanagi told him as the two finished theirs, the white-haired girl having used her quirk to decrease her weight by half and because of that, she managed a ludicrously high 35 pull-ups, but Midoriya, still in his electric form, topped that with 43, which put him 4th highest at present.
“Ominous?” Izuku asked.
"What would one call a quirk with as many facets as yours? It must have quite the drawback or price to call upon it." Yanagi elaborated, and while he suspected that she was merely being dramatic with her word choice, his mind flashed to Hinata, Shigeru Hiroyuki, and Date's fates and how he had ever come to possess them. Such memories made him frown.
"Well, you're not wrong; some days, I hate how my quirk works," Midoriya replied, though he seemed distracted as he looked off; Yanagi recognized the look on his face; it was the same one her father got whenever he thought about her mother who had passed. There was a sense of longing and resentment but also bitter acceptance of the fact the person you wished to have with you, alive and well, was gone, and there was nothing you or anyone else could do to change it.
“How can you hate it, man? It’s freaking powerful.” The moment was ruined when Kaminari came over, swinging an arm around Midoriya's shoulders.
"More like busted; he was what, a fire and lighting form and, according to you guys, two more at least," Awase added, leading to others adding on what they thought, leaving Yanagi to step back as Midoriya forced a smile back onto his face, an act that she wasn’t alone in seeing as Aoyama, Bakugo, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu and Aizawa all picked up on it, but chose to watch for now to learn more about it.
Iida looked at Midoriya, perplexed by his words that his quirk wasn't as great as they all said it was. “I too fail to see how such a versatile quirk could have lamentable qualities to it.” In response, Midoriya smiled at him, though he remained forced. Even as he felt the spirits within his mind offering comfort that he wasn't at fault, it still felt hollow that he or anyone else couldn't or worse, didn't save them.
“Maybe some other time, but we should continue if we don't want to anger our teacher." He gestured towards Aizawa to throw some of the heat off him.
"Yes, you should," Aizawa replied, deciding to go along with it, but that was just another piece in the puzzle, Midoriya Izuku.
“A-apologies, sir!” As Iida bowed low to their teacher, Aoyama walked past Midoriya, patting his shoulder and offering him a sincere smile, which Midoriya nodded to, his own getting a little lighter as Aoyama.
Line Break
The next test was relatively uneventful in comparison to the rest, as with the rope climb, they had to ascend a top and ring a bell that was hung 10m over their heads, but Aizawa made it clear that so long as they held onto the rope, they could use their quirks however they wished to attempt it. Bakugo grabbed the rope and blasted himself upwards, getting the best time. Tokage took a second as she shut and shot a hand up to the bell while she remained on the floor, grasping the line.
Sero fired his tape at one of the other fittings on the roof, pulling himself towards the bell, and rang it, giving a little peace sign as he came down. At the same time, Aoyama, much like Bakugo, used a similar tactic from the 50m dash, but he wasn't nearly as fast as he had to worry about smacking into the bell or ceiling. Todoroki made an ice platform that shot him upwards while Tokoyami had his quirk climb for them, which its size and extended arms made it incredibly easy for the two.
The only thing to note was that Jiro, the girl with the earphone jacks extendable ear-lobes, was getting increasingly frustrated with the tests, as whatever her quirk was, not a single one seemed to be something she was able to use it in, made clear with the fact she took the longest time by quite the margin to climb the rope. She looked visibly upset when she slid down and saw she was less than 2 seconds slower than 39th place.
"Hey," she looked up to see Midoriya, the guy placing a hand on her shoulder, giving her some level of comfort. "It's not the end of the world. You know what they say about fat ladies, and I haven't heard any sing."
Jiro huffed, turning her head from him. "Easy for you to say; pretty sure you haven't placed any lower than the top fricking ten."
Midoriya again didn't deny it; that would do more harm than good and, if nothing else, would be him insulting her observational skills and intelligence. “Maybe, but thinking you lost is the first step to losing. Just keep at it, and if you make the final cut, we could train together to help with that performance.” When she looked back at him, he was still smiling, a real one, and while she wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, her frustration bled away when confronted with such a simple gesture.
“You’re something else, you know that?” She cracked a smile, laughing a little when she saw his confusion.
“Pardon?”
"You nearly deafened me, and now you're trying to make me feel better?" She pointed towards his chest, her smile becoming more jovial.
"Why wouldn't I? We're training to be heroes, and heroes help others. As for the other part, that…that wasn't intentional. Sorry, I didn't apologize till now." She blinked at that statement. She would have called BS, having heard plenty of people say stuff like that back in high school, most because they wanted to impress, but she could hear nothing but a genuine feeling in his words, his face matching up 100%. Sure, she knew he was right, but…he was the only one who tried to talk to her since she got her.
She relaxed a little, turning to walk off as they moved on to the next test. "No sweat, not the first time it's happened, and probably nothing near the last."
"Still, it was rude of me, so please know I am truly sorry." Midoriya moved to catch up, walking with her, and when she turned to leave, he asked if she wouldn't mind hanging with his group; thus, she found herself standing between an overly enthusiastic Hagakure, who was happy to have another girl in their sausage party group, and Tetsutetsu, who upon hearing she could join them for work-outs, as like an excited puppy with how he talked about ways they could in his words 'bulk her up like Star and Stripes'
'Maybe this was a mistake,' She thought to herself as Midoriya gave her a double thumbs-up, a goofy-looking smile on his face.
Line Break
When it came to the repeated side steps, there wasn’t much fanfare there, outside Mineta having the chance to shine when he used his quirk to create two bounce pads to his sides, which meant that he was zipping to and fro, while Asui used her powerful legs to handle it, taking 3rd. And while Jiro took last again when she looked and saw the new group that had so quickly taken her as a new member smiling and waving, she didn't feel as terrible about it; she still felt like shit, but hey, not alone, at least.
The real fun came with the softball throw. As Midoriya had already gone, Bakugo was selected to go next, and well-
"Die!" He yelled as he threw the ball towards the sky as hard as he possibly could, adding an explosion to the throw, which saw the ball flying away like it had been thrown from a catapult, smoking almost as much as when Midoriya had thrown it. Most of them had to wait for it to land well out of visual distance; Aizawa got the ping on his phone, which he put into scoreboard protection. Midoriya's picture is in first place, with Bakugo taking 2nd place with nearly 760m.
"Holy cow, that was far!" Tsunotori awed her hand over her eyes to try and see that far down the field.
"No kidding, he's just barely behind Midoriya; how are we supposed to compete?" Rin crossed his arms in thought, with Bakugo flinching at the reminder that he didn't get the top spot. As if the universe wanted to mess with him more than it already was, he had lost that spot to Deku of all people, Deku that happened to have a stupidly powerful quirk.
Still, he had to leave the circle; Aizawa grabbed another ball from the box he had at his feet. Where he got the box and how they didn't notice it before were things they'd have to wonder about later. “Uraraka, you’re up.” The man stated as he handed Uraraka the ball, and she stepped into the circle with a big smile on her face, no doubt having the plan to do what Rin believed would be a challenge.
“Like this.” She replied as she touched the ball with all four fingertips and her thumb, and just like with the heights, they immediately realized what she had done as she pulled back her arm. “Annnd go!” She the ball and then watched it fly higher, then higher…and higher, with no sign of stopping. Till, like the other two balls, it soon became too far for most to see, but while they wanted it to come down, they also saw that Uraraka hadn't yet brought her hands together to realize it.
She…she wasn’t planning on…was she?
“It…it didn’t fly that fast, right?” Kaminari asked as it had been a good 15 seconds, and there seemed no sign that it would land.
“No, it looked like a pretty normal throw to me…” Ojiro added, baffled as he wondered if Uraraka was waiting for the darn ball to leave school grounds before she released it, or did her quirk have an effect area she was waiting for the ball to cross?
"But then why hasn't the system pinged yet?" Komori asked.
"No, the ball's still in the air and rising." Shoji, the multi-armed giant of their class, replied; two of his arms had shifted into eyeballs and seemed to be tracking the ball that none of the rest could see anymore.
"Uraraka, does your quirk have a range I should know about?" Aizawa brought attention to himself, with Uraraka taking a moment to think about it, as that was never a question she had asked herself; she tended to use her quirk in close quarters, at best mid-ranged for attack ideas she came up with.
"I've never trained like that, so I wouldn't know," she eventually replied, and the ragged-looking man sighed.
“Then till you do, we’ll work under the assumption that till you release your quirk, that ball’s never returning to earth, so I’ll just put in your score as such.” Aizawa momentarily tapped at his tablet screen before Uraraka's picture appeared on the scoreboard with a genuinely ludicrous score.
“Infinity?!” The class yelled, even the more collected students looking at the infinity symbol with shock. Uraraka awkwardly laughed as she rubbed the back of her head once attention shifted to her.
“What the hell, man!” Kamakiri yelled.
“That should be cheating!” Mina agreed with him; how were they going to compete with that? The first two having cannons for arms was bad enough, but Uraraka might as well have taken their scores and gone super Saiyan.
“I got beat out by round cheeks?! That’s bullshit!” Bakugo was even angrier, but Aizawa told them to stop acting like children and get one with it, passing the Iida as Uraraka stepped aside.
"Note to self: Never anger that madam; else you'll find yourself in low orbit," Aoyama whispered to Midoriya as Iida pulled his arm back but paused and decided to use his quirk.
"Yuga, pretty sure most of the girls here could ruin your day if you anger them," Midoriya whispered back, directing his gaze to Jiro, who looked back at the two, the girl's quirk being well suited for eavesdropping, even if she didn't particularly like hearing people's private conversations. At that moment, Iida kicked the ball as hard as he could with an engine-boosted kick, and when it landed, he got a score of 212.5m, putting him in 4th place for the moment.
When it came to rest, the class knew enough about each other's quirks that they could guess how they'd use them for the test, as Kirishima, Shishida, and Tetsutetsu just their increased strength to throw the ball, with the lowest of them being over 350m. In contrast, Aoyama threw him, then blasted it the distance, which wasn't nearly as far as what Midoriya had achieved, but he didn't mind having a distance of a little under 280m.
Tokage and Yanagi floated the balls across, with Tokage holding it with her hand and managing a better distance before her hand flopped to the ground, no longer in range. She didn't seem concerned about it, just regrowing another one, though Aizawa still made her fetch her limb before the groundskeeper bots went into panic mode should they discover a severed human appendage.
Asui mule kicked the ball while Tsunotori carried it using her two horns but lost balance, and it fell short of the 300 yards she had been aiming for.
"300 yards?" Hagakure asked as they heard Tsunotori complain that she had lost focus at the wrong time.
"It's the American system,," Kamakiri replied, and Hagakure turned to him and frantically waving her arms about.
“Yeah, I know that, but what does that translate to?” She asked him, with the heteromorph pausing to think about it, as if he recalled it right, a single yard in terms of distance was less than a meter, but was it 0.9 or 0.95-
"274.3m, give or take a couple of centimeters." He was beaten to the punch by Yaoyorozu, the girl who had been standing close to them as she waited her turn. Her quick response is for more than just them looking her way.
"How did you just know that?" Midoriya asked, as he had been in the middle of the math himself, but with Yaoyorozu providing the answer, he felt like he was right.
For her part, the girl turned her head their way, a little confused by their question. "I merely converted the imperial to the metric system. Weren't you taught how to do it in middle and high school?" Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Hagakure, and Ojiro looked and felt a little dumb now; the worst part was that they could tell that Yaoyorozu was completely serious; this wasn't her messing or looking down on them.
Aoyama took it upon himself to explain things, though he felt just as dumb for giving an answer that fast or having one close to it. "Madam, most would still need a calculator if not more time to think about it."
Yaoyorozu's brow creased as she heard that, but seeing that others nodded, she grew a little bashful upon seeing that Aoyama was right. "Oh? My apologies; I didn't mean to imply anything unsightly." She bowed to the class as another person stepped up to take the ball throw.
"It wasn't anything bad; you're academically gifted and should be able to freely express that. Besides, we're in the U.A., so you'll probably do that often." Midoriya waved it off, Jiro and Kirishima agreeing with him, the redhead even asking if he couldn’t study with her from time to time, which got others to join it, which seemed to put a spark in the girl who happily agreed to help any that needed it.
When it came time for Jiro, she was a little nervous. Still, when she threw the ball, she was happy to see that her score wasn't the lowest, with at least 2 other people placing lower as she stepped back, Tetsutetsu slamming a hand into her back in congratulations, nearly knocking her down.
Line Break
"We're at the second last test, which takes what you did in the first and adds another few levels of difficulty. I trust that you've all done distance running before." Aizawa asked them. The class had moved to the open track area, one that was spacious enough for all 40 to run. That was mainly because the runner lanes were freakishly wide, no doubt to accommodate unusually large students. When the class nodded, the man continued.
"Good, well, this is similar to that, but there's no set distance you have to run, though you'll be idiots for taking it slow and underperforming, and don't think I won't notice." He threatened, with the group frantically nodding their heads as they didn’t want to give the man reason to expel them early.
Iida raised his hand. “Sir, what is the test in question?”
“The Cooper test?” Aizawa stated that this led to some confusion among the students, while others seemed to understand it.
“The…Cooper test?” Shishida asked, which Midoriya was happy to explain.
“It’s a time run, he’s going to judge how far we can run in 12 minutes.” Aizawa nodded at Midoriya’s words.
“That’s correct, and to that end, you’ll all be wearing these measuring harnesses. They’ll give the system the exact distance you run in that time, but if you feel like you can’t run the full, you can just stop and press the button here.” Aizawa opened another box at his feet and pulled out a belt with a box-like device over the buckle with a green button at the top. He pressed it, and the flashing light on the box went solid green, showing on the screen that harnesses one had completed 0m, along with the message reading, 'What the hell are you even doing here? You can't be this out of shape, loser.'
It was a bit harsh, but the man didn't give them time to linger on it as he stepped aside, pointing to the box. "Now everyone grab a harness. We don't have much time left and still another test to finish."
They didn't waste time as they went to the box one at a time, collecting a harness, each adjustable so that the same one could fit Mineta and his small statue as much as it could tanks like Shoji. The design even was adaptable for students with multi-limbs, which the guy appreciated. Once they were prepped, they took their spots on the track, and when Aizawa gave the word, they were off.
As expected, Iida led the pack, as his quirk made this an ideal test for him. Following after him was Todoroki, who propelled himself on his ice, though this meant that the rest had to avoid his wake. Midoriya switched to his flame mode and raced off, his legs propelling him in quirk, long hops like a rabbit, while Shishido shifted into beast mode and ran like a savage chasing down their prey. People like Bakugo, Tokage, and Tsunotori used similar ideas to the dash. Still, a surprising member of the leaders was Yaoyorozu, who didn't so much run as she pulled out a fully sized electric scooter and rode it.
"Oh, come on!" Tsuburaba complained as he ran, once more thanking the fact that his quirk meant he had stronger lungs than normal and had trained extensively with his breathing. So, while not the fastest, he was confident that he could run a good distance. At least, he was until Yaoyorozu decided that running was for the plebeians.
"(Kero) It's not a race, you know." Asui croaked as she hoped past him, followed by Ojiro, who used his tail to propel himself forward faster than expected and give his legs a lower workload.
“Just try your best." He said, with Aoyama mainly blasting himself forward, landing, and jogging before blasting himself forward again, winking at Tsuburaba as he flew right on. Ashido past by Tetsutetsu and Kirishima, the two ran side by side, trying to outdo the other.
"See ya, boys." She cheered as she put distance between them, using her acid so she didn't need to run so much as skate. It wasn't the fastest, but she could do it for a while, a fact she knew after she spent an afternoon goofing off while she trained her quirk. Matching her speed, however, was Kaibara, who spared her a glance, and flashed a competitive smile, one she returned as they decided to try and race one another as well.
By the time Aizawa blew the whistle, they had learned two things. One that U.A.'s track was insanely long as instead of the usual 400m circle, they had built one that was well over 2m from start to finish. Two, that those leaders run circles in that track as Iida took the greatest distance having ran over 11.7km in the given time, with Yaoyorozu on a electric scooter taking 2nd and even then, she only covered a little over 11.2km.
Todoroki came in third with a little over 10km and could have gone further, but Midoriya noticed midway through that he was having ice build up on his right side, which Todoroki seemed to just ignore. But even stranger was when the time was called, all of it melted right off him.
'Why didn't he do that earlier? Does he need to remain still? Even if that's the case, there was no rule saying we couldn't stop and rest; plenty of the others did that.' Midoriya thought to himself, though he didn't complain about his own place as he took 4th with over 9.8km, faster than he had been a couple months back. Bakugo got 6th place with a distance of a little over 8.1km, and Aoyama took 11th with 4.45km.
Asui got further thanthan him with her 10th-place spot, but Midoriya was more focused on Jiro, who,, despite being covered in sweat and breathing like she couldn't get enough air into her lungs, managed to run the entire 12 minutes. For that, she completed over 2km and took 37th place.
"See, I told you that if you put your mind to it, you'll handle it." He complimented her, giving her a thumbs-up, which Jiro wanted to smack him over the head for, but her hands were too busy gripping at her knees to keep her up.
"Shut up and let me fall over; my legs feel like jello." She huffed back.
"It isn't good to do that after a run," Midoriya replied before he moved so that Jiro was on his back and grabbed him.
"What the?!" She didn't have time to fight back, or really the strength, before she found herself on Midoriya's back, his arms crossed beneath her butt to keep her up while she reflectively crossed them over his shoulders and neck.
"This way, you remain upright and get a chance to breathebreathe." Midoriya laughed at his plan to help her, and Jiro's face went red due to their position.
"You idiot, I'm all sweaty, and so are you!" she yelled at him. Some of the others looked their way and either rolled their eyes or just giggling, though Mineta seemed to be shaking his fist at Midoriya.
“Hey, I don’t mind. A hero helps whenever they can.” Midoriya replied as he moved to join the rest of the group, Jiro hiding her face in his back, which gave her a prime spot to both feel how stiff and warm his muscles were, inhale his sweaty scent, which smelt like pine of all things, and lastly hear his steady, somewhat soothing heartbeat. All of which just made her redder.
"Izuku, does the fact she's a pretty lady also factor into it?" Hagakure's teasing didn't make that any more accessible, as Midoriya just realized the implications.
“O-of course not!”
"Perv," Kamakiri smirked at him, which Midoriya balked back.
“How am I a perv? I’m being nice!”
Line Break
The last test was a 400-meter swimming beat, so they were given a chance to shower to get rid of their sweat and change into the school's swimwear. That was a pair of slim-fit shorts for the boys and a rather conservative single piece for the girls, which also added sleeves and shorts. This left them covered from their knees up to their upper biceps, something which Aoyama heard upset Mineta, who wished to see more.
“Monsieur, if you don’t shape up, you'll be branded a degenerate that should be on a government list," Aoyama told Mineta, who looked back at him, his eyes telling the taller boy that the pervert caught none of that.
"What was that?" Mineta asked as Aoyama turned to walk off.
"Good luck." He replied, but Mineta wasn't an idiot. He might not know French, but he sure as hell knew it didn't take that many words to say that.
“I feel like it wasn’t.”
"It wasn't," Midoriya confirmed as she heard the entire thing, same as Yaoyorozu, who only shook her head at Mineta's frankly concerning the desire to ogle her and the rest of the girls.
“Alright, get ready, I want to get through this quickly.” Aizawa broke that up before he picked the teams of 5 that would be sent in.
Again, Iida took first, though Kaminari and others asked if he could even be allowed to do what he did. He didn't swim so much, so he balanced on the lane divider and ran back and forth. Aizawa just looked at them with his deadpan face, silencing complaints. With that confirmed that they didn't even need to get into the water, many others followed Iida's example, which led to some insane times, as even people like Asui, who were in their element in the water, ended up with just 9th place.
"(Kero) I'm still the fastest in the water; they didn't even try swimming." She replied when Uraraka asked if she was okay with her surprisingly low placement. Midoriya found himself nowhere near the upper levels he had been staying in for the others, as he didn't have a form that could help in the water—not that much anyway. So he swam like the majority and, because of that, got his lowest placement of the tests, 19th place.
Line Break
"Great, we're done. You all have a pretty good idea of where you stand on this, but let's confirm or refute those suspicions, shall we?" Aizawa started, as they had finished with all the tests. The students stood before him still in their swimsuits, the last group that swam still dripping water, including Jiro.
"Your placement on this final scoreboard was calculated using your placements in the tests before being added up and divided by said number of tests, with some points added or removed by me depending on how much I saw your work to ensure that they were no ties," Aizawa explained things, to them, though he had to be a little more critical than even he usually was with some, and a little more loose in others thanks to the fact so many people shared first place for the standing long jump.
Jiro stood, shivering with nerves, as he prayed that her efforts wouldn't mean she'd be going home on the first day. Not when that meant facing her parents and telling them their daughter was a failure after all the time they spent helping her train, getting her extra tutors, and even signing her up for a gym membership last year.
He felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Midoriya smiling at her. “You worked hard, you got this.” He looked a little silly, covered in brown skin and slick fur and slowly drying from his swim, but his smile was far too bright for her to laugh at. It would be laughing at a dog that wished to play fetch or comfort you on a bad day.
“Yeah…yeah, I do…I hope.” She replied, still feeling anxious as Hagakure put an invisible hand on her other shoulder.
“We got your back, girl.” She told her with a smile, though Jiro was just assuming that last part.
“Your results.” Aizawa presented their placements.
1st: Bakugo Katsuki 11th: Kirishima Eijiro 21st: Tsunotori Pony 31st: Kuroiro Shihai
2nd: Midoriya, Izuku 12th: Aoyama Yuga 22nd: Yanagi Reiko 32nd: Koda Koji
3rd: Tokage Setsuna 13th: Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 23rd: Shiozaki Ibara 33rd: Bondo Kojiro
4th: Shishida Jurota 14th: Fukidashi Manga 24th: Sero Hanta 34th: Kodai Yui
5th: Iida Tenya 15th: Honenuki Juzo 25th: Sato Rikido 35th: Mineta, Minoru
6th: Todoroki Shoto 16th: Monoma Neito 26th: Kaibara Sen 36th: Kaminari Denki
7th: Yaoyorozu Momo 17th: Shoji Mezo 27th: Ashido Mina 37th: Shoda Nirengeki
8th: Kendo Itsuka 18th: Uraraka Ochaco 28th: Tsuburaba Kosei 38th: Hagakure Toru
9th: Ojiro Mashirao 19th: Asui Tsuyu 29th: Rin Hiryu 39th: Jiro Kyoka
10th: Kamakiri Togaru 20th: Tokoyami, Fumikage 30th: Awase Yosetsu 40th: Komori Kinoko
Midoriya felt good about himself for placing so high on the list, as did Aoyama, though he missed the top ten. Ojiro sighed, smiling when he saw that he was 9th overall, while Kamakiri crossed his arms. Jiro was so happy that while she placed near the bottom, she wasn't the lowest in the class.
“I…I got last…?” Komori asked, tearing up as she saw her place. Jiro's relief turned sour, as she could recall in more than one test that the shorter girl had performed even worse than she did.
“Wow, suddenly, I feel like a total bitch.” She stated that Midoriya and the rest did not have much to say as they didn't know what they could say in the situation. That reminder robbed most of their joy at their rankings; not even Bakugo felt it was the right time to gloat that he had taken first.
“By the way, I was lying about the expulsion.” Aizawa just threw out. The class stiffly turned to him in shock, which he couldn't help but give a bit of a toothy smile at, though he resembled a drugged-out homeless person more than anything else. “It was a rational deception. What better way to ensure you all gave it your best than to put your buts to the fire?"
.
.
.
"What!!" they cried out in shock. Komori was unsure sure what she should: feel: anger, relief, shock, or some combination of the three. Meanwhile ,Yaoyorozu looked on at their reactions.
"Of course, it was a lie; I thought you all knew." She told them, and again, when they looked back at her, they could tell she was earnest. Did she notice a tell they didn't?
‘I didn’t notice.’ Midoriya and several others thought to themselves, the boy wondering if he was as bright as he thought as he went to a top technical school, but maybe there was something above that.
"Oh, thank God, I'm not expelled!" Komori collapsed to her knees, deciding she could rage about this later. Right now, she was shedding tears of joy.
“Doesn't mean I'm not going to train harder to end up in the top ten next time," Kirishima stated, as with the mode lighter than before, he could smile while making that statement.
"I would hope so. You all might have survived the first day, but that's just it—survival. The rest of the staff and I are going to make sure that by the end of the year, you'll be far better than you are now." Aizawa told them, all eyes turning to the man who looked them over before he shut off the projections, saving the results to the school's servers for later review.
"What that, we're done. Head back to the locker rooms, shower, and get dressed back into your uniforms; you'll find your class timetables and other info on hand-outs on your desks, which I hope you remember." He turned and walked off, not even so much as good work or dismissal, but they imagined that this was his version of that as if nothing else; Aizawa-sensei was unconventional.
‘In a class of natural quirks, I managed 2nd place.’ Midoriya thought to himself, looking at his hand as his group started discussing their evening plans. ‘Mom’s efforts are really amazing to see.’
‘Don’t forget us, Izuku.’ He heard Hinata in his head.
'Yeah, it was a pretty fun time; now I'm returning to nap.' Date added in, the electric quirk sounding like he had been napping, which knowing him, was probably the case.
Line Break
“Erasure, you liar.” All Might approached the underground hero, the number one, wearing his typical yellow pinstripe suit instead of his hero gear.
Aizawa, walking away from the field, turned his eye to address the man he had noticed who had been watching them earlier. "All Might didn't think you were the type to skulk around."
“A rational deception, you say? April Fools' was last week. I've seen your record. You've expelled entire classes before, including last year." All Might countered his earlier statement as he read through all the teacher files, and Aizawa's was the most concerning.
Aizawa didn't deny that statement, as it was true, and both knew it, so All Might continued with something he suspected of the man. "You cut those who judge to have no potential without hesitation or regret. For a man like you to take back your word, you must see their potential, the same as me, right?" He gave a smile and a thumbs-up at the man, who merely looked at the thumbs-up with a straight face before looking back at All Might's face.
"As you? You don't even know any of them last I checked. How can you have made that judgment?" All Might flinched at that question, which Erasure easily caught as All Might was a terrible liar. "Or maybe you have your eyes on just the one? Taking favorites, especially this early, is unprofessional behavior for a teacher." Now, he had another mystery, though one that was as important as the first.
Still, All Might was clearly nervous about whatever little secrets he was having about the students. Still, as he trusted the man wasn't involved with anything improper or needlessly scandalous like a romance with one of the students, he decided to cut the man some slack and drop it.
"But as for why I didn't cut anyone, it's because I do judge them all to have some potential, but even with that being the case, if they can't live up to that potential for whatever reason, I won't think twice about cutting them loose. It's better to crush their dreams and let them live than let them chase them and end up dead.” Aizawa returned the topic to what All Might was worried about, and the underground teacher started to leave again.
"I meant what I said earlier: this world is unfair and doesn't care for anyone's hopes or dreams. While some would argue it's cruel to deny people their dreams even if those dreams lead them to an early grave, I would call them fools. Let them cry about it; let them hate me for the rest of their lives; they'll be alive to do that.” He stated, his eyes flashing back to another time, a younger time, but as quick as it happened, it was gone, and the man was back in the present.
Line Break
Well, this chapter-length took far longer than usual to finalize, but finalize I did.
Not that's normally at the top:
Well, power's gone(again), which really slowed this chapter down as I wrote it, but thankfully, I got some writing done, among other things, since I had managed to charge my laptop fully the night before. But it was a fun week overall; I spent time with my brother, hung out with friends, and watched the latest episodes and shit man, the emotions are pretty damn high from the Todoroki siblings, Enji accepting his past and sins but using that anger to fuel him to do something to not burden the new generation, AFO pulling a UNO reverse and finally, the mess that is the Sky battle as Shiggy just dominates them, taking their best attacks and just roasting them for thinking they could take him on and win, which…makes sense, this was the same man that dogged Endeavour and Ryukyu while quirkless and with an incomplete body.
