Chapter 2: Orientation - Cause for Apprehension
"If you all were serious about entering the field of heroics, you would have made it here in ten minutes. Does it take the nation's finest up-and-coming heroes ten minutes for a mere change of clothes and another ten to leisurely stroll to where they've been summoned?"
Forty students gathered on the UA P.E grounds, currently wearing their fresh new sports uniforms and being chewed out for following their teacher's orders to the letter. Plus Ultra?
"In the future, I will expect to see a substantial improvement or you may find yourself with a prospective career in general studies instead. Is that understood?" The scruffy, tired-looking Aizawa Shouta sighed at the nodding of his newest class, tinged with frantic nervous energy.
CRAK! The sound of Midnight's whip echoed across the P.E grounds as the woman in question approached the crowd from behind. "Now, now!~ When he gives an order, you say 'Yes, Aizawa-sensei! Or… 'Yes, Daddy~ "
Aizawa groaned. "Don't call me that." He turned back towards his class. "Today we will be undertaking a physical and quirk assessment test to determine your capabilities so as to better understand your baselines. Bakugou Katsuki. You scored the highest amount of villain points in the practical exam. What was your softball throw record in high school?"
The explosive blonde shoved his hands into his pockets, hunching over slightly. "Sixty-seven metres."
Aizawa held out a softball. "Now, standing in the circle, do whatever it takes to throw this ball as far as possible, including using your quirk."
His face practically lit up in a feral grin, and Bakugou cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms as he snatched the ball from Aizawa's grasp and stormed to the white circle laid out on the ground. "We get to use our quirks, eh? Then take a good look, extras! This is what it means to be number one!" Bending an arm back, small crackles and smoke began to seep out from underneath the ball as he wound up, before lunging forward and whipping the ball up screaming "DIE!!!", an immense explosion erupting from his palm as the ball rocketed out carried by a jet of flame.
Aizawa held up a counter. 705.2 metres. "The first step to pushing your limits is to know them."
"This is boutta be lit!" Camie exclaimed, claiming a high-five from Mina.
"Damn, UA's hero course doesn't hold back, huh?" Sero nodded.
"Are you here to goof around or to save lives?" Aizawa cut off the excited murmurings of the class with a by-now signature glare. "Wasted time can't be recovered, so you had all better make the most of the three years you have been given here at UA. Do you expect to become heroes by playing patty-cake with your friends? Clearly, this class-size experiment was a mistake. As your homeroom teacher it's my duty to trim the fat, so let's make this even more 'fun' with a little 'game' . The lowest ten scorers by the end of these eight tests will be instantly thrown out of the Hero Course."
"Now hold it, Aizawa." Midnight interjected. "You're not the only homeroom teacher anymore, and both us and Ishiyama have to have a consensus on expulsions from this course. However~" she turned back to the ghost-faced forty, who'd only moments before been thoroughly cowed by Aizawa's threat. "That doesn't mean I'll hesitate to expel troublemakers or those who are satisfied coasting on by in this course. Nobody likes a pillow princess."
Aizawa huffed in exasperation. "Are you going to ruin my every rational deception for the next three years?" Rolling his eyes, he brought up an empty scoring screen. "Before we begin these tests. Manami." The pint-sized woman squeaked as she received his undivided attention. "Kayama has informed me you do not wish to reveal your quirk to your cohort as of yet. Having looked at your file, there is no potential application for it on this test." She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Aizawa-sensei."
"That doesn't apply for anybody else here." he warned. "Shinsou. Toga. Both of you have refused to reveal your quirks to your classmates as well. However, if I do not see you use them to attempt to achieve the highest scores possible in these tests, be well aware I will be the first to propose your expulsion. Being a hero means being placed in uncomfortable situations, and not every hero is a spotlight hero who will be beloved by all. Get used to it, unless your social standing amongst your classmates is less important to you than the lives of civilians."
He gave no reaction to the scowls of the two, Toga squinting her eyes so tightly he could barely see the whites and Shinsou clenching his fists and teeth in agitation. "Midoriya. Kayama informed me you are currently unable to use your quirk without completely shattering your own limbs, mainly due to so recently acquiring it." Midoriya cringed at his words, Uraraka beside him sweat-dropping at the memory of the boy from the entrance exams falling down to earth like a downed kite, limbs flapping loosely. "I expect you to figure out a way of using your quirk without totally incapacitating yourself today." He turned back to the rest. "First test is the 50-metre dash."
As Iida and Bakugou were called up to the starting line, Midoriya gulped. 'This is bad..! I can't use One for All for most of these. The ball throw? Grip Strength? Maybe those could work? I can't use it for anything that needs repeated actions or is based on endurance…' Stuck in his own head, a hand suddenly clapped onto his shoulder, the world slamming back into focus.
"Hey, are you okay? I can hear you sweating from here." Uraraka asked in concern. He shakily nodded.
"I-I'm just trying to figure out how to use my quirk for all of these. I can't really use it for any running right now, a-and I don't want to lose my arms after just doing one test!"
"Don't worry, kero. You'll figure something out." Tsuyu's low, croaky voice assured him. "You seem to know a lot about quirks, so you can probably figure out your own too, kero."
"Y-yeah! I'm not gonna be able to u-use it for running anyways, s-so that gives me more time to figure it out for other events!" He brightened up a little, Tsuyu looking satisfied at being able to lift his mood.
"Uraraka. Intelli."
"Wish me luck! I can't do much with this test though." Uraraka chirped, throwing back a wave as she departed to the start line. As Tsuyu waved back, Midoriya was hit with a brainwave.
Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called out, "U-Uraraka! You get nausea when you use your quirk on yourself, right?" She turned back to him.
"Yeah, how come?"
"Even for a split second?"
She considered the question.
"It kinda tends to set in after a few seconds and really doesn't get BAD until I use it for a bit after. Why?"
"B-because I have an idea! If you use it on yourself right before you get to the finish line and release right after, you can complete the last section much faster without feeling it too much! You weren't going to so you could do the other tests, right?"
"Yeah! I was just gonna remove the gravity of my clothes! Thanks, Deku!" she rushed to the track, Aizawa boring a hole in her head from the conversation as Iida returned to Midoriya and Tsuyu's side, with Pony and the purple-haired boy apparently called Shinsou walking over as well. The group watched as Intelli appeared to be talking to Aizawa.
"...so the robot at the start line tracks the racer and captures the start before correlating the data with the end camera?" the monocled girl persisted. Aizawa nodded from behind his scarf. Satisfied, she turned back to the starting line as Uraraka walked over.
As Aizawa called to "Go!", Intelli smacked the camera to the side and began to sprint, keeping pace with Uraraka whose clothes were floating as she sprinted down as well. The camera shortly reoriented as the two made their way near the end of the track, Uraraka suddenly shifting to smack herself with a hand as she put all her might into her legs and pushed off forwards, rocketing past the finish line. The cameras at the end beeped as Intelli crossed the line shortly after.
Aizawa checked his tablet. "Uraraka, 6.05 seconds. Intelli, 6.21 seconds." As the two returned to the start line, murmuring about Intelli's method pervaded the air.
"Disgraceful! Sensei, Intelli-san's score should be rendered void for such a flagrant violation of the stipulations of the exercise!" Iida hollered out, joined by Monoma's heckling.
"Is this the low our class is going to stoop to?" The blonde sneered in disgust.
"Truly a sinful act." echoed Shiozaki, shaking her head in dismay. "To see one of my own classmates make a mockery of heroism is unthinkable..."
"What Intelli did here was use the available information to her advantage." Aizawa interrupted, his voice a hot knife, cleaving silence into the conversations happening around him. "Without a physical quirk, she instead learned the rules of the engagement and outsmarted the test's rules itself." Intelli preened at the praise and the befuddled stares of everyone else around her. "That being said, these are tests designed to gauge your physical abilities." Aizawa continued. "Clever tricks are just that - tricks.A hero who resorts to tricks will find themselves dead when they end up in a situation where actual ability is necessary. Intelli. I'll count this score, but I won't allow future tricks like that in any of the other tests. You two leave. Tsunotori. Sero. You're up next."
"Yes, sensei" she grumbled, dejectedly, before Uraraka's arm touched her shoulder.
"Hey, that was a pretty good idea though! I think Aizawa-sensei was impressed if he counted it!"
She pushed the gravity girl's arm off of herself. "Don't condescend to me. Go find somebody else to blabber off to." With that, she bitterly marched to find somewhere in the crowd of students to stand that wasn't actually in the crowd of students without looking like she was just standing off to the side and separate from everyone else. Unaware of the mental calculations the other girl was undertaking, Uraraka returned to Tsuyu and Midoriya and turned to watch Pony and the tape boy compete.
Midorya's hands periodically twitched watching the competitors go. Pony grabbed her Horns and used their speed to pull herself forward on her durable hooves like a jet ski. Mina skated on her acid as Todoroki skated on his ice. Aoyama turned backwards and propelled himself with the blast of his lazer - singing a tree a good deal away in the process. As-no,Tsuyu, when called up, displayed her amphibian agility by sprint-hopping to the goal. Josei's legs, as tall as Midoroya himself, allowed for massive strides. Honenuki swam like a dolphin through the ground as Shiozaki's vines continually speared the ground and dragged her forwards like a demented spider. Setsuna's pieces split apart and whizzed to the finish at blistering speed, narrowly beating Kuroiro who'd simply merged into the shadow of the building nearby, overcast by the sun, and popped out a moment later on the other end. Everyone was putting their best foot forward…
Eventually, Midoriya was called up and ran against Bondo in a rather unceremonious showing, though at least he'd beat the glue-spouted boy by a full second. Aizawa humphed, but couldn't seem to find anything to complain about in either boy's showings, and sent them on their way. "Toga. Kirishima. You're up next."
As the cat-eyed girl skipped over from where she'd been standing near Shouji and the redhead marched up with a determined grin, Midoriya returned to his…friends? Too early. To the sides of the people he knew.
"You're really fast Izuku! You must do a lot of exercise, right?" Pony cheered, offering a high five and receiving a weak, nerve-filled slap on the palm in return.
"Yeah! I did a lot of strength training before the entrance exam, including running or jogging while carrying… a-a really heavy load." He felt his skin prickling and turned to see a flash of blonde hair disappear behind the tree Aoyama had nearly felled, still charred and smoking. 'Must've imagined it.'
"You are quite muscular, kero. That gym uniform seems to be a tight fit on you." Tsuyu noted, staring at… 'my chest?'
Midoriya blushed faintly. "I-I guess!" he turned to watch as grey sludge oozed off of Toga, the hulking six-armed form of Shouji rushing out of it as Aizawa called out. 'Transformation type quirk, she can become somebody… retains physical strength, she runs quite fast as Shouji - can she copy quirks? How long does it hold for? Activated by sight, maybe touch like Monoma's Can she store a transformation, or transform specific parts of her body?'
"Hagakure. Shinsou." Aizawa's voice pierced his speculation, and Midoriya averted his eyes right as the sludge leaked off of Shouji-Toga to reveal a Toga that probably wasn't wearing her gym uniformbutI'mnotsureIwasn'tlooking!
Uraraka shook Iida's arm. "Iida? You ok? Hey, Deku-kun, Tsu-chan, something's up with IIda-kun!"
Midoriya turned to meet a blank, glassy-eyed stare next to the shorter Shinsou, who looked tense. "He's fine. Iida, follow me."
'Vacant stare, seems to be caused by Shinsou, he expects him to follow orders, isn't surprised by this…' "Shinsou, you have some sort of mind control quirk, don't you?" The wild-haired boy grit his teeth. "And so what if I do? Aizawa-sensei told me to use it or I'm out, right? I'm just doing what he said!"
"Release Iida, Kero." Tsuyu demanded, squaring up. Uraraka looked similarly incensed, and Pony looked about two seconds away from spearing one of Shinou's feet to the ground with a horn to prevent him from getting away.
"H-h-hang on, guys!" Midoriya waved his hands, trying to calm the others down. He turned to Shinsou. "Iida's an… understanding guy, kind of? I'm sure if you explained everything to him he'd be more than happy to let you use your quirk on him to win."
"Oh, you think he's gonna be happy handing his motor functions over to me on a silver platter?" Shinsou retorted, venom dripping from words. "Think everyone's gonna be oh-so-kind to me after they learn my quirk?"
"Maybe they'd be kinder if you asked ." Uraraka spat. Shinsou glared at her, matching her own furious gaze. Then, without any physical signal Iida seemed to relax.
"I… what was I doing?" he blinked hard, wiping his glasses and looking around. "What's happening? It looks like you five are going to fight. I hope I don't have to tell you I'd report it to Aizawa-sensei if you tried!"
Midoriya turned to Iida. "Hey, Iida, can Shinsou here use his quirk on you for the next test? It's kinda how his quirk works, he needs another person."
Iida furrowed his brow, and turned to Shinsou. "I suppose as long as it is allowed by Aizawa-sensei. How exactly does your quirk function?"
The boy looked sceptical. "You… just have to respond to me."
"And then?" Before he could, Iida was seized by the same invisible force and somehow stiffened more than he usually stood. Shinsou looked taken aback, watching as the others studied him - Midoriya with a curious gaze and fingers almost violently twitching, the others more apprehensive.
"You're weird." he drawled, pointing at Midoriya, who turned scarlet and looked away guiltily, hands tensing. "Iida, give me a piggyback ride to the field." The taller bluenette picked him up and carried him over, Aizawa tiredly giving him a once-over before waving him over to the field. Midoriya, Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Pony watched as Aizawa shouted "Go!" and Iida's engine legs let out a burst of speed, carrying himself and Shinsou to the finish line in seconds. Hagakure reached it a few seconds later, before giving the Shinsou-carrying Iida a presumably quizzical expression.
Iida's world snapped back into focus as he felt Shinsou draped over his back, crawling back off to the ground again. "Where… the running track. That's… disconcerting." He settled on. "Shall we make our way back to the others, Shinsou-kun?"
"We?" he confusedly echoed, raising an eyebrow. Iida shrugged off the last lingering effects of his trance. "Well, yes. I'm sure Midoriya-kun and the others would like to talk. To be forthright with you, I am more… confused than anything else about what just transpired."
Shinsou and Iida returned to the perplexing sight of a grinning Midoriya vibrating excitedly. "That's an incredible quirk, Shinsou! The activation requirements are response-based, right? How long can you hold somebody for? Are there limits to what you can make them do?"
Shinsou flinched, taken aback. "Trying to learn thelimits of the brainwasher already, huh?"
Midoriya frowned. "N-n-no? I'm j-just interested to learn about your q-uirk. Mental quirks a-are rare, and not many heroes operate with them, and since the human mind can be so vague and undefined there's much less research and d-documentation on them online!"
"Makes sense. Who'd want to learn about a villain quirk, except how to beat it?"
"Did people call you a villain in high school? Is that why you didn't want to reveal your quirk?" Uraraka asked, eyes softening.
"Or making friends?" Pony tacked on.
Shinsou scoffed. "Why would perfect hero students with flashy quirks want to make friends with villain-boy? Makes… made sense to me."
"Disconcerting though it may have been, you don't seem to be malevolent, Shinsou-kun." stated Iida, arms chopping. "I did not think for a second you were villainous in nature - it would be improper and hasty to assume such things about our cohort, even if there are a few ruffians amongst us who seem partial to hooliganry." he finished, leveling a glare at Bakugou, who appeared to be suffering greatly as Kirishima tried to talk to him.
"He means Bakugou acts more villainous than you, kero." Tsuyu translated. "For what it's worth, people in high school used to say I looked gross because of my quirk."
Uraraka was flabbergasted. " Gross ? How could they say that? Are they blind?!" The froggy girl shrugged.
"Only one other girl there'd agree with you, and she was also a heteromorph who got made fun of. More than me, actually."
"I… I-I kinda understand where you're coming from, Asui-san." Midoriya stuttered. "My-my quirk coming in late meant nobody wanted to be friends with me or anything and they could be... mean about it, because everyone thought I was- that I had n-no quirk. Including me."
The gravity girls' head whipped from Tsuyu to Midoriya, then back to Tsuyu, then back again, as if watching a tennis match. "I-I-how dare they?!? I'm, I should, should-should, ah should tan their hides and float m' six ways t' Sunday !" a growl escaped from the depths of her chest, a protective blaze burning in her auburn eyes as she grit her teeth and seethed in rage. Her two green-haired classmates were momentarily stunned by the sudden change in attitude, not registering the almost imperceptible heat on their faces.
"I-It's all fine, Uraraka, seriously! I have a quirk now!" Midoriya comforted.
"Thanks for standing up for us, kero. It's all in the past though. Also, Midoriya, call me Tsu, kero." Tsuyu croaked.
The fire remained in the brunette's eyes as she calmed down a little, heaving out an annoyed sigh, "Well, it's still not fair! Both of y'all deserve better than that!"
"What was that accent?" Pony tilted her head, curious. "My Japanese is not very good for other accents, I only know basic."
"I believe it's the Kansai dialect, Tsunotori-san." Iida informed her.
Uraraka bushed. "No, no, you must've misheard, I was just… just so angry, y'know? So I stuttered a bit, like Midoriya!"
"Point is, Shinsou…" Midoroiya returned the subject to the brainwashing boy in question. "...we won't judge you for your quirk. We weren't all given the easiest times either."
Shinsou shifted uneasily on his feet, not responding. Deciding to leave the subject there, he offered a small, kind smile and turned back to analyze the next test - Aizawa was walking around the field handing out grip strength devices to everyone.
Shouji had managed to fit three of his thick, muscular arms into the device and gripped it with them simultaneously.. 540 kilograms. Kendo appeared to do the same, except with one massive hand, for a much lower but still admirable result of 200 kilograms of force. Josei gripped the thing with her teeth, biting down. 310 kilograms. 'Oh, she has a strong jaw because of vestigial shark mutations… if only I had my notebooks.' Komori and Todoroki grew a large, firm mushroom and a block of ice within their respective devices. 70 kilograms. 120 kilograms. All around the grounds, people were using their quirks to net them better scores than they would've otherwise got. Setsuna split apart to fit both hands and feet on the tester and bit down on it as well. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow both gripped down on theirs, though Dark Shadow was obviously doing most of the heavy lifting. Toga turned into Shouji and got his exact score for herself. Kodai placed a pebble inside the tester and expanded it until the tester snapped under the strain. Shoda gripped down and then twin impacted his grip for a better score. Shiozaki's tester couldn't even be seen under the jungle of vines.
On the other hand… there were also students who couldn't use their quirks for the test, albeit not for a lack of trying. Ashido called for another hand grip tester, having melted through her first one while 'experimenting'. Mawata just settled for a regular hand grip strength after a few failed attempts at teleporting the device to see if that would affect it. Aoyama did not even bother using his quirk, Kamakiri by his side sarcastically complimenting his 'dainty hands' for his low score. Midoriya was unsure if Aoyama could tell. Kuroiro, Hagakure, Intelli, Kaminari, and many others just gripped it as normal for a normal result. Hell, if the expression on Aiba's face was any indication, her… compressed physique did not result in any extraordinary strength benefits, but rather the opposite.
' This and the ball throw are the only tests I can use my quirk for as it is now, but even still… losing an entire arm or hand for the rest of the tests will be a huge energy drain and hamper my other scores. '
Midoriya stared down at his tester, unsure. 'Maybe if I use one hand and save the other for the throw… One for All - Kansas… grip?' Placing his stance wide in anticipation of the blinding pain, red veins of energy lit up across his hand. ' PLUS- '
"Whatcha doin'?"
"WHAAAGH!" With an undignified yelp, Midoriya released control and spun around to greet that cat-eyed blonde with the twin buns… Toga, his mind supplied. The transformation quirk user who turned into Shouji.
"I-I'm just gonna do the grip test, Toga-san. H-how did you go?"
"Call me Himiko!" She chirped as she leaned in, a permanent blush radiating across her face, stretching from the corners of her cheeks to above her nose, between her sharp, dark lashes. 'Wow, she's… really close.' "I'm sure you saw me use Mezo-kun's form for the running race, so I just used that again! He's super cute! Though, he's not as fast at running as I thought he'd be. I could probably have done better as myself…"
"A-ah, that's still a really useful quirk! It's much better than mine for this…" he sighed, bracing for the pain as he flexed his hand again, the new yet familiar energy of One for All coalescing on his fist. "Stand back." he warned.
"So." Toga interrupted, ignoring him completely. "I heard you got super smashed up during the entrance exam, and Sensei-kun said you shattered all your arms and legs?"
"Y-yeah, it really hurt. My quirk is still way too powerful for my body to handle, even after all my training." Midoriya dejectedly mumbled. "I almost hit the ground like that if Uraraka didn't fly in to save me."
"Mm, I think she's super cute too." Toga… agreed? Midoriya blushed, the pink on his face contrasting his viridian hair. She pouted and put a finger to her lips in a way oddly reminiscent of Tsuyu. "Hmmm… Oh! Oh, I've got it! It's like knives!"
"What?" He was genuinely perplexed, but the odd woman carried on undeterred, almost gaining momentum in her excitement.
"Okay! Okay, so when you're fighting with knives and you want to hit someone at range, do you throw your knife at them?"
"No?" Was fighting with knives something she did to train for the hero course?
"No! Instead, you gotta get loaadsss of itty-bitty cute little throwing knives instead!" She lifted her skirt up to reveal a small set of knives in a professional-looking holster strapped to her inner thigh. ' That's a lot of thigh… knives! Knives!' Midoriya ripped his gaze away, pink tint now going scarlet. Toga smiled in satisfaction at his reaction. "See, if you throw away your main fighting knife, you're disarmed, and then the bad guys can stab you until your guts spill out your chest! Get it?" He shook his head, clearing away the sinful thoughts. He could feel Shiozaki's gaze as if it were a vague presence on his shoulder, then realized how that looked and nodded.
"I need to find a way to use my quirk in smaller, more expendable ways, like…" He began to mutter into his fist, unaware of Toga's widening grin as she slowly leaned in close, before placing a hand on his wrist and gently guiding it to her other hand. "Find your throwing knives, Izu-kun." she whispered, breath hot, prying his fist open and tracing her hand softly down the ridges of his fingers… fingers!
"That's it! Thanks, Toga-san! Stand back." he warned, a determined grin carving onto his face that she mirrored in full, cheeks stretching and fangs gleaming. Curling a single finger onto the gripping section, he braced and felt the energy of one hundred percent coalescing into a single finger that buzzed painfully at even the most minute twitch. He clenched it violently.
"SMASH!"
Instantly the grip tester shattered, plastic and metal shrapnel exploding out and cutting shallow trails in his cheek as larger chunks of it fell to the ground. For a full second, Midoriya stood there, watching the dust that was kicked up settle back onto the field, before white-hot pain dug its claws into his finger. He glanced down. Like his arms before, it was discoloured and bruised so entirely it was practically completely purple, red veins more prominent. A drop of blood leaked out near the knuckle.
"I… the tester." He weakly mumbled, before turning at the sound of footsteps. Aizawa approached, holding up the tablet. "I'm glad you figured out a method that works for you, Midoriya." he plainly stated, tapping a few times at the screen. "I will be lenient today since you only recently became privy to your quirk, but I expect you to reduce the damage it does in the future."
He held up the tablet. "As for the grip test… It was only logical for this to happen, and as such I anticipated circumstances like this, which is why every grip tester has a remote backup function. It archived and sent your results to me every millisecond you squeezed it. One-thousand two hundred kilograms of force. Can you continue?"
Midoriya gritted his teeth. The pain throbbing inside his finger was stabbing, nerves in his hand on fire, every instinct in his body screaming at him to slap his broken finger, or dunk it in ice water, or bit himself, or something else. He gritted his teeth harder. "Yes." This was nothing. 'This is… way better than having both legs and my arm shattered!' Aizawa said nothing, giving him a once-over before silently leaving with an unreadable expression half-hidden by the folds of his scarf.
Midoriya turned back to Toga. "Thanks Toga-san! I couldn't have… Toga?" She stared at his broken finger, almost enraptured by the sight, mouth hanging open as if she wasn't even aware of where she was. Her slitted black pupils were blown out across her iris, the deep amber colour barely visible beneath them as they flicked across his finger, before settling on the blood droplet as it streaked a trail of faint red down his knuckles. Her eyes flicked up to his face and her pupils contracted violently as she flinched back before turning in, withdrawing into herself.
"...Are you okay, Toga-san?" She took a breath as a tight-lipped smile found its way onto her face.
"I'm fine, Izu-kun! Just… faint, at the sight of blood, y'know?" He nodded slowly. "If you're sure…"
She giggled. "Aren't you a little hero? I should get back to Mezo-kun. I'm sure you'll do great on the rest of the tests, Izu-kun!" She blew a little joking kiss at him as she skipped away back to the six-armed boy's side. "Standing long jump!" Aizawa called, and Midoriya scanned the fields for the familiar green, brown, blue, lilac, and blonde of his… ' Group ? Friends? No, you just met them, don't presume.'
The standing long jump, unfortunately, was not a test that Midoriya wanted to risk his toes on, and thus he gave his best effort but still landed a normal distance in the sand. He watched on as each of the people he knew cleared the sand, save for Iida who hadn't the space to build speed. Uraraka floated herself over, Tsuyu was obviously a natural at anything that required jumping, Pony stuck a horn between each elbow and her sides and carried herself across the sand using them. " That fine control and levitation of her horns makes her quirk is so versatile…" He mumbled to himself. Shinsou asked and brainwashed Uraraka to float him and had an even easier time than Uraraka as he didn't suffer from its aftereffects - to be honest, he could've just asked Uraraka, but then it wouldn't count as using his quirk for the test, so the result was basically the same.
Still, it wasn't so bad. Riding on the high of his high score in the grip strength test that was at least partially contributed to by the adrenaline coursing through his system, Midoriya took his mind off of the pain by observing all the unique quirks on display.
Manga exclaimed 'Bloop!' before the text of his speech turned rubbery and floaty and he grabbed onto it like a balloon, giving him an extra long jump - albeit not enough to clear the sand. Setsuna just split into pieces and levitated across the whole way without even breaking a sweat. Kaminari had attempted something he "saw in a movie guys it's gonna be awesome trust me" and lightning sparked from underneath his feet, lifting him up zero metres and only making Aizawa's hair stand on end before he erased the blonde's quirk and told him to just take a jump, which he dejectedly did.
"Our teacher is Eraserhead." he absently noted, Shinsou's head whipping to him in surprise.
"Wait, WHAT? Aizawa's Eraserhead?"
Midoriya nodded. "He just erased Kaminari's quirk. His hair floated and Kaminari's sparks went out, and I think his eyes glowed red too."
An expression of almost giddiness appeared before Shinsou schooled it, playing it cool. "Neat. Eraserhead's a cool hero, from what little I found online. I like underground heroes."
"You know, when I was watching old UA sports festival recordings online as a kid, I think I remember something about a kid from general education with a quirk-erasing quirk." Midoriya offered. "That was probably Aizawa-sensei, right? A lot of his competitors didn't look very happy about having their quirks erased."
"They probably called his quirk a villain's quirk too." Shinsou concluded. Midoriya nodded and leaned over to tune into Tsuyu and Pony's conversation.
"I don't think Honenuki's quirk is very useful for this one, kero." Tsuyu observed as the pale, white-haired boy made his way to the standing long jump's starting position.
"Mm, probably." Pony concurred. "Unless his quirk can let him [swim] through the air?"
"Don't think so, kero. Unless the solid air guy helps, but that's not allowed."
"Oh, Tsubaraba?" The two turned to face Midoriya. "I don't think Honenuki will have too much of a problem here. Remember the rules?" Tsuyu looked at him oddly. "Stand on the line, no run-up, jump, and land as far past the line as you can, kero?" Midoriya nodded. "I think Aizawa won't count it as landing on the ground until he's touching solid ground. Watch."
The trio watched as Midoriya's prediction came true. Honenuki jumped into the air and past the line before sinking into the sand, swimming through it, and emerging at the other end of the pit with a proud, toothy smile. Aizawa tapped at his tablet and waved the next person over, and didn't look to be in a score-revoking mood.
"Toga Himiko." The teacher called.
"Huh. I wonder what she'll do here." Midoriya mused.
Tsuyu fixed him with an uncertain look. "Do you… know her?"
"Y-yeah. She helped me figure out what I needed to do for the grip test, actually!" Midoriya answered, studiously ignoring the urge to wring his hands together despite the pain that throbbed from his broken finger. "We talked a bit about… knives." Realizing how weird that sounded, his voice trailed off. "She has some sort of transformation-type quirk, she used Shouji's form for the grip strength and dash. Don't know why she didn't want to tell anyone - maybe she gets the person's memories when she turns into them? I know I wouldn't want anyone knowing everything…" he trailed off again.
"I don't like her." Tsuyu declared. "She gives me the creeps. I think I saw her staring at you earlier." Midoriya didn't respond for a moment, watching as the blonde girl pounced forwards in a rather elegant and impressive frontflip, though not close to clearing the sand.
"...Maybe she was concerned? She said she doesn't deal well with blood, and she seemed nice enough" Midoriya defended. "...plus, she called me cute." The corners of Tsuyu's mouth twitched minutely downwards.
"She what?" Pony raised an eyebrow, snout wrinkled. "Do you think she's doing the [making moves] on Midoriya, Tsu?"
"H-hey, t-to be fair, she also called Shouji-kun cute!" Midoriya blushed. "A-and Uraraka-san, and you too, Asu-Tsuyu-san!"
Uraraka walked over, tilting her head. 'Like a puppy.' "What's going on? I heard my name?"
"We were just talking about Toga-san."
"Oh, the blonde girl! She seems… odd." Uraraka frowned.
"She talked to Midoriya-kun about knives." Tsuyu added.
"M-maybe she's just a collector!" he replied.
Tsuyu gave him a deadpan stare and turned back to Uraraka, who squinted, puffing out her pink cheeks like a chipmunk. "She called my hands cute." she murmured, inspecting the pink pads atop them. A moment of silence passed.
"They are nice." Tsuyu conceded, feeling like she'd lost a battle but with no idea of what that could be. The four of them turned back to watch the others complete the jumps.
As Aizawa called for the repeated side-step tests to begin, Bakugou grumbled and made his way over to a robot tripod to begin. 'Fuckin' useless extras.' He felt the familiar sensation of sparks erupting from his palsm as he ignited his sweat, rapidly blasting back and forth as he jumped side to side. Timing and control was key. Too much force on either side and he'd spin out and look like a complete fucking moron in front of everyone, like that dunce-faced lightning extra. Explosion was an almost soothing quirk to use as he felt its dull impacts against his palm, long since used to the light, almost-stinging sensation of smaller explosions.
The robot beeped after a minute. "Ninety." its monotone voice read out from some shitty text-to-speech program. Bakugou tched. Today was his first day at UA, but it was shaping up to be shitty. A pack of extras was hounding him, yapping about who-knows-what - some shitty-haired redhead, some plain-looking brown-haired guy who ripped his hair off, some annoying bitch with green hair that looked a bit like Deku's, that black-haired extra with big teeth, and a pink-haired girl who looks like a stoner.
That wasn't even the shittiest part of the day. Even though he'd declared he was number one to all of the extras in the class, he hadn't come first for a single test so far. The pink-haired stoner bitch had dominated the side-jumps by just teleporting back and forth.
The running race was designed for four-eyes, but some other extra used four-eyes to beat him as well. Probably some teamwork quirk. But then, to make matters worse, stoner bitch beat it instantly as well after sending a bunch of smoke to the finish line.
And clearing the long jump with a bunch of explosions wasn't fucking impressive when ripoff brunette just breathed some air platforms and walked across the sand with no effort - and Pink Cheeks, and Horse-Face, and Frog-Face, and Icy-hot…
Bakugou wasn't stupid. He'd still be number one, just they fucking watch. But every single test had some sort of niche a quirk could fit. There was no beating teleport bitch on the side step test, and he knew this. But then…
But then there was the fucking grip strength test. Already he'd been beaten by Octopus and Fox-Face and Vine-Hair and Bird-Face and Big-Hands and a bunch of other extras.
But then Deku came in first place. He'd barely caught the end of it, but he saw the grip tester fucking SNAP in Deku's hands as Cat-Eyes watched. More than a thousand fucking kilograms.
How?
How the fuck did shitty Deku catch up so quick? He must've been spewing bullshit. Was he hiding it the whole fucking time? It was time to get fucking answers. Pulling himself from his brooding, he stomped over to where Deku was chatting it up with some other dumbasses, unaware that Shitty-Hair had noticed him leave.
Midoriya had just finished the side-steps with a normal, if higher than average score - 10 months of training with All Might showed on his body, the once reedy boy blossoming into a lean, sculpted Olympian's physique. He and Uraraka watched as Pony, Iida, and Shinsou finished their repeated side steps, neither having any bright ideas for using their quirks and content to rough it out with a purely physical score. Tsuyu had blown all of them out of the water anyways.
"Hey Midoriya?"
Distracted from the sight of Kamakiri trying to finagle his blades into some sort of balancing implement for the side step test, Midoriya turned to Uraraka. "Oh, y-yes Uraraka-san?"
"I was thinking. Do you want me to use my quirk on your broken finger? T-to make it a bit lighter?" She tapped two fingers together idly. "I figured it's probably bothering you…"
He was dumbstruck, and looked, properly looked back at the brunette girl. Her kind eyes met his. "T-that's really considerate, Uraraka-san, but… c-can you even activate it on one finger only?" She pondered that for a moment, before perking up. "Only one way to know! This is like quirk experimenting anyways right? Isn't that your thing?"
"R-right! Um… here." He offered the purple finger to her, wincing as the air rushed against it as he moved his hand. It felt like it was twice as large as it looked. Uraraka tentatively reached her hand out, before touching all five fingers onto Izuku's with a feather-light tap. Wincing, he felt his gravity leave him as he started idly floating upwards.
"Aww, darn it." She pouted, kicking a foot around on the grounds. "It was worth a try." Midoriya consoled. "Can you get me back down?"
"Um…" She tried to reach up and grab his leg, but by that point he was already floating higher than her reach - which wasn't saying much as she was on the short side. She frowned and crossed her arms impetuously. "Well if you're gonna be like that maybe I won't help you down."
"D-did I say that out loud?" She nodded sternly. Midoriya was about to apologize sincerely before he took a second look at her face and saw barely-hidden amusement breaking out from behind the faltering stern facade. For the first time in his life, Midoriya felt confidence around a woman, despite the fact that she had him floating about two metres off the ground.
"M-maybe I'll call Josei-san over to help me then. She is more than twice your height. I-I'm pretty sure she could reach me." He cheekily replied, red spreading across Ochako's face as her cute pink cheeks puffed up again like she was doing a chipmunk impression.
He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, As-Tsuyu-san! Can you help me down?" He turned back to Uraraka, glad to be able to tease somebody for once in his life. "She's taller than you. " He mock-whispered to the gravity girl, who looked more mock-incensed by the second.
"She is NOT !" The target of his ridicule shouted back.
Midoriya chuckled. "That's just because she has a bent posture. I-if she stood up straight, she would be." he responded sagely. The frog girl walked over, an eyebrow raising at the commotion.
Tsuyu opened her mouth to begin to speak. "Tsu-chan, stand up straight." Uraraka cut her off. Confused, she did as told. Uraraka observed her for a second and squinted, hand hovering around for a moment. "She is NOT you LIAR !"
As Midoriya laughed in the air at the brunette's fury, he suddenly felt a tug down, a long pink tongue wrapping firmly around his waist and reeling him in down to earth. 'That's tight!' he observed. 'Not too tight though… it's kinda nice and warm, actually.' His feet made contact with the earth again and her tongue retracted back into her wide open mouth with a thwup .
"You two are-" Tsuyu began before stopping herself at the sound of distant explosions, rapidly approaching.
"SHITTY NERD! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?"
"W-w-what are you talking about? Kaachan, I don't-"
Bakugou stormed up to the trio and let off a few pops from his hand, rearing it back. "Don't fucking lie to me! When did you get it? Huh? You been lying to me the whole fucking time?"
"K-K-Kaachan, I don't now what you mean-"
"Hey, shove off!" Uraraka shoved the ash-blonde boy back roughly, holding her palms out threateningly. He stumbled back before recovering, then shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Tch. Who the fuck are you? Deku's guard dog?"
"The only one being a bitch here is you, kero." Tsuyu glared. "Leave Midoriya-chan alone. I don't know what your deal with him is, but you're loud and annoying either way."
"Yeah!" Uraraka chimed in. "Why are you even here? Don't you have some more tests to lose, number one ?"
He glared back at her, but if his outrage affected her at all she didn't show it on her face. "I didn't lose shit! And I'm still going to be the number one hero, round cheeks!"
"Just not the number one today." Tsuyu nodded. "I think Aizawa's starting to call people for the ball throw, Midoriya. Want to go watch? Maybe we'll see someone throw farther than Bakugou, kero." Midoriya cautiously nodded, afraid to agree with a jab being thrown Kaachan's way but eager to see more quirks in action.
Just then, a small group of students approached them - Kirishima, Kaminari, Tsubaraba, Sero, Setsuna, and Mawata, if he recalled correctly.
"Hey, is Baku-bro bothering you guys? Sorry about that!" Kirishima cheerily greeted. "Midoriya, right? I saw your score on the grip strength test. Super manly of you!"
"Yeah, short-fuse here can be a bit of a handful, but he's all bark and no bite." Setsuna joked, Kaminari and Sero chuckling along. "You talk about him like he's a dog." Uraraka noted.
"Well, he is a bit of a bitch." Tsubaraba replied affably.
"Maybe he hasn't eaten yet." Mawata offered. The group shared a round of whoops and high-fives amongst each other as Bakugou pinched the bridge of his nose, voice shaking with frustration. "I… fucking hate you fucks."
"I think I saw a dog online who they taught sign and it knew more words than Bakugou." Sero jibed, earning another pained groan from Bakugou.
"Who knew to beat the number one hero you just had to annoy him to death?" Uraraka mused. "Why hasn't anyone tried this with All Might? Are they stupid?" She and the others, including a now-watching Pony, Shinsou, and Iida made to leave, but before they could make a clean escape Bakugou lunged out and grabbed Izuku's shoulder. He froze.
" We're not done here, Deku. " he growled, staying for a moment before releasing his hand and turning back to his pack of followers to cuss them out. Midoriya stood in place, stock-still.
"You all good, Izuku?" Pony asked. He flinched, and touched his shoulder, before bringing it away with a look of confusion.
"Y-y-yeah. A-all good. Let's… head over to the pitch."
The six made their way over as a disappointed Bondo walked away from the white circle and Aizawa called Shoda over to make the next throw. Some movement caught Midoriya's eye, which he glanced over to see was Toga's waving, as she bounded over with Shouji and the mushroom girl - ' Komori' - in tow.
"Izu-kun! Occhan! Tsu-chan!" She skidded in the dirt and righted herself with a twist. "Now everyone's in one place!"
"In one place?" Shinsou raised an eyebrow. Toga's fanged grin grew wider. "Yup! Every single one of my favourite people! Izu-kun, Occhan, Tsu-chan, and Mezo-kun~!"
"How is it that know Shouji-kun anyhow, Toga-san?" Iida asked. "Does it have anything to do with how you're able to transform into him?"
"Oh, we met during the entrance exam!" She collapsed her hands together, staring doe-eyed up at him - an effect that would've been more effective if she hadn't possessed the slitted pupils of a predator. "He was a true hero to me, y'know? Plucked me out of some rubble made by the robots. He helped me finish the exam, and we met again when I got to dorms!"
"Is there a reason why you've only transformed into Shouji-kun so far?" Midoriya continued the line of questioning. "The ball toss is next, and it would make much more sense to copy someone like Bakugou or Uraraka for that one."
"Oh, I can't use the quirks of people I transform into. But Shouji-kun is a heteromorph, so I can use his, cuz it can't be turned on and off like the others can!"
"Are you sure? Your quirk already has the potential to become a top underground hero. If you could copy someone's quirk too, you… you could be in the top three. You could even be number one wh-if All Might ever retires!" Midoriya's hand twitched again, and Toga's eyes drifted to it before she covertly dug her fingers into her own palms and wrenched her gaze back up to him.
"Depending on how your quirk works and if you can stock or store transformations for a while, you could be unstoppable!" Midoriya continued on. "Imagine a hero who could turn into All Might, Endeavour, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Hawks, Mirko, Gang Orca, the Pussycats, Aizawa-sensei! You could have the best possible quirk matchup in every battle and disaster, you could be a force multiplier and perfect support to any other hero in the field! If somebody got injured, you could replace them in a fight or rescue so their quirk doesn't go unused!"
"W-wow, Izu-kun…" she trailed off softly. "A hero's quirk, huh..?" She dug her nails into her palm again and turned back to him with a sly grin. "All this praise would make any girl swoon, Izu-kun. Don't give me too much attention, now… Occhan and Tsu-chan might get all jealous ."
"W-w-I don't-I mean-their quirks are amazing too!" He turned to Ochako. "Your zero gravity is an excellent dual-purpose combat and rescue quirk! Clearing debris and making makeshift weapons would be trivial with you! Removing the gravity of any opponent who can't fly or tether themselves to the floor would guarantee an instant win with no need for any violence! N-not to mention the infiltration applications of sneaking without needing conventional routes and without the sound of footsteps! You could clear hordes of villains by just pushing them away, or grab an opponent and slam them into the ceiling - you should study martial arts! If you removed someone's gravity and slammed them onto the ground at full force, you could defeat them instantly because the force applied to them would be massive! You could be the highest-profile rescue hero and break the top ten overall!"
He whipped his head over to Tsu, his muttering spree continuing unopposed. "And yours is almost perfectly designed for combat! You have incredibly strong legs and a veritable fifth limb with your tongue - you can hop fast, stick to walls for stealth or mobility to reach areas others can't - depending on what abilities you have as a frog heteromorph you could produce acid, use camouflage, like an assassin! What I've seen of your strength during these exercises shows me you could probably crumble concrete and crumple steel with a kick, with practice you could probably leap over smallerl buildings considering frogs can jump many times their own body size! And that's not even mentioning underwater capabilities! You could probably be the best aquatic hero in Japan and in the top ten overall too!"
Uraraka's face had now gone scarlet as she listened to Midoriya finish his gushing about Tsuyu's quirk, the froggy verdette now sporting a red tint on her cheeks as well. Midoriya watched the two blankly for a moment before his face erupted in a crimson blush of his own. Toga staggered back at its intensity.
"Um-I-well, Um." he floundered, trying to think of something to say to fill the awkward silence. Sparing a desperate glance at everyone else, he saw no sympathy. Pony looked amused, Toga delighted, Komori smiled wryly, Shinsou indifferent, Iida's face unemotive as the light bounced off of his glasses, casting a bright white sheen over them and obscuring his eyes. They were all content to let him die in the pit he'd dug, the traitors.
"Midoriya. You're up." He jogged over to Aizawa enthusiastically, eager to escape the situation, and accepted the offered softball, walking into the white circle. Timing everything out, he reared up to throw… 'balance it on my hand, one finger raised ever-so-slightly, so that when I release…' as he spun on a foot and whirled his hand forward, the world seemed to move in slow motion. 'The ball travels on the tip of my finger, before I…' Red veins erupted along his finger, as he scrunched his eyes closed and yelled at the top of his lungs:
"SMAAAAASH!"
With a deafening blow, the ball blasted through the air, wind rushing across the court as the ball burst through the air around it, disappearing into the sky. With two fingers shattered on the same hand, agony renewed, Midoriya turned towards Aizawa. "H-How did I do?"
He held up the tablet. "710.3 metres. Good job, but stop quoting All Might."
Returning from the pitch with Aizawa's helpful advice, Midoriya followed Uraraka, Tsuyu, Toga, Iida, Shouji, Komori, Pony, and Shinsou to the side to do the seated toe-touch and situps, exercises much less applicable to quirks and thus mostly relegated to the sideshow. Midoriya, Iida, Shouji, and Tsuyu gave strong showings for the situps, with Toga, Uraraka, and Pony decent as well, while Shinsou and Komori watched on from the sidelines while huffing and clutching at their pained abdomens in shame.
As for the toe touch, Toga and Tsuyu were the only real standouts, displaying some insane flexibility. Komori and Midoriya made do, mostly due to being short, as did Uraraka - much to her own chagrin. Shouji and Shinou were particularly embarrassed at their own lacking flexibility.
Having finished early and waiting for everyone to finish their other exercises for the final, Midoriya sat on the ground to recuperate, cradling the arm his injured fingers were attached to. He watched as Yaoyorozu displayed her quirk's true power with the ball toss - 'is that a CANNON?' - and dominated with over a kilometre's distance, to the angry growling of Bakugou. Aoyama secured a surprisingly high score there as well by blasting the ball into the sky, as did Kodai by simply shrinking it. Shiozaki's vines webbed together to construct something resembling a comically oversized spoon and hucked the ball like a catapult. Pony rushed over from where they were all sitting to spear the ball onto one of her horns and fly it away until it left her range of control and dropped like a stone. Koda, the shy rock-faced boy, summoned a flock of birds to carry his own ball far, and Yanagi simply hurled it as far as she could using her telekinesis.
More surprising to Midoriya were the few odd ways some excelled at the toe touch - Shiozaki used her vines and called it a day, then performed the touch with her hands as well to particular success. Jirou simply used her jacks, reasoning they counted as a limb. Setsuna, to nobody's surprise, just detached a hand to do the job for her. Some simply excelled without any quirk at all.
"She's got a gymnast's training." Toga pointed out, watching Ashido contort herself in front of a presumably laughing Hagakure.
"How'd you tell?" Komori questioned.
"My parents used to want me to be one." Toga answered, and she said nothing more on the matter.
Eventually, the last person was called up for the ball toss - Kaminari, who insisted he had something 'fucking awesome' planned before he tried the same trick on the ball as he did the long jump, which just resulted in a lecturing on time-wasting from Aizawa. He threw the ball normally, and that was that.
"Last exercise - everyone over here. Distance running! I expect all of you to run in an orderly formation until you're unable to. If you slow down too much, you will be called out." Aizawa grumbled from behind his scarf. Forty students lined up and he raised a whistle to his mouth.
TWEET!
Compared to running with All might, this was a breeze. Midoriya kept up speed as students began to drop out - first the physically less toned. Aoyama, Mawata, Shinsou, Manga, Manami, Yanagi, Intelli, Komori, Jirou, Kaminari, Kodai. Next, those who'd been running more but not at the same level as others - Monoma, Josei, Honenuki, Sero, Shiozaki, Tsubaraba, Tokoyami, Camie, Tsuyu, Kuroiro, Koda, Toga. After them, people from the well and truly physically fit began to drop off one after the other - Kirishima, Kendo, Shouji, Pony - not nearly as fit as the others but carried by her horse traits - Bondo, Todoroki, Ashido, Kamakiri, Hatsume, Bakugou, Hagakure, and somewhere in the upper ends of that pack, Midoriya.
Inevitably, all thirty-nine of them stood by the side of the track as they watched Yaoyorozu continue to do loops in an electric scooter, the suffering Pony, Midoriya and Iida being given water by the now-rested Uraraka, Komori, Tsuyu, Toga, Shouji, and Shinsou. After a few more loops around the track, Aizawa chalked her score up to a few more hours before the battery ran out and called it a day.
"It'd be a waste of time to lay out these scores verbally, so I'll just reveal them all at once." Aizawa declared as a robotic screen on treads trundled over to his side. He tapped at his tablet, translating the overall results to the screen.
---
Momo YaoyorozuTodoroki ShotoBakugou KatsukiShiozaki IbaraMonoma NeitoIida TenyaFukudashi MangaToga HimikoShouji MezoTokoyami FumikageJosei IppanTokage SetsunaTsunotori PonyUraraka OchakoAshido MinaKendo ItsukaAsui TsuyuShinsou HitoshiHonenuki JuzoFuwa MawataTsubaraba KoseiMidoriya IzukuKirishima EijirouHatsume MeiHagakure ToruKuroiro ShihaiKoda KoujiKamakiri TogaruBondo KojiroKomori KinokoYanagi ReikoShoda NirengekiKodai YuiAoyama YugaSero HantaJirou KyoukaUtsushimi CamieKaminari DenkiIntelli SaikoAiba Manami
---
"Aiba. Intelli. Kaminari. Utsushimi. Jirou. Sero. Aoyama. Kodai. Shoda.Yanagi." Each name he'd dropped flinched at the attention. "Had I been your sole homeroom teacher this year, I'd have the authority to expel all ten of you on the spot." They collectively gulped. "Despite that, I managed to sense a shred of potential in each of you. Be warned. Just because I cannot expel you does not mean you are safe. In fact, it's logical for me to give you more attention than the rest of your classmates. Welcome to hell."
He clicked a button, turning the screen off. "That's it for now. I need to compile these results and talk to a certain oaf. Head back to your building, I'm sure Kayama's got some sort of exciting team-building exercise for you all to participate in."
The woman in question, who'd mostly been standing on the side and letting Aizawa have his fun, stepped in. "Usually those are called orgies. Back to the dorms, everyone! I've got a few more announcements to make. We'll be stopping by Recovery Girl's office on the way there, Midoriya, Aoyama." The two groaned in relief.
"Surely she's not serious, right?" Iida held the haunted expression of a war veteran.
Shouji patted his shoulder comfortingly. "No, I don't think she is."