Chapter 3: The Logic of Expulsion
The alarm clock didn't ring. It didn't get the chance. At 6:00 AM, precisely one minute before the scheduled detonation of noise, Aokiji's hand slipped out from under the duvet to reach for the alarm clock, encasing the clock in a block of solid ice. The mechanism froze instantly. Silence was preserved.
Kuzan rolled over in his king-sized bed, pulling the duvet over his head.
"Five more minutes," he mumbled into the pillow.
Thirty minutes later, the door to his room slid open. The family's head maid, an elderly woman named Mrs. Tsuru who had served the Kuzans for forty years and feared absolutely nothing, marched in. She carried a steaming cup of green tea and a freshly pressed U.A. uniform.
"Master Aokiji," she said, her voice cutting through the room like a hot knife. "Your father has instructed me to remind you that if you are late on your first day, he has arranged for a private calculus tutor to meet you at the gate this evening."
The duvet was thrown off instantly. Aokiji sat up, his hair a bird's nest of black spikes, his eyes wide with genuine horror.
"That's playing dirty," he groaned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Breakfast is in ten minutes. Do not forget your tie."
The commute to U.A. High was a blur of luxury leather seats and Aokiji trying to figure out how to tie a Windsor knot without actually putting in any effort. He failed, settling for a loose, sloppy loop that barely qualified as a knot.
He arrived at the massive glass structure of U.A. with five minutes to spare. The hallways were crowded, loud, and confusing. He navigated them with his hands in his pockets, slouching slightly to avoid drawing attention to his height. He found the door: 1-A, which is his class according to the Acceptance letter. The door itself was enormous, likely built to accommodate students with gigantification quirks, but to Aokiji, it just looked like a waste of materials.
He stepped in.
The noise hit him first.
"Get your feet off the desk! It's an insult to the upperclassmen and the people who made it!"
"Hah? Shut up, four-eyes. What junior high are you from, you extra?"
Aokiji sighed. Too much energy.
He stepped inside, scanning the room. There were nineteen other desks. He found his name tag—Kuzan—on a desk near the back, next to the window. Perfect. A strategic napping location.
As he walked to his seat, he passed the commotion. Tenya Iida, a boy who moved like a robot running on high-octane coffee, was scolding a blonde boy with an explosion of spiky hair and an even more explosive attitude—Katsuki Bakugo.
Iida noticed Aokiji. He stiffened, marching over.
"You!" Iida chopped the air with his hand. "You are the other recommended student, correct? I am Tenya Iida from Somei Private Academy! Your tie is a disgrace to this institution!"
Aokiji looked down at his tie, then back at Iida. He blinked slowly. "It breathes better this way. Tight ties cut off circulation to the brain. You want me to be smart, right?"
Iida paused, processing the logic. "That… well, technically circulation is vital, but decorum is—"
"Excuse me," Aokiji murmured, sliding past him and collapsing into his chair.
He looked to his right. Momo Yaoyorozu was there. She offered him a polite, knowing smile.
"Good morning, Kuzan-san," she said softly. "I see you survived the morning commute."
"Barely," Aokiji replied, resting his chin on his palm. "I heard about the test results, by the way."
Momo nodded, her expression turning serious. "Yes. That boy, Inasa Yoarashi… he got the best score in the Practical exam, while Todoroki-kun got the second place."
Aokiji glanced toward the back of the room where Todoroki sat, radiating gloom. "And yet, the winner isn't here. He declined his acceptance?"
"Apparently," Momo whispered. "He said something about the 'eyes' of certain students being impure. He went to Shiketsu High instead."
"Too much drama," Aokiji muttered. "We haven't even started class yet."
Just then, the door opened again. A plain-looking boy with messy green hair stumbled in, looking terrified. This was Izuku Midoriya. Aokiji watched him with mild curiosity. The boy looked like he was about to faint from anxiety.
Then, "Ahhh!" Some students screamed as a yellow sleeping bag rolled into the room like a majestic caterpillar.
Then a man with long, unkempt black hair and tired, dry eyes emerged from it, sipping a juice pouch.
Silence fell on the class.
"It took you eight seconds to quiet down," the man deadpanned. "Time is limited. You kids are not rational enough."
He looked at them with a sleeping eyes.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Put these on and meet me on the grounds." He held up a blue gym uniform.
The class erupted in whispers. A homeroom teacher? He looks like a homeless person.
Aokiji just stared at the sleeping bag with profound jealousy. Bro this man is living my dream. Can I bring a sleeping bag to class?
The P.E. Grounds
The sun was beating down on the dirt track. Aokiji stood in his gym uniform, which was gratefully loose-fitting. He stood next to a very short boy with purple balls on his head—Minoru Mineta.
"Hey," Mineta whispered, looking up at Aokiji's height. "You're huge. Do you think the girls like tall guys? They like tall guys, right? I'm doomed."
Aokiji looked down. "Hmm? Is this a toy talking to me?"
"You're really looking for a fight, right?" Mineta replied.
"A QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST?!" the class shouted in unison.
"What about the entrance ceremony? The guidance counselor meeting?" a bubbly girl named Uraraka asked.
Aizawa turned his back to them. "If you're going to be a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events. U.A.'s selling point is 'Freedom Style.' And that applies to the teachers as well."
He turned back, his black eyes were calm.
"Softball throw. Standing long jump. 50-meter dash. Endurance running. Grip strength. Upper-body training. Seated toe-touch. You did these in middle school without Quirks. Today, you use them."
He tossed a ball to Bakugo. "Bakugo. How far could you throw in middle school?"
"67 meters."
"Try it with your Quirk."
Bakugo stepped into the circle. He smirked, a feral expression overtaking his face. He wound up and threw, adding a massive explosion at the point of release.
"DIE!"
The ball rocketed into the sky, leaving a trail of smoke.
Die? Aokiji thought. He's yelling 'die' at a ball?
"705.2 meters," Aizawa read from his device.
The class gasped.
"This looks like fun!" a pink-skinned girl, Ashido, cheered.
"We can use our quirks as much as we want!" Sero added.
Aizawa's expression darkened. The air temperature seemed to drop, though it wasn't Aokiji's doing.
"Fun? You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?" Aizawa grinned, a nightmare-inducing expression. "Alright. Whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential… and will be punished with immediate expulsion."
The silence was absolute.
Aokiji felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck. Expulsion.
If he got expelled, he went home. If he went home… Math tutors. The Board of Directors. The spreadsheets.
Aokiji's eyes snapped open fully for the first time that day. The laziness vanished, replaced by a very specific, desperate motivation.
I cannot fail. I refuse to do calculus.
Test 1: 50-Meter Dash
Aokiji was paired against Tenya Iida.
Iida revved his engines. "I will show you the speed of the Ingenium family!"
"Start!" the robot signaled.
Iida blasted forward, a blur of blue exhaust.
Aokiji didn't run. He didn't even lift his knees. He simply leaned forward, and his body dissolved into a mist of chilled air and ice shards. He reformed instantaneously ten meters ahead, then dissolved again. It was a high-speed elemental displacement, looking like a blizzard moving horizontally.
Iida crossed the line: 3.04 seconds.
Aokiji reformed across the line: 3.10 seconds.
"Tsk," Aokiji muttered, shaking frost off his shoulder. "Fast engines."
Mina Ashido tilted her head, eyes wide with curiosity. "Did he just turned into something like cold?"
Kaminari grinned, a spark of excitement in his voice. "Feels fantastic!"
Test 2: Grip Strength
Aokiji held the device. He didn't squeeze. He just froze the internal springs until they shattered from thermal shock, the device reading ERROR before maxing out the digits.
"Don't break the equipment, Kuzan. You're supposed to press it not freeze it." Aizawa sighed.
Test 3: Standing Long Jump
Bakugo blasted himself across the pit. Aoyama used his navel laser.
When Aokiji's turn came, he simply created a pillar of ice beneath him that extended diagonally upward, carrying him safely to the other side of the sandbox. He slid down the other side.
"Technically, I jumped," Aokiji told the teacher.
Test 5: Ball Throw
Uraraka got infinity. Everyone was amazed.
Then it was Aokiji's turn. He walked to the circle. The ball felt light.
He could freeze the air to create a cannon, but that required effort. Instead, he channeled the cold into his arm. He threw the ball, and at the moment it left his fingertips, he released a concentrated blast of pressurized ice—an Ice Spear—that hit the back of the ball, propelling it forward like a bullet.
The ball vanished into the clouds.
640 meters.
"Not bad," Aokiji muttered, rubbing his shoulder. "But Uraraka wins that one."
Then came Midoriya. Aokiji watched closely. The boy literally still didn't use his quirk. He had barely scraped by in the other tests.
But this time, his right hand glowed, he seemed going to use his power for the first time.
Then.. Aizawa erased his quirk, scolded him, and told him he had zero potential. It was brutal.
"He's going to expel him," Mineta whispered, shaking.
"Maybe," Aokiji said. "Or maybe he's testing his nerve."
Midoriya stepped up again. He threw the ball. At the last second, he focused power only into his fingertip.
SMASH!
The ball flew.
705.3 meters.
Midoriya turned around, his finger purple and broken, clutching a fist. "Sensei… I can still move!"
Aokiji's eyebrows shot up. He broke his own bone just to stay in school?
Aokiji looked at his own intact hands. I wouldn't go that far. That's… irrational. But I guess that's what passion looks like.
The Results
Aizawa projected the hologram.
Momo Yaoyorozu
Katsuki Bakugo
Aokiji Kuzan
Shoto Todoroki
Tenya Iida
...
20. Izuku Midoriya
Aokiji breathed a sigh of relief. Third place. More higher than what he wanted, but safe from expulsion. Safe from math.
"By the way," Aizawa said, turning off the hologram. "The expulsion was a lie. It was a logical ruse to draw out your maximum potential."
The class screamed. "WHAAAAAT?!"
"Of course it was a lie," Momo said confidently. "It was obvious."
Aokiji looked at Aizawa. He saw the subtle twitch in the teacher's eye.
Hmm, Aokiji thought. I don't think that was a lie. He would have done it. Does he lied now because he was impressed by Midoriya.. Nah, I'm just overthinking it...
Aokiji looked at the green-haired boy, who was sobbing with relief.
U.A. is scary, Aokiji decided. This obsession is crazy..