100 Percent Hero

Chapter 9: Winners and Losers

Surrounded by this rainbow aura, the ball shot through the air like a speeding bullet, appearing only as a rainbow-colored blur in the sky. The power of the throw created visible air vibrations and a very light sonic boom.

"Everyone here needs to know the maximum output of their power." As the ball fell, barely visible in the sky, the homeroom teacher turned back to the class and showed them the distance of Shigeo's throw. All of the students gasped: Shigeo's throw sent the ball 947.1 meters.

"947 meters?" said a student with golden hair.

"Whoa! I wanna go next!" added the girl with pink skin.

"Kageyama..." Izuku's mouth was gaping open. What incredible power! He got that far from a single throw? His psychic energy could amplify his throwing distance that much? It looked like there were still plenty of things he didn't know about Shigeo's psychic powers.

Bakugo scowled, feeling a growing sense of fury bubbling up inside of him. His power was freaking incredible! That shy attitude and nerdy look hid an amazingly strong power that no one would've guessed he had. But just what exactly was his power? Was it some sort of high-functioning support quirk that boosted physical strength? He had to find out more, get a better idea of what kind of quirk Shigeo possessed.

While all of the students expressed their amazement and excitement at the exercises that laid ahead, the esper remained frozen in place. His neutral expression had changed to a slightly surprised demeanor. He looked at his empty hand, for he felt something rather peculiar with that throw just now. He wasn't sure how to explain it, but it felt that his throw was much stronger than it should've been with the amount of psychic energy he used. He hadn't really put that much effort into the throw, but even with the psychic energy he used in-tandem with his throw, it felt as though the force was multiplied by several times.

"Why is that?" Shigeo muttered under his breath, unsure how to explain this sudden boost of power. After a few seconds of pondering the explanation for this, he remembered something from more than ten months ago, back when Claw had first started attacking and he'd been knocked unconscious. When he'd woken up, he was greeted by the Body Improvement Club and a really powerful esper with huge muscles ready to attack them. After Shigeo defeated the esper, Dimple explained to him how he had to possess Goda, the captain of the Body Improvement Club, in order to overpower their opponent beforehand. Shigeo had to admit, he was rather shocked to imagine that Dimple had managed to best that esper: his energy was way higher than most espers he'd encountered, and that was after he had apparently been weakened. Furthermore, Dimple wasn't anywhere close to possessing that level of energy. So how did Dimple manage to defeat that esper? At the time, that was the least of his concerns in the face of the terrorist organization threatening the city, but now the question was racking his mind.

The answer hit him like a freight train: it was the muscles. Psychic powers amplified a person's physical traits to extremely high levels by channeling the energy through their bodies, so-much-so that even Shigeo, a complete weakling, was able to break through stone and other sturdy structures with ease. But with that psychic power sending energy through a body that's already been trained and honed, with muscles like iron, the extra boost the psychic energy gave would be several times greater. It was enough that even a somewhat weak spirit like Dimple had enough energy to give Goda the power he needed to best the esper.

With Shigeo, now that he'd built up his muscles after months and months of back-breaking workouts, his psychic energy intensified his physical strength worlds beyond what he ever imagined, so-much-so that even with a fraction of his psychic power, the energy was still enough to give his muscles a huge boost. The esper never imagined that the work he put into improving his body would actually translate into improvement with his psychic powers. It was... an unintentional bonus.