Now amongst the mob, you listened to your teacher.
"Before anything else, one must know what they're capable of." Aizawa cleared the device, erasing your score. "This is a rational metric that will form the basis of your "hero foundation.""
All around you, students began to cheer.
"Wow! Five hundred meters is a lot!"
"That looks so fun!"
"We can really use our Quirks now!? That's the department of heroics for ya!"
Curiosity piqued, you looked around at everyone's faces.
Joy. Relief. Excitement.
Most of the kids were smiling.
You wondered, Is that the joy.. that a Quirk gives?
""This looks fun".. you say?" Aizawa's voice was low and clearly unamused.
His long fingers lightly brushed against his scarf as he looked down. "So you were planning.. to spend your three years here having a good ol' time?
What happened to becoming heroes?"
In your head, you repeated, What happened to becoming heroes?
Melissa said.. it was my wish to become one.
I do not feel desire in regard to that occupation.
What happened.. to becoming a hero?
Aizawa then promptly threatened to expel the student who ranked last in the apprehension test. Immediately, fear, anxiety and regret were instilled into the crowd.
As for you.. you weren't sure what you felt.
You did not feel fear. Not anxiety. Not regret.
All you knew was that you did not want to disappoint Melissa.
"Our freedom means we dispose of students as we please!" Grinning like Totoro but terrifying, Aizawa pushed up his hobo hair. "Welcome.. to the department of heroics!"
Murmurs of disbelief regarding the spontaneous expulsion rippled through the crowd. You kept staring at Aizawa, the expression he made piquing your interest.
That face did not resemble Mr. Might in any way.
Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Might are both heroes..
Heroes seem to have many faces.
At the complaints of unfairness, Aizawa shut everyone up with a good comeback. He brought up incidents that regularly happen all over the world.
To end his reply, he said, "And it's our job as heroes.. to reverse it all.. and restore the balance."
You wondered to yourself, What is a hero?
And why was it my desire to become one?
Of course, you knew what a hero was, but.. you wanted a deeper meaning.
Besides saving people and fighting villains, what did a hero do?
What exactly is a hero?
"If you were counting on a friendly chat at the local DcMonald's after school, that's too bad." Aizawa's tone was ice cold. "From now on, for the next three years all you can expect from U.A. is one hardship after the next."
Giving you all a light, challenging grin, the man rhetorically beckoned to you with a finger. "This is "Plus Ultra." I expect you all to overcome these challenges.. and rise to the top."
And then the actual trials began. Your pitch was just a demonstration.
Iida, the boy you nearly barbecued, scored a quick time of 3.04 seconds in the fifty meter dash. You hadn't noticed the engines in his calves till now.
Perhaps.. he was a cyborg like you?
If he was, why was he so alarmed to see your ability? Was it because you nearly burnt him with it?
And then you remembered the info from the data file.
Iida Tenya. Species:
human.
You felt a sinking feeling near your diaphragm, one that seemed to sap away at the energy you'd accumulated overnight.
This feeling.. What is it? You wondered this.
Upon seeing the sparkly blond kid zip across the track using a laser beam, you straightened up.
A cyborg, perhaps?
You didn't know it at the time, but.. you longed to at least know there was someone like you.
When the sparkly blond kid finished his turn, he conveniently informed, "If I keep shooting for longer than one second, my tum will collapse, you know."
You moved closer to the front. Ashido had beaten him without even using her Quirk.
You gave your loose hands a quick glance.
The only handicap to your boosters was overheating your arms when used for too long. The heat would also spread to your trapezi area.
Meanwhile, this guy was out if he used his Quirk for longer than a mere second.
Was he really a cyborg like you unknowingly hoped he was? The belt he wore went around the outside of his uniform, not inside.
Then perhaps he had some sort of artificial structure in place of the flesh of his stomach?
You didn't catch yourself making pitiful excuses.
Now, the angry, cherry-eyed guy was going against the shrub kid. How funny. You'd met the both of them on the same day.
The blond one left the shrub in his dust. Powerful explosions sent him across the finish line. Meanwhile, the other one kept running, panting and panting when he finished.
Midoriya, like Ashido, didn't use his Quirk, but his record wasn't as impressive as hers.
For your turn, you didn't go against anyone. You were the one kid making the class population an odd number.
You eyed the running equipment before getting into position. Melissa had conducted some running tests the week you woke up, so you remembered the procedure.
A robot a couple feet away from you announced, "Start!"
You went into a sprint. Your form was oddly.. stiff. It was weirdly similar to how Iida ran, although much less practiced and a lot less professional-looking.
6.38 seconds. Not bad for a technical thirteen-year-old who'd been in a coma for two years.
Next was the grip strength test. When you heard the octopus kid got a score of five hundred and forty kilograms, you glanced over.
You did not have any high expectations for yourself, but you hoped you would at least score decently.
"Hey, hey, creepy twin!" Referring to the resemblance in eyes, Ashido bounced over to you. "Try it already, won't you? You've been staring at the grip for years!"
"I do not understand why you would converse with someone you find repulsive." You replied to her in complete monotone before squeezing the grip.
One hundred and fifty-six kilograms.
"Nice!" Ashido smiled. Addressing your cold words, she chirped, "I haven't forgiven you completely, but I at least don't want us to be on bad terms, y'know?"
You stared down at her, her logic not registering. "I do not follow. Forgiveness is absolute."
Mina puffed out her cheeks. "Hmph. You'll understand when you get older, baby-face."
You stood in between Iida and Ashido as you all observed the standing long jump.
The sparkly laser boy sent himself across the sand with a beam while Midoriya simply landed in the sand.
When it was your turn, you began to adjust a slide-able setting on both arms.
Softly, you murmured, "N.A.S.A. Mode."
You turned towards the crowd, extending your open hands forward. "Incinerate."
Everyone squawked as you zipped right across the sand, landing in a ragdoll-like tumble that made Bakugou laugh.
N.A.S.A. Mode turned your booster discharge into shorter, rocket-like blasts, which prevented you from hitting the other kids.
Your classmates cried,
"Two Quirks!?"
"Is he okay..!?"
"What the heck was that!?"
"Don't you remember? He said he doesn't even have a Quirk. I can only assume his eyes are artificial like his arms." A tall girl with big black hair and an elegant air to her spoke up, disdain clear in her voice. She sounded disgusted with her classmates' incompetence.
"Yep, his eyes are fake." From behind her, Kirishima confirmed her assumption.
"[L/n]! Are you alright!?" From the mob, Iida called out to you with exasperation and concern. How clueless could you be?
"I am fine." You got up, dusting yourself off. Ashido cackled at the bird's nest that was your hair.
When you integrated yourself back into the crowd, the sparkly kid came to your side. Winking, he said with a sparkle, "Allow me to fix that offensive hair of yours, mon ami!"
Nearby, an invisible girl snorted at the blond guy's indirect insult.
"That is unnecessary." You turned to him, and having learned from Ashido's disgust, you properly asked, "Are you a cyborg?"
"Non!" Despite your lack of a distinct facial expression, the boy guessed that you felt at least some disappointment. "Sorry to disappoint!"
Alarmed glances were sent your way when you rapidly shook your head back and forth to get rid of the dirt in your hair.
Annoyed, the sparkly kid sassily huffed, "I'm Aoyama Yuuga, and I'm going to fix that ungodly hair of yours!"
Stiff as a statue like always, you stood there as he styled your hair to his liking. Your refusal didn't come through to him, but you honestly didn't see any negatives in him doing your hair. You really didn't care what it looked like.
It was now a neater and nicer version of your original hair style.
"Thank you."
Flipping his own hair, Aoyama smirked and replied, "You're welcome!"
It was now time for the sidesteps.
When it was your turn, you merely did them normally. No use injuring yourself with your boosters. You were lucky to get away with no cracks on your carbon fiber as you tumbled earlier. That was because the impact was spread out.
You got a decent, average score.
For the pitch, you noted the round-faced girl's score of infinity.
Melissa can reach infinity, too.
If she can revive me and make me a cyborg, then Melissa can definitely reach infinity.
Midoriya strolled up to the circle, looking absolutely terrified. It was a given, considering he hadn't used his Quirk the entire time.
Iida murmured, "Midoriya isn't doing too well, is he..?"
Bakugou snapped in reply, "Of course! He's a fucking Quirkless guppy!"
A little ways behind Bakugou, you stared at the back of his sea urchin-like hair.
Midoriya is Quirkless..? How can that be?
The boy's right arm gained an odd pink pattern as he geared himself into position for a good throw.
Just as he lunged forward to release the ball, his arm stopped glowing, gaining him a sad score of forty-six meters.
You blinked at his disbelieving form, back hunched and staring at his hands with wide eyes.
Midoriya is not Quirkless. His file and that glow say otherwise.
His Quirk..
Why does he have the same Quirk as Mr. Might?
Midoriya muttered with panic, "Huh..? I swear I used my Quirk just now..."
Aizawa revealed himself as the culprit. "I erased your Quirk. It defies reason.."
Glaring with much hostility, his hair and scarf began to float upward. "How did someone like you get into the academy?"
One hand gripped the thin fiber while his eyes glowed red.
Both Midoriya and the rest of your classmates began to chatter quietly about your teacher's Quirk.
Meanwhile, you peered around Iida to get a better look at Aizawa's eyes.
He can erase Quirks.. That means I am immune to his power.
Why do his eyes glow? Why are his hair and scarf floating?
You internally asked the same things most of the B.N.H.A. fandom wondered themselves.
Strolling up to Midoriya with obvious hostility, Aizawa jabbed a finger at him. "From what I observed.. you can't rein in on your Quirk's full power, meaning you can't use it efficiently at all.
Did you believe someone would come save you after you crippled yourself again?"
Mr. Might doesn't cripple himself from what I have seen..
Why Midoriya?
After grilling Midoriya and referring to a certain hero (the one spying on you all), Aizawa told Midoriya to have another go.
This time, the boy simply stayed put as he pondered up a plan.
You thought about Aizawa's little speech.
Midoriya cannot handle his own Quirk.. I shall ask about that later.
How can Midoriya become a hero with such a repercussion?
Unsurprisingly, you had little faith in him.
Aoyama set a hand on the round-faced girl's shoulder and chirped, "Are you worried for him? I, for one, don't care."
The girl weakly replied, "Who're you..?"
Maybe you would've laughed if you knew how. Not even you were sure you were able to find things humorous anymore.
With a strong lunge and a loose grip, Midoriya sent the ball flying with a tap of a glowing finger. After the release, his finger ended up a sickening purple.
He received a score of somewhere in the seven hundreds. Aizawa blinked at the device, eyes wide. The sea urchin kid was just as stunned as the teacher.
Shakily grinning, Midoriya gripped his right arm. "Mr. Aizawa..! I can still move!"
That made you wonder what the heck happened the last time he used his Quirk.
The Kirby-like girl's excited cheer was unintentionally biting. "Yayyy! You finally got a score worthy of a hero!"
You droned, "His score is extremely close to Bakugou's, and I do not find Bakugou very hero-like."
Said blond would have wrung your neck if he wasn't so intent on wringing Midoriya's.
Eyes bulging and mouth wide open, Bakugou gawked with pure animosity before lunging towards the 'Quirkless guppy.'
Propelling himself with little explosions, Bakugou roared, "WHAT IS THIS, DEKU!? EXPLAIN YOURSELF, SHITRAG!"
Midoriya, or rather Deku, screamed in terror. "UWAAAH—!"
Bakugou was wrapped up in Aizawa's cloth just as he stepped one foot into Midoriya's circle.
The blond snarled like a wild animal. "Ngh—! What the hell is this!?"
"It's my special "binding cloth," a steel wire alloy woven with carbon nanofibers." Aizawa tightened the scarf and clicked his teeth. "Don't make me use my Quirk so much."
You were honestly much more interested in the material of the cloth rather than the situation at hand. Recalling that Bakugou called Midoriya "Quirkless" for some reason, you took your eyes off the binding cloth.
Aizawa glared, his eyes red and dry. "I've got dry eye, damn it!" He then released Bakugou and his hair and eyes went back to normal. "We're wasting time.. Prepare for the next trial."
Midoriya cowered as he walked back towards the crowd, Uraraka coming to ask if he was alright. You'd learned most of your classmates' surnames just by paying attention when they were called up.
You stared at Bakugou. He was standing completely still and glaring holes into the dirty ground.
Feeling an oddly intense gaze, he whirled towards you and barked, "The hell are you lookin' at, tin can!?"
"Prepare for the next exercise. You are wasting time." You weren't intimidated by Bakugou's intense glare and bared teeth in the slightest.
His eyes went completely white with rage. "FUCK YOU! You think you can—!?"
"Bakugou." Aizawa sternly ordered, "Stop it."
"...Tch!" Frustrated, Bakugou returned to his original place, but not before running his finger along his throat while making direct eye contact with you.
You didn't recognize that vile gesture.
The next and last three activities were endurance running, seated toe-touch and the upper body exercises.
You scored only slightly above the average for the endurance running. Your scores so far had been pretty average, but at least they were good enough not to place last.
You found that you weren't very flexible. You scored a nine and an eight on the seated toe touch.
You did pretty well on the upper body exercises. You managed twenty chin-ups thanks to your artificial arms. However, long usage of them hurt your chest muscles, your trapezi, and your upper back.
"Time to present the results." Aizawa had a remote in his hands as he faced the blob of students. "The total is simply the sum of each of your scores. If I recited all your scores, it'd take a million years, so I'll disclose them all at once."
Everyone had different levels of nervousness.
Besides you. You hadn't felt nervousness in two years. You were confident Midoriya would be last, anyway. You figured you'd scored fairly average, just enough to not get expelled.
As Aizawa pressed a button, he nonchalantly added, "Oh yeah. That whole expulsion thing was a lie.
Grinning like a bastard, he continued, "It was a logical ruse to pull out your best efforts."
The class screeched, "WHAAA—!?"
"Use your brains, everyone." The same girl with big black hair from earlier piped up, arms crossed. "Of course it was just a ruse!"
You turned in her direction. "Melissa told me it is important for peers to work together. I do not think withholding information is helpful."
The girl, Yaoyorozu, narrowed her dark eyes at you. "You heard Mr. Aizawa, did you not? The purpose was to get us to try our best."
You plainly fired back with no passion in your voice at all, "Why would you give a lackluster performance if you intend to become a hero in the first place?"
Oh snap. The other kids blinked at you, not thinking you would deliver or even grasp such a point.
Grinning a little, Aizawa watched you. He found himself amused by your antics.
Yaoyorozu cleared her throat, closed her eyes and sheepishly turned away. "You do have a point there."
As Aizawa told you all to look at the curriculum sheets back in class and left, you gazed up at the holographic score board.
You placed tenth. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Ashido was ninth while Uraraka was eleventh. Paying them a fleeting glance, you figured the three of you were about the same in terms of overall prowess.
With the conclusion of homeroom, it was now the end of the first day. You'd already changed and were currently making your way to the building entrance.
"Dude.. With just a bit more muscle, you would've wrecked the scoreboard!"
You swiveled your head to the right. Smiling at you was a blond with black lightning in his hair. "I'm Kaminari Denki! Nice to meet'cha!"
"I am [L/n] [Name]. Nice to meet you."
Didn't this guy give you a weird look while you were in the locker room? Not bothering to address that, you replied, "Perhaps. The age my body is at does not allow for much muscle development, however."
Kaminari tilted his head and batted his long lashes in confusion. "Wha..? What're you talking about..?"
...Should you tell him? Melissa never gave specific orders not to, and it wasn't classified as top secret info or anything, so objectively, there was no harm in it.
But would you be breaking the vow you took before you left?
The vow not to expose the research of I-Island?
You decided to keep your lips sealed. "That is a technological endeavor I cannot reveal."
Kaminari had no problems with your funny way of speech. "Ohh, really? Alright.."
Suddenly, he eagerly grinned. "You must come from one of those fancy laboratories, huh!? Cooool!"
Not letting you talk, he jabbed finger guns at you. "Wait— lemme guess! You were in suspended animation, huh!? Just like the movies!"
Kaminari was right about the suspended animation. Wondering why he even reached out to you and why he was so curious, you coldly replied, "What is it to you?"
He looked up at you, face blank as his eyes analyzed your plain expression. You wore the same face as always, but now it seemed.. oddly suspicious.
"Ah, nothing.. Am I bothering you? Sorry." Kaminari chuckled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm just really curious, y'know?"
You stared at him for a few more seconds, and feeling your intense gaze, Kaminari began to sweat. You made him nervous with those stone-cold eyes of yours.
"I.. I know this is basically pitying you, but I didn't want anyone in our class to be lonely." Kaminari smiled up at you as you two reached the shoe lockers. "Let's be friends, yeah?"
You stiffly continued to put on your shoes and Kaminari did so as well, his locker coincidentally right next to yours.
Friends..?
What is a friend? According to Melissa, I am her best friend.
"Kaminari."
He straightened up to face you after the both of you finished switching out your footwear.
Cheekily, he smirked. "Did'ja think about my request, Your Highness?"
Your eyes, although unable to hold any emotion, seemed.. lost. "What is a friend?"