Chapter 15: Sparks Fly
Final Test!
Softball Throw!
Izuku gulped as he thought about how he was going to do this. The nice brown-haired girl he had helped in the entrance exam got an 'infinity' on her throw because she threw the ball out of orbit. Izuku however, was pretty sure it wasn't infinite. There was still a pretty good chance of the ball hitting a satellite or something. It wasn't common knowledge, but the earth did have rings like Saturn, but it was made of trash instead.
Something in Izuku's mind seemed to snap in place as he contemplated being an astronaut and cleaning up all the trash surrounding the earth. Maybe even help with the Martian colonization! It was still being debated, but they have the technology now to set something up on another planet. Just a little terraforming and he could even help clean the Martian beaches of trash… Maybe his true calling in life was a trash truck driver…
"Midoriya, you're up next!" Aizawa said making Izuku snap out of his momentary daydream. Right… Fitness Test… He slumped. Maybe he had been picking up trash for too long… This was getting ridiculous…
Izuku squared up his shoulders as people gave him weird looks. What where they staring at? Maybe he had stood out too much? Izuku thought about it and decided that since this was the last test anyways, he could probably just do his best and-
"Midoriya, a word." Aizawa said motioning for him to come closer. Izuku wandered over and watched as Aizawa pinned a hard stare at him. "Is this some sort of joke to you?"
Izuku was taken aback. "Wha-?!"
"Have you misunderstood what this test was about?" Aizawa asked. "I thought I made it clear beforehand, but we are not testing you physical capabilities. This is a Quirk Apprehension Test. The purpose of it is to find out a little more about your Quirk and help us try to figure out where you are at in mastering your abilities. So far, you have used your Quirk once and have shown that you prefer using your physical strength to over come obstacles. This is fine, but you are missing the point of this test. I assume I have made myself clear?"
"Um… Sir, about that… My Quirk-" Izuku began but quickly trailed off as Aizawa spoke up again.
"I know that you are a reckless idiot, and that your Quirk causes you discomfort." Aizawa said bluntly. "You have potential, but there is a fine line between recklessness and Heroics. Right now, you are holding back too much. I know that you are stronger than this, but I also know that it comes at a cost. You are a bit like another reckless idiot I know, but he at least has the skills to back it up."
"What do you want me to do?" Izuku asked feeling a little helpless.
"Show me what you really got." Aizawa said. "I need to know how badly you'll hurt yourself when using your Quirk before I consider you for this class. Last time you got crushed by a Giant Robot, but you also tipped it. I want to see you giving me all you got, as if you were in a real battle."
Izuku nodded slowly. "Got it…"
"What do you think their talking about?" Jiro asked.
"I don't know… maybe he's trying to weed him out of his class?" Toru asked.
"Maybe… but he seems to be giving him a chance. Maybe he wants to help reform him into an upstanding member of society." Mina said.
"You think he has a shot?" Jiro asked. "I mean, he's been doing pretty well so far…"
"You forget that this is a Quirk Apprehension Test." Ida said behind them. "While he has preformed admirably, I think he forgot to use his Quirk to complete the assignment as instructed."
"Um, hello?" Toru asked scathingly. "Some of us have really useful Quirks that have nothing to do with strength, speed, or jumping ability…"
Jiro twirled on of her jacks around her finger. Her Quirk was pretty powerful, but it was kinda useless in this test…
"Maybe that guy has a Quirk kinda like us…" Jiro asked. "It'd make sense why he relies so much on his um… physique…"
"That may be the case, but I believe Mr. Aizawa is much more of a literal person." Ida said. "It might be that you guys will get a lower score if you don't use your Quirks, but I think it is fairly safe to say that Midoriya is much worse off because of his over reliance on physical skills."
"But isn't that kinda unfair?" Mina asked. "I mean, the guy's bad news, but… come on… How are we supposed to showcase Quirks we are barely allowed to use? Like, do you really think that I or that Bakugo guy are allowed to use our Quirks in public? Acid and Explosions are not exactly safe to use around people..."
Ida thought about it. "I see your point. Perhaps his over-reliance on his physical skills are because his Quirk is too flashy to use in public or too dangerous to use in private… I hadn't thought of that."
Mina and Toru looked at each other. More like Mina looked in the general direction of Toru since it was kinda hard to meet her eyes…
"So his Quirk is like, uber dangerous?" Toru asked dubiously. "What can he do exactly?"
"As far as I know he has some sort of Spike Growth Quirk. Ah! If his Quirk is Spike Growth that would explain why he isn't using his Quirk." Ida said. The girls looked at him questioningly. "I meant to say, perhaps Midoriya's Quirk isn't exactly conducive to these exercises, but he compensates for this by being obscenely athletic."
"So you're saying he is jacked as hell because his Quirk isn't a good fit for every situation?" Mina asked. Ida nodded.
"From what I can tell, he seems most comfortable with close quarters combat, but lacks experience in intercepting targets over a large area." Ida said.
'So, basically street fighting…' Mina and Toru thought with a sweat drop. Maybe Jiro was right, and he was some kind of street fighter with all those knife and bullet wounds…
"So, like… what do you think he's going to do?" Toru asked.
Izuku had no idea what he was doing. His enrollment at UA was on the line, so he needed to go all out, but it sounded like if he pushed too far and injured himself, he'd be expelled anyway. It was really quite confusing.
He began to warm up his bones quietly to comfort himself. It was a nervous tick he had.
He squared up and got ready to pitch the ball.
As Izuku was throwing the ball, he felt less warmth and more of the liquid lightning that was One for All surge across his skin. Izuku panicked and tried to limit it, but it still surged through him like water under pressure.
His hand exploded.
Not literally, but suddenly the softball exploded out of his hand and he had suddenly chucked the ball a good distance away.
"Two-hundred and seventy meters!" the drone happily chimed.
Izuku finally breathed. What the heck was that?! His only memory of using One for All was fighting the Zero-Pointer, but now he just up and used it and-
"Midoriya, you're hand is sparking." Aizawa said. Izuku looked down. Yup… it was sparking… and… Yup… It was hurting like crazy. It felt like his hand had been slammed in the subway door. No- worse! And it was tingly and weird and-!
Suddenly, the tingles went away, and his hand stopped sparking. Mr. Aizawa's hair was standing on end and hovering menacingly as his eyes glowed red.
Izuku's eyes widened in recognition. "No way! You're the Underground Hero, Eraserhead! Your Quirk is turning off other people's Quirks and-"
"Enough chit chat." Aizawa said bluntly. Izuku wilted. He and Denis would probably get along swimmingly… "Is your hand injured?"
"Ah… yeah a little bit…" Izuku said honestly. "But I have a healing factor so it should be-"
"DEKU!" Katsuki roared stomping out to the pitcher's mound, hand crackling. "YOU ASSHOLE! YOU HAD THAT STRONG OF A QUIRK THIS WHOLE TIME?!"
"Kacchan!" Izuku jumped as Katsuki approached and was suddenly wrapped up in the weird scarf Eraserhead was- No way! That was the super useful capture weapon that Eraserhead used to catch bad guys!
He was suddenly jealous of Katsuki. If he got to be wrapped up like that he would probably be extremely honored and wonder if he could see any bloodstains from Eraserhead's famous fight with the monster known as Garvey-!
"No attacking other students." Aizawa said in a miffed tone. He released Katsuki and returned his Quirk. "Don't cause so much trouble, it gives me a bad case of dry eye…"
'That's the only reason?' most of the class wondered. Izuku was too busy fanboying to notice.
"What was that Quirk?" Aizawa questioned in the same demanding tone as earlier. "I don't think I recall seeing it in your Quirk registry papers…"
"To be honest? I got it just before the Entrance Exam." Izuku said suddenly, too busy thinking about the fact that Eraserhead was asking him a question to remember that his Quirk was supposed to be kept on the downlow. Izuku gulped. "I-I mean… I just…"
"So you used a secondary Quirk to cheat…" Katsuki began to mutter, but seemed to catch himself and scowled deeper.
"Were you aware of this Quirk before the Entrance Exam?" Aizawa demanded.
"Um… not really… I think it's because… um…" Izuku stuttered out. "I started training to get into UA. I was kind of a late bloomer see, but um… I felt something different, but I didn't really realize it was a Quirk until the Entrance Exam when I…"
"Jumped in front of a Giant Robot. I see…" Aizawa said. "Well, it can't be helped. Register this new Quirk development by the end of the week. And you…"
Katsuki looked up from his angry scowling.
"If you think that kind of behavior is going to fly in my class, or any class for that matter, I will suspend you on the spot. I don't care if you did finish in first place, you will be punished with the full authority that I have." Aizawa said. "Is that clear?"
Katsuki nodded tersely. "Yeah. I get it…"
"Good." Aizawa said and turned to the rest of them. "Come on, let's get this over with."
Izuku gulped, not sure if he passed or failed.
All-Might sweat dropped hiding behind the corner of a building. He had gotten so anxious thinking of how Izuku was doing that he had snuck out and watched the final test go down. Honestly, he hadn't expected this…
It was true that Izuku was only 'half-trained', but All-Might thought that Izuku would be able to control it immediately like he did when he first acquired One for All. He expected some ticks along the way, but he was sure the boy would be able to handle it.
This wasn't how it was supposed to work. It was like One for All had started powering up fully, but then Izuku had panicked and tried to shut it off part-way. He had done something similar trying to hold back perfectly against certain foes. The lightning around the boy was a different color than his own, but it was basically the same thing…
What worried him, however, was that even that small amount seemed to cause some damage to the boy… Izuku's hand was bright red and was beginning to swell a little. The connective tissue…
Not for the first time, All-Might was grateful for the boy's healing factor. If he kept breaking his hand like that, then he could run into some trouble using his hands for basic writing and other things.
Well, whatever Izuku was going through… He'd be there every step of the way.
The scores were up. Izuku scanned hologram for his name and was a little only a little surprised to see his name down near the bottom. While his overall score was high, he had misunderstood the test and probably got a low score for his lack of Quirk usage. When he saw who was on the bottom of the list, his heart seemed to go out to her.
Toru Hagakure was trembling a little. While Izuku was worried for Mineta as well since he was the second lowest score, he himself was the third lowest, Hagakure was still the bottom of the list…
Right… her Quirk wasn't exactly suited for combat, and it didn't help her much in completing the tasks assigned. She basically failed the test by default. Something about this whole situation was frustrating him to no end.
She tried her best and worked hard, he was sure, but she still wasn't good enough… just like he had been.
"Sir, I-" Izuku began to speak up. Aizawa however, just turned off the holoscreen.
"By the way, I was lying about expelling anyone." Aizawa said bluntly. "It was merely a logical ruse to ensure you were all preforming your best."
"WHAT?!" Everyone, including Hagakure shouted.
"Oh… I figured that out a while ago." Momo said. "I guess I should have spoken up."
"You think!?" Toru exclaimed. It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "I thought I was a goner!"
"Whew… talk about intense!" Kirishima said excitedly.
"I'm not done." Aizawa said, and immediately the class shut up. "Good. Anyways, I just wanted to say that those at the bottom five are probably going to be on the chopping block if I need to expel anyone. Keep up or go home."
Izuku and the rest on the bottom of the list gulped. He never felt more invigorated to do his homework…
From his hiding place All-Might sweat dropped at the bold face lie Aizawa told them. He had expelled all of last year's class at the drop of a hat… But, if Aizawa was willing to give them a chance, maybe the man saw the same potential as he did… All-Might coughed, and wiped the corner of his mouth. Blood…
Right… he was pushing it with his time limit as it was… he needed to get back into the teacher's lounge and transform back. He didn't need to be seen hanging around here. Still… he was proud of his protégé. He had worked hard for his spot in the class.
So, apparently there were shared showers in UA. Not exactly what Izuku had thought of the world's premiere Hero school, but Izuku couldn't help but wonder if there was anything more, you know… private… so Izuku could have a bit of a nervous breakdown.
His nerves were still up from the mildly traumatic experience that was the ball toss and the subsequent ratings. He knew UA was intense from the Entrance Exam, but this was some kind of weird psychological torture. Izuku just wanted a nice quiet stall to take a shower in peace and not have to worry about people whispering about his scars… He was still really self-conscious about that.
Izuku had changed in the classroom but everyone had been nervous then. Now, the blonde guy was chasing down someone named 'Sero' with a twisted up towel that was sparking mildly, the really tall kid still hadn't removed his mask, and that guy with the red hair was trying to chat up Katsuki with limited success.
Koda, Izuku saw, was having a similar experience to him. He looked so nervous, Izuku couldn't help putting aside his own nervousness to try and help the big guy out.
Well… he was about to, when he was confronted by a very large and very naked guy who looked more in his thirties rather than in his teenage years. The guy was still nowhere near All-Might level in musculature, but he was probably about as big as Simon, and had huge lips and hair that was slicked back with water and sweat.
"So… you're the guy everyone has been talking about?" The massive teen asked. Izuku tried to keep his face neutral. He was trying to help keep Koda calm.
"If you say so." Izuku said, trying to remember how to be bold, but not impolite. What he got sounded like a 'what's it to ya' sort of tone. He mentally winced. That wasn't what he was going for, but he couldn't show fear here.
He was the inheritor of One for All after all, and it didn't suit someone entrusted with that power to look afraid. No matter how much their entire face and muscles looked like he was about to say, 'I will break you'.
The teen looked unimpressed but held out a hand. "Nice ta meetcha, name's Sato."
Izuku took the hand and was immediately surprised by the boy's grip strength. Not wanting to give the guy an improper limp fish handshake, Izuku squeezed back and- sparks flew.
Izuku's eyes widened as One for All's power leapt up his arm and nearly crushed the other guy's hand. The teen began to sweat as his muscles rippled shifting into something much more muscular and Izuku felt the pressure back on, but it was quickly waning, and he heard the boy grunt in pain, his eyes beginning to water.
The boy released the other teen's hand like it was a hot iron. Izuku stared at his hand. It was still sparking with power.
"Sorry about that." Izuku said trying to play it off with a smile. "Sometimes I don't know my own strength!"
Sato gave the boy a look of grudging respect. Izuku finally noticed that they had an audience.
"It's okay, I didn't put my back into it." Sato said clenching and unclenching his hand. "G-good meeting you…"
"Ah… same…" Izuku said returning to his shower. There he saw Mineta looking at him with wide eyes. "Um… what?"
"Dude… you just out strength checked a guy with a strength boosting Quirk." Mineta said in awe. He shook his head and tried to focus back on his shower despite the whispers building behind him.
"Could we talk about something else?" Izuku asked irritably. His nervousness was reaching a high point as he realized that he had messed up a social interaction. He felt terrible for crushing the other guy's hand and he just needed to take his mind off of it and finish his shower.
"Um…" Mineta said as he watched Izuku sparking up a storm. The guy's nervousness was coming off of him like static. Despite knowing that Izuku was a nice guy, he felt what could only be described as the pressure you felt in the back of your head when you met someone really strong and really mean.
So, suitably frightened, Mineta said the first thing that came to his mind.
"There's a lot of hotties in our class." Mineta said. Izuku just looked at him. Mineta began to sweat but tried to explain. "I mean, all girls a pretty in some way but… um… there's just… um… something about female Heroes, am I right?"
Izuku slowly relaxed and tried to take deep breaths. "Yeah, there are a lot of pretty girls in our class…"
"Anyone catch your eye? How about that tall girl with the smoking bod, or that brown haired girl with the figure?" Mineta asked and immediately regretted it. He had been so good with not saying perverted crap and now he was going back into his old habits.
'Gosh dang it brain! Say non-perverted things!' Mineta mentally yelled at himself.
'NEVER!' his brain responded in typical fashion. Sometimes Mineta really hated his brain…
Izuku paused his scrubbing. Mineta began feel a cold sweat under his own hot shower.
"You mean Miss Yaoyarozu?" Izuku asked. Mineta blinked.
"Um… yeah?" Mineta replied, not sure if it was the dark haired one or the brown haired one. Izuku looked like he was blushing, and the energy field sparking like crazy around him seemed to amplify.
"We just met, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. She is really pretty though." Izuku said face flushed. "I mean, who do you like?"
Mineta's brain finally calmed down enough to think about the girl's in his class in a non-superficial way.
"I think I'm gonna find romance outside the class." Mineta said finally. Izuku looked surprised. "I would like my time in this class to be professional. Dating within a class always leads to drama and I don't think we need that at this point in our lives. I mean, we're trying to be Heroes right? Why would you wanna add something like dating to the mix?"
Izuku thought about it. "I'm glad we feel the same way…"
Mineta nodded along, noticing that the more he talked the more Izuku seemed to calm down and the less he was sparking. Okay, keep the guy talking then… good to know…
"So… um… see any good movies lately?" Mineta asked as they moved to towel off. Izuku shrugged.
"I don't really watch that much T.V. anymore." Izuku said. "I spend more time training anyways…"
"I can see… You're pretty jacked my man." Mineta said. "What's your secret?"
Izuku thought about it as he slipped on his school pants. "Move a lot of really heavy stuff, train to fight and… I guess also doing a hundred pushups, sit ups, squats, and run ten kilometers every day."
Mineta sweat dropped. "I mean, did you do any special training or-?"
"Not really?" Izuku said sounding unsure. "I just kinda… you know… did something every day. I got a really intricate diet and exercise plan from a friend, but I ended up overworking myself trying to get into shape faster. I ended up still doing that last part of my work out in secret. I just felt like I had to do something, but I didn't really want anyone to know, you know?"
Mineta nodded, looking down at his skinny form. Maybe he could stand to do a bit more exercise…
"Oh hey, Mineta?" Izuku asked looking over him to the wall next to the lockers.
"Sup?" Mineta said.
"There's a hole in the wall…" Izuku whispered, not wanting to see what some of the other guys would do if they found out.
"Gotcha fam." Mineta said and plugged the hole with a ball from his head.
It was tempting to peek in there and leave it open, but Mineta had truly grown in the last few months, and even though he had some slip ups, he was doing his best.
Besides, what kind of creep messes with someone's privacy?
Jiro was panicking a bit as she couldn't remove her ear jack from the hole. It was caught on something!
She had hear something going on in the boy's room and found a peeping hole from the boy's locker room. Assuming the worst, she had put her earphone jack into the hole to stop anyone from peeking and then listened to what they were saying on the other side.
There was some tom-foolery going on and some gruff barking from Bakugo when suddenly everything she heard some of the boy's talking. It was that guy everyone was talking about being a thug, and the creepy purple gremlin, so Jiro had gone in for a listen and found them talking about the girls in her class (suspiciously), but it was tamer than she expected.
But then something happened, and she couldn't pull her earphone jack out of the wall and now she was getting weird looks from the other girls. What if they thought she was a pervert or something?!
"Um… Miss Jiro?" Momo said… in a very revealing set of dress. Jiro felt heat rise up to her face. Jealousy and a good bit of worry about her own curves, or lack thereof, in general filled Jiro's mind until Momo asked again. "Are you stuck?"
The last bit caught her attention. "Um… yeah…"
"Don't worry, I figure out a way to help." Momo said seriously. Like, way too seriously…
Jiro would expect that kind of seriousness if she had gotten her arm cut off or something… not for just being stuck. But Momo went ahead and got a little more dressed and headed out to look for a teacher.
Jiro sighed and waited in place as Momo went to get help. She swore that they would become good friends for this. Especially if Momo dealt with this discreetly.
This was one heck of a first day of school…
