Chapter 8- Testing Limits: Part 1

The expressions of the rest of Class 1C varied from outright shock to veiled interest, but it was clear that all nineteen students that had observed Mado were surprised by the display she had put on. Ectoplasm scanned the crowd for their reactions, interested to see if his plan of shocking his class into action had been successful. He was well aware that his class contained a whole spectrum of personalities from reading their personal files, but he wanted to see for himself how exactly they would act when confronted with a display of power.

Ectoplasm knew full well that many Heroes could be overconfident and self-assured about their abilities, and while confidence wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he had seen too many promising careers cut short by misplaced arrogance. He knew that his class needed to be broken of this habit first and foremost, and making sure that everybody knew that they weren't the only powerful person in the class was an important first step in that process. Mado was chosen simply because Ectoplasm was confident that her Quirk would be the most suited for the task at hand, and judging by her profile she wasn't prone to flights of overconfidence.

Judging by the faces of his students, his plan had largely succeeded as the majority of the class were staring at the displayed score with wide gazes and open mouths. Ectoplasm noticed that Tamashi and Kirokiri worked to hide their interest, but he could read their expressions well enough to tell that they were taking interest in Mado's display of power. Those two students were the ones that Ectoplasm was most concerned about when it came to their demeanour, their Quirks were powerful and unique, but they needed to be tempered if they were to be successful Heroes.

"As you can see, I am expecting nothing less than absolute commitment from each and every one of you." Ectoplasm watched his class as Mado walked past him and returned to the crowd, letting him address the whole group at once "The purpose of this test is to assess your capabilities, and that can't be done if you don't show me the full extent of your Quirks. I know that some of you are confident in your abilities, but if you hold back then you will regret it."

Ectoplasm let the threat hang in the air for a few seconds, making sure that he was being fully understood before he continued speaking.

"Given that the purpose of this test is to assess your Quirks, I feel it is only fair that you know what my own Quirk is." Ectoplasm knew that he was far from the most famous Hero around, so it was likely that some of his students weren't aware of his power.

With a brief pause for dramatic effect, Ectoplasm let his jaw unhinge as far as possible, before calling forth the grey goo that allowed his Quirk to take shape. The grey goo shot from Ectoplasm's mouth and took six shapes around him, all of them quickly coalescing into vaguely humanoid forms as the students of 1C watched with interest. The shapes pulsated for a moment before finally coalescing into their intended form, with the grey turning into the various colours that made up Ectoplasm's Hero Costume, and before long there were six identical clones of Ectoplasm standing in an ordered semi-circle around the cluster of students.

"This is my Quirk, Clones." The seven Ectoplasm's all spoke in perfect unison, making him sound like an eerie choir "It allows me to quite literally be in many places at once, so I am more than able to tutor all of you at once."

The sight of the clones was a little unnerving to some of the students, but they could see the advantage in their teacher being able to multitask so efficiently.

"Today's test is a simple examination of your physical abilities." Ectoplasm continued after a moment of silence "And it will provide me with information on both your physical fitness and the basic strength and applications of your Quirks."

The collective mood of the students relaxed a little, a physical test wasn't anything too difficult to deal with, and it would likely be a fairly simple affair compared to the Entrance Exam they had already undergone. Almost every student present was confident in both their physical fitness and aptitude with their Quirks, but they were at UAs Hero Course now, and nobody had any idea what was expected of them now.

"Iyasu, Sakusei, Shuta, Genso, Haiga, Tekii and Kirokiri." Ectoplasm looked over the seven students in question, who reacted to being called with varying degrees of interest "Come with me, you will be undergoing different tests today."

The remaining thirteen students watched with interest as the students in question walked away to an indoor arena with one of Ectoplasm's clones, and many of them wondered what exactly required those students to be separated from the rest of the class.

"Don't let that distract you from your own tests, I'm still expected you to perform at your best." Ectoplasm regained the attention of what remained of his class "There is no reason for any further delay, so let us begin."

Event 1- 50 Meter Dash

Somebody with no knowledge of UA and the competitive environment it provoked in its students would likely think it would be fairly difficult for the competition around a short run to be that intense. But UA always drew out the most intense emotions from its students, and sure enough they were able to turn anything into a competition, including the first event of the day.

An average 15 year-old student without using their Quirk would expect a score of around 7 seconds in a 50 metre run, and such a result was a good indicator of some physical fitness. However the students of UA High were above average in physical fitness, and adding Quirks into the mix was a recipe for some fairly impressive results. The first two students to take the test were Kenyari and Ketsuki, and they set the benchmark of 6.6 and 7.5 seconds respectively, as Ketsuki's bulk worked against him in a test of speed and agility. Neither of the pair could use their Quirks to really help them in this event, so they would serve as a good starting point for everyone else to measure themselves against.

The next pair to compete were Namari and Moya, the former of which was given a large cube of steel that he could use to utilise his Quirk during the tests. Unfortunately there wasn't much that Namari could do to enhance his speed, so he settled on running the race straight up without the distraction of using his Quirk, producing a respectable time of 6.7 seconds. Moya transformed his entire body into smoke and pushed his incorporeal form as fast as possible across the finish line, but the wind worked against him a little, hampering his speed but still letting him finish the race in 6.2 seconds.

Hikari ran alongside Washikaze, and she deployed small bursts of her Quirk from her palms while facing her hands behind her in order to give herself extra speed, the technique worked and while it left several students rubbing their eyes from the rapid bursts of light, she finished in 6.4 seconds. On the other hand Washikaze crouched as low as possible and the moment the race started she fired off a focused burst of air right behind her as she jumped from her prone position, the manoeuvre propelled her forwards at speed and she landed right at the finish line with only a little bit of flourish.

4.4 seconds.

Oh now it was on.

Mizukaki and Kozui lined up with fire in their eyes, like Namari, Kozui had been provided with a large supply of water so that he could use his Quirk for the race, and Kozui gathered all of the liquid around his feet to prepare for the race. When the race began Kozui essentially surfed along on a wave of water that he was creating, a rather strange sight given that he was being propelled by a small amount of water on dry land, but his technique let him finish in 5.5 seconds. After speaking to one of Ectoplasm's clones Mizukaki got confirmation that she only needed to have part of her body cross the finish line, she simply launched one of her hands forwards without even moving from the start line, with her arm slowly unravelling into string as her hand flew over the finish line. Mizukaki was left with her arm partially disassembled and was still reconstructing her body when she heard her time of 4.1 seconds.

Not to be deterred, Aimai and Kagami lined up to begin, and they both completed the race in twin bursts of speed. Aimai used carefully timed bursts of her Quirk on her feet each time one of them touched the ground in order to avoid her Quirk putting strain on her body, this effectively let her complete the run in several large leaps that cleared several metres at a time, and she finished the race in 3.9 seconds. Kagami meanwhile created a smooth ramp of glass beneath her feet, letting it propel her forwards at an impressive speed as she gracefully used her momentum to slide over her creation and cross the finish line in 3.5 seconds.

The last pair to line up were Tamashi and Mado, both of whom wore a look of complete focus on their faces as they readied themselves for the exact moment the race would begin so that they could use their Quirks. Tamashi enveloped himself in the green energy of his Quirk and used his power to push himself forwards in a flash of energy, and he was left standing on the finish line with a cloud of dust around him from his display of power and a time of 2.8 seconds. Mado had already impressed the class with her demonstrations before the tests had begun, and she continued that trend by using a single portal to instantly leap from the starting line to the finish.

1.2 seconds, surely the most impressive score in the class.

A few students were congratulating Mado when they realised that Ectoplasm wandering off with seven students had left Hiyaku running on his own, and while the rest of the class watched him, they doubted that anybody could improve on Mado's incredible time. The instant the race started Hiyaku teleported across the course, brief flickers of his body visible for a fraction of a second as he appeared from his teleport only to instantaneously vanish again, creating the impression of him being in several places at once. In the blink of an eye Hiyaku was standing at the finish line, looking a little drained after using his Quirk so intensely even for a brief time, but he grinned when he heard his time.

0.8 seconds.

The majority of the class blinked in astonishment as the time was read aloud by the speed measuring device, and Hiyaku joined the group as they were led to the next test, seemingly unaffected by the stares he was getting at his frankly ridiculous time.

Event 2- Grip Strength

Ah, now this event would be different from the last, a chance for those students who weren't as focused on speed to show that they were just as capable as their peers who had dominated the first event. The students were all given strange barbell-like devices with a handle that they could wrap their hand around and squeeze, the device would then give the highest reading it had received as an output, even if that reading had only been reached for a fraction of a second. Ectoplasm explained that the devices they were using were far more stalwart than those that would be found in conventional gyms, so the students would be able to use their Quirk as much as they desired without fear of breaking the devices.

The class keenly watched Mado and Hiyaku take their turns with the machines, keen to see how the two-high fliers would perform in the second event. Neither of them could really use their Quirks on the machines so they only produced average scores of around 55kg of grip pressure, despite Hiyaku's arm vibrating for a moment in what must have been some kind of attempt to use his Quirk, though it was to no avail. Several students relaxed a little once they saw that the same students wouldn't be dominating every event, and they set to work on their own scores.

The nature of the test meant that Washikaze, Kagami, Kenyari and Moya also couldn't really do anything with their Quirks, so they could only squeeze as hard as they could manage and hope for some decent results, but all of their scores were around the average in the end.

Kozui first made an attempt with his hand to get the highest score he could by squeezing the device, and then made a rather spirited attempt to increase his score by enveloping the device in water that he had pulled into the air by using his Quirk. The assembled students assumed that whatever idea Kozui had in his head had something to do with water pressure but all he accomplished in the end was shorting out the device, leaving the display flickering and displaying a row of nines; Kozui made a token attempt at claiming that to be his score since that was what the device was displaying, but after twelve seconds of being silently stared at by one of Ectoplasm's clones he gave up and accepted his first score.

Hikari was up next and after several seconds of squeezing she came up with an equally hare-brained idea for boosting her score, and after focusing she let loose several short bursts of her Quirk from the palm that was wrapped around the handle of the device. The idea wasn't terrible in concept, after all it was natural to think that using a powerful Quirk would produce some kind of additional pressure, however light lacks any sort of mass, and the rush of warm air that had given her a slight boost in the run didn't do much here. All that Hikari's display achieved was melting the rubber handle of the device and briefly blinding some of her classmates again.

Mizukaki stepped up with the kind of expression on her face that someone wears when they have a good idea, and she opened her attempt by immediately unravelling most of her arm and wrapping the string the limb produced around the handle as tightly as she could manage. She continued wrapping the string until she could barely fit any more around the handle, and she increased the pressure as much as she could before finally dropping the device and watching her arm slowly reassemble. Despite the exhaustion the idea had caused, the reading on the device brightly displayed 235kg of pressure, and the first impressive result was achieved.

Tamashi and Namari both had the same idea when it came to how they would approach this task, using their Quirks to exert as much pressure as possible on the device. Tamashi went first and levitated the device in front of him, the steely metal being enveloped in swirling green energy as his eyes glowed in an expression of focus. Tamashi slowly and methodically increased the pressure of his telekinetic hold around the handle of the device, keeping his mind focused in order to increase the potency of his Quirk as he watched the number slowly continue to increase. Only after the display pushed past 300kg did Tamashi start showing signs of tiredness, and he let the device slip from his hold not long after, the swirling vortex of green energy dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. Namari used the control over metal his Quirk gave him to do something rather similar, though he focused all of his pressure on the mechanism under the rubber handle since it was the part of the device that he was able to control the best, and he could just about hear the metal creaking under the pressure he was able to exert. Namari released the device once he knew he had reached his limit, and he could see that he had just about reached 325kg, releasing a breath he didn't realise he was holding.

Ketsuki stepped up next, and unlike everyone who had participated so far, he had no need of using his Quirk in a particularly elaborate or fancy way, he could just utilise his raw strength. Ketsuki squeezed the device with all of his might and eventually let it go, the device displayed his highest score of 476kg. Aimai was last, and while her score was average as she squeezed the device, it jumped up as she activated her Quirk around her hand for a brief burst of incredible strength, the device displayed 559kg, and several students made mental notes to avoid angering the two strongest members of their class.

Event 3- Long Jump

The events seemed to be going by much quicker now, with every student fully in the rhythm of the events as they took them on with all their power.

Several students made decent attempts at the long jump but failed to clear the sandpit, resulting in a line of students asking Kozui to use his water to clear the sand out of their shoes. Aimai used a burst of power from her feet as she jumped and managed to launch herself a decent length, but she still only reached the very end of the sandpit.

Tamashi, Kozui and Namari all made attempts to use their Quirk to hold themselves in the air and float over the sand, but Tamashi was the only one of the three to keep himself afloat for a respectable length of time, and he just about landed on the other side of the pit before his hold on his own body broke and he landed back on the ground.

Kagami created a ramp of glass and extended it over the pit, carrying on for nearly a hundred metres before the structure began to shake and she decided to jump from it, landing a good distance away and avoiding filling the sand with broken glass. Hiyaku teleported himself into the air and then forwards several times in quick succession, giving him a good level of both height and verticality as he flew through the air. Unfortunately he was unused to performing so many teleportations in a row without touching solid ground, and he rather gracelessly face-planted the ground in a rough landing that nonetheless gave him a good amount of distance for his score.

Moya transformed his entire body into a cloud of smoke and floated over the starting line, the rest of the class watching the rather strange sight of a cloud of smoke drifting over the sandbox and onwards for a time. While the smoke cloud wasn't particularly quick Moya was able to maintain this form for quite a long time, only returning to his human form once it became too difficult to maintain his Quirk, and he dropped to the ground over a hundred metres from the starting line.

Mado's portals had a very large range, and she was able to place them precisely at the edge of her range in order to get the maximum amount of distance for her attempt. After her portals were placed she simply stepped through and landed on the green grass of UA's grounds a few hundred metres from her starting location, stepping straight back through after her score had been recorded in order to avoid a long walk back.

Washikaze went last this time, and she could use her Quirk to fly.

After demonstrating this point by flying to the very edge of UA's grounds, at least a few kilometres from the starting line, she was called back by Ectoplasm, who insisted that she had made her point. Washikaze landed with a grace that showed all of the practise she had put herself through and walked back to the ground, happy to have had the chance to stretch her metaphorical wings.

Event 4- Side-stepping

After how extremely competitive the last three events were someone might expect that side-stepping would be fairly calm and give the students a bit of time to wind down and simply try their best at a relatively simply event. But once again it was difficult to account for the highly competitive nature of a group of students with superpowers, particularly if they were a group of students driven enough to get into the most prestigious Hero school in Japan.

So of course all of the students threw themselves at the event with an admirable if slightly worrying amount of zeal, each of them stepping forwards and leaping as quickly as they could manage in a show of impressive physical fitness. The majority of students couldn't really use their Quirks in this niche scenario, so they simply performed the test to the best of their abilities, producing a variety of impressive results.

Moya and Mado both used their Quirks to try and shorten the distance between the two jumping points, which led to their classmates seeing the rather strange sight of a pair of disembodied feet jumping while surrounded by a cloud of smoke, as well as seeing Mado hop between two incredibly close portals. While these techniques were strange there was clearly some kind of advantage to them, as both of the pair achieved above-average scores.

Aimai once again channelled her Quirk through her legs in carefully timed short bursts, and while it granted her impressive jumping speed for a time, the strain of her Quirk on her body quickly made itself known and she was forced to jump normally for the rest of her attempt. Despite this setback Aimai was still one of the most physically able students in the class, and her score reflected that as she finally ended her attempt.

Once again Hiyaku used a burst of rapid teleports, this time moving side-to-side so quickly it almost seemed like there were two of him at once, surprising a few of the watching students. While this technique gave Hiyaku an incredible burst of speed it was also incredibly draining, and soon enough he stumbled away from the test area, looking more than a little dazed after so many quick teleports.

Event 5- Ball Throw

Mado crossed her arms and stood beside Ectoplasm as she watched the rest of the class attempt the event she had opened the entire test with, rather interested to see how the rest of her classmates would stack up when faced with such a test.

Several students simply threw the ball as hard as they could, using natural strength in lieu of being able to use their Quirk to try and achieve a decent result. Everyone was at least improved from their results in middle school, surely a result of their intense training to enter UA, but there were still several students who were unable to use their Quirks for this event.

Kenyari looked thrilled that she finally had an event that she could use her Quirk on, and her classmates watched with interest as she conjured an ethereal purple bow and arrow into her waiting hands, impaling the softball on the end of the arrow and then readying a shot. Kenyari pulled back the bowstring to its fullest extent, thankful that the strange nature of her Quirk meant she barely felt any resistance from the bow, and after angling the bow upwards she released the arrow and watched it fly through the air. It was an admittedly strange way for her to use her Quirk, and the flight was hardly graceful, but nonetheless the ball flew much further than it would have if she had thrown it; Kenyari dismissed the bow and turned away, hoping she had done enough.

Washikaze, Namari and Kozui all used their Quirks to envelop the ball and launch it as far as they could manage, relying on the additional strength and control from their Quirks to get them better results. Of the three Washikaze achieved the best results, using a concentrated burst of air to catapult the ball through the air, but all three achieved solid results.

Tamashi stepped up last and enveloped the ball in his telepathic power, before crouching low and making the ball hover between his open hands, which were also glowing a bright green. For several seconds Tamashi focused his mind and concentrated his power, his eyes burning with power as the green glow around his hands grew brighter and brighter. The rest of the class could quite literally see waves of power radiating off of Tamashi, and some of them stepped back in anticipation of whatever was about to happen. Once Tamashi had reached his peak, he thrust both hands upwards and outwards with his palms outstretched, and the ball flew from his grasp with an audible crack, cutting through the air at incredible speed and leaving a streak of bright green energy in its wake. The ball flew higher and higher until it finally disappeared from view, though the beeping of Ectoplasm's tracking device indicated it was still moving, and moving fast at that. Eventually the device beeped twice, indicating that the ball had finally landed, and Ectoplasm showed the class the reading on the machine.

5176 metres.

Tamashi returned to the crowd with the barest hint of satisfaction on his face, knowing he had finally been given the opportunity he needed to show that he belonged at UA.

Event 6- Endurance Run

After five fairly intensive events that had left many of the students of 1C feeling rather drained from intensive Quirk usage, it would be fair to see that Ectoplasm wasn't exactly greeted with cheers and applause when he announced that the next event was a long-distance endurance run. The parameters of the event were rather simple, the students had to run laps around a 300 metre track at a pace equivalent to a light jog, and they would be eliminated once they dropped below a certain pace, with points being awarded based on how long they had managed to keep running before being eliminated. Despite their protests, the students of 1C were dutiful and determined to do well, and they lined up on the starting line with only a few grumbles between them.

The starting bell wasn't greeting with bursts of speed, but rather each student carefully pacing themselves as they broke into a light jog, knowing that an early sprint would only tire them out and eliminated them early. The track itself was as advanced as everything else in UA, and it projected a red bar along the width of the track that followed behind the students at the elimination pace, providing a visual reminder of how fast they would have to be. The cluster of students kept themselves about ten paces ahead of the bar and carefully matched pace with it, giving themselves some room for error in case of a stumble or slight drop in pace.

The event proceeded for over fifteen minutes without anyone dropping out, and Ectoplasm watched with quiet pride as he saw his students keep themselves in the run for as long as possible. While he had high expectations of his class and knew that they were physically capable, he also knew that they were still exhausted children who were only taking their first steps as Heroes, and for that reason he wasn't disappointed when the eliminations started coming.

Ketsuki was the first to get caught out, his bulk making it a little harder to keep up a strong pace and he groaned in a mixture of frustration and relief as he stopped running. Kozui, Hikari and Hiyaku all dropped out a few minutes later, the latter of which was particularly feeling the exhaustion of so much Quirk usage in a single day.

The rest of the eliminations slowly came through: Namari, then Moya, then Mizukaki all within a few minutes of each other. A misplaced foot caused Washikaze to stumble and lose her place, and she was soon joined by Mado who had simply ran out of stamina. Tamashi wasn't quite as physically able as his fellow recommendation student, so he dropped out soon after.

Kenyari, Aimai and Kagami all kept pace with each other for five more minutes, none of them willing to give up and be the next one to drop out. Eventually Kagami simply ran out of energy and the back of her heel was caught by the red line, marking her elimination. Kenyari and Aimai kept going despite being far beyond exhaustion, and the rest of the class watched with impressed gazes as the pair were finally eliminated simultaneously.

Event 7- Toe-touch & Event 8- Sit-ups

The last two events were rather anticlimactic tests of physical fitness, but they at least gave the students a bit of rest after the long run, even if it was only for a few minutes.

The students were all fit enough to put in a good showing for the tests, as their training for UA had consisted of exactly these kinds of physical exercises, though at this point they were still tired from all of the previous tests and hoping for an end to the day.

Soon enough the events ended and the thirteen students collapsed to the ground, drinking water and lightly chatting about the day as they took a few minutes to recover. Beyond talk about the events and questions about each other's Quirks, there was one thing on the minds of all of the students.

What exactly was the rest of their class up to?

Author's Note

Hello all, it's been a long time since this story has seen any action and I can only apologise for that. I got caught up with life and Uni and all of my fics suffered for it, and I have only recently managed to regain some control and start writing again.

This Chapter was interesting to write, as it gave me a chance to elaborate on some Quirks and give you all a bit more information on what the various students of Class 1C are capable of. I ended up splitting several members of the class off so they could do their own thing since they really didn't have Quirks that could compete here at all, and I wanted to do something other than have them simply sit around not doing anything. We'll see what they're getting up to next time, and it should provide a similar level of information to this Chapter.

I never realised until now how much the Quirk Apprehension Test shown in canon favours certain Quirks, but that seems to have shone through here. I went into this fic with the knowledge that certain students (Kagami, Tamashi, Aimai and Kenyari) are going to have a stronger start than others, as like in canon it's clear that each student comes in performing at a different standard and some simply have stronger Quirks. But this test really flipped that on its head, and Mado in particular had a Quirk that works really well in several events, so it ended up giving certain students some unexpected time to shine.

I have a Discord server now, and as more people are joining it's becoming a nice place to chat about writing, anime or whatever else. I'd love for some more people to join; the link is on my profile page.

Thank you for reading, see you for the next Chapter.