Uraraka pumped her fists into the air, flashing a huge smile in triumph at Midoriya's win.
"He's finally showing us his true power!" she cheered. Watching Midoriya, I noticed that the finger that had last been touching the baseball…
"His finger appears to be swollen, just like the entrance exam. This quirk is very odd."
A loud explosion and a screaming voice beside me told me that Bakugou was reacting poorly.
"DEKU!" he screamed at Midoriya, blasting himself with his quirk straight towards his terrified companion like a charging bull. "EXPLAIN NOW, DAMMIT!"
Mr. Aizawa's scarf flew out towards Bakugou and seized him from behind, and the explosions flashing around his hands disappeared.
"What the hell? Why is this scarf so strong?" snapped Bakugou.
"Because it's a capture weapon made from steel wire and alloy fibers woven in. Stop using your quirk already. It's giving me serious dry-eye."
It seems our Professor is the "eraser" hero, Eraserhead. His quirk allows him to cancel out the quirks of anyone he looks at, the effect ending when he blinks.
"We're wasting time. Prepare for the next event," he said, releasing Bakugou.
The girl with brown hair approached Midoriya. "Is your finger all right?" she said.
"Ah, yeah," he trembled, Bakugou glaring daggers at them both.
We all battled through the remaining trials, and after that moment Midoriya's scores remained mediocre. It seemed he refused to use his power except in emergencies because it broke his limbs.
As we gathered to hear the results, I wondered whether Midoriya might be the one going home. He hadn't done very well.
Sensei was saying, "Time for the results. The total is simply the aggregate sum of each of your scores. If I recited them all it'd take too long, so all you're seeing are the final results." He lifted a remote, preparing to show us the scoreboard. "Oh, and I was lying about expelling anyone."
WHAT?!
"That was a logical deception, to bring out the best in all of you."
The girl with brown hair, Midoriya and I screamed in unison, "WHAAAAT?!"
Not far from us, a tall girl with a black ponytail looked over, with a rather condescending expression, and said, "I thought that was fairly obvious. Of course it was a lie."
Sensei turned away. "That's all for today. Your curriculum sheets are back in the classroom, so give them a once-over. And Midoriya, go to Recovery Girl and get yourself patched up." He gave Midoriya a nurse slip and left us there to examine the list of our final rankings.
I had been placed fourth, the boy named Bakugou in third, two names I didn't know in first and second, though I had a feeling that the first place, "Yaoyorozu Momo", was the black haired girl. Midoriya had placed last.
I caught up w it him later that day after he got his hand patched up by the nurse.
"Is your finger healed?" I asked him; he jumped as I tapped his shoulder.
"AH! Oh, hey Iida. Yeah, Recovery Girl saw to that." His finger was bandaged up, but seemed healed.
As we walked together to the bus station, I mused, "I have to say, Mr. Aizawa really got me! I'd actually thought 'So this is what it's like at the top!' But now I see how a teacher can encourage through deception."
"Hey there!" called a familiar voice from behind us. We turned to see our brown haired lady friend rushing to join us.
"Hey, you two! You headed towards the station? Wait for me!"
"Ah, infinity girl," I greeted her, remembering her impressive score on the ball toss.
"I'm Ochako Uraraka! You're 'Tenya Iida', and, er, Deku Midoriya right?"
Midoriya jumped. "Deku? !"
"Eh? Wasn't that what that Bakugou kid called you?"
"Erm, actually, my name is 'Izuku'. Deku is just what Kacchan calls me to make fun of me."
"A derogatory pet name, then?" I asked. Kacchan? I seemed to recall hearing Midoriya call Bakugou such a name before.
"Oh? for real? I'm sorry!" said Uraraka. "But you know, I kinda like Deku. It just sorta screams "Do your best!" She umped her fist in the air again as she spoke.
Midoriya, his face going red, said, "Deku it is!"
"Midoriya!" I cried, shocked. "Didn't you say it was an insult? Show a little backbone!"
"It's like the Copernican revolution!" Midoriya gasped, hiding his face behind his hands.
"Coperinu-huh?" said Uraraka, tilting her head. I recognized the reference, but I didn't like to embarrass her by showing off.
From that point, school seemed to progress in a much more usual manner. We would have normal classes like English in the morning, lunch for cheap prices in the cafeteria, and finally Foundational Hero studies in the afternoon.
Our first class was with All Might himself, the world's #1 hero striding into the classroom with his usual bravado, dressed in his golden age costume.
"Foundational hero studies!" he said in his booming voice. "For this class, we'll be building up your hero foundations through various trials! Let's jump right in with this! Battle Trial! Combat training! For this fight, we've prepared the gear we had you send in requests for to match your quirks."
Time, it seemed, for our costumes at last. Hero costumes and combat training. The costume subsidy, before entering the academy, one is asked to send in a report on their quirk and body specs. An affiliated company attached to the school then takes that information and makes their ideal costumes. It's a smooth system. Detailing specific requests is accepted. And so their state-of-the-art costumes are crafted. Mine is based precisely on the Ingenium family costume - almost a perfect replica of Tensei's matched to my own body speculations. Tensei shook his head when he saw me preparing it.
"Aren't you gonna put your own flare to it at all?"
"Why change an already perfect design?" was my reply.
The armor was aerodynamic and light as air to walk in, perfectly designed for my quirk, making my legs feel lighter and flexible. I'd included a helmet for speed and engines for flare. We'd all changed and gathered outside for our new course. Uraraka had been given a black-and-pink bodysuit with a helmet of her own themed somewhat around space, wrist-weights and springy heels, which I guessed were to lower pressure in zero-gravity. Bakugou wore gigantic gauntlets on his arms. Midoriya, who came last, wore a full green body suit and a hood with oversized ears like a rabbit's.
"Deku! Cool costume, looks really practical!" said Uraraka, turning to greet him. "I wish I'd been more specific, this bodysuit is skintight," she sighed.
I looked around our class space, and felt a sense of deja vu.
"Sensei!" I raised my hand to get All Might's attention. "This appears to be the same field from the entrance exam. Will we be conducting mock cityscape maneuvers?"
"You'll see. This will be an indoor battle trial! Villain cleanup is usually seen out in the open, but statistically, the better part of it is an indoor job. Most acts of villainy are committed indoors. Imprisonment, house arrest, the black market. In this hero saturated society, any villain with intelligence is lurking in the shadows. For this test, you'll separate into villain and hero groups for a two-on-two team battle."
"What about the basics?" asked a girl who distinctly resembled a frog.
"This is foundational training! Only this time, there won't be any robots it'd be ok to just destroy!"
A flood of questions came in. The black haired girl called Yaoyorozu asked "So how do we determine wh wins and loses?"
Bakugou growled, "Is it OK if we just blow them away?"
Uraraka said timidly, "Is there a threat of expulsion like with Mr. Aizawa?"
"If we're separating into different groups, what would be the best day to do so?" I asked.
"I can't hear you if you all speak at once!" cried All Might. Whipping out a script book, he explained "For this training, we'll have some 'villains' guard a nuclear weapon they intend on deploying. The heroes must stop them and their nefarious scheme before it's too late. If the heroes capture the villains or reach the nuclear core before the time runs out, they win. If he villains manage to keep the core the whole time or capture the heroes, they win. Your teammates and opponents will be chosen by lottery!"
"Is that really the best way?" I asked, imagining being forced to work with Bakugou.
"Well, pros are often forced to make impromptu team-ups with other heroes they might not know very well, so this is probably testing that," reasoned Midoriya.
"I see! Always with our eyes on the future. I apologize!"
All Might said, rather impatiently, "Anyway, let's start!"
To my horror, my teammate was none other than Bakugou himself. Midoriya and Uraraka had been teamed together, and the girl named Yaoyorozu with a small, purple-clad boy I didn't know.
All Might continued, "And the first two pairs to do combat will be the following!"
A vs D. A being Midoriya and Uraraka, D being myself and Bakugou.
"Pair A will be the heroes. Pair D will be the villains. This scenario has the villains inside the building first. Then, after five minutes, the heroes will be let in as well! Everyone else will eb able to watch what unfolds through the surveillance cameras. Young Iid, young Bakugou, you must adapt a villains mindset to excel in this activity. Naturally, we'll cut it short if things get out of hand."
Once Bakugou and myself had reached the paper mache nuclear weapon, I sighed a little. "This may just be training, but it still pains me to be aligned with criminal behavior. I suppose we are just defending this thing." I tapped the weapon dummy and listened to the sound inside.
"So. Deku's got a quirk?" snarled Bakugou, not looking at me.
"You saw how he threw that ball. Though it seems to come with a cost." Seeing Bakugou's pose, I had an inkling what he wanted to do. "I'll have to ask you not to charge straight at Midoriya."
That, I felt, would be foolish. Splitting up against those two wouldn't be the best strategy. Midoriya had incredible strength, Uraraka's quirk could incapacitate either one of us with a single touch, especially if she got ahold of any debris to use as a weapon. Both had done well - thinking it over, Uraraka had placed third in the entrance exam, making her higher ranked than I, and Midoriya only one place behind me. Of course, Bakugou had placed first, so perhaps he was confident, but still, neither of our opponents was the sort to be underestimated…
"BEGIN!" came All Might's voice, and as I looked around, I realized I was alone. Bakugou had already run off while I'd been thinking.
"Damn you, Bakugou! He just p and flew out of sight. What's up with him!?"
I was on my own, and potentially stuck having to fight two of my strongest classmates without backup.