Looks like I'm just going to get rid of Mineta again. Also, Aoyama is now in Mineta's seat, so Doko can sit next to Mina. On with the chapter.
Doko had never been so excited for the end of a school break. More information had been sent to his house about UA, and every new thing he learned got him more and more hyped. His parents were unsure about the whole situation, but they were going along with it, at least. And his sister seemed even more excited than he was.
One day he received a form in the mail - a costume request that he had to fill out. Doko hadn't given a single thought to a hero costume. He asked his sister about it, since she was slightly more knowledgeable about heroes, and she told him, "just tell them to make something cool."
In the end Doko just wrote "something purple and dark grey, with an inkblot design on the front." While his parents had limited his access to the Internet, he had always had books at his disposal, and he was fascinated by inkblots in psychology. They had very little to do with his powers from a thematic standpoint, but he liked the idea as something that people could identify with him.
He also wrote down to add some kind of metallic mask for his eyes and nose, which would help him focus better and get less nauseous when he warped too much. But that was all. "Do you reckon I'm being too vague?" he mused to his sister.
She looked it over and shrugged. "Heroes change their costumes all the time, and you're just a student still. You can always request changes if they make something butt-ugly or stupid looking."
He raised his eyebrows. "You're right; I didn't even think about that. Smart girl. When did you get so perceptive?"
"Maybe my Quirk, '10000 IQ', finally manifested."
They shared a laugh and ended the conversation.
Finally the day had come. Doko walked out the door of his home with a wave, while his parents stood in the hallway. "Good-bye, Mother, Father." He hadn't stuttered that time.
"Careful with that phone," was all his mother said. "We paid a lot of money for that." His father just remained silent.
Doko ran his fingers over his pocket, where his first-ever cell phone sat. Getting a phone had been the big storm of middle school, but he had never dared ask his parents for one, even as his friends bothered him about it and complained that they couldn't stay in touch very easily. But apparently having one was a requirement at UA, and his parents had actually caved. Maybe they're coming around on all this...but I won't rely on that or anything.
He arrived at the train platform, and gasped. Hovering near the tracks was a floating UA uniform. "Hagakure?" he called out tentatively.
The uniform whirled, its skirt swishing around invisible legs. "Katayama-kun!" She squealed in delight. "Oh, look at that uniform, it's beautiful! You made it in too, huh?"
"That's right. Class 1-A." He grinned.
She gasped, and her sleeves went up as if she'd put her hands to her mouth. "Noooo way. Me too!"
"Haha, yes! Hooray for knowing at least one person!" They shared an over-exaggerated high five, and then walked onto the train, laughing. People on the way to work gave them curious looks.
"Looks like our worries were misplaced," said Doko as they sat down. "I've been kinda wondering about you, you know. Not in a weird way or anything! Just, ever since I got my acceptance letter, er...acceptance hologram, I was wondering what your results had been."
"It's okay. I was actually wondering the same after I got MY acceptance letter." She waved her hand, and then seemed pensive. "I looked through my contacts to call you and ask, but then I realised I didn't actually have your phone number."
"That would be because I didn't have a phone until like, today." Doko pulled out the device in question, brandishing it for her to see.
Toru paused. "That's an old looking phone. Are your parents just tech-ignorant or something?"
"I guess you could say that." He put the phone away. Toru let out a little noise, as if she was about to say something, but then stopped.
I am no dense young man, unaware of the finer movements of social situations! I do believe she was going to ask me for my phone number! But then she cut herself off. Would it be rude to fill in the gap for her?
He tossed the dice. "Did you...want my ph..."
"No, that's okay!" she interrupted hastily, waving her sleeves about. "I wouldn't want to be a bother..."
Doko pulled the phone back out and waved it in front of her face enticingly, grinning. "It's really no trouble at all...you'd get to be my first contact ever...besides my parents and sister, of course." His voice was singsong, teasing.
"Argh! Yes!" She practically snatched his phone from him, and then began putting her contact info into it.
"Hehehehe. I figured you might be the kind of person to gain satisfaction from being someone's first contact. Turns out I was right."
"You're evil, Katayama-kun," she whined as she handed him his phone back. "You should be going to villain school instead."
Doko blinked. "Is that a thing?"
"No, stupid! I swear you're a girl. You've got the perceptivity to know I wanted your phone number, but you don't seem to know anything about cool boy stuff like heroes and competing."
"Hmmph."
"You don't have a response to that? I just questioned your manhood, you know."
"I am choosing not to respond. A girl never reveals her secrets, after all." He smirked.
Thankfully Hagakure laughed. "She does to her closest girl friends."
"Hey, this goes both ways, Miss Invisible. For all I know, you could be a boy wearing a bra with lots of padding."
"These curves are one hundred percent authentic, I'll have you know."
Are we flirting now? Is this happening? For some reason, Doko didn't feel like pushing further. Toru was nice, but...he'd just been messing around, really. I hope giving her my number didn't give her the wrong idea.
Idiot! Of course she realises that we're just friends messing around. Giving a phone number to a friend is completely normal.
"Katayama-kun?"
"Hoh! I'm fine, everything's fine."
"Were you thinking about my curves?"
"No...just about...the concept of villain school, I guess." A lie.
"Haha, yeah! What would they even teach there?"
"Fighting to kill. Bypassing modern security systems. The intricacies of long-form tax evasion. The possibilities are endless, really." Now that Doko thought about it, the underground Quirk training that he'd been attending could have been almost like a villain school. It WAS illegal, after all, and not everyone training there could have had good intentions with their Quirk. Something's nagging me about that, too...
"We're here," she announced.
They got off the train and approached the shining glass of the school. Third and second-years were scattered about the steps, as if they were looking out for the fresh blood. "Don't speak to us, please," Doko mumbled, eyeing a group of older girls who were looking their direction and chatting and giggling. "Don't speak to us I swear to god I will throw a fit I will..."
"Katayama-kun, you good?" asked Hagakure.
"Never better. We're about to start our first class, things are just dandy. Woo-hoo, hero time."
"It's just...I couldn't really hear what you were saying, but...your mouth was glowing for a second."
That took him aback. "Glowing? Glowing how? Like I have makeup on or something? I'm so happy you noticed, I spent an hour in front of the mirror this morning."
"No. Shut up, idiot. It was glowing purple."
"Hm. Odd. Oh well, let's find Class 1-A." One thing Doko couldn't stand was when people asked him if there was something wrong, because it meant he'd slipped up the facade somehow. And when that happened, he made people uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to drag her good mood down by making her worry. So whatever she'd seen, he quickly dismissed it and moved on, re-energised.
They found their classroom after a bit of exploration. The door was massive.
"I feel bad for the people with Quirks that make them ten feet tall or whatever. Imagine the back pain."
Toru would have been giving him a funny look right now if she wasn't invisible. "Wouldn't their Quirks account for that?"
"I mean, one would hope so. Do you want to do a stupid entrance? All these classmates are gonna be hero kids, real weirdos. We've got to one-up them in weirdness, show who's boss right out of the gate."
"Hehehe..." she appeared to nod. "I have the perfect plan, too."
Thirty seconds later, the door to Class 1A slid open, and a boy with crew-cut dark grey hair and a floating girl's uniform came bursting in.
"Everyone shut up this instant," the boy said, striking a pose.
"We're here to rock your world and be cute and great," the girl, apparently invisible, said.
Then, in sync: "We're the Cloak and Dagger of Shinobu Middle!"
The students in the central-ish desks had been having a kind of group conversation, and they were the ones who reacted. Denki Kaminari started laughing his ass off. Kyoka Jiro and Eijiro Kirishima chuckled, and Hanta Sero cracked a smile. Most of the others just looked confused or irritated.
Mission accomplished, thought Doko, knowing none of the names, but a quick scan of the room revealed a diverse cast of faces.
"Wait," he said, confused. "I get why you're a cloak, but how am I a dagger, exactly?"
Hagakure was already skipping to the far side of the room, where there were two remaining desks open. One was in front of the angry blonde guy, which Toru sat down in, and the other was behind him...wait, the angry blonde guy?
"Hang on, I know you!" Doko declared, pointing. "From the underground Quirk traini..."
"Shhh!" The guy gave him a look of fury along with the shushing hiss. Then, he looked around frantically. The people in the center of the room had returned to their conversation. The pretty girl and the European-looking guy that made up the rest of the back row were arguing about something. And the others in the class were paying no attention at all.
Angry blonde guy sighed and scratched his neck. "Jesus, dude. Don't mention that training so casually. Are you an idiot or something? Scratch that, from that display earlier, you definitely are."
I guess it WAS kind of illegal...but still, who actually cares? Wait, was it a bigger deal than Doko realised? He didn't know enough about the hero structure to make a judgement!
"What are you guys talking about?" Toru asked, turning.
"Nothing," they said, in sync.
"What's your name, by the way? We never got to spar at the erm...thing. I only saw you from a distance."
"Katsuki Bakugo."
"Cool. My name's..."
"I don't care. You have some kind of warping Quirk, right? Pretty powerful in concept. It's a shame you're a fucking crackhead, although all the better for me. You won't be able to get in my way of being number one at this whole damn school."
Doko laughed nervously. He had been going to take the seat behind Bakugo, but now was thinking better of it. "I had no intention of getting in your way anyway. See you around." And then, with a brief glance at Toru that he hoped she would take to mean sorry, he walked back to the other side of the room.
Desks 1 and 2 had both been unoccupied when he'd entered, but the second one now contained another familiar face, one Mina Ashido. She stood out quite a bit in the classroom, in a good way. Doko found himself moving to Seat 1.
"You missed my grand entrance," he said plainly.
She pouted. "And you missed mine. You were too busy talking to people."
Doko grinned and held out a hand. "Good to see you here, Ashido. All Might laid out the situation for you too, I presume? It was good to know that we both got in thanks to our combined efforts."
Mina laughed. "It was all instinct, anyway. I couldn't leave your pathetic ass crying under a robot, now could I?" She did accept his handshake, though.
"Do you two know each other, ribbit."
Doko tilted his whole body cartoonishly to peer around Mina's back, where a girl was sitting in Desk 3. She had long green hair, big eyes, a wide mouth, and hunched posture.
"Yo. Were you the one who just spoke? Your voice is so soothing."
The girl's eyes got even wider than before. "Are you making fun of me?"
Mina laughed. "No, that was a compliment. He's just like that, I'm afraid."
"Don't apologise on my behalf. And yes, I was being genuine. Your voice sounds really cool. I'm Doko Katayama."
"I'm Tsuyu Asui, ribbit."
"And I'm Mina Ashido!" The pink girl gave a thumbs up and a dazzling grin. "And to answer your question, the two of us met at the entrance exam. Life or death situation type thing. You gotta make friends I'm desperate times, you know?"
"Thank goodness for that," said Doko, making a show of wiping invisible sweat off his brow. "Or else I would never make any friends."
That got a laugh out of both the girls, and Doko smiled upon hearing Asui's laugh. It was like a deep-throated chuckle, and it was super endearing. "Say, Asui-sa..."
"Call me Tsu, ribbit."
"Huh?" Doko blinked.
"Oh, that's adorable!" Mina brought her fists close to her face. "...Tsu-chan!"
Tsuyu nodded in approval, blushing slightly.
Doko frowned. "This isn't fair. If I call you a nickname, I should get my own nickname in return."
Tsuyu put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm..."
Mina clicked her teeth and snapped her fingers. "I know! Dokkun!" Tsuyu nodded again.
Doko grimaced. "I brought this upon myself. Hey, does that mean you're going to use it too, since you came up with it?" He turned to look at Mina, his purple eyes inquisitive.
Mina sputtered for a second, flushing lilac. "Ah, I mean..."
"You don't have to if you don't want to, I guess. But anyway, Tsu. You're like a frog, huh?"
"Yes, Dokkun. I can do most things a frog can. That's my Quirk. And what about you?"
"I can teleport myself and any object up to the weight of a printer ten meters in any direction."
"But not other people," Mina supplied. "I would know, since you PUSHED me."
"You're laboring hard feelings about that?"
"What about you, Mina-chan?" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head, blinking those wide eyes.
Mina let out a happy squeak upon being called "Mina-chan", and puffed out her cheeks, her eyes shimmering with emotion.
"Do try not to implode on our first day. She asked you a question," said Doko.
"Quiet, you. Anyway, Tsu-chan, my Quirk is Acid. I can emit it from my palms and my feet."
"Interesting. I can also secrete a sort of toxin as part of my Quirk, but it's very low-level. I imagine yours is quite powerful. But that it interesting, Mina-chan. Based on your unique appearance, I had you pegged as a mutant, not an emitter."
"Well, with more and more people with unique Quirks getting married, these weird fusions do happen." Mina ran a hand through her curly hair, seemingly unfazed by the idea of being a "weird fusion." I can respect that, thought Doko. After all, he genuinely had no idea where his powers came from, genetically speaking.
"I heard mutants? Toru Hagakure at your service."
"Oh, it's you." Doko turned to see the invisible girl's uniform hovering over their desks. "Decided to join the cool side of the room, huh?"
"Briefly. I tried to talk to that Bakugo guy, but it was like he didn't even notice I was there." She seemed to pout.
"Ah, yes, I saw you two enter the room and make that grand display, ribbit. I'm Tsuyu Asui, but you can call me Tsu. How do you know each other?"
"We went to the same middle school," Toru explained.
Mina had been quiet for a beat, her facial expression curiously thoughtful, but she chose to re-insert herself at that moment. "I'm Mina Ashido! Good to see another girl here! The other two on the other side of the room don't seem much for conversation."
Doko spared a glance over there. The girl with short black hair was talking to some of the boys, while the girl with the longer black hair in some crazy ponytail was ignoring the European guy, who kept trying to get her attention.
"Dokkun," observed Tsuyu, "you seem to know a lot of people here already, ribbit. Notably girls."
"H-huh?" He gave her a frightened look, feeling a single drop of sweat go down his face. "How could you say something so brave?!"
While Mina and Toru were laughing at his overreaction, Tsuyu replied: "I just say what's on my mind, ribbit."
"Excuse me, could you take your feet off the desk? That is extremely insulting to the upperclassmen who sat here before us and the people who built the desk!"
"The hell?" Mina raised an eyebrow, looking across the room. The other three followed the voice as well.
"HA! You gonna make me? What middle school did you even go to, you supporting cast member?" It was Bakugo, and the uptight guy with the glasses from the entrance exam. Everyone else in the room had quieted down to look at the confrontation that was happening.
Glasses straightened himself. "I...I had the privilege to attend Somei Private Academy."
"Yeah, privilege is a good way of putting it. I'll enjoy leaving your rich ass in the dirt."
The green-haired kid had just appeared at the doorway, and he looked incredibly frightened. Doko had to admit that he was awfully confused by all this.
Suddenly, Glasses NOTICED green-haired kid, and zapped over to him an instant. "You!" he declared, making a scene at the front of the room. "I need to apologise to you! My name is Tenya Iida, by the way!"
"I-Izuku Midoriya!" the greenhead stuttered, waving his hands frantically.
"Bakugo still hasn't gotten his feet off my desk," mumbled Toru.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Midoriya..." Iida adjusted his glasses, and they went white over his eyes for a moment, indicating serious business. "You realized there was something more to that exam, didn't you? That's why you took out the zero pointer. I misjudged you, I confess it."
"Uhhhh...th-that's okay..."
"Oh hey, it's the nice person!" A girl with brown hair appeared at the doorway, which by Doko's count was the twentieth and last student. "The way you took out that zero pointer was awesome!" She punched the air intensely.
Midoriya was getting redder by the second. "Ohhh, it was n-n-nothing! I only got in thanks to you g-going and saying something, anyway, so r-really it was all because of yo..."
"How did you know about that?" She blinked, curious.
"If you lot are here to make friends, you've come to the wrong place," a voice droned from the hallway.
Toru quickly crept back to her seat. The three students at the front of the room backed off, confused. Doko tried to peek around to see who had spoken, but they came through the door anyway.
A human in a sleeping bag. Midoriya and the brown-haired girl had made comments, but Doko wasn't listening.
Whispers flooded the room as the sleeping bag walked to the front desk. Mina and Tsuyu were chatting about something behind Doko, and then they stopped as the human unzipped, revealing a disheveled man with long black hair.
"It took you all far too many seconds to quiet down. Time is of the essence here," he told them in a bored voice. "This is the hero course. I'm Aizawa, your homeroom teacher."
"HOMEROOM TEACHER?" All the students exclaimed together, aghast.
Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "That display was certainly cute, but we have no time. Put these on and head down to the field. Make it snappy." He procured a box of PE uniforms and put it on top of the desk.
Huh? We're not going to go over anything? Doko felt panicked for a moment, before looking around and seeing that everyone else looked pretty lost too. So this isn't even normal for hero school. Okay. Good to know. But there was nothing for it but to follow their teacher's orders.
A few minutes later, Class 1A gathered outside around Aizawa, near a ring in the grass. Sitting next to it was a box of softballs.
"We're going to do a Quirk assessment test," he announced.
"Huh?" The brown-haired girl tilted her head. "What about orientation?"
"We don't have time for such things when there is hero training to be done. Here at UA, they give us teachers freedom to do whatever we want."
So this is hero school, thought Doko. Wild.
"Bakugo," Aizawa called. "You got the highest score on the entrance exam. What was your record for the softball throw in middle school?"
"How the hell would I remember that?"
The teacher rolled his eyes. "Just come try it again. But this time, use your Quirk, and don't hold back. The government prevents Quirk usage in middle school fitness, something I find to be extremely irrational. Why prevent students from using every advantage available to them? Anyway, go ahead. I'll be scanning." He held up a distance-reading device.
"Alright." Bakugo stepped into the ring and picked up a softball. He swung his arm in a circle a couple of times, and then...let it rip. "DIE!" he shouted, sending off an explosion as he threw the ball.
A few seconds later, Aizawa held up the device. "Over 600 meters."
The entire class gasped and started chatting.
"Wow!"
"We can use our Quirks? This school is on another level!"
"This is going to be fun!"
For the first time, Aizawa smiled. "Fun, is it? Hmm. Perhaps I should motivate you all to take things a bit more seriously, then. We will do a number of events, and the overall last place individual will be judged to have no potential and will be expelled on the spot."
Doko's mouth fell open. "What?" Mina snapped, incredulous. "You can't do that!"
"It's our first day!" cried the brunette girl.
Aizawa's sadistic smirk widened. "Welcome to UA. Freedom to run things how I want, like I said before."
"But that's unfair!"
"Unfair? Are villain attacks fair? Are natural disasters fair? This is only a hint of what's to come, if you walk the path of heroism. We'll see who can thread the gauntlet. That's plus ultra for you."
Doko exhaled slowly, calming himself. I should have been prepared for something like this. Unbeknownst to him at that moment, he was actually at an advantage here. The other students had all done more research and had spent more time in their lives anticipating hero school, so this threw them off hardcore. But Doko had no frame of reference at all, and that kept his mind more open.
The first event was a 50-meter dash. "Five warps," Doko mumbled. "Easy."
"Hehe, getting psyched out, Dokkun?" Mina cracked her knuckles. "All you gotta do is perform well in at least one event, and you should be fine."
"That makes sense, actually. Although surely each person here will have at least one event suited to their abilities. Ideally, you'd want to do well across the board, Ashido."
"No worries. I'm as sporty as they come! Also..." she took pause. "You can call me Mina, if you like. It's only fair."
"Alright then, Mina." Hey, I guess I made another friend. Two, counting Tsuyu. Things were looking up.
Tsuyu was one of the first two to compete, speaking of which. The other was the guy in glasses, Iida. Now that he was wearing shorts, Doko could see little engines in his legs. He got into a runner's position at the starting line, clearly well-suited for this sort of event. Tsuyu crouched down on all fours, as if she meant to leap.
"3, 2, 1, go!" Aizawa sent them off.
Iida blasted exhaust out of his engines and made it to the finish in an instant. Tsuyu was no slouch, either, still finishing after him but doing extremely well with a few powerful frog-hops.
"Iida, 3.1 seconds. Asui, 5.3."
The class gasped again. "Those times are insane!" said the guy with sharp teeth and spiky red hair, clashing his fists together. "We can't slouch, either! This is what it means to be a man!"
"Don't you mean a hero?" The girl with the headphone ears clarified in a dry tone.
"Er, yes."
Next up was Doko and Mina, surprisingly. Oh, I guess we're actually going against the people next to us in class. That made sense.
"Well, I'm going to lose," Mina said with a bitter smile, stretching her legs, "but at least I'll still get a better time than most of these others."
"Don't discount yourself," Doko said, getting his left foot ready to spring the first warp. "I could accidentally rip myself in half or something. You never know."
Aizawa readied the timer. "3, 2, 1, go!"
It was easier for Doko when he had a planned number of warps, and knew his exact destination. It took him only 1.4 seconds to make it across, although he stumbled and wavered as he stopped on the other side of the finish line, briefly nauseous. Mina came a few seconds later, sliding on acid that she'd emitted from her feet.
Doko's eyes widened. "Good thinking," he complimented.
She grinned. "What are you paying attention to me for? Look what YOU did."
"1.4 seconds, Katayama," Aizawa was saying, nodding in approval. "Very rational Quirk usage."
The class was cheering and whistling. Doko raised his eyebrows. "You can teleport?" the guy with spiky red hair said. "That's awesome, dude!"
"Flashy AND powerful," the guy with lighting-like yellow hair commented, giving a thumbs up. "Groovy."
"Did you seriously just say groovy?" the earphone girl asked incredulously, rolling her eyes.
"Well, y-yeah! It felt like a good descriptive word, okay!"
Doko got swarmed by a few more people, and then Aizawa quieted the class down. "We must continue," he pointed out.
The 50 meter dash went on with eight other heats. Bakugo achieved a very good time by using his explosions. The girl with brown hair, whose name was Ochaco Uraraka, appeared to make herself lighter, almost floating across the finish line. A boy named Mashirao Ojiro propelled himself forward with his tail. A boy named Shoto Todoroki iced the entire track and slid across on it. The European-looking guy named Yuga Aoyama shot a laser from his stomach to propel himself (although he had to pause, citing that using his laser for too long made him sick). And the girl with the crazy ponytail, named Momo Yaoyorozu, literally created roller skates to zoom across with.
The second event was grip strength, which Doko actually did pretty well in, one of the best among those who didn't use their powers for the event. Turned out that teleporting objects requiring him to physically flex his arms meant they had actually muscled up a bit over the years. Those that DID use their powers, however, were far and away more impressive. A boy named Rikido Sato downed a sugar packet and put on a superhuman showing. The red-haired boy, named Eijiro Kirishima, also did very well by hardening his hand. And the massive guy with the face mask, Mezo Shoji, used multiple arms to grip and got the best score.
Event number three was standing long jump. Doko teleported himself forward in mid-air and gained ten extra meters, purring him near the top, but both Bakugo and Tsuyu shined here. Uraraka floated herself as long as possible before falling and appearing to get sick for a moment. I can relate. It was at this point that Doko realised the green-haired kid, Midoriya, had not used his Quirk once in any event. He said as much to Tsuyu, who was standing next to him.
"I noticed that as well, ribbit. Perhaps Midoriya-chan hasn't gotten to an event where his Quirk is compatible yet."
In any case, the events continued with repeated side steps. Doko once again performed well, considering that the purple energy inside him that allowed him to warp also made him generally more hyperactive.
The next event was the softball throw from the beginning. Bakugo already had his result, so he didn't go this time. Yaoyorozu fired hers from a cannon. A boy named Hanta Sero attached the ball to the end of a length of a tape that he emitted from his elbows, and then spun, swinging it in a circle and releasing. Uraraka sent the ball floating up into the sky.
"Oh," said Aizawa, raising his eyebrows and then displaying the scanner to the whole class. It showed an infinity symbol.
"INFINITY?"
"That's manly as hell!"
"Way to go, Uraraka-san!"
Doko liked how supportive most of the class was. The exceptions were Todoroki and Tokoyami, the guy with the bird head. Oh, and Bakugo. They mostly remained quiet. So did a large boy named Koji Koda, but that seemed to be more out of shyness than anything. He didn't seem to be a brooder like the other three.
When it was his turn, he just threw the ball normally. Aizawa raised his eyebrows. "Unexpected. Couldn't you have warped it?"
Doko shrugged. "Maybe once, but my power gets very weak and unfocused outside the ten meter range. I might have ended up just making things worse by trying that, by accidentally pulling it closer to me or something."
"Hmm. I see. The notes on your Quirk were a bit vague, so..." Aizawa shrugged. "Your explanation is sound for now, but remember that it's always good to experiment. You'll want to find any advantage you can, and utilise it."
"Yes, sir. I'll keep that in mind."
Midoriya's turn came. He seemed to be mumbling to himself as he walked toward the ring.
"Midoriya hasn't used his Quirk once during the test. Surely he needs to go all out here if he doesn't want to place last," said Iida.
"Of course Deku hasn't used his Quirk, because he's a Quirkless loser!" Bakugo snapped.
"Quirkless? Did you not see what he did at the entrance exam?"
"What are they talking about?" Doko whispered to Hagakure. She shrugged in response.
Midoriya started to wind up, exhaling, and then he released the ball with a powerful grimace.
"Huh?"
"46 meters," Aizawa announced lazily.
Midoriya blinked, pale. "But...I swear I was going all in just then..."
"I erased your Quirk," Aizawa explained, and suddenly his eyes were glowing red, his hair and scarf floating up. "The entrance exam was definitely not rational enough. Even a student like you was accepted!"
Midoriya's eyes widened. "I know you! You're the pro hero Eraser Head!"
The class began to chatter.
"Eraser Head? Who?"
"I think I've heard of him. He's like, an underground hero. Stays out of the public eye."
Oh, cool, thought Doko. Not like I would have recognised him even if he WAS a big public celebrity hero.
Aizawa was reprimanding Midoriya. "How do you plan on being a hero if you can only use your power once, before it breaks your body? Congrats, you can save one person, and then you're utterly out of commission."
"But...I..."
"I will allow you to try again with the softball. I won't erase your Quirk this time; you can either put your full power into it or just throw it normally. I don't care anymore." Aizawa shook his head in disgust.
A few people in the class seemed angry about this turn of events, namely Uraraka. "This isn't fair at all..." she whispered. Most of the others just looked uncomfortable, confused. Doko didn't know how to feel, himself. The guy did SOMETHING in the entrance exam, all right. But what is his Quirk if it destroys his body?
Midoriya had a new steel in his eyes, and Doko took notice. The green-haired boy went into a windup, and then...released the ball with a flash of power and a gust of wind. It went flying.
When the smoke cleared, Midoriya was crouched in the ring, his fist closed. Doko saw that he had single broken finger. "Sensei," he said in a pained voice, although he was smiling. "Now I can save TEN people."
Aizawa smiled back, and the whole class seemed to relax. "400 meters," the teacher said. "Well done."
"WHAT!" An angry roar cut through their relief like a dagger, as Bakugo bounded forward in fury, his hands alight with fire. "DEKU, HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS THE WHOLE TIME, YOU PIECE OF SH..."
Eraser Head's scarf suddenly shot out and wrapped itself around the boy, and his explosions disappeared. "That's enough of that, thank you," said Aizawa, red-eyed. "Return to the sideline."
The next three events sort of floated by for Doko. He didn't really do well in the toe touch; he wasn't the most flexible person ever. For the long distance run, he made it into the top three by maintaining five meter warps the whole time, and conserving energy.
"That's all. Here are the end results." Aizawa showed them the scanner, which produced a holographic scoreboard. Everyone's eyes immediately went to the bottom to see who was in last. It was Midoriya.
"Oh, I was just kidding about the expulsion, by the way."
"WHAAAAAT?" The class shrieked in unison.
"Yeah, it was a rational deception to get you all to do your best. And I would say it worked, overall."
Midoriya sighed in relief, as the other students chatted about their placements. "It was obvious he was lying," scoffed Yaoyorozu. "Even though the teachers do have 'freedom', they don't have so much that they can expel someone on the first day."
"Easy to say when you're in first," whined Kaminari. "The rest of us had to stress a little, you know?"
Momo was indeed in first, followed by Todoroki, Bakugo, and Iida. Rounding out the top five was - Doko's eyes widened - him. "Great work, Katayama-kun," said Hagakure, slapping him on the back. "I came in nineteenth. If it wasn't for Midoriya, I would have...goodness. I've got my work cut out for me."
"The long jump was my only real standout event, ribbit," said Tsuyu. "I came in thirteenth."
"Tenth place," Mina said with a grin. "Middle of the pack. I've got people to leave in the dust, still. But good work, Dokkun. Really."
"Ha...yeah..." he didn't really know how to respond.
"Great job to the top five!" declared Kirishima. "I almost made it there, but not quite. Guess I need to work even harder, huh?"
Am I really in fifth? Doko had never really had any concept of how strong his Quirk would be compared to others; he just knew it would be really useful for rescue. But, fifth! Truly! He was only behind the super-powerful people...in fact, he was one of them! Top five!
On the way back up to the classroom, Mina and Toru and Tsuyu got to chatting, having hit it off in the way that only girls could. Doko lagged behind a bit, his head spinning. Mina took notice. "Hey, Dokkun, you better not be letting that placement go to your head! Hey!" She snapped. "Return to Earth immediately!"
"Ah! Yes, I'm here. Sorry."
She grinned. "Keep up, hey? It's not like we want to exclude you from the convo here."
"Yeah, Katayama-kun. I might just steal your friends from you if you're not careful."
"Ribbit."
"Yes, of course." He went back to his old self after that, or at least the facade of it. He responded to the girl's' comments here and there as they made their way back. Behind him, Midoriya was walking slowly, a pensive expression on his face. Doko briefly turned around.
"Hey. Midoriya, right? I'm Doko Katayama." He offered a handshake.
"H-hey." The boy returned the gesture. "You got fifth, didn't you? That's really impressive. Your Quirk is pretty powerful, and versatile, too. Wide array of application. It's no wonder you placed so high. I mean, you nearly beat Kacchan, even."
"Kacchan? Who is that?"
"Oh, ummm...Bakugo."
"Ah, right. I actually knew him from a...thing we both attended during middle school. Do you guys have a history or something? I heard him call you Deku."
"Yeah, you c-could say that. It's nothing worth troubling yourself over."
"I wasn't going to do any troubling. No worries. Your business is your business." Some of the day's events had put strange thoughts into Doko's mind, especially regarding Midoriya and Bakugo, but what would be the purpose of prying further, when there was hero stuff to learn? Until I have a better grip on what the hell I'm doing here, it's best to just go with the flow and not make too many outlandish decisions...
But it was nice to have some friends, at least. He rejoined Mina and Toru and Tsuyu, smiling contentedly.
END OF CHAPTER 2
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