This chapter follows Aizawa's quirk exams.
There was no Mother to wish Toru off for a good first day of school. She got ready in silence in her new empty house, packing her book bag with everything she would need for a normal first day of school.
It was quiet. I wonder what other kids with parents experience on their first day of school. Toru wondered. Do their moms give them a kiss on the cheek and wish them the best of luck? I think I read that in a book. She rubbed her cheek briefly.
Her Master, All for One would never do something like that. She did feel a rush of gratitude that he had prepared a house for her and gotten all the official paperwork in order to make it look like she had owned the house for awhile and that was her primary place of residency. It was a nice house too, looked perfectly normal and her fake room looked like everything a teenage girl might have with nice plush pillows and some dolls.
I'm not planning to have anyone over, but in case anyone visits it'll look normal enough. Toru reminded herself.
"I'll be back." She told her empty house and left for her first day of infiltration work.
Just be normal and form bonds and make friends. That was her mission for the first day. Observe the enemy heroes and just be normal.
She found the classroom with ease, no trembling in her arms at all.
I wonder who my classmates will be…There should be 19 others I have to observe, right? Her mind briefly jumped to Ashido and Hatsume. Likely both of them had passed the exams. She wondered if they'd be placed in class A or B.
As she slid open the giant door surveying the room before she slipped into her desk she noticed that she already recognized a few people. The pink girl with horns named Mina had in fact passed, but Hatsume was nowhere to be seen.
"Yo! Toru!" Mina waved her over. "I'm so happy you passed! It's good to know another girl here." She gave Toru a thumbs up.
Toru smiled back. "Yeah! The entrance Exam was tough but I'm happy I succeeded! All the robots coming at me had me go like WHOA." She frantically waved her arms and pantomimed her story.
Mina politely nodded. "Yeah! I was lucky we were fighting robots instead of like…animals or something since my quirk is acid." She nervously rubbed the back of her head.
A girl sitting behind Mina poked her head out towards them. "Are you two my new classmates?" She asked. Her eyes were big and blank. Toru decided she looked a little frog like.
"Yeah! The name's Toru Hagakure, as you can see I'm invisible!" Toru greeted.
"Mina Ashido. I can shoot acid. Cool isn't it?" Mina smiled
"That sounds very useful." The girl nodded. "My name's Asui Tsuyu. Please call me Tsuyu. I can pretty much do everything a frog can do so I'm very mobile."
Toru happily shook her hand. A mobility based quirk, huh? She eyes the girl's legs for a moment. They looked strong and agile. Her hands also seemed to have the fingertips wider than a normal persons as if she could crouch on the ground and leap. Her skin looked pretty moist and soft too, it looked like the rubbery texture of a frog. And the way the girl's tongue moved as she talked made it clear that it was a far larger tongue than the normal persons.
She knew Tsuyu couldn't see her narrowing her eyes as she heavily observed her. It was part of her mission after all to gather intel on who could be obstacles to All for One's Mission. And part of that was observing the intelligence and quirks of her opponents.
Tsuyu seemed powerful and she mentally catalogued that information for herself in the future. Only a dummy took notes that could be found on one's enemies so she made sure to memorize everything that seemed to gauge Tsuyu's power.
"Is your seat over here, Toru?" Tsuyu asked, looking at the clock.
"AHH! No. No it isn't." Toru hastily shook her head. "Sorry! I was just greeting Mina. Don't want to get in trouble in the first day." Toru fake slapped her cheeks. "Talk to you two later, new classmates! I'm sure this year is going to be fun."
"Of course it is! It seems like class A has some amazing girls! I'm sure we'll form some great comradery between us." Mina gave a thumbs up. "And hey I can vouch for at least one of the boys." She pointed over at a spiky red head. "That's one of my old schoolmates, Kirishima."
"Whoa no way. You actually made it into the same class as one of your middle school friends?" Toru brought her face closer to Mina, so Mina could feel her excitement. "How lucky is that!"
"That does seem rather rare. All my hero aiming middle school friends tried for different schools." Tsuyu mentioned.
Mina waved her hand. "Come on, it doesn't seem that rare. I'm sure other people here are old classmates."
Toru briefly looked around. Nobody seemed to look like old friends and everyone seemed to be trying to get newly acquainted with one another. She did notice Tokoyami though and to her horror, the grape headed kid.
Mina grimaced, noticing Toru's arms fly to her face in a gasp at seeing Mineta. "I know. I'm surprised too. Maybe he has an amazingly powerful quirk that let him get in? …Just try to ignore him." She advised.
"Hm…?" Tsuyu tilted her head.
"The grape headed kid." Mina pointed. "He was in Toru's and my exam group. He was kinda creepy."
"Well, I'm willing to give anyone a chance. Maybe he just has limited social skills? I've been called creepy before too." Tsuyu frowned.
Toru frowned to herself. Of course heroes wouldn't take making women uncomfortable seriously. "…He's not that kinda creepy. He's more like…Oh." She hit her hand lightly to herself. "A serial ogler."
"…Oh." Tsuyu immediately dropped her defense. She was quiet for a moment. At a loss for words she seemed to be trying to think.
Toru decided to make her quick escape to find her desk at that moment. She didn't really want to go into why the grape headed kid made her uncomfortable.
Tokoyami tried to get up for a moment, perhaps to greet her and congratulate her on also getting into that same class, but Toru could tell from his movements that he lost his courage mid-way and sat back down. Not that he was aware she was watching him.
Her desk was in the right corner in front of a spiky blonde haired dude and next to a guy with a ninja mask who looked rather large. He seemed to have six large arms.
A power type quirk? He looks powerful. Toru decided perhaps not to interact as quickly with him. She didn't want someone so powerful to get angry.
The person she was in front of was wearing a cocky grin and had his feet on the table.
Well, he's not too large so maybe I should introduce myself. I do sit in front of him and all! Maybe he's friendly. She decided. As she put her books down she turned around to speak to him.
Almost immediately a tall man with glasses stood up from his desk. Toru's back prickled for a second as she realized he was looking over there and she snapped her body back towards the front to be a good student. He didn't seem to notice though and he waved his arm. "Please remove your foot from the desk!"
The spiky haired boy behind Toru who the glasses guy was speaking to grinned wider. "Oh yeah? You gonna make me, four eyes?" As if to further his point he leaned back.
Oh. He's one of those sorts of people who like making trouble. Maybe she had dodged a bullet not introducing herself to the person she was in front of. But he was the person she'd be in front of for the whole year.
Immediately at that, the glasses guy ran across the room. Toru saw steam erupting from his pants for a second.
Wait. I remember. This is the know it all who disrupted the entrance exam asking questions! Toru realized.
He was closer now and Toru crossed her hands and tried to act perfectly still as to not get involved.
"REMOVE YOUR FOOT FROM THE DESK!" He repeated again. He then took a deep breath and started a lecture, "Such an action is not befitting a student of UA. Not only that but it is INSULTING to those who have come before us and sat at these desks in UA. Not only that but you're insulting the craftsmen who made that desk-"
Oh gods…So this is what being in a course with heroes is like…Toru took a deep breath. This was going to be a long year. And the yelling was so loud she could barely concentrate.
"Like I care. What middle school are you even from, side character?" The spiky haired kid didn't even seem fazed by the lecture.
Toru tried not to move her head too much as to not spark the people arguing's attention. Act invisible. Don't make enemies on the first day. She told herself sweating to herself.
She didn't expect a fight between heroes right behind her. She noticed as her head was frozen that the door at the side had opened. Another student had walked in and he was staring at the fight and sweating.
That's the right, reaction, kid. Just sneak away. Toru made eye contact although he didn't notice. As she made eye contact she frowned. The curly hair reminded her of something. The entrance exam again.
OH. Oh he's the guy glasses told to keep quiet in public. No wonder he looks like a deer in headlights. Class 1-A seemed to already have so much drama.
Toru somewhat heard what the glasses kid was saying as she tried not to get involved. His name was Tenya Iida and he came from a very elite middle school. Likely he was from one of those hero based families.
Smoke came briefly from his legs…And Iida is the family of heroes with engine legs. She knew of them. A tough hero had appeared. Would Iida be the greatest obstacle in class for her?
Iida seemed to stop yelling as he finally noticed the curly haired student in the doorway. He walked away from right behind Toru and started chatting with him about the entrance exam.
Toru breathed a sigh of relief that he was now gone. She immediately pulled out a pencil and sheet of paper to look like a good student who was prepared.
Is the spiky haired guy going to yell at me? I am sitting in front of him…Should she introduce herself quickly? To try to avoid his future wrath.
Hi—Um…I'm the person who will be sitting in front of you! That's what she wanted to say. But as she turned around she saw him glaring. Not at her, but at the curly haired student. It was like he knew him. He didn't seem to notice her at all.
She was invisible to him. And she wondered how long she would be before he noticed someone was sitting in front of him.
The curly haired kid was now talking to a girl who had just come in with brown hair and friendly eyes. She seemed to ask something "I wonder what our homeroom teacher will be like?" And with that the two of them froze. They seemed to be looking at something on the ground outside the room.
The teacher, I assume. But why is he on the ground? Toru watched as someone stood up in a sleeping bag. Everyone in the class was silent and seemed stunned.
It took a moment but the man in the sleeping bag walked in front of the students. He unzipped his sleeping bag. "Once I came about it took eight seconds for you to quiet down. Time is a precious resource. You all aren't very rational are you?" He lectured.
The man looked haggard and had a large scarf on. Toru recognized him from pictures her Master had told her to research of Pro-Heroes. This man had the least pictures yet was labeled dangerous.
Eraser Head. He can erase quirks, I believe. I don't know the specifics because he's not one of those camera loving heroes. But he's very dangerous. Toru frowned.
Of course their homeroom teacher would be tough, but she hadn't been expecting this tough. Obviously the League of Villains wouldn't have much information on UA since she was the first one who had infiltrated it. But still this was unexpected.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Pleased to meet you." He introduced. "Now go change into your gym clothes and meet me in the field. Quickly." He warned.
All the students got up out of their desk. They knew haste was necessary.
All of the students ran out to the field, Toru heard the brown haired girl ask about the entrance ceremony and the teacher responded that it wasn't important.
Are we practicing in the field before learning about the curriculum? Toru wondered.
"We'll be having a test of quirks." Aizawa instantly explained. "I want to see what all of you can do."
Some people looked excited, some nervous, like the curly haired boy.
"UA is known for its freestyle education system. That includes the teachers as well, we aren't standardized." Aizawa explained.
He then started a long-winded explanation. "Softball throwing, the standing long jump, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side to side step, upper body training, seated toe touch. You all did those in middle school, correct? It was standard, no quirks allowed gym class."
Toru nodded to herself. She had indeed done those sorts of things in her year of middle school that All for One had required to get her used to interacting with others. They seemed boring, purposeless. Just supposed to be fun and nothing else. She hadn't seen the point. Kids who's purpose wasn't to be tools were so weird.
"The country still insists on prohibiting the use of quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating."
The teacher turned to the spiky haired kid who was at the front of the pack, not looking nearly as scared as the rest.
"Bakugo, how far could you throw in middle school?"
"67 meters." Bakugo responded.
"Great, now try with your quirk. Do whatever you need. Just don't leave the circle." Aizawa handed Bakugo a ball and gestured to a circle that Bakugo was standing in.
Bakugo smiled, excitedly. He immediately swirled his arm around and threw. A giant explosion shot the baseball forward propelling it. "DIE!" He screamed.
Toru stared. An explosion quirk? Yikes. Maybe the guy I'm sitting in front of is tougher than I thought. He threw far. And his personality…Maybe he wasn't just cocky. He seemed incredibly unsettling.
And this is the kind of heroes the country wants? Toru smiled to herself in horror. They should have held a personality test instead of a giant robot battle. This is messed up.
Not just the grape haired kid now. Two people in her class were messed up. Out of the 18 that passed the exam and the 2 allowed into the class based on recommendation. And Toru hadn't met that many people. What if 50% of these heroes are just assholes? No wonder Master wants to get rid of them!
She had never been so on the side of villainy as she stared at Bakugo and Mineta's faces.
"705 meters. It's important to know your limits. That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of hero you want to be." Aizawa wasn't smiling as he showed the panel.
"WHOA AWESOME!" The red-haired guy, Kirishima, yelled.
Other students seemed to be equally showering Bakugo in praise and swooning over the coolness.
Did nobody…hear him yell die? Why are they praising this guy right and left? Toru wondered but joined in so she wouldn't look weird. "That's amazing!" she shook her hands in excitement.
"Awesome…You say?" Aizawa didn't seem to be happy at the praise. Briefly Toru had some hopes in a pro hero calling out the weird die comment. Her hopes were immediately dashed.
"You're hoping to be pro heroes after three years and you think it will be all fun and games?" He sounded offended.
He's talking to us like we're a bunch of kids. Shigaraki's kinda right that heroes just want someone to push down and exploit…
"Right. The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged to be hopeless and will be expelled." He said the words so coldly as he looked down at the class.
Toru cracked a smile in horror. It was a smile out of sheer nervousness. E-expelled…Wait…Wait. She looked at her hands and ran through the events they'd practice again. I'M THE ONLY ONE WITH A QUIRK THAT CAN'T EXPAND MY PHYSICAL CABILITIES IN SOME WAYS PROBABLY. She hadn't been given permission to publicly use her light bending. She could only be invisible. The normal day to day her…Well it was what they got here.
And an invisible quirk wasn't underpowered. It was useful for intelligence and espionage. Heroes would rationally need it if they were smart. It wasn't a doomed notion to be an invisible hero, Toru thought.
This is total discrimination on non-physical enhancement quirks! I'm going to lose. Toru was horrified. And if she lost she'd be expelled and totally fail her mission.
She quickly looked around. She didn't know everyone's quirks. So maybe…Maybe she had a chance. She just had to outperform the worst of them.
No wonder Heroes are so stupid. Tests like this favor power-based quirks and they lose people who could be useful to them. Hero society was a mess. Toru scoffed to herself. Aizawa someone with a quirk that erased other quirks should have known it wasn't all about power. But yet, he had still set up this test.
Master wouldn't have done this. He values all different sorts of quirks. Toru felt pride and disgust at how stupid the heroes were.
Well, I can't do anything about any of this. I'll beat your little game. I won't let my mission be in jeopardy. She glared directly at Aizawa coldly.
Aizawa smiled sweeping his hair back. "Your fates are in our hands. Welcome to the Hero Course at UA."
Yeah, good friggen welcome. Toru clenched her fists together. You won't beat me.
She had one advantage over the other students. And it wasn't lying and saying that nobody could prove she hadn't run the course or something. It was the fact that all the other students were essentially newborn hatchlings. They might have started training recently for hero work, but she had trained to be useful to All for One her whole life.
I am a tool. A perfect tool for espionage. I've infiltrated things before. Her body was essentially the same as a quirkless individual, but she kept it in perfect shape, and she was proud of her agility and speed. Sure, her arms were a little weaker compared to a buff dude, but she had practiced for years in hand-to-hand combat in case she got caught.
Hopefully that was enough to not be the top, but beat anyone who was fumbling around and also had an intelligence based quirk.
Lots of people complained about how unfair this situation was, but Aizawa would hear none of it saying lots of heroes had to deal with unfair situations. Nobody made the point about how this sort of test favored a certain type of quirk of course. Toru stayed silent, deciding not to make herself an outlier.
The first event Aizawa had them do was the 50-meter dash.
Iida and Tsuyu were paired off against one another. As predicted Iida ran incredibly quickly thanks to the engines in his legs.
Tsuyu also was able to hop to be a pretty tough competition, but of course Iida zoomed to victory.
The brown haired girl, Ochako touched her shoes and clothes. She was paired up against a man with a tail, Ojiro. The guy with a tail seemed to use the hop to victory method as well. He beat Ochako but she still looked pretty pleased with herself.
Maybe she was better than her previous score? What did she do? Toru briefly wondered what her quirk was and mentally catalogued the poor guy who's only quirk was "I have a buff tail."
Useful in these situations, but boring. Power based quirks were very much getting the advantage though.
A French looking guy with a belt and Mina were paired against each other.
"GO MINA! GO!" Toru decided to speak.
Aizawa glared at her. Toru immediately zipped it.
Mina smiled and ran forward with all her speed. Her feet were slimy with acid helping her slip along. Aoyama however let out his quirk, a navel laser and rocketed to the front. He then promptly fell and got up and rocketed again.
He lost but barely.
That was smart thinking. That sort of quirk usually isn't mobility based. It's just a laser. Toru noted that his laser was very light based. Perhaps a future weapon for her? If she didn't get expelled first that is.
"Great job, Mina!"
The curly haired kid, Midoriya, and Bakugo were paired off one another as well. Bakugo seemed to know Midoriya and not necessarily like him. He rocketed towards the front of the track and Deku was left behind.
Deku breathed heavily. Toru noticed he hadn't used his quirk at all.
Poor guy. I wonder if he has a quirk that doesn't make him stronger but is useful anyway too? Maybe I just have to beat that guy then. He did look nervous, and kinda pathetic. Toru smiled to herself.
Easy.
Toru watched as other students went forward. Someone named Koda who looked like he had a rock for a head competed against Sero a man with tape elbows.
Koda ran as fast as he could, but also didn't use his quirk. Sero, tape elbow man launched his tape at the finish line and rocketed forward just as predicted.
Koda tried to catch his breath and Aizawa looked slightly disappointed.
"Think about how to use your quirk. Sometimes the answer might not seem obvious but it pays to think outside of the box for how to apply your powers." He taught.
Koda nodded.
A dude with yellow hair went next, Kaminari, competing against Kirishima.
"No pressure, dude." Kaminari gave a thumbs up. "But I'm going to beat you."
"Yeah, right." Kirishima grinned, "In your dreams maybe."
Kirishima immediately got a head start, running and hardening his body. Each time he took a step the ground quaked and a footmark was left behind.
Kaminari on the other hand looked quite tired and tried to keep up with Kirishima. He was flailing and trying to keep his footing as Kirishima passed him. He narrowed his eyes clearly having enough and bunched his shoulders a bit, letting off a huge amount of electrical discharge.
The students to the sidelines were lucky enough to be far enough away to avoid the blast, but Kirishima was not. Despite his hardening, electricity was still electricity and it stopped Kirishima in his tracks moments before getting to the finish line. Unfortunately, Kaminari was stopped in his tracks too he seemed to forget he was supposed to be dashing and just gave a big thumbs up a dumb expression on his face.
Aizawa sighed and rubbed his head. "No sabotage allowed. This is about your quirks not beating the enemy. In the future Kaminari…Try to move a little smarter, not harder."
The lecture seemed to snap Kirishima out of his momentary paralysis and he finally stepped over the finish line. Kaminari on the other hand could not get a score and Kirishima helped him get back to the sidelines to recover his brain energy.
"Ouch, man….Did you have to get so competitive?" Kirishima asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"I wasn't expecting you to be effected by electrical attacks!" Sero seemed shock that Kirishima had taken any damage at all.
"I just put on a hard defense. Hardness doesn't do much against electricity. It's still my skin." Kirishima pointed out, sitting next to his new friends despite the injuries caused to him. He waited for the next match.
The next match was between a girl named Yaoyorozu and a girl named Jiro. Jiro had earphone jacks coming out of her ears.
"Best of luck?" Jiro shrugged as she stretched.
Yaoyorozu smiled and immediately a scooter popped out of her arms. "I'm sorry about this." She prepared on her scooter.
Jiro gawked. "Ah…Shoot you're the recommendation student?"
Yaoyorozu politely nodded.
"Isn't that cheating?" Sero asked.
"It was her quirk, so no." Aizawa shook her head.
Yaoyorozu scooted to victory on her scooter. Jiro tried her hardest but got a relatively normal score.
All of the classmates still had their mouths agape that someone had used a scooter to do a running exercise.
The man with many arms was paired off against Sato. Sato took a piece of hard candy out of his pocket.
"Let us compete like men." Shoji, the man with multi arms requested. The timer started. Sato ran quickly, a very clear power-based quirk, however Shoji's arm shot out, growing more and more limbs and hitting the finish line before his legs ever made it.
"Does that count?" Shoji asked.
Aizawa grinned. "Yeah, sure."
Tokoyami was paired off against the grape kid, Mineta. The timer started and Tokoyami ran forward with the speed of a bird.
"WAIT, WAIT CAN YOU SLOW DOWN?" Mineta asked pathetically. "I have short stubby legs! This is unfair!" He huffed and puffed and barely made it to the end.
Toru grinned, If Midoriya can beat him and I can beat him perhaps Mineta will be expelled. He doesn't seem to have a power based quirk either…
She wondered briefly if she manipulated the light in the recording device to show a 0 for Mineta if Aizawa would notice that someone had tampered with it. The mechanism to show results seemed to be similar to a digital clock meaning it could be quite easy to change the reading. She quieted down her hopes. I'm not allowed to reveal my abilities just to get rid of someone I don't like…Let that remain a fantasy.
"The bouquet of darkness has spoken. I win." Tokoyami looked at Mineta with sheer dislike.
And finally it was Toru's turn. She was up against a guy with red and white hair. He looked bored.
Okay. You can do this Toru. Run as fast as you can.
She was just about to as the man froze his portion of the track and hers field in slippery ice preventing her from moving forward at all. He slid to victory.
She just stared. Just my luck that I got the person with the most powerful quirk! She tried to skate to victory and run forward.
Todoroki who had now finished, dissolved the ice and she ran. She was far behind though due to the obstacle that had prevented her from moving forward.
"…Sorry." He said quietly. "I should have requested that I was on the other side…I put out more ice than necessary on my right side. I should have controlled it better to only my side of the race track."
"I measured when she started and when she ended for fairness sake." Aizawa mentioned, "So no worries."
Toru wanted to complain, but she knew that would draw too much attention to her. And she was currently coming in last. "Yeah, no worries. I'm sure there's something else my quirk is GREAT at." She had sarcasm dripping off her every word but Aizawa didn't seem to notice.
"I wasn't aware an invisible quirk could help you do sit ups and throw balls." Todoroki replied, not catching the sarcasm at all. "I should probably study up." He took every word at face value.
Toru just stared blankly at him.
I should focus less on others right now. Toru decided at the second event, the gripping event. I can observe my enemies later but the whole mission is blown if I get expelled! And what happens to me if I fail this mission? All for One probably won't have a need for a failure….The most likely scenario would be that she would be discarded; killed.
Nobody would find her invisible carcass.
That made her nervous as she gripped the hand grip tool. It slipped out of her invisible hand.
"Better luck next time!" Mina told her. "I feel you though. I burned through mine. Acid apparently doesn't help you grip things. And you tried your best!" She frowned. "Um…I am a little worried about you though. …Are you good at physical activities, Toru?"
"Average." Toru lied.
"Well…UHHH…Maybe you're not as bad as Midoriya…I think his name is? And Mineta?" Mina replied hopefully.
"Just don't get trapped in your own heads." Tsuyu who was watching the two girls advised. She seemed to be doing great at these events. "I don't think either of you will do the worst. But…Maybe not the top."
"Says you! I'm trying for the top!" Mina grinned.
That was all Toru could hope for at this point. Not being in last.
Third test was the standing long jump. Quirks like Seto's tape arms, Shoji's arm arms, Tokoyami having another being inside of him who could aid his jumping, and the navel laser, along with big quirks like Bakugo and Todoroki's were at an advantage here. They were easily able to jump the whole thing.
Yaoyorozu on the other hand made a pogo stick and just jumped over all the competition thanks to her aids. She was sort of winning all the events so far.
I can almost imagine her with some fake sunglasses being all cool. Toru frowned as Tsu jumped to victory along with Iida, Ojiro and Ochako who seemed much lighter than the normal person.
Mineta made a pile of balls on the ground from his hair and rocketed off of them like a bouncy ball.
Darn. He did decent at that. Toru frowned to herself as she watched Midoriya fail again.
It was her turn. She got into position. Imagine you're jumping from one roof to another…You've done this before. She breathed. She had practiced this one for her missions. She didn't need to rely on cheats, just her natural talent.
She jumped and did a decent amount. Nothing inhumane but more so than the average person and Midoriya had done. She smiled to herself.
"Nice, Toru! You have a great pair of legs on you!" Mina congratulated and slapped her back.
"Do you secretly have frog legs?" Tsuyu asked. "That was…really good."
Crap. Did I do too good? Did I make people suspicious? Tsuyu was looking at her like she was observing her.
Aizawa was looking at her too. It seemed perhaps she had gone too far for an average high school student.
"I guess I lucked out!" Toru pumped her arm. "Lucky me!" Really it's cuz I did that one a lot. She looked nervously at her side.
Nobody else seemed to be eyeing her suspiciously. They were all too focused on their own exams.
Darn. Now I probably need to bring my score down to be more 'average'. She shouldn't win this test. She shouldn't even aim for the top. She needed to appear as an average high school student. And an average high school student with an invisibility quirk should be losing.
She needed to hit somewhere at the bottom. All she needed to do was beat 'Mr. Nervous' A.K.A Midoriya. And maybe Mineta. That was all she needed.
Unfortunately for Toru, Mineta did really good in the next event too which was side to side step. He bounced too and from the balls.
Urgh…Maybe I should try my best too? Mina was trying her best and she got pretty fast. Not inhuman level, but good, fit levels.
Toru tried too. It was decent.
Aizawa watched her perplexed about something.
"Did I do okay?" Crap. Is he still suspicious of me because of that super long jump? She had tried to do average. Keep up with Mina's pace and some of the more physically active students.
"You and Midoriya have been the only ones to not use your quirk so far." He said annoyed.
The girl with earphone jacks, Jiro had used hers to grip the hand thing apparently. And Koda had somehow called down multiple birds to carry him across the long jump.
Toru tried to put on the fakest smile she could. "I'm invisible. That is my quirk. So I'm always using it." She tried not to sound too irritated.
"You can't make other things invisible? Like your clothes?" Aizawa asked.
"Nope!" Toru said way too friendly.
Aizawa stared at her, as if that hadn't occurred to him. "Well I suppose the sensors do sense movement and not…Image so even if you were invisible it wouldn't be an instant victory."
Toru nodded.
Aizawa sighed and gave his student no further advice causing Toru to frown in frustration.
The fifth event was ball toss. It was another event that was set up for the other students to spectate. Perhaps that was easier on Aizawa.
Since Bakugo had already gone he was the score to beat of 705.5 meters.
Toru watched as power type quirks like Todoroki's ice, Tsuyu's tongue, Ojiro's tail, Shoji's extra arms, and Sato's sugar strength got a clear advantage again.
Heroes seem to value brute strength over intelligence. No wonder so many villains want to change society. Not that people with no intelligence necessarily instantly lost of course.
Yaoyorozu yet again seemed to make an amazing display, popping an automatic pitch machine out of her arm and smiling to herself.
"Hey…Hey, isn't that cheating?" Kaminari chewed on his nails worriedly.
"It's already been determined that it's not." Jiro scolded. "But man…The recommendation students sure are something else."
Toru nodded to herself. The recommendation students….Todoroki and Yaoyorozu…They have to be from some sort of distinguished hero family, right? I believe the Todoroki family is linked to Endeavor… And Yaoyorozu's family is a creation based one. Making gold felt like it should be illegal but apparently wasn't unregulated to Yaoyorozu. Endeavor's family on the other hand she had never heard good things about.
Toru watched as other people tried to use their quirks in interesting ways, Jiro after throwing her ball quickly plugged in her headphone jacks into her legs and let out a hugely loud noise that moved the ground itself and had the ball flying farther. Kaminari yet again tried to give his ball power by letting out an electric shock making himself stupider in the process. Aoyama used his navel laser to push his ball farther and gave a dramatic pose. Tokoyami's dark shadow threw the ball farther than a normal human could. Koda yelled for a bird to help carry his ball farther and the bird carried it a significant distance before dropping it.
On the other hand Sero and Mineta who had throwing based quirks had more experience throwing things than the average person, and did decently well as well.
Tch. Guess I still have to do better. Realistically Toru had done the math, she knew she wouldn't lose because Midoriya was doing so poorly. All she had to do was outperformer Midoriya after all and she'd remain in the school, but there was a sliver of pride in her that wanted to outperform Mineta too.
"Guess it's my turn." Mina gave Toru a thumbs up and went to the circle. "Don't worry about me though! I'm buff. I've been practicing to be a hero all through middle school so I'm at an advantage against all these people who decided to be a hero recently."
True to her word, despite not being able to use her acid quirk here Mina was able to do a pretty good throw. 69 meters, better than Bakugo without the use of his quirk. She gave a peace sign and smiled.
Kirishima also did a pretty good amount. He seemed pretty buff even without his quirk on so he could throw a decent amount as well.
Iida went up to play. "I'm at a disadvantage here because I train my legs, not my arms. I think I understand the purpose of this lesson…To show me my weaknesses." He smiled and nodded despite only throwing the ball 49 meters. "I have quite a lot of room to grow."
"As long as you know that Iida you'll be fine." Aizawa nodded and recorded the display.
Finally it was Toru's turn. She walked up to throw. Aizawa looked at her with a look of pity.
Jokes on him. I've thrown projectile weapons before. She was better at aim than distance of course, but she was confident with her training she could average around 90 meters which was farther than Mineta's 72.
She got her arm ready and was about to throw. Should…Should I throw as far as possible though? For my pride? Showing the upper limits of my ability probably isn't a good idea. She decided she should probably have weak arms, despite her desire to crush Mineta. She threw around 47 meters.
"OW." She fake shook her head. "Throwing a ball is hard…I really need to work out my arms."
Tsuyu pat her back. "It's about the way you flick your wrist. You'll get the hang of it eventually."
"I was kinda wondering if you would have like secretly very buff arms or something." Mina sighed. "But that is around the range an average person would do."
Toru scanned her classmates faces. Midoriya seemed lost in thought and Tokoyami seemed to look at her worriedly.
"Maybe it would help more if you removed your clothes. Then nobody could see you even do the events." Mineta suggested. "That's allowed I'm pretty sure! Mina took off her shoes after all."
Mina glared at him. She could see the bit of drool in Mineta's mouth and the look in his eyes.
"Thanks for the suggestion but I think I just have to try harder! It's all about the attitude after all!" Toru replied trying to sound positive and like she wasn't absolutely disgusted.
Tsuyu sighed. "I'm sorry for doubting you about what he was like…But maybe that would be a good suggestion? Then you could at least trip someone while running."
"Sabotage isn't allowed, remember?" Mina pointed out.
Tsuyu sighed and looked worried about her new classmate. After all Toru was at a clear disadvantage…She might even get expelled.
As they were distracted the next student walked up to pitch. Ochako. Toru watched out of the corner of her eyes as Ochako touched the ball and it floated up into the sky to never return.
"Infinity." Aizawa said.
"INFINITY? WOW!" All her classmates started chattering.
"Does she like instant win because she got infinity?" Toru heard Kirishima whisper
A levitation quirk? Or perhaps a zero gravity one…Toru tried to analyze it but suddenly the next student, Midoriya up. He was looking worried.
Sorry Midoriya…But you're my savior for doing worse than me. Toru let out a mental apology to the student who would likely be expelled.
She heard Iida and Bakugo talking about him. Iida seemed about as worried for Midoriya as Mina was for her. Had the two of them suddenly become friends while she wasn't looking? Bakugo uttered the strange words though that Midoriya was 'quirkless.'
I haven't seen him use any of his quirk yet but that doesn't mean he doesn't have one, right? He's a little quick to judgement. Toru decided.
Midoriya nervously threw with all his might, but the ball only made it 46 meters. Toru let out a sigh of relief that it was 1 meter lower than her pitch.
Midoriya looked shocked and devastated. He looked at his own shaking hands. "Huh…? But I…I tried using my quirk…"
"I erased it." Aizawa said simply staring at him. "How did someone like you enter our school? It defies reason."
Toru frowned as Aizawa slowly approached Midoriya, Midoriya shaking considerably and Aizawa's scarf now floating around him. That seems truly discriminatory. Choosing one student and picking on them. Midoriya hadn't done anything wrong besides being bad at everything so far to warrant this sort of focus after all.
Ochako gasped in the background and quickly hushed herself.
Toru heard some of the students chattering about Aizawa's erasering quirk. And how he was a hero known as Eraser Head who worked underground. A lot of students hadn't heard of him, but some had explaining he didn't like media exposure.
"From what I've seen you can't rein in your quirk's full power. Meaning you can't control it or use it efficiently at all." Aizawa explained his voice dripping with anger as he got closer and closer to Midoriya. "Did you believe someone would come save you after you crippled yourself again?"
Midoriya looked horrified. "N-no, No I didn't I just-" He tried to offer a feeble protest.
Aizawa's scarf wrapped around Midoriya, grabbing him and pulling him abruptly into place so he couldn't move. "Whatever hopes you may have had of your rescue; nobody would be in a position to come to your aid." He paused. "There's a certain insufferable hero who made a name for himself rescuing over a thousand people from a disaster all by himself."
Everyone knew who Aizawa was talking about. Toru especially. All Might.
"You have his courage but all you do is manage to run around like a blockhead who needs saving himself. Face it you can't become a hero with your power." Aizawa growled.
Toru found herself frowning. Well, this seems needlessly unfair. Kaminari over there also has a power that injures himself. He's still stupidely babbling in the corner. I'm just invisible and haven't injured myself but still aren't doing great. Midoriya's been at a disadvantage throughout this entire test because Aizawa has the tendency to put him last to try, while Kaminari has been up first or in the middle in all these events so he has time to recharge his brain cells. In a real villain attack they don't give you that chance.
She knew she shouldn't have genuine emotions or feelings for any of her classmates, after all they were tools to be used for her purposes but she couldn't help but feel real pity for Midoriya over how unfair this whole situation was. I don't know any of his skill sets but perhaps he'd be useful to master. Maybe after he gets expelled, I'll tell him about Midoriya. He'll certainly have the resentment against heroes after this experience to become a villain.
Poor Midoriya. But Toru was sure he could still be used after he was expelled.
"I gave you back your quirk. If you can't not injure your entire body you're out. Let's get this over with." Aizawa sighed.
Midoriya was shivering but nodded. He took the ball and Aizawa didn't even keep his eyes on him, instead dripping eye drops in his eyes.
Midoriya then took a deep breath and concentrated. Everyone was watching him to see what he would do. He moved forward and threw the place of last impact with his finger glowing and letting out a huge amount of force. The ball shot up tremendously and Aizawa finally smiled amazed.
"705.3 meters." He smiled.
Midoriya pumped his fist despite clearly having a mangled finger and being in extreme pain. "…I can still move." Midoriya said confidently.
Aizawa looked stunned but please.
What kind of quirk is that to injure his body but get extreme strength? Toru wondered. All her classmates looked amazed but happy that Midoriya had succeeded.
"Your finger's broken…It reminds me of the entrance exam. What an odd quirk." Toru heard Iida say.
What an odd quirk indeed. But although he performed well in this event I wonder if he'll be able to do the other events better than me because of the pain.
Bakugo seemed incredibly angry and immediately ran forward. "What is this, Deku? Explain now!" His hands were explosive, but Aizawa grabbed him with his scarf and erased his quirk almost instantly.
"Stop making me use my quirk so much." Aizawa growled and dealt with Bakugo swiftly. "I've got dry eye!"
There was a chance she could lose if Midoriya actually had a power based quirk. If he had any pain resistance training, he could probably beat her and she'd be at the bottom of the results.
Toru was beginning to get nervous.
The sixth test was sit ups although Toru wasn't exactly sure how anyone's quirks besides a stretching based quirk or power based quirk could benefit in that exam. There wasn't much cheating she saw of besides people who just had pretty good core strength. And the only people she saw doing decently terrible were Mineta who couldn't figure out how to bend his legs and do a sit up and Midoriya who looked like he was in incredible pain.
Her partner who was keeping her feet down was Mina. Tsuyu and Tokoyami were spotting each other as well.
"I think everyone's just going to get around average on this one." Mina declared. "Well besides poor Midoriya and Mineta who look like they're doing terribly."
Toru continued her sit ups. "I don't think that's true. Tsuyu's doing really well, right?"
Mina glanced over and saw Asui still doing her sit ups. "Augh you're right she's got the agility of a frog. And Kirishima and Bakugo look like they have abs of steel. They're going way too fast to keep up with. I guess us normal ab people just have to be satisfied with normal scores."
Toru nodded. She could deal with normal. Once she and Mina switched who was spotting she noticed Mina was going quickly and competitively as well.
"You say you've got normal abs but yet you're going just competitively as the rest of them." Toru giggled. She noticed Tokoyami was using his quirk, Dark shadow was pulling him up to do sit ups and giving him encouragement.
"Um…I don't think I can do this. I think I have to take the 0 this time." Toru heard Ojiro say to the teacher. "I can't lie down flat because of my tail."
"…Just balance on your tail then and do sit ups in the air." Aizawa instructed.
Poor Ojiro had a harder job and had to balance in midair while doing sit ups.
Seventh test was seated toe touch. Agility based quirks seemed favored yet again. Toru noticed with great distress that Mineta was able to do this one quite easily cuz of his short little legs.
Most people were agile enough to do this one with great ease. The only person struggling seemed to be Midoriya yet again who was in quite a lot of pain.
Shoji could grow extra arms of course and didn't even have to stretch forward to touch his toes. And Asui was incredibly agile and could touch her toes in a matter of seconds. Ojiro was finally able to use his tail to touch his toes
"…" Aizawa went down the list scoring people. Some people he scolded for a moment on working out more. Ochako, Aoyama and Kaminari got his wrath.
When he went down the line to Toru he stared for a moment.
Crap. Am I contorting myself too weirdly?
"How long are your fingers, Hagakure?" Aizawa asked.
"Um…Um…I don't have a ruler on me? I would guess an average amount." Toru replied.
"…are you touching your toes?" Aizawa asked.
Toru realized with horror that Aizawa couldn't see if she could complete her task and might mark her down. "I am! I am! I wouldn't lie about this! If you don't believe me, you could erase my quirk and see my real body."
Aizawa sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "My erasure quirk doesn't work on you mutant types. It could stop you from moving the extra limb like say for Ojiro's tail-" He demonstrated by looking over at Ojiro and activating his quirk. Ojiro's tail went limp.
"Hey…" Ojiro frowned sadly.
Aizawa turned over. "But because you're fully invisible it doesn't seem to do anything to you. After all your body doesn't gain any benefit from the invisibility. So you don't stop moving or anything." As if to demonstrate he activated his quirk and nothing happened. "I guess it's because it only works on things I can see. And I can't see you."
Toru smiled to herself. She knew Aizawa couldn't see her broad grin. So the weakness of the erasure quirk is invisibility. I wish I could make other things invisible but unfortunately, I can't. But still…It's a good thing to note that Aizawa can't do anything to me. He could never erase her quirk. That was interesting and valuable knowledge.
"Oh darn! I guess you can't see that I'm doing my task then?" Toru playfully said.
"I marked you down as that you completed it. That technically counts as using your quirk after all." Aizawa replied.
Toru smiled. Thanks to Midoriya's pain she'd probably succeed and not be expelled.
The last event was long distance run. All the students lined up with their quirks ready. Yaoyorozu already had a rocket somehow that she seemed to plan to ride.
"Ready…Set…Go." Aizawa whistled.
Bakugo blasted off. Iida ran as fast as he could. Todoroki and Mina slid away. It seemed like just a repeat of the 50 km dash besides the fact that Aoyama was doing worse since it was based on endurance.
Toru tried to pretend she was struggling while actually doing a very light jog.
Don't want to do too well, just do better than Mineta and Midoriya. She reminded herself. Midoriya was really struggling, wheezing and looking like he could collapse from the pain at any moment but getting through it nonetheless. Mineta on the other hand was just out of shape.
Kaminari and Jiro seemed a little bit ahead of her, not using their quirks this time to cheat. Kaminari seemed slightly naturally faster but not too far ahead, Jiro was at a nice average pace but way ahead of Toru and Mineta.
Toru saw in the distance Koda riding on a sea of squirrels.
Well, that's an interesting way to use a quirk. Toru decided running as if she was taking the scenery in.
Every now and then she would drop her pace to be behind Mineta to appear as if she was struggling then pick up her pace to be in front of him just to show him that he was going to lose and he would start yelling. It was kinda funny.
Master always said the most fun villainy was to give someone the taste of victory before taking it away. I guess he was right!
By the end of the run she came in front of Mineta though, she never did let him experience that victory for long enough to feel safe.
"AUGH! I tried my hardest too…But at least I beat Midoriya…I probably won't be expelled then." Mineta frowned. "But…He did really well at the ball throwing…Better than me. So what if I am in last place?"
I wish…She could dream, even if the math likely didn't match up. Maybe I should have helped Midoriya run faster so he could have beaten Mineta.
She had a hint of sadness as Aizawa showed them all the scoreboard. As she predicted she placed just above Mineta and Midoriya in 18th place.
Midoriya looked devastated being in last, but he sighed as if he expected it.
"I'm so relieved…You didn't make it last, Toru!" Mina cheered her on.
I made it. I'm not out yet. Toru sighed in relief.
"Oh yeah that expulsion thing was a lie." Aizawa revealed. He smiled as everyone's faces became stunned. "It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performance." He revealed a big grin on his face.
Toru's eyes stared blankly. What. So you mean I worked so hard to beat Mineta for nothing?
Yaoyorozu sighed. "Come on. Use your brains a little, guys. Of course, it was a ruse!" She scolded everyone.
I…I can't believe I didn't see that. The smart recommendation student realized that. But Toru, someone who had been trained all her life to be a spy, hadn't? She felt ashamed.
Aizawa turned around. "And with that it's over. Your curriculum guide is back in the classroom so go look them over. And Midoriya? Go to recovery girl and patch yourself up."
Midoriya nodded quickly and ran off.
Toru couldn't help but feel frustrated at the wasted efforts. The day was almost over, and she hurriedly packed up her things and her curriculum guide.
Was it a ruse though? What kind of teacher is Aizawa to torment students like that? How best can I use and exploit him?
She decided it was time to do a little spy work, get some information. After all, now she knew Aizawa couldn't stop her.
She went to the bathroom before 'leaving school' and discarded all her clothes. As quietly as possible trying to keep her own nudity from unsettling her she sneaked into the faculty office.
I'm a tool. She reminded herself to steady her breathing.
Nobody seemed to notice her. She had walked in when another teacher had opened the door. And although this was dangerous it was a good practice of how well she could sneak around teachers.
Everybody was reading over there own course material. Toru noticed a female teacher, Midnight, Ectoplasm, Present Mic, and a guy made of concrete all looking over their own material.
She counted herself lucky that Hound Dog wasn't there. She believed information revealed he was on the staff and he could use a smell quirk. She didn't have a distinct smell but she was sure to a dog or something she had some smell. She needed to find a perfume that masked any smell or something.
She decided to sit in the corner or something and watch the teachers, or wait for them to leave so she could poke around in computer records. However eavesdropping proved to be the most useful tool in revealing the truth.
"Did Aizawa expel all his students again?" Midnight looked up from her work and asked. "I pity the poor first year students in his class."
Ah. So he did expel students at some point. Meaning it wasn't a ruse. Toru felt herself grinning. There had been truth to Aizawa's competition, although it seems he had gone back on it.
"He only temporarily expelled his students last year." Present Mic defended. "He wanted them to experience what death felt like once."
"Death doesn't feel like expulsion and they now have a permanent record on their file." Midnight defended. "But…Well did he do that again to these new first years?"
"Nuh-uh. I convinced him not to." Present Mic replied, "But…He did watch the students entrance exam videos. And I think he was planning to expel a few that weren't UA material or something. He didn't like some kid with explodey arms. I'm not exactly sure what explodey arms means."
Toru knew. It likely referenced Midoriya's quirk. But he must have proven himself to Aizawa. So he was planning an expulsion. He likely assumed Midoriya was going to come in last due to watching all of our entrance exam videos.
He had needed an excuse to target Midoriya. Thus, the quirk exam had been held. Suddenly things started making sense of why Aizawa had tried to talk to her a few times. He watched all of our entrance exam videos except for mine because there was no footage of me to watch. Thus I became his biggest threat to expelling Midoriya because I had the potential to come in last place.
Aizawa seemed heavily biased. After all, if as he said he wanted to expel Midoriya because he wasn't "UA" material, why not target Kaminari or Mineta as well? Kaminari had injured himself several times with his quirk making himself stupider and thus requiring rescue, and Mineta well, he was just an awful person. He harassed and ogled women. Did that not matter to UA? Was that something that didn't not make someone "hero material?"
She waited for the doors of the office to open again and she slipped out, finding her way back to the bathroom.
Nothing about how heroes acted made sense. She understood why Aizawa had stopped targeting Midoriya, after all in the end he had potential and used his quirk intelligently but why were certain qualities like being violent and creepy not something to discard people from heroics?
Was it just the way hero society was or was this Aizawa's own biases?
It's more likely that it's hero society as a whole that doesn't care about the Mineta and Bakugo's of the world. I've heard of many heroes like both of them.
And from what she had witnessed of Aizawa he seemed to be at least trying to help some of his students. At several points he had made suggestions to them of what to train and focus on, except for her. He seemed either at wits end over an invisible quirk or flustered by it because he had never seen one and knew that he couldn't do anything like erase it.
She had a good picture of the way Aizawa was now. She had a good feel for a character analysis on him after hearing the information that yeah he had been planning to expel someone, and how he wanted students to experience the feel of 'dying.'
This would be quite useful for her to exploit in her spy work.
My personal headcanon is that it takes Bakugo a significant portion of time to realize anyone's sitting in front of him at class. I was so surprised to learn that Toru sits in front of Bakugo because they barely interact and Bakugo seems like the sort of guy who'd be mad about anyone sitting in front of him.
Anyway sorry this chapter was long. But at least the other students finally got to be seen.
Fun Fact Momo Yaoyorozu canonly comes in 1st place in that exam and I have to wonder how she beat powerhouses like Todoroki and Bakugo. She cheated her way to victory I'm pretty sure.
Please review!