Chapter 3
"HARU‼‼‼‼"
I had to move my phone away from my ear. Izuku could scream really loud when he was excited.
"What?"
"I PASSED! I somehow passed that exam!"
"Congratulations!" I said, letting excitement seep in my voice. "Didn't I tell you I had a feeling you'd pass? You owe me a chocolate ice-cream now!"
Izuku laughed at my words. "Fine, you got it! But I actually passed. Did you pass too?"
"Of course, I did!" I replied as I glanced at the acceptance letter in my hands. "I know I scored a decent number of points so I was bound to pass anyway."
"Sheesh, how can you be so confident?"
"Because I know the limits of my power?"
I heard another laugh. We chatted for some time before deciding to call it a day. I was fairly sure Izuku would want to talk with his mentor more at the moment.
Come spring season, and we two stood in front of the door of 1-A.
"What a giant door!" Izuku mumbled as we both stared at it. "I hope those two are not in here."
I didn't need to ask who were the two people he was talking about. Instead, I too focused on the sheer size of the door. There must have been someone with a really tall body studying here at some point during the history of this school. Why else would there be such a tall door for just a bunch of squirts?
A quick glance to the side led me to see the yellow caterpillar crawling silently towards the classroom. Man, he was lazy but good for him, I guess?
I looked back up ahead as Izuku opened the door to the bickering of Iida and Bakugo.
"…blow you to bits!"
"You're awful. Do you really wish to become a hero?!"
Yep, that's the two alright.
Iida noticed the two of us and approached us, introducing himself. As Izuku introduced the two of us, I leaned back to see Uraraka walking to us. On the other side, the caterpillar had almost reached the class.
"Haru!" Uraraka exclaimed as she reached the class. "Is your friend here too?"
"He is," I replied with a wave of my hand.
"Who is it, Har- Oh, Uraraka!"
"Midoriya! Nice to meet you!"
As the two talked, I chanced a glance at Bakugo. I almost whistled in astonishment; my man looked pissed. And that was saying something, given the fact that anger was his default state.
"If you're here to socialize, get out."
I eyed Eraserhead as he stood up. Man looked about as exhausted as if he had just run two marathons back-to-back. The eyebags didn't help him look any approachable or friendly. I would have been genuinely surprised if any student ever chose to approach him for anything, if I didn't know better. That said, sheesh. Why would you choose to do a job like teaching if you couldn't get yourself to care enough about your students and give it your all?
"It took you eight seconds to quiet down. You lot aren't very rational, are you?"
I raised my hand. It was time to start messing around.
He looked me up and down, his expression not changing in the least. "Yes?"
"Are you Eraserhead?"
Eraserhead raised an eyebrow at me. "It's very rare to see someone recognize me. How did you?"
"Well," I pointed at Midoriya, "I am friends with a hero fanboy."
"Oi!" Midoriya hissed. "Even I didn't recognize him."
I smiled at Midoriya. "But I did."
"Alright, enough with the talk," Eraserhead said, cutting any further conversations off. "I am your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Eraserhead as Korai here stated." He pulled out our gym uniforms from his sleeping bag. "Change and get to the grounds. We are testing your quirks."
After a swift explanation about the freestyle education as we made our way to the ground, he handed a softball to Bakugo and instructed him to throw it as far as he could with his quirk. Bakugo, being Bakugo, followed through with his usual yell of 'Die!'. The dumbfounded look on all other students was something to be seen and laughed at.
Next came the fake threat of expulsion. I glanced at Momo, noticing her rather careless look, while all others seemed to be losing their shit. She might have felt my eyes, for she suddenly glanced towards me. The eye-contact lasted only briefly, before Aizawa started calling students to perform.
Before he did though, I raised my hand once again.
My action seemed to irritate the hero as he annoyedly glanced at me and said, "Yes?"
I had to wonder yet again why this guy was in a teaching position of all places. Really why? He was not approachable; his teaching methods were geared towards making it easier for him rather than grading students fairly; and he was taking full advantage of freestyle education for his own benefit. Well, that last one made for not-so-boring classes. But still…
I put my thoughts aside. The performance was the priority. So, I posed him the question I had. "How many times are we allowed to use our quirks during the tests? Once any time or as many times as necessary to perform the best?"
"The latter," the hero answered curtly. "Any more questions?"
Seeing as there were none, we started with the tests. Well, after the threat of expulsion had sunk in to the students' brains.
Event 1: 50-meter dash. I came in under the average with a time of 4.65 seconds. Reducing air resistance—oh wait; removing air resistance has its benefits, especially when combined with minor explosions that propel me faster with every jump.
Event 2: Grip Strength. Nothing to be done there. My quirk was useless for that one. 70 kg it was.
Event 3: Standing Long Jump. Not easy to beat. I came second, after Bakugo.
Event 4: Side-steps. Nothing again.
Event 5: Throwing.
I grinned to myself. Now, this one was my strength. And Uraraka's too, I suppose. This test was the major reason I had even asked my question originally. When my turn came, I threw it quite like Bakugo did. The ball arched fast and high, and surprised pretty much everyone. I wasn't sure why they were surprised. Surely, they must have seen me in action back during the practical entrance test?
Nonetheless, I focused on my next step. That was important to really establish myself as one of the strongest people in the class. I swiftly calculated the path of the ball and created a perfectly sized air cannon—like a tilted tornado—right in its way. It wasn't visible directly to the naked eye simply because of its height from the ground.
As such, to others, it looked like the ball suddenly changed directions while falling and shot straight up and ahead like a bullet. Next was using my fingertips to sense the path of the ball and continue doing so. At this point, the ball was no longer visible.
I could hear the other students mumbling and whispering, wondering what I was doing. Unfortunately for them, only Izuku knew the answer to that. And Bakugo, I suppose, could deduce it. That one knew me surprisingly well, all things considered. He often let on that he knew more about me in his usual outbursts, and I had been genuinely surprised at that when I had first heard from him that he thought I had a broken quirk.
I was honestly still not sure about it myself but if anyone considered my quirk, they would have immediately pegged range as a drawback, simply because the volume of air even within a cubic kilometer was a lot to analyze and/or use. Imagine my surprise when I could very well sense things on the other side of the planet if I isolated a small string of air from its surroundings and used that to reach out all the way there.
That essentially meant my quirk had no drawbacks.
And Bakugo had picked up on that way, way sooner than Izuku. In fact, Izuku still hadn't even an inkling.
That brought a major concern to light. Was my reincarnation not just some random bullshit but a planned event, not unlike the main character in Mushoku Tensei?
I was curious, but I had no way to investigate that at the moment. The best way to get there where I could actually start investigating were two things: a hero license to use and test my quirk whenever and wherever I pleased, and a research license to have a free access to in-depth quirk studies all the way back from when quirks first appeared.
I had a plan. I was just executing it at the moment.
And execution involved performing well in this stupid test.
It must have been quite long since Aizawa seemed to be muttering something. I blocked him out since I needed to focus on the ball after all. Once I felt it cross the halfway mark around the globe, I switched directions and started pulling the ball towards me through a combination of air cannon and removing air resistance. Removal of air was necessary; it made all calculations way easier and straightforward.
Soon enough, I straightened up and finally opened my eyes—I had closed them once the ball was out of sight. Everyone followed my line of sight and saw the ball fling downwards towards us. The ball dropped to the ground and slowly rolled to a stop right by my feet.
I took a deep breath and turned towards Aizawa. "40k and change, I believe?"
And that was indeed the case. Aizawa actually managed to look impressed. "Very, very impressive, kid. Extremely creative use of your quirk."
"I try," I said with mock modesty as I walked away to hoots and cheers. And suppressed swears and explosions. As soon as I reached Izuku, I asked, "How long did I take?"
"About 55 minutes," Izuku replied as we watched Uraraka go ahead. "Almost 10 minutes faster. The ball must have gone like Mach 30 or something. That's ridiculous; how did you even keep the ball from flying off into space?"
I was about to answer when the usual rage-filled bark from the class's angry Pomeranian interrupted me. "What was that, you airy bastard?! What did you do?!"
I snorted as I turned towards Mr. King Explosion Murder. "And why'd I tell you that?"
Some of the others suppressed their mirth as Bakugo launched into another spiel of swear words. Never in my life had I seen a person with so many anger-management issues. It was a wonder UA even let him in. I figured mental stability of potential heroes was not considered at all. If it had even the slightest weightage, Bakugo would have surely fallen in ranks like a solid piece of iron in water.
Next was Izuku's throwing. Which left Bakugo speechless. The look of shock on his face was worth it. I heavily considered buying a camera just for capturing those expressions. It would probably be well worth the money.
"Sensei…" I glanced at Izuku, who had his fist held up with a broken finger, a pained smile on his face. "I can still move."
I held back a grimace when I saw the broken finger and how black the wound was turning slowly. It would require immediate treatment. Thankfully, Recovery Girl existed and healing quirks were a thing. But yeah, I could see how Izuku was at risk of losing his arms at some point. Some common sense could go a long away; he didn't always have to punch harder. But hey, let's take things one at a time.
Just then…
"What the hell! Explain yourself, Dek-"
Aizawa's carbon fiber scarf stopped Bakugo before he could devolve into another spiel. The glare from the quirk eraser managed to send chills down my spine. He could genuinely look terrifying if he wanted to project that image. Imagine being a no-name villain and you are faced by a hero whose glare stops you in your tracks. Scary!
"Stop using your quirk already," Aizawa muttered. "I am getting dry eye over here!"
I chuckled despite myself as I went close to the caught Bakugo. "Don't worry, Eraserhead! I will hold him."
"Huh?! You think-"
I really should have put him on a leash back in middle school. I grabbed a bunch of his hair and brought his face close to mine. A condescending smirk made its way on my face. "If you don't shut up, I'll make sure you will never be a hero."
"Asshole, you think you-"
"Do you want to test me?"
One good thing that I did right from the moment I met them was to make sure to never make empty threats around Bakugo. It was precisely for moments like this where him listening to me was imperative. And for me to assert my dominance. I chuckled at the latter thought.
For what it was worth, Bakugo actually did listen to me and stayed quiet, if only angry and glaring, as Aizawa released him. He continued glaring at Izuku in disbelief as the remaining tests happened. I could understand his confusion. He didn't know about the connection between Izuku and All Might just yet.
And I had no plans to deal with that bullshit just yet.
"Also, I was lying about expelling someone."
Pindrop silence.
"It was a rational deception to make you all perform your best."
"WHAAAAA?!"
"Well, of course, it was a lie. Didn't take much to figure that out."
I idly glanced at Yaoyorozu, who had spoken, just in time to see her glance at me. This time, I didn't avoid her eyes. Instead, I quirked an eyebrow at her. She approached me. "You knew about that as well, didn't you?"
I simply shrugged. "I saw how well most students here performed during the entrance test; I was fairly confident no one would be expelled."
"Wait, you knew?" Izuku said accusingly as he too joined us. "You should have told me."
"Would you have believed me over someone who actually has the authority to expel us?" I asked with a laugh.
Izuku squirmed, figuring out my point. "But still, it would have reassured me a bit," he replied at length.
"Perhaps." I shrugged again. Then I pointed towards his finger. "Get that sorted out before it worsens."
"Yeah. You coming?"
"I will see you at the gate. Right now, I want to chat with our classmates."
"Alright. See you there then."
I waved goodbye to Izuku, before turning towards Yaoyorozu and extending an arm. "Nice to meet you. Korai Haru. Call me Haru."
"Yaoyorozu Momo," she replied in kind, shaking my hand. "Nice to meet you too. I didn't realize you knew him."
"We are old friends. We go way back… or so I'd like to say. I have known him for four years."
"That's a long enough time," she said, amused.
"It is," I agreed with a grin. "But not long enough to say 'way back'."
We were already on our way to the changing rooms so I told her we could talk afterwards. I waved her goodbye and entered the male changing room where most of the others had already changed. To my surprise, Mineta was a student here. I had always thought he must have cheated somehow to get into UA because otherwise, how did he even get in with his stature and his quirk, and without any recommendation? Well, I figured, this was the chance to know.
I approached him and poked his… ball-hair?
"Hey, what is it?" He turned and glared at me.
I held up my hands in mock surrender. "Hey there. Just curious how did you get into UA with your quirk? I happened to notice you during the exams throwing your… ball-hair around."
"What, are you here to make fun of me too?"
"No! I am just curious. Because if I had your quirk, I would not be able to use it as effectively as you did. I mean, you got into UA!"
Those compliments seemed to soothe him right down, and he explained how his quirk worked before elaborating on his exam strategy.
"So, now that we know my quirk is just sticky balls," he threw a pointed glare at Kaminari who simply held up an apologetic hand, "I couldn't really disarm the robots. But you know what the exam instructions said? They said we had to disable the robots. And my quirk is perfect for that. All I had to do was lure the robots in traps set with my sticky balls."
I was genuinely impressed. Disabling someone from moving completely, including robots as large and powerful as the ones we were fighting? That was a terrifying quirk in the hands of an intelligent person. And Mineta was intelligent. But he was also ridiculously unconfident. And prone to be laidback when in an advantageous position—not unlike the hare from The Tortoise and The Hare story.
"That's impressive," I said honestly. "No wonder you made it to UA. I really wouldn't have."
"Hey, uh…"
I glanced at Iida who had spoken.
"Haru," I offered.
"Haru-ku-"
Just then, the door opened, and in walked Izuku, looking oddly tired.
"Oh! Midoriya-kun!" Iida greeted with jerky movements, as he walked to Izuku. "Is your finger okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Recovery Girl's quirk drained me though."
"Yo, Izuku!" I beckoned him over as I changed into the UA uniform. "So, how's the first day?"
"Interesting," he replied as he too changed from his gym clothes. "But I'm pooped."
I laughed. "That's to be expected what with your bone-breaking quirk and then Recovery Girl's quirk."
"Glad to hear you're doing fine," Iida said as he too joined us. "Aizawa-sensei sure had us fooled. He made me think 'This is how it's at the top!' and forced me to give it my all. Such deception…"
I simply grinned as the three of us made our way out, listening to Iida's musings. This was fun, surprisingly enough. I felt like a kid all over again.
Except this time around, my life would be on the line soon enough.
As we reached the gate of the academy, I noticed Yaoyorozu waiting, staring at her watch. Immediately realizing what had happened, I made my way to her. The other three waited while I talked to her.
"Ah, Haru! I was wondering if you completely forgot."
"Not at all," I replied with a smile as I pulled out my phone. "Just ended up in a heated discussion about today's class. On that note, care to give me your number? It'd be easier to keep in touch if our schedules changed suddenly."
"Indeed, it will be useful."
We exchanged contacts and soon, separated, as she apparently had something to do. As she walked away, I couldn't help but glance at her retreating figure, admiring it from afar. Oh, she was beautiful alright. Our dear author knew what he was doing when he created her.
And I was here now interacting with her as a real person.
Talk about reincarnation being a real sweet deal.
"You know Yaoyorozu-san?"
I turned back to see the three of them had walked up to me. Iida had asked the question.
I nodded. "Chatted with her after our quirk test earlier. She seemed interested in knowing how I knew that Aizawa-sensei was lying about the expulsion."
"You knew?!" Iida exclaimed in disbelief. That was the second time I had got that reaction, first time being Izuku himself.
"Nah," I replied with a chuckle. "I had just seen most of us perform extremely well during the entrance exam and doubted anyone would perform badly in something as simple as that. That, and if we performed well and were still expelled… well, would you want to be a part of a school that punishes excellent uses of quirks purely because of its freestyle education?"
Iida understood and started thinking deeply about… whatever it was. 'I swear the guy could read between the lines despite there being nothing between the lines,' I thought to myself as we started on our way home. 'All that said, these people are fun to hang out with. I can't wait to see how much they can change due to my presence and actions to affect the future.'
