The last few tests passed without much incident, and now the students were looking at the scoreboard.
1.) Clark Kent
2.) Yaoyorozu Momo
3.) Todoroki Shoto
4.) Bakugo Katsuki
5.) Iida Tenya
6.) Tokoyami Fumikage
7.) Bruce Wayne
8.) Shoji Mezo
9.) Kirishima Eijiro
10.) Ashido Mina
11.) Uraraka Ochako
12.) Koda Koji
13.) Sato Rikido
14.) Tsuyu Asui
15.) Aoyama Yuga
16.) Sero Hanta
17.) Denki Kaminari
18.) Jiro Kyoka
19.) Hagakure Toru
20.) Midoriya Izuku
Clark glanced over at Midoriya. The kid was crushed. Who was Toru Hagakure? Clark glanced around at the students, based on the name it was probably a female and-
"Whoa!"
He hadn't noticed because he was used to filtering out nonvisible light, but in that moment he saw her. She was practically glowing. He narrowed his vision back down to the visible spectrum. She was completely invisible except for her clothes. Was… was that it? How on Earth had she beaten Midoriya? He focused in on her, enhancing his vision while keeping it in the visible spectrum until he could see past the field of bent light giving the illusion of invisibility. Years of sunlight being bent around her had left her pale enough to be mistaken for albino if anyone but Clark could see her. The only indication she wasn't came in the form of her jet black hair, and strikingly dark eyes. Eyes that were now staring directly at him. Alongside the rest of the class.
"Oh God I was looking way too long!"
"Kent-san, what are you doing?" Kirishima asked.
"What?"
"Yeah you were staring at Hagakure-san for like a minute and your eyes started glowing blue."
"Well it's good to know there's a visible indication I'm doing that,"
"Right, sorry. I was trying to figure out if I could see her. Part of my quirk is that my senses can all be turned up to eleven thousand, so I thought I might be able to."
"Seriously? Why are you able to do literally everything?!" Kaminari whined.
"You aren't asking the important question here," Sato said. "Could you see her?"
"Yep."
"WHA-" The class stopped short as Aizawa came over.
"As you all know, I said I was going to expel the lowest scorer." Shouta let the tension build for a moment. "I lied." He grinned in a way that would make All-Might proud if it didn't look so damn creepy on him. "It was a logical deception to bring out the best in you all."
"You believed that?" Yaoyorozu sighed in response to the class's shouts of protest. "It was an obvious lie."
"Maybe to you!" Kaminari and Sero yelled.
Afterward
Shouta was beyond concerned. In an instant, Kent had just gone from a particularly powerful student to an unstoppable weapon of mass destruction. When Kent and Bakugo had been at each other's throats, Shouta had tried to erase Kent's quirk. Bakugo was a stick of dynamite. Dangerous, but not unusual. Kent was a nuclear bomb. And he was immune to Shouta's quirk. This defied everything Shouta had ever learned about his own power. Wingless flight, energy projection, neither should have been unaffected. Yet Kent had simply floated there regardless, eyes on fire. What even was that glow? Kent had not demonstrated anything like that in the entrance exam, or the tests. Shouta was going to read his students' files that night, but now he had to make it his highest priority. As for Midoriya… The kid had promise, certainly more than Shouta had believed. Shouta was jolted from his thoughts by a bellowing voice from around the corner.
"Aizawa, you liar!"
Him. Great.
"A 'logical deception?' April fools day was last week. Or did you not expel an entire class of freshmen last year? So, that can only mean you saw it too. The spark in that boy."
Shouta finally turned to face All-Might, though with great reluctance. "It's a little early to start playing favorites isn't it? He's not hopeless I admit. If he were, I would have sent him home." Shouta paused for a moment. "Do you know anything about Kent's quirk?"
All-Might raised an eyebrow at this.
"I tried to deactivate it earlier, but nothing happened," Shouta explained.
"That's… concerning," All-Might said. "I know what he told me previously, that it runs on solar radiation."
"Previously? When did you speak to him?"
All-Might realized his error a moment too late. "We er- encountered each other in the halls earlier."
Shouta grumbled at the coincidence, but left it alone. For now.
The U.A. Locker Rooms
The men's locker rooms in any high school were rarely silent when in use. This was near universal, in any nation. Yet all it took today was for Bruce Wayne to take off his shirt.
Kirishima was the first to speak. "Wayne-san…" he began. "What happened to you?"
Bruce was covered in scars. Some were cuts, some burns, and a disturbing few appeared to be gunshot wounds. Most were concentrated around his chest, arms, and upper back.
"Which one?" Bruce responded.
"What?"
"Which one are you asking about?"
The boys of 1-A processed this slowly. The scars had not been the result of a single terrible event. There was a separate story behind each one, and they all looked serious enough to have required a hospital visit. Kaminari recovered first. "What about that big one? The ring around your body?" The scar he was referring to was perhaps the largest on Bruce's body by length. It also appeared to be the oldest. A singular circle of scar tissue around his abdomen and the outsides of his forearms, as if a wire had been wrapped around his middle and pulled tight. Bruce looked at his left forearm as if checking the time.
Flesh ripping. A biting pain every time Bruce tried to move or look away. Father bleeding out from the gunshot wound in his chest, mother screaming, tearing at her throat. The man with the gun running in terror of the larger predator that had descended upon him.
Bruce stood still for a moment before responding. "That's nothing worth mentioning," he said, before gathering his possessions and walking out without another word. Bruce vaguely heard them talking about him, and then a hole in the wall before the door swung shut behind him.
The Midoriya Residence
"I swear to God I'm going to throw him off a building!"
"Kent-san, no." Izuku said.
"What? I wouldn't let him hit the ground…"
"No!"
Clark had fumed over Aizawa's lie for most of the evening. "Why are you not angry? That was a breach of professional ethics at best! Not to mention he tried to tell you outright to just give up!" Sensing Izuku's incoming question he answered in advance. "Super-Hearing."
"You were listening in on us?!" Izuku exclaimed.
"Not by choice. My powers are sometimes a little unstable when I really let loose. The energy gets flowing and it's harder to suppress the enhanced senses. Even normally I can hear people screaming in the city, today…" At Izuku's horrified expression he quickly backtracked. "The doctors said it should get easier to control later, but for now I just deal with it."
"I'm not a doctor but I appreciate the confidence." Kelex said from his pocket, with her voice increased to over thirty-five thousand hertz, well beyond anything Izuku could hear.
To cover the pause, Clark clapped Izuku on the shoulder and nodded toward the kitchen with a weak smile.
"C'mon, Inko-sama probably wants to hear about your day."
"You must know by now how much it freaks her out when you call her that," Izuku said, rolling his eyes.
"I most certainly do."
"Why do you still do it then?"
"Two reasons," Clark started. "One, specifically because of how flustered she gets, it's hilarious. Two… I hear her crying sometimes. Since your dad left, from what I gather, she's felt like she doesn't have control over anything anymore, like she's insignificant. Being addressed as an authority figure, or someone of importance can help with that. I figure if I have to involuntarily hear everything that goes on in this apartment I might as well try to do some good with it."
Izuku froze, head turning slowly to face Clark.
"Everything?"
"Yes, including you talking to yourself and pretending you're a hero working with All-Might."
Izuku put his face in his hands as they reached the kitchen.
"Don't worry bro we all did it at some point," Clark said.
"That doesn't make it any better," Izuku mumbled.
Bruce Wayne's Penthouse
"Dinner is ready Master Bruce, and you WILL be eating!" The workshop door slammed open, making Bruce, however minutely, jump in surprise for the first time in five years, as Alfred marched in, shut off the gas to the blowtorch Bruce was holding and grabbed him by the back of his shirt to drag him out. Bruce now understood why Alfred had insisted on putting a wheeled swivel chair in the workshop. In seconds Bruce found himself at the table, bowl of mulligatawny soup already in front of him. "Is there a special occasion?"
Alfred stared him down, looking every bit the SAS operative. "If you think I'm not going to celebrate your first day of highschool, at such a prestigious institution no less, I worry for the effect your time in the Himalayas had on your mind. Though of course I do so regardless."
"Because I'm so much less healthy than I was before."
"Compartmentalizing everything in your mind is not health."
Bruce sighed. This debate was a favorite topic for both of them when nothing better presented itself.
"Would you prefer I had a breakdown every week?
"You should try it," Alfred chuckled as he got his own bowl out. "You might actually become a little more relaxed. Now then, what did you do today?"
"Simple physical evaluations, nothing special. I half expected to find out you were watching with the satellites."
"Unfortunately not, but I most certainly will be tomorrow. The schedule we procured says combat training, so I've taken the liberty of packing your suit. Inventory in the belt has been checked and double-checked, placed according to Shadow specifications," Alfred said. Bruce had taken great care to design the utility belt with those used by the League of Shadows in mind. Batarangs were stored in the same place as shuriken, smoke bombs and grapnels matched with their counterparts. Better to use what he was familiar with. Some nonstandard equipment like the explosive gel had required improvisation, but that issue was never going to be a major one.
"Combat? I've half a mind to not even show up."
"Fine. Just don't look at me like that Alfred. And the tests today went well. Many of them were exceptional even where their quirks couldn't be applied. Several require improvement."
"Well, it's a good thing you have such a large gymnasium here. You can train them. After all, you may as well have someone willing to help when you can finally go after Jouto Korudo and… the other one."
"They do need help, and I am in a position to give it, but Korudo is mine. His accounts are still under surveillance?"
"Yes master Bruce. Unfortunately there has been no activity since the phone call last month. He is of course still being searched for by the authorities, but the police can only devote so much manpower to a five year old manhunt."
"I wouldn't have it any other way. Has the other one been seen?"
"No sir, he has not resurfaced since escaping prison, nor has any evidence of his… proclivities… been found."
"He does tend to leave substantial evidence. What about the satellite scans of Shinjuku?"
"Nothing sir, though he would need a reason to use his quirk on a large enough scale to be noticed."
Bruce nodded. "Make sure Lucius informs us of any developments."
The boy abruptly left the table to go to his bedroom.
Alfred knew he would not sleep.