Their Hero Academia – Chapter Two: Isamu Haimawari and the Quirk Test From Hell

Isamu Haimawari was going to be a Hero. If he was lucky. And at this exact moment, he didn't really feel like he was. His very first day of his very first class at U.A. High had barely started and he'd already nearly been beaten up by the very scary blonde girl. He'd thought by sitting all the way in the back, he could avoid any kind of attention whatsoever, but that hadn't worked out at all.

At least the excitable duo and the calm girl with the two-tone hair had come to his rescue. He'd have to remember to thank them later.

All of these other people knew each other already. He was the outsider, the "Newb" as the extremely scary blonde girl had called him. The only one in Class 1-A that didn't have at least one parent who was a Hero.

Or at least, not any he could tell them about. His parents had been Vigilantes, walking the dividing line between Hero and Villain, fighting the good fight, but never getting the rewards or glory for it. Not that his dad would have wanted either. He just wanted to help people. He probably still would be, Isamu knew, if it hadn't been for a career ending injury several years ago. The Crawler had simply faded into a footnote in Hero history. He was proud of both of his parents and the good they'd done. But he couldn't share that with anyone. But he was going to be different. His dad had been training him, he'd studied hard, so that he could get into a good Hero academy. So he could take the lessons they'd learn and do it on a larger scale.

Not that his seeming lack of a heroic background was the only thing he had going against him. There were three Hero classes at U.A. High, sixteen students each, forty-eight potential Heroes all together. And he had come in dead last of those forty-eight (less than that, really, he understood several students had gotten in under recommendations), with the lowest possible score you could get on the Entrance Exam and still pass. And most of those had been Rescue Points.

He was pretty sure he didn't deserve to be here.

It had been several long moments since All Might had barged into their classroom, claiming that he was "just seeing how Aizawa was getting along." Judging by how the green haired kid—Midoriya, like that Midoriya, the Number Two Hero Deku—had reacted, he wondered if this was going to be a common occurrence. Midoriya and Aizawa had practically shoved All Might back into the hallway and even with the door closed, they could be heard to be arguing about boundaries and personal space.

It was then he realized that the girl sitting next to him, the one with the purple hair and the hooves and the big… horns… was staring at him. He swallowed nervously. Girls, he usually found, mostly ignored him.

"Can I, ah, help you?" Isamu stammered.

"Well, aren't you a gentleman," she said, practically purring the words. Behind her, he could see the blonde with the weird ears snickering and the tremendously scary blonde pointedly ignoring everything. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Mika Mineta. And we can talk all about how you can "help" me. I could always use someone to polish my…."

Fortunately for him, she didn't get a chance to finish that thought, as Aizawa and Midoriya returned to the room sans All Might. Already, Aizawa looked as though his patience had been tested to the limit and was ready to snap at the next person who put one foot out of line.

"All of you go get changed into your gym uniforms and assemble on the P.E. grounds in ten minutes."

After they assembled in the locker room, Isamu started to pull off his shirt, but Iida held up his hand. "Stop," he said. "Before we begin changing, there is one reasonable precaution we must take."

"You don't think…?" Midoriya began.

"Oh, c'mon, Iida! There's no way she's in here!" Shinso said.

"Where would she even hide?" Sero asked.

"No way she beat us here," Sato said. "…Right?"

He was clearly missing something here. The others were all treating this as some kind of common occurrence. Was this some kind of hazing ritual? Or did they know something he didn't?

"What?" he asked. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Mineta," Midoriya explained. "There's a really good chance she'd hiding in one of the lockers, trying to watch us change."

"Wait, what?" Isamu asked. "I know she was a little, ah, forward and everything, but you don't really think she'd…?"

The others exchanged knowing glances. Iida looked carefully at the lockers before opening one of them. "Ah…ha!"

"It's empty, Iida," Shinso said.

"Guess we were wrong," Sato added. "Maybe she's peeping on the girls this time."

"Whew," said the next locker over.

The other boys let out a collective groan.

"Allow me," Shoji said. He extended one of the arms from his back (not exactly stretching, more like it was growing more skin and bones, making him very glad he'd only had a light breakfast), opening the locker and hauling Mineta out of it by her shirt collar.

"Uh…hi?" she said, giving them a little wave. "How's it going?"

In one fluid motion, Shoji flicked his arm and tossed her out the door.

"Can't blame a girl for tryiiiiiiiing!"

Isamu was never going to get used to this.

"Time was," Aizawa said, once they were all assembled, "I'd run these Quirk Apprehension Tests and then expel the lowest performer."

Well, that was it for him then. He wondered why he even bothered to unpack. First in his family to attend a Hero School and it had already come to this.

"Unfortunately, I'm only allowed three expulsions a year now, and I'm not about to waste any of them on the first day."

Oh. Okay. Maybe not. Maybe he could put that All Might poster up in his dorm room after all.

"But that doesn't meant that I cannot make things very unpleasant for any failures. And I can see you in the bushes, All Might!"

The first test was the fifty meter dash. At least this one would be something he could do. His whole Quirk was based on speed and his dad had taught him all kinds of tricks to go even faster. He could definitely do better than some of the ones who had already gone, anyway. Ojiro, Koda, and Sato may have had impressive Quirks (well, invisibility was impressive, he wasn't sure what Sato and Koda could do), but that didn't make them any faster than you average person. Midoriya had done better, using his Quirk to reduce his weight to the point where he was bouncing along like a super ball.

He could do this. He could. His first demonstration of his Quirk in front of his teacher and classmates. Nothing to be afraid of.

Isamu bent down into a three-point position and… CONTACT! He launched himself forward with as much speed as he could muster. It was always a thrill using his Quirk, using the repulsive power to push himself forward, like his own personal roller coaster. It kicked like a mule and required split second control, but it was more than worth it for what it let him do.

WHOOSH! The fifty meters sped by like nothing; he was at the end before he even knew it. He applied some of his repelling force ahead of him, starting to slow himself down, but he overcorrected, skidding to an awkward stop that left him a tangle of limbs on the ground.

"3.80 seconds," the camera robot reported, as he got to his feet, awkwardly dusting himself off.

That… that wasn't bad! Maybe not his best, but if he had time to build up a little more speed… maybe he could do this!

"You know, Sensei," Tensei Iida said, "hundredths of a second may be accurate enough for measuring the speed of an average individual, but with speed Quirks like Haimawari's or ours, it is completely inadequate!"

"If you let us take a look at the robot," his sister joined in, "we could probably get it to the thousandths."

"Or the tens of thousandths!"

"Or the hundreds of thousandths!"

"Or…"

"Both of you just go already!" Aizawa shouted.

Both twins exchanged a grin. "Turbines… to… speed!"

The engine pipes on their backs roared to life, launching them both through the air like a pair of runaway rockets… and straight towards him! So distracted were they by their dispute over measurements, no one had waited for him to get out of the way! Isamu hit the dirt at the Iida twins soared over his head, nearly clipping him.

"1.02 seconds," the report reported. "And 1.02 seconds."

They were both faster than him!? Great. Just great. The one thing did really well, and he wasn't even the best in the class at that! And what good was a little bit of ground speed when the two of them could fly?

"Someone want to get Haimawari out of the way before he actually gets run over?" Aizawa grunted.

"I've got him." He felt one of Shoji's arms pulling him out of the way.

He really should have just stayed in bed today. He was pretty sure Heroes didn't need to be dragged away like day old fish.

Ultimately, it was still good enough for him to get to third in the fifty meter dash. Not that some of the others hadn't been impressive in their own ways. He'd seen Tokoyami produce a green frog made of light from her body and ride it, talking to it all the while. Sero had shot tape at the finish line and reeled himself to it. Shoji had palmed along with his Extendo-Arms, moving like some kind of creepy spider. Todoroki had iced the track and slid forward on it, though she'd then had to shoot a stream of flame into the air. Even Mineta had proven surprisingly swift, running nearly as fast as a horse.

And Shinso… He still wasn't exactly sure what he'd seen there. The purple haired boy had taken a deep breath and let out a high pitched note at the ground, causing it to ripple like a wave with him traveling along it.

All of their Quirks were so much more impressive than his.

At least a few others like the incredibly scary blonde and Kaminari had done merely athletically well. He tried to assure himself that third out of sixteen was still very impressive.

"Not bad," Aizawa told the class. "Of course, that was just the first test. We'll see if you're all still smiling by the end of it."

It was going to be a long day. What else would they be doing? He was in decent enough shape, but his Quirk was fairly straight forward in terms of how it could be applied. He'd probably come in dead last

"That was impressive!"

Isamu jerked. How had the Iida twins snuck up on him like that? They weren't exactly quiet.

"Uh, thanks, Iida," he told Tensei.

"Of course," Sora said, "you could probably go even faster with the right support gear. Perhaps some directional fins?"

"Maybe a rudder for easier turning?" Tensei added.

"Retro-rockets!" both bubbled.

Somehow, Sora had produced a tape measure and began taking his measurements, while Tensei continued to suggest different improvements.

HELP!

"Hey!" Midoriya shouted. "Both of you, leave him alone! Give him some breathing room before you start fitting him for a jetpack or moon boots or whatever!"

The Iida twins shooed away, Isamu gave Midoriya a relieved smile. "Seems like everybody's rescuing me today. Thanks." At least three rescues, maybe five, depending on how you counted the two Mineta incidents.

"Don't worry about it," Midoriya assured him. "You just have to set boundaries with the twins early on. Or else you'll wake up with rockets strapped to your feet."

"That's an oddly specific thing to say."

"Personal experience." There were so many follow-up questions Isamu had to that, but Midoriya continued talking. "Your speed really is amazing! I mean, I know Slide and Glide Quirks are pretty common, but you're really good at it!"

Isamu shook his head. "Just got lucky. I'm nowhere near as fast as the two of them."

"Don't worry about your score," Mirodiya said. "Dad came in dead last on these when he was first starting out. And it didn't do him any lasting harm."

Well, if the Number Two Hero could start his career by coming in last, maybe he'd do all right after all.

Maybe.