Devil Hero Blues

by Kuwabaramatata

What if Izuku Midoriya developed a Quirk that gave him the appearance and powers of Nightcrawler? How would the new, blue Deku fair in a world that feared his appearance? Can this young man make the best of his curse and show the world he is a true, and very blue, hero? Will he find the friends he's always craved, and possibly something more, along the way?

6. What We Can Do

Author's note: Hello everyone, I'd like to apologize about how vague I've been, specifically in the last chapter but for the series as a whole. It caused a bit of confusion in the last chapter with everyone wondering where Uraraka was so let me explain. She was, very briefly, mentioned. She was the one who asked about the orientation, like in the canon, but I didn't give Izuku or her a chance to really talk in the chapter. That was a bit too vague on my part, that's my bad. As for HOW she passed, well, the answer to that is: just barely. In this story, she was able to score a few hero points by moving debris for other applicants and assisting a few with knockouts. She barely squeaked into the program in this while Izuku rose to the top during the practical. She'll explain it to him later on but I wanted to clear up any confusion. I also saw it mentioned where she was listed in the characters section of the description. When I first made the story I was just kinda putting in names and hadn't realized it was as important as I thought since it indicates to others who the main characters are. I have since updated it, sorry for the confusion. Rest assured, these other characters won't vanish and will play parts, but the main cast whom I imagine are the center of the story are now listed. Class 1-A remains unchanged from canon, same people, for anyone wondering.

Sorry for the ramble, I wanted to clear the air a bit around the last chapter before we continued. I do have something I'm excited about to show this chapter so I hope everyone enjoys!

Onward to what-iffery!

"W-Wait.. you can't send one of us home! We only just got here! It isn't even our first day, just our orientation! How is that fair!?" Said the brown haired, pink cheeked girl with a worried tone in her voice. Hearing this clearly stressed her out greatly, of course, little did Izuku know just how close this girl was to not even being in the hero course at all. It was pretty demoralizing for Ochaco to hear that she might get expelled from school even on her, not technically, first day there.

"Are earthquakes fair? Hurricanes? Tsunamis? Lava flows that burn away entire towns in the blink of an eye? What about power hungry villains? Are any of those fair? Face it, the world is full of unfairness. As pro-heroes, it will be your job to combat that unfairness. To face it head on to protect the lives of others. You'll have to push beyond your limitations to prove your worth. Here at U.A, for the next three years, you'll have to fight and scrape to overcome every obstacle in your path. That is what it means to go beyond, plus ultra. Show me it isn't a mistake that you're here." The tired looking teacher told them all, each one more determined to not have their dreams crushed on their very first day there… though Izuku did note that the boy with the purple orbs on his… head? Hair? Whatever. The boy with the grape-like hair was still shaking in his boots at the prospect. He felt kinda bad for him, I mean, that was how Izuku felt just showing up, and yet here he was feeling alright because his Quirk gave him a rather large advantage on speed which, he felt, at least kept him from failing.

First event: The 50-Meter Dash

Now that the tests were in full swing, Izuku saw that Bakugo stepped up next. Izuku had been listed as seat number 18 in the classroom if he remembered correctly, and Bakugo was number 17. Under normal circumstances they may have had to race each other, but, well… it wouldn't have been much of a race.

Izuku watched as Bakugo squatted down, his arms straight down at his sides with his palms facing out behind him, a manic grin over his face as he stared forward and waited. Izuku felt the hairs on… well everywhere underneath the image inducer… but specifically the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he had a pretty good idea of what Bakugo was about to do.

"U-Umm, all of us might want to take a step back!" Izuku told the class, getting a few concerned looks from them before the robot that took the score signaled for Bakugo to go. Suddenly, there was a massive burst, two large explosions erupted from Bakugo's palms as he rocketed forward, knocking the robot over with the force he generated, clocking in at 3.45 seconds with his massive explosion of power forward.

Behind where Bakugo had been was two large craters of scorched earth from where he propelled himself forward. Bakugo stood on the other side panting, his hands smoking from the force of his blast. Clearly he had wanted to get as fast as a time as possible, and without having to race beside someone else he was able to build up his sweat for a bigger explosion forward.

Since seats 17 and 18 were now taken care of, Aizawa began to go in order of his seating chart, starting with the number 1 seat, Yuga Aoyama, and the number 2 seat, Mina Ashido.

"Oh, Mina…" Izuku thought to himself as he stood with the others and watched. "She's the pretty pink girl… wait… well she is pretty but I mean…" He flushed a bit as he thought to himself, was he trying to rationalize his own mental slipup to himself now. He shook his head and just watched as Aoyama and Ashido stepped up to the track.

"Hehe, I am sorry, mon ami." Said the blonde-haired boy with that same odd smile he always had and that twinkle that seemed to appear whenever he did so.

Mina Ashido looked up, having taken a moment to remove her brown school shoes and set them off to the side before looking at him. "Huh?" She simply asked as the boy turned away from the starting line.

"Since we're allowed the use our Quirks, then I'm afraid all eyes will be on me…" The boy put his hands behind his head and as soon as the robot signaled the start the boy leapt up in the air and fired his naval laser, blasting backward rather quickly with a smirk on his face. Mina was a bit surprised to be sure but simply ran forward and produced acid under her feet to slip and slid her way like a skater toward the finish line. The boy… well…

About halfway across the 50-meter dash yard the boy began to fall and soon crumbled to the ground after his laser stopped, letting Mina pull ahead of him as he picked himself up and fired away again. Mina Ashido still finished before him with a score of 5.25 seconds with Aoyama getting 5.51.

"Excuse me, Ashido." Izuku said to her as she came back around. "I'm curious. What is your Quirk? From here it just looked like you were skating over the ground or something."

Mina looked at him and smiled. "Oh, my body produces acid." She statedly plainly to the green-haired boy.

"Acid?" Izuku said, whether he realized it or not he moved his right wrist behind his back.

Mina didn't seem to notice. "Yeah, my body can create acid. I can control the potency of it to do all kinds of things. So, I produced a trail under my feet and skated my way to victory!"

Izuku nodded and smiled a bit enthusiastically. "I see, that's really cool!"

Mina laughed a bit too. "Gee, thanks, but it isn't like I teleported across the finish line with the fastest time in school history or something. With a Quirk like that, it's hard to think you'd be so impressed with mine."

Izuku flushed a bit. "Hehe, I just take an interest in the Quirks of others is all. Since I'm always looking for new applications to my own, I'm always looking to pick up a trick somewhere that maybe I can use, so I like to see what others can do."

Mina laughed a bit then jabbed his arm. "Well, if there's anything I can teach you then I'd be surprised by it!"

The girl walked off with the others as the boy watched from the side. She seemed so carefree, even with such an obvious mutation, she didn't seem like she cared. He wondered, silently, if he could be like that.

"I see what's going on here…" Said a voice beside Izuku which startled him, turning to see Aoyama standing beside him with a grin.

"H-Huh, see what?" Izuku asked him. How had that boy just snuck up on him like that? Did he also have a teleportation quirk or was he just that sneaky?

"Don't worry friend, your secret is safe with me." Aoyama said with a wink which made Izuku shiver slightly. W-Wait… how could he know about the image inducer? Had it malfunctioned and this boy was the only one who took notice? Had his tail uncurled from around his waist when he hadn't noticed and left the field of the image inducer?

All those thoughts crossed Izuku's mind as Aoyama just smiled.

"Though, mon ami, it isn't right to juggle the hearts of so many young women. It can come back to bite you." Aoyama said with a shrug.

"W-Wait, what? Juggle?" Izuku thought to himself. Come to think of it, Aoyama had said something weird to him like this after the practical. Izuku quickly flushed and shook his head. "No, umm, Aoyama. It isn't like that, honest!" He said, his face a crimson red. "I'm just interested in the Quirks of others and how they use them! Like your Quirk, that blast you fired was awesome… though.. why did you only fire it for a moment and drop like that? You seemed so confident you'd make it."

Aoyama kept the same smile on his face. "Very simple, mon ami!" He then got himself into a dramatic pose, always seeming to emanate light and sparkles. "If I fire my laser for more than a second then it really hurts my tummy!"

Izuku blinked a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh… umm… I'm sorry to hear that." Izuku said. "If it makes you feel better, if I teleport too much it really hurts my side."

Aoyama simply smiled and stood beside him after that. Man, this boy was hard to read. Izuku couldn't tell what he was thinking at all… then again reading people was never Izuku's strong suit.

After a brief cleaning of Mina's side of the track, making sure it wasn't still slick for the next race, seat number 3, Tsuyu Asui, and seat number 4, Tenya Iida, stepped up to the line.

Both prepared themselves for the race, and as soon as they were signaled to start Iida burst forth and ran, crossing the finish line with the best score aside from Izuku with an impressive 3.04.

"Still good, even only at third gear." Iida thought to himself as Tsuyu crossed the line with a score of 5.58. "I had hoped to be the fastest in my class… but Midoriya's power lets him be faster than me, and I don't even know the full extent of his power… I'll just have to try that much harder to show my brother what I can really do." Those thoughts crossed Iida's mind as he walked back beside the others.

"Oh, excuse me, Iida." Izuku said, snapping Iida out of his thoughts.

"Huh, oh, yes Midoriya?" Iida asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I wanted to thank you." Izuku said, which only made Iida a bit more confused.

"During the practical, I was able to see you in action, how you used your momentum to smash those robots with your kicks. It helped give me the idea to use my own momentum by throwing myself off the roof then teleporting to kick the robots in the neck. Of course, I could only do it a few times, my legs aren't nearly that strong to handle doing that a lot, matter of fact it felt like they were filled with lead on my way home, but I just wanted to say thank you regardless since I was able to pick up an idea from your fighting style."

Iida stood in a bit of shock as he listened. Here he was contemplating how he could compete with Midoriya to show off his own speed but here was Midoriya thanking him for giving him a hand, even unintentionally.

Iida smiled. "Glad to be of service. Leg training is very important after all, you should never skip leg day! That is the secret behind keeping your kicks powerful and reducing the strain of excessive use. A healthy, nutrition-rich diet is also key!" Iida seemed rather enthusiastic that he had, in some way, helped, even if it was the person he was considering would be his rival this year, they were still classmates after all, they had to have each other's back, and if Iida could set himself up as a dependable leader of sorts among his peers then all the better.

As the two talked, seat number 5, Ochaco Uraraka, and seat number 6, Mashirao Ojiro, took their race. Ojiro cleared the race fairly easily with the help of his tail propelling him forward while Uraraka, unfortunately, could only run at her fastest, which sadly gave her one of the slowest scores so far.

The girl seemed pretty dejected about it as she began walking back toward the others.

"Oh, hey, excuse me!" Came a voice from behind, the brown-haired girl turning to see the green haired boy from the exam. "It's good to see you. I was wondering if you had got in." The green haired boy told her.

She rubbed her head a bit and flushed, recalling their last meeting briefly before shaking her head. "Yeah, hey! You're the jungle-haired boy who saved me! Thanks again for that! My goose was cooked if that zero-pointer got ahold of me."

Izuku smiled. "No need to thank me, I just didn't want you to get hurt, and hey I didn't have to worry about getting more points since helping you actually gave me hero points. So, in a way I should thank you." Izuku stated with a smile. "N-Not that you should go getting yourself in more situations like that though." The boy said with a nervous laugh.

Uraraka sighed in exasperation. "Tell me about it. Thank God for those hero points." She said as she looked at him. "I just barely made it into the hero course. Thankfully earlier I had just been trying to help out and clear debris for others and I even helped get a few others out of a tight jam with those bots so I was able to squeak out just enough hero points to get in."

Izuku nodded as he listened. "Well, you're here, and that's all that matters."

The girl pouted a bit. "Yeah, but how long?" She said sadly, recalling the words of their teacher that the last place student would be expelled.

Izuku waved his hands and head a bit, trying to think of some words to cheer the gloomy girl up. "C-Come on now. I'm sure you'll be fine. I saw bits and pieces of your Quirk during the practical. You can make things float, right? That's how you destroyed that one group of bots, if I remember right."

The girl sighed. "Yeah, my Quirk is zero gravity. I can float objects or myself, basically anything I can touch. Though, the bigger it is or the more times I use it… the worse off my stomach feels." She spoke.

Izuku nodded. "Kind of like Aoyama…" He thought to himself, little did he know that it wasn't in quite the same way.

While the two had been talking, a few more races had gone on behind them. Seat number 7, Denki Kaminari, and seat number 8, Eijiro Kirishima, had a race which was fairly lackluster. Denki couldn't use his electricity to go any faster than his normal speed and hardening would only make it harder on Kirishima so it was an old-fashioned race with fairly middling scores compared to some of the other ones. Seat number 9, Koji Koda, and seat number 10, Rikido Sato, also had a similar race, though Sato had downed a pack of coffee sweetener to give his run a little more punch as he barreled forward to get a better score than Koda.

It was around this time that that Aizawa had noticed a figure lurking nearby, slightly hiding in the shadow of the gym. His eyes turned ever so slightly to see them. "Now why is he here…" Aizawa thought to himself, seeing All Might of all people lurking like some kind of stalker out at his class. Aizawa decided now wasn't the time to call him out so he wouldn't interrupt his own lesson. "Mezo Shoji and Kyoka Jiro, step forward." Aizawa called out like he had the others.

Seat number 11, Mezo Shoji, and seat number 12, Kyoka Jiro, took their place at the starting line.

"Oh, hey, Shoji is up next." Midoriya said as his brief exchange with Uraraka came to an end, turning to watch it.

"Oh, do you know him?" Uraraka said as she looked at the pale boy.

Izuku rubbed the back of his hair. "Well, not really. We only exchanged pleasantries at the gate. Still though, he's a pretty friendly guy, and he helped put my nerves at ease at bit."

Izuku watched as Shoji knelt down a bit, gaining a rather intense look in his eye as he stared forward at the other side. Izuku pondered to himself if the webbing between Shoji's arms might create unneeded drag that slowed him down. That thought was pushed out of his head though as Izuku saw Shoji burst forward with a sudden blast of speed, his time… 3.45 seconds!

This created a gasp throughout the class as they saw this bulky boy with no obvious speed enhancing Quirk suddenly get the third highest score like it was nothing, having created a powerful gust of wind and a dust cloud in his wake, even the ground where he had been was cracked.

Izuku also found himself staring with a slightly surprised look as Shoji straightened up to his full height. Shoji was even more incredible than he thought.

Silently, behind the gym, All Might pumped his fist. "That's it Shoji! You were able to regulate the power to propel yourself forward without damaging your own body. I knew you could do it! You might not be able to handle 100 percent just yet, but even in just the short amount of time we had you seem capable of at least 25 percent of it. That should be more than enough to help you survive Aizawa's hazing ritual and excel… not that you needed it of course to do that." All Might thought to himself as he continued watching, also taking note of Izuku Midoriya, standing in awe along the others.

"What the hell man!" Came a voice from behind Shoji, turning to see that Jiro had gotten blasted aside by his sudden burst forward and the wind around him.

"My apologies.." Shoji said as he came back to help her up. "I don't know my own strength sometimes…" He said as he helped her get back up to her feet.

"Well try to be more mindful, alright? This is stressful enough as it is without nearly getting blasted off the lot like that." Jiro complained as Shoji bowed slightly to apologize again.

"Ms. Jiro, please take your place at the line and try again. Mr. Shoji, step aside please." Aizawa told them plainly.

As Shoji stepped back over beside the others and was met by congratulations on his time and amazement.

"Shoji!" Izuku said with a smile. "That was really something! I had no idea you could move that fast. You were nearly as fast as Iida!"

Shoji looked down at Izuku and nodded. "Yeah, still no match for instantly teleporting there though."

Izuku laughed a bit. "I guess that's true. Still though, I'm kinda surprised. I didn't see you use anything like that during the exam." Izuku noted. If this guy had been moving like that during the exam, surely he would have noticed him a bit more. "With speed like that, you probably should've got the first-place spot instead of me during the practical since you're also so strong."

Shoji looked down at him with a bit of a neutral expression. He hadn't really considered that anyone might take note of his sudden increase in power and speed, but Midoriya seemed a bit more perceptive about powers than others were normally, especially since they'd taken their practical together.

"I have a fairly… intense event occur just after the exams ended. It led to a new awakening for my Quirk that gives me enhanced physical abilities exceeding my typical boundaries… but I'm still getting use to it." Shoji explained. "It's… a long story."

His explanation seemed to satisfy some of the prying ears nearby and Izuku to some extent, after all, there was an event called an Awakening that Quirk-Users could experience that would release hidden abilities, though the research on it was rather limited. It wasn't a too far-fetched story that after some kind of trying event that Shoji experienced his Quirk would grow stronger, but that strong?

Izuku wondered a bit but didn't think it was his part to pry into the affairs of others, after all, he had secrets of his own. He just smiled at Shoji. "Alright, well still, that was amazing."

Shoji could feel some other eyes on him beside Izuku though… Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki were looking at him with a bit more interest after his fantastical display of speed, perhaps he should've toned it down a bit. There was also Iida, whom now had to regard Shoji as another potential speedster rival.

While the two talked briefly, Jiro was able to get her own time, though it was rather unimpressive, especially after the person she had raced against.

Hanto Sero and Fumikage Tokoyami of seats 13 and 14 respectively didn't have much of an impressive contest. If Sero had something to grapple onto from here he might have been able to pull himself forward faster but since it was an open field he was basically left to just sprint beside Tokoyami, coming in almost a full second ahead of him.

Shoto Todoroki and Toru Hagakure of seats 15 and 16 respectively had at least a somewhat interesting one as Shoto Todoroki created a path of ice in front of him and skated along ahead at a faster pace than Hagakure, who got an even more unimpressive score than Uraraka.

The last two, Minoru Mineta and Momo Yaoyorozu, were up next. Minoru Mineta was trying to think of a way his Quirk was gonna let him get ahead when he heard a rumbling approaching, looking over to see Momo Yaoyorozu sitting on an electric scooter, complete with a helmet and everything. Mineta looked to Aizawa and began crying.

"W-What!? Wait! Why is she allowed to use a moped and I have to run?! How is that allowed?!" Mineta complained loudly.

Aizawa looked at Mineta with a bored expression. "She created the moped with her Quirk. Therefore, she is allowed to use it."

Momo revved the moped and readied herself for the start.

"Does she have her license already though?" Izuku said to Shoji as he stood next to him.

"I guess she must." Shoji said as he watched as well.

It wasn't much of a contest though, as soon as it started Momo blazed forth ahead of the stumbling Mineta and got herself an above average score while Minoru Mineta got the lowest score so far.

Thus ended the 50-meter dash.

Second test: Grip Strength

Izuku and the other members of 1-A were taken into the gym for the next portion of the test: grip strength. Each were told to take a device and test their grip strength with it. Izuku took one though he didn't have much hope for his score on this one. Unlike the 50-meter dash where he could just teleport to the end of the line for his score, this one he couldn't really consider a way to increase his grip strength. Maybe he could teleport somewhere else and get someone else to squeeze it but he figured that even despite Aizawa's lackadaisical rules for this event that might still be stretching them. He could, theoretically, untie his tail from around his waist and wrap it around the handle to squeeze that little bit harder… but that came with its own risks and he didn't feel it was worth it. In the end, he got 54kg, which was at least better than his last one in middle school.

He turned to see that most everyone was at least getting scores around that area, with the exception of Momo Yaoyorozu yet again who seemed to make some sort of mechanical arm to squeeze her grip tester a bit harder than most of the other students… but then there was Shoji.

As Izuku was just looking around he heard surprised gasps and turned to see some others around Shoji.

"D-Dude… 750kg!" Hanto Sero said as she stood next to Shoji. "Dude you're some kind of beast!"

"More like an octopus." Shoji stated as she squeezed, his three arms kind of twisted around each other so each hand could grip the handle of the device.

"That's one crazy score!" Izuku said as he looked at it, even dividing it by three for each arm, that still gave Shoji a grip strength of 250 in each arm!

"Says the guy who passed the 50-meter dash in less than a second." Shoji said as he looked down to Izuku.

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "Oh, well, then you kinda have a point." Izuku laughed a bit nervously.

Third test: Standing Long Jump

The next test was another where a lot of their class could really show off what they could do. Bakugo blasted himself over the long jump with relative ease using small bursts of his explosive power, same with Ayoyama who used a concentrated laser blast to carry himself across the finish line. Tsuyu had a naturally long jump that gave her a chance to give her a good score on this one and Uraraka just floated herself to the other side, albeit while causing herself some stomach pain and looking a bit green around the gills. Then there was, of course, Momo Yaoyorozu with a trampoline to give herself more bounce to get over the long jump.

While most of the others did well, most anyway, there were another two scores that turned the heads of their classmates. When it was Shoji's turn, he barreled forward then jumped upwards with a mighty force, sending powerful gusts of wind in each direction before coming down a good ways away, and easily getting the top score of this particular test… or at least he would have if Izuku hadn't been there. At the starting line, Izuku jumped up into the air then teleported away. Many were looking to see if they could even see him since they figured he'd just reappear on the other side but Izuku was very, very far away, sitting on the fence that surrounded the perimeter.

"Hey! Over here!" Izuku called out as he waved. Definitely another high score for the test. "I could go further but you guys probably wouldn't be able to see me!" Izuku said before hopping down to rejoin them, teleporting back beside them.

"You see, now you're just showing off there pretty boy." Mina said, having been one of the underperformers in that last one since the only thing she could really do was slid faster to give herself a slightly further jump with her run.

"H-Huh, m-me? I would never!" Izuku said, his face flushed as he worried he might be getting too confident about his abilities.

Izuku then felt a jab to his ribs as Mina laughed. "Don't worry Midoriya, I'm only teasing ya!"

The group was now moving on to their next activity as Izuku rubbed his side a bit before blinking. "Wait… what did she call me?" He said to himself before the whistle blew for the sidesteps.

Fourth Test: Side-Stepping

Most of these ones didn't have a lot of students who stood out or really could show great ingenuity with their quirks

Bakugo used short bursts to propel himself side to side, Momo used slightly inclined trampolines on either side to keep bouncing herself side to side, and surprisingly Mineta was fairly confident and got what was probably the highest score of the bunch by being able to bounce himself side to side with large bundles of the purple balls he produced from his head.

Shoji had been very fast in his sidestepping, creating a small cloud of dust around him with his quick speed, and making some of the others try to waft it away.

When Izuku did his, he thought he would use his powers to quickly appear on either side of the line, not technically a sidestep but also not technically against the rules, as far as he could tell. Izuku did rapid fire teleportations for the sidestep challenge… though he only managed about ten of them before he had to stop and return to normal speed, getting at least an above average score even despite the giant cloud of blue smoke he had created while using his power so quickly. Izuku stepped back over holding his side.

"Midoriya, are you alright?" Uraraka asked him as she saw him slightly doubled over while stepping back.

"H-Huh? Oh, yeah. When I overuse my teleportation it gives me terrible pains in my side. It'll go away as long as I rest for a bit." Izuku explain to her.

"Oh, is it like when I overuse my Zero Gravity Quirk and get nauseous?" She asked, soon seeing the blonde boy, Aoyama, butting in.

"Perhaps it is more like the stomach pain I get from overusing my Laser, hmm?" Aoyama interceded as both looked at him.

"You know, actually, it feels more like a tiny boxer is using my kidney as a speedbag." He said with a slight chuckle before waving them off. "I'll be fine, seriously, I just can't really teleport for a bit… Well, I can, but the results are hazy if I do and extremely painful, it takes a lot of concentration."

Fifth Event: Ball Throw

This was another event where the heavier hitters of their class could show off what they could do. People like Kirishima and Ojiro gave rather impressive throws among those who couldn't manage an explosive amount of power like, for instance, Bakugo, who let out an explosive throw that sent the ball hurtling 750 meters. "Let's see these extras top that! I just gotta hope that six-armed bastard can't manage one like that!" Bakugo thought to himself as he stepped aside.

"Yep… not many ways I can use my power on this one." Izuku told himself as he watched the ball sail away. He figured there was a mechanism inside the ball that could tell when it was hurled, so even if he teleported away with it, to the ball it wouldn't have felt like it had even moved. He could throw the ball and teleport after it in the air, hitting it further but besides the fact that he wasn't entire sure it would be legal since he was out of the circle… he had just used his Quirk rather intensely during the sidesteps so he wasn't about to go teleporting after a moving object in hopes to push it along further. In the end, when it came up to Izuku, he got into the circle with the ball and once instructed to go he would teleport far up into the air and throw the ball as hard as he could before teleporting back down to the ground inside of the circle. It took the ball a moment to drop after that but once it did, thanks to help from the wind blowing, he was at least able to get his ball to register as having traveled 125 meters, which was at least better than his middle school score.

Shoji stepped up to the circle with the ball clutched tightly in his right hand, reeling back and charging up before throwing it hard into the air. He couldn't utilize One for All at 100% without breaking his body just yet, but with the 25% combined with his own natural strength, he managed to send it sailing about 550 meters, which was definitely one of the higher-up scores.

The other high scorers were Momo Yaoyorozu, who actually created a cannon to shoot the ball out of and earning herself a 500-meter score, and then with the biggest surprise of the day, Ochaco Uraraka scored the highest possible score of the day with a whopping infinity.

"I-Infinity?" Izuku said as he looked at the screen Aizawa held out. "I-I didn't even know it could register something like that."

"Neither did I." Shoji said as Uraraka laughed a bit nervously at all the attention.

Sixth Event: Endurance Run

This was another event that was a piece of cake for Izuku Midoriya. The track they had to run was 3km long. Without the use of his Quirk, it would have been difficult for him to make it through that whole run, luckily though that wasn't the case.

As soon as the run began, the frontrunners for the race were Iida and Izuku, or rather, it was Izuku teleporting ahead to the markers as Iida ran at top speed to try and catch up, but sadly to no avail. It was clear to all that when it came to speed, Iida and Izuku outmatched them, at least in terms of distance running… or in Izuku's case teleporting. No matter how hard Iida was running, he just couldn't catch up.

As for the others in their class without that kind of speed, Shoji, Bakugo, and Todoroki were leading the pack on that, with Shoji bursting forth ahead of Bakugo and Todoroki, Bakugo propelling himself along the track with mini-bursts of his explosions and Todoroki sliding ahead on his ice. There was also Yaoyorozu again, using the moped from the 50-meter dash to race along. The other students all made good use of their quirks… with the exception of Minoru Mineta and Toru Hagakure, who came in last place.

Seventh Event: Seated Toe-Touches

This event was probably the least exciting of all of them, but it was another one that Izuku did better on than most of the others. Izuku's sleeker frame combined with his natural bone structure which his Quirk had altered to be more flexible meant he was able to reach fairly far forward without any difficulty at all. Izuku did happen to glance over to see Minoru Mineta struggling to reach, even with his shorter frame he wasn't very flexible it seemed.

"Wow, Midoriya, you seem really flexible! You made that look easy." Mina Ashido said as Izuku stood up and came back to join the others.

"H-Huh? Oh, I guess.." Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. "My bone structure was slightly altered by my Quirk and it allows me to be more flexible." He then demonstrated this by, while keeping his feet planted on the floor, bending backwards, going all the way back until his hands were firmly planted on the ground, his back arched so heavily that to many it might even seem broken. To finish it off, Izuku shifted his weight, stood on his hands, then took a few steps backwards on them before bringing himself back to his feet.

"Woohoo, go Midoriya! Have you ever considered dancing?" Mina said with a smile.

"H-Huh? Me, dance? Well, I never gave it much thought.." Izuku rubbed the back of his neck.

"You should give it a try some time. With your level of flexibility, we could have you breakdancing in no time!" Mina said with a smile.

"B-Breakdancing! I don't know.." Izuku said with a slight worry, though the idea intrigued him. Not really for the sake of breakdancing per se, but those movements could be useful in battle.

"Is that also why you hold your hands so oddly?" Came a voice beside him.

Izuku turned to look and saw a boy with a bird's face, he believed his name was… Tokoyami.

"H-Huh?" Izuku said, blinking a bit nervously.

"Well, I just noticed was all, but whenever you have to do anything involving your hands, you always seem to keep two of them together. I was only asking out of curiosity, is all. I didn't mean to offend." Tokoyami said as he looked to Izuku.

Crap, this guy had already taken notice of that. A quirk of his Image Inducer, that it could always show he had four fingers and a thumb, but really he only had two and a thumb, so whenever he picked stuff up or did anything with his hands, it would always seem like his index and middle finger were stuck together, the same for the other two fingers. He had hoped no one would notice it so quickly, or at all even since it was such a minor detail, but Izuku figured that despite the appearance of a raven, Tokoyami had the eyes of a hawk.

"N-No worries." Izuku told Tokoyami. "You're right, it is a product of my Quirk, these fingers can't really separate despite not being like fused together or anything. I guess I just lived with it so long I stopped noticing." Izuku laughed nervously.

Tokoyami found his reaction a bit odd, mostly that laugh and that nervous neck rubbing he did. Perhaps it was just Midoriya's nerves, they were all basically fighting for their spot to stay at U.A after all.

"O-Oh, I can also do this!" Izuku said, jumping to touch the gyn wall at their side and sticking to it with his hand.

"Woah!" Mina and Tokoyami exclaimed as they saw him sticking to the wall. Izuku sighed slightly to himself, hoping this was at least a good enough distraction to keep their minds from thinking about his nervous explanation, not that they would probably give it much more thought anyway. There was another who did take notice of this exchange though…

Eighth Event: Sit-Ups

This was another event that Izuku wasn't terribly great at. Not to say he wasn't at least athletic enough to pull off some sit-ups, but rather it was kind of uncomfortable to lay back on the ground for this. His tail hasn't disappeared, it was just invisible, and he had to keep it tightly wrapped around his waist so it wouldn't get noticed, so the very end of the tail where it met the small of his back was uncomfortably pushed against the ground when he laid back. He managed to pull off a few decent ones though despite how uncomfortable it was.

He looked over to see how Ojiro was handling it only to see him kind of using the tail to help him push himself up for the sit-ups. That seemed only natural, Ojiro's tail was a lot thicker than his own, so he could use it in a more versatile way for this situation.

Conclusion:

All the events of the day were now over and after a brief few moments to rest they were led out in front of the gym. There was a noticeable air of tension among a good portion of their class, mostly the ones afraid they were gonna be sent home. Izuku was a little nervous as well, though he didn't believe he had any reason to be. Part of that worry was based on the slim chance that he might've come in last based on some unknown score he wasn't sure about, but he didn't feel like Aizawa was trying to single him out for any reason, if anything Izuku blended in rather well at the top among the others with the more prominently useful Quirks.

"Alright, here we go. Going into how these results are graded would be time consuming and not to mention confusing for all of you, so I'll only list the results here." Aizawa stated, pulling a small remote from his black pants and clicking it. A holographic screen appeared behind him, displaying the ranks of the students.

Izuku scanned the leaderboard… then let out a sigh of relief as he found his name among the top. It was a bit surprising to see Momo at the number 1 spot of the list, though Izuku figured that it was due to how resourceful she had been during all of the trials, in nearly each one she found a use for her Quirk and made something to help her score, meaning it was an overall average as opposed to whether they did exceptionally well in just one.

Luckily, at the number 2 position, Izuku saw his own name listed. Below him, in number 3, was Mezo Shoji, who had pulled off an amazing score with his feats of strength and speed. At number 4 was the bi-colored teen Shoto Todoroki, whose ice Quirk had proven to be useful in a lot of his events. Number 5 was Katsuki Bakugo, and Izuku didn't have to turn to know that Bakugo was fuming, though he was fuming silently, like a timebomb waiting to explode.

Izuku continued scanning, soon reaching the end where he saw Minoru Mineta in last place. Izuku turned to look at him, seeing Mineta turn a pale white. "N-No way!" Mineta said, falling backwards.

It was then that cloth wrapped around Mineta, making the boy start in surprise before it wrapped around him tighter and pulled him in closer to Aizawa, whose hair was standing on end and his eyes glowing red like a demon. "Minoru Mineta, you've failed this test. Report to Principal Nezu's office, you're done here." Said their teacher in an eerie, menacing tone before releasing Mineta.

While the capture weapon returned, Izuku had caught a brief glimpse of some large yellow goggles that had been tucked away beneath them, blinking a bit before taking a deep breath. "Wait… I know which pro you are now…" Izuku said aloud, catching the attention of the others.

"The angler hero of the shadows, the Erasure Hero: Eraserhead… With your Quirk, you can erase the Quirks of anyone you look at.." Izuku stated as the classed muttered some about their teacher's Quirk.

"Yes, well thankfully none of you gave me cause to actually demonstrate that power." He stated, looking over to Mineta who was about to start bawling it seemed before Aizawa turned his Quirk back on, the hair lifting.

"If you're going to cry or start begging me to reconsider, think again. In the line of heroes, there are no do-overs. There is either do, or don't. Can, and cannot. I don't know for what reason you decided you wanted to become a hero, but clearly it wasn't enough to show me you deserved to stay. Perhaps you should go home and reconsider your goals." Aizawa said rather harshly before turning his Quirk off and shoving his hands into his pockets. "The rest of you can grab a syllabus from the class and read it over before tomorrow, we're done for today." He stated plainly.

The rest of the class had a chill rush through them as they saw how harsh their teacher could be, he wasn't going to mess around. Over the next year, Aizawa was going to put them through the wringer, just like he promised. As they all turned to go back to the dressing rooms to change, Izuku felt a hand clasp down on his shoulder, turning to see Aizawa looking at him. "Midoriya, a moment before you go." He stated calmly. A few of the other students looked back at the nervous Midoriya being held behind by Aizawa before continuing back to the locker rooms.

Izuku waited with Aizawa as the others left the field, his breath caught in his throat. Was his feeling from earlier wrong? Was Aizawa wanting to single him out? He couldn't figure out why he would… well… he did have one guess. He turned to look to Aizawa, who stood calmly with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Izuku Midoriya… I know about your situation, and the little bit of support gear you sport all the time to hide your appearance." Aizawa stated plainly.

"O-Oh… w-well, I filled out all the proper paperwork so I thought…" Izuku started before Aizawa interrupted.

"I don't care about you wearing it, I don't even care about why you wear it, but I wanted to give you some advice as your teacher." Aizawa stated plainly. "There are many paths to becoming a hero, but the path for pros can be an immensely difficult one. These days, pros are treated like celebrities, and the fact that you even knew who I was means you're probably one of those types that treats them like that as well. Even despite the fact that I avoid the limelight because it interferes with my work, there has still been enough attention around me for you to know what you did."

Izuku wasn't quite sure where Mr. Aizawa was going with all this as the man fixed his hair before speaking again. "If there is one thing I know, is that they will pick and pry like vultures at anything they can get their hands on. Even if you became especially adept at avoiding the media, they'd still find out about your little secret sooner or later, be it from a family member or just someone you thought was a close friend."

Izuku blinked a bit. That had been something he had considered, at least at the back of his mind, but he hadn't really put it into words. "I-I see…" Izuku said, wondering if that was all of it.

"Today, even with how cautious you seemed, I noticed you dancing on eggshells with your fellow classmates. Considering how long you could be at this school, answer me this: Is it rational to still hide your appearance with that watch?" Aizawa stated as he looked down at the boy.

"H-Huh?" Izuku could only reply, the words washing over him.

"More than likely, with any luck, you're going to be around these other students for your remaining time at U.A. To bond with them, to fight with them. Whether you like it or not, they will be your comrades, you'll have to trust each other. But trust is fragile, it isn't easily earned and it is easily shattered. How long do you believe this façade will last you? Sooner or later, you'll be exposed, then whatever trust you've garnered with them will be lost, and it may never get put back together." Aizawa turned away from Izuku, looking toward the main school building where he had sent Mineta off to. "I won't force you to remove it, Midoriya, but as far as I'm concerned, as long as you wear that watch, you will not be a great hero. My advice: Toss that watch in the trash on your way out, or at least leave it at home."

Aizawa walked away after that with his hands in his pockets, leaving Izuku only with these words of "advice" as far as Izuku could tell. His words certainly stung a lot more than when All Might had given him a pep talk… but perhaps they stung because he knew what Aizawa was saying were the thoughts he himself had been having about his situation. Yet another heavy load to unpack later as he walked to get changed and grab his syllabus.

As Izuku left the school building and walked the stone path out of U.A, he noticed two figures up ahead.

"Yo! Midoriya!" Said a female voice with an enthusiastic wave, Izuku squinting a bit in the evening sun to see the pink face of Mina Ashido. Beside Mina stood the ever-imposing figure of Mezo Shoji, six arms crossed over his large chest as he waited.

"H-Huh? Ashido? Shoji? Why are you guys waiting for me?" Izuku asked, slightly worried.

"We wanted to make sure you were alright. We just lost one of our classmates today thanks to Aizawa's strict rules, we were afraid you got in trouble for something too." Mina said with her usual bubbly tone.

"It did seem odd for him to target you specifically, after all, you came in second. We couldn't figure out why he'd hold you back for a lecture or something." Shoji stated with his normally cool tone.

"Yeah, we figured he might just not like your face or something and wanted to single you out." Mina said as Shoji then turned to look at her.

"She… figured that. I still hadn't come up with a theory." Shoji explained as all three walked toward the gate.

"H-Huh? N-No, he just wanted to give me some advice." Izuku laughed a bit nervously. "I was the one who got first place in the practical so he just gave me some advice on where to improve." He lied, still having his nervous ticks though of rubbing the back of his head.

Izuku then blinked and looked at Mina. "Hey, wait, what's wrong with my face?" He asked with a worried tone as they walked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. You do look a bit plain though…" Mina said as she looked at him. "Ah but some people totally dig that, you know?"

Izuku was trying to process that as Mina looked to Shoji. "The big question though is… why the mask Shoji?" Mina said as Izuku looked to the larger teen as they walked.

"It's a long story." Shoji stated simply as the three walked to the station together.

"Do you even know any short stories?" Mina said a bit playfully, making a joke about it since Shoji had said the same thing earlier that day. The two laughed a bit which helped Izuku relax some as they walked.

It was nice, standing with them, just talking. He felt like he didn't have to hide from them… and yet he was. Now that they knew him as THIS Izuku, how would they react to the real one? Aizawa's words still echoed in his mind but… right now he was too exhausted. His thoughts only shifted to getting a nice bath, a hot meal, and a deep sleep to recover from today, he had a feeling tomorrow was going to be just as intense.