Chapter 4: Testing Your Timing

Edited by Tabi

Rino: This chapter is dedicated to my mom.

This was it the final showdown, I had taken out two of my opponents and currently had half of my energy left. My new opponent stepped forward, her light blue scales gleaming in the light and gave me a nasty smirk. This was not going to be easy. I rushed into battle with a blazing kick hoping to get the first strike on my opponent, only for her to jump out of the way, before blasting me with a blob of poisonous goop. I jumped away, this was bad. I wasn't going to last very long now, with my life draining away at a wickedly fast pace, I had to end this as fast as possible. I lashed out with metal coated claws, landing a devastating blow, my opponent went to slash me with claw coated in dark energy, but I barely managed to get out of the way in time.

I flinched as I felt the poison drain away more energy, this was bad I wasn't going to last another turn. Well, If I couldn't win, I could at least force a draw. I felt the heat in my chest, my internal flame growing to epic proportions. Flames began to seep out of my closed maw, and I grinned as I saw the look of horror on my opponent's face. I opened my maw and let an absolutely massive torrent of flames, they rushed forward and engulfed my opponent in flames once again. When the flames had passed, I saw my opponent collapsed on the ground, K.O'd. I gave a weak grin, as the poison wracked my body again. I closed my eyes and prepared to pass out, only for the pain to disappear. I stood with barely a sliver of energy left in my body and grinned, for victory and never felt so sweet.

I hopped on to my chair, pumping both my fists into the air.

"Booyah bich." I yelled in excitement, purposely slaughtering the swear word in hopes of not getting a random object thrown through my head. "The unkillable idiot prevails again."

Sadly my hopes were not met as a pen shot through my makeshift cranium. I looked down on the offender, giving her a 'really' look, to which she returned, though hers had several more layers of snark added on to it.

"I thought it was 'the invincible idiot'." Nemuri asked with a raised brow.

I shrugged before sitting back down in my chair. "It's interchangeable depending on the situation."

Nemuri rolled her eyes. "So where are we going to eat today, oh' unkillable idiot!"

"SUSHI!" I yelled, throwing my fists back into the air

It had been about a week since I… delved into the Sewer Monstrosity's history. Since then Nemuri had been spending a lot more time with me in hopes of taking my mind off of it, and it worked; for the most part anyways. We had done a lot of 'family bonding' as Nemuri so fondly referred to it as. One of these bonding activities was battling each other in videos games for some sort of reward; like picking a movie, going out somewhere or like what we did right now, battling via pokemon to decide where/what we ate for whatever meal time was closest. That being said even when I lost whatever game we were playing, Nemuri made extra sure that we still did something that I would enjoy as well. It was pretty awesome.

I left my room about twenty minutes later, wearing some decent clothes for the restaurant that we would be heading too. As I stepped into the living room I saw that Nemuri was standing eerily still in the living room, a letter in her hands, and a horrifyingly happy grin on her face. Not saying a word, my guardian slapped the letter into my hands, shoved me into my room and slammed the door shut, as I just stood still with a wild look of confusion on my face.

I peered down at the letter in my hands and saw a wax symbol on it with the mark of U.A engraved on it. Oh yeah, this was a thing. I sat down at my desk, opened the letter, and pulled out the note that would decide my future.

"Dear Kayama Marc, blah de blah, eighty-seven percent on written, don't really care about all that, forty-six villain points, already knew that, and twenty-eight rescue points, total of seventy-five, placing second in the entrance exam, you're in class one-A, welcome to U.A, we hope to see you do well in future, and remember go beyond, plus ultra..." I trailed off in shock.

I mean I expected to do well, Nemuri's… training ensured that, but second place! What the fuck! How did I… well I did have the foreknowledge of the rescue points so that helped. I teamed up with Kirishima so that probably earned me some extra points, all the people I pulled away from danger and- Why am I even surprised I did so well. I had so many odds stacked in my favor.

I sighed before placing the paper down, I'll worry about this later; for now, sushi! I walked out of my room and saw Nemuri sitting in the living room with an almost curious look.

"So, did you get in?" She asked, trying not to grin.

I gave her deadpan expression before grabbing her wrist and gently pulling her out of her seat towards the door.

"Don't act like you already didn't know, now let's go get sushi."

"But I didn't!"

Turns out she actually didn't know. Surprising, huh?

It had been about a week since the letter had arrived, and I was currently getting ready for school. The morning so far had been calm and enjoyable.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS IT!"

Well, it had been up until now. As for what I was currently looking for it was the red tie that came with my uniform. I had been searching for it for the past six minutes and had torn apart my room in the process. I was beginning to stress out when I heard Nemuri's voice come from the living room.

"Have you checked your top drawer?"

"YES, SEVERAL TIMES!" I yelled in frustration.

"For more than a second?"

"YES!"

"Really?"

The apartment was quiet for a moment, the sounds of someone rustling through a drawer were audible for a few seconds before another shout was heard.

"OH COME ON!"

I stomped out of my room with a twitching eye, the tie clenched in on my hands, mumbling in anger. I was not a happy camper right now, not happy indeed. Nemuri was currently sitting in her chair gave me a half-amused look. She shifted slightly before speaking.

"I don't know why you're getting ready so early classes don't start for another hour and twenty minutes, and U.A is only a half hour walk away. So why the rush?" she asked, putting a hand under her chin.

I returned her stare with a flat glare, and sighed. "So you're telling me there's a zero chance that a villain might get into a fight with a hero, and block my way to U.A with onlookers and rubble. Forcing me to take a longer route."

"Umm..."

"Or that some moron may try to mug me."

"Well..." Nemuri began to rub the back of her head.

"Or… well, some monstrosity haters decided to form a mob and attack me because I loosely resemble the demented fucktard."

Nemuri now looked at war with herself, one part wanted to look away, unnerved from my last statement, and the other part wanted to throw something at my head for swearing.

I sighed again. "Listen, there's just a lot of things that might go wrong. So I'm leaving early just in case things do go wrong."

With those last words, I defeated Nemuri, who was now hugging me.

"That's my boy, thinking ahead, being smart and all," she said with joy.

"Yes, yes, you're proud of me and all that, help me with my tie please?" I droned, hoping to stop her before she got too deep into her motherly nature.

My guardian immediately stopped gushing over me and began to rapidly tie my tie. I sighed in annoyance, still cheesed off about what happened. I'm mean, seriously, how do moms always know where their kid's stuff is. ...wait, what? I almost went further down that trail of thought, when I noticed that Nemuri was done with my tie.

"Thanks for that, now..." I trailed off as I looked Nemuri in her now sparkling eyes, the beginnings of the most powerful megawatt grin the universe had ever know forming on her face.

I paled, terrified beyond all reason, because holy fuck, I just said that out loud didn't I? The smile was fully formed now, the pure joy radiating off it blinding me.

"K THANKS BYE!" I yelled as I burst through the door of the apartment, barely managing to grab my backpack as I desperately tried to escape the woman's exuberance.

As I left the apartment compound in a cloud of dust, my thoughts from before resurfaced. Because holy mother fucking hell did I just call Nemuri MOM!

After a stressful thirty-ish minute walk and having a mental argument with myself, I made it to U.A with forty minutes to spare. While simultaneously deciding to worry about all that mom crap later. I wandered the halls for a bit before making to class' one-A's ridiculously oversized door. I slid the door open and walked into an unsurprisingly empty classroom.

I walked towards the back of the room and dropped my bag before taking a seat. I pulled out my phone and began to read. I had forty minutes to spare and I wanted to spend it not thinking about some specific thoughts. 'What thoughts?' you may be asking. 'None of your business!' I yell at your metaphorical face, before slamming the door. I then walk away, before crawling into my mental safe space, where I can hide from those thoughts indefinitely.

I sat around reading for about ten minutes before the door opens, I looked to Iida fucking Tenya, arriving early to no one's surprise. As Iida enters the classroom he looks towards me and gives me a smile.

"Greetings," he said to me pompously, "I am Iida Tenya, it is nice to see another dedicated student here so early."

"Uh, Kayama Marc." I introduced myself with a small wave. "Nice to meet you too, I guess."

Iida took no notice of my mumbling and sat down in the row ahead of me, as he fiddled around with his bag, I went back to reading. The room was silent for another few minutes before Iida interrupted the silence.

"IT WAS YOU!" I heard him yell accusingly.

I looked up to see him pointing at me with a glare, a familiar mismatched purple ball in his other hand.

My eyes lit up a bit, "Ah, I've been wondering where that was," I stretched a small wire of sludge towards the ball, snatching it away from Iida before he could react. "Thanks for keeping an eye on it."

Iida looked at his now empty hand and me for a moment before his eyes settled on me with a glare. The bespectacled teen stood up as far as his spine would allow before placing one of his hands on my desk.

"Why did you throw that... ball, at me? It was incredibly rude and-" "Oh come on." I interrupted him irritably, "Do NOT talk to me about being rude!"

Iida's tirade sputtered as he looked confused for a moment. "W-what do you mean?"

I sighed, placing one of my hands over my eyes before morphing my head to look like Iida's "Additionally, you with the unkempt hair! You've been muttering this entire time, stop that, if you can't bother to take this seriously leave. You're distracting the rest of us."

Iida looked freaked out at my impression of him. I changed my head back, before continuing. "Was that what you were going to say, because from what I could gather that's what you were going to say."

"Well, yes. But what does that-" "Wasn't done speaking." I interrupted again. "Anyways I don't know if you know this but in the known universe there's this little thing called 'being nervous'. Now, what are the symptoms of being nervous again? Sweating, twitching, nausea." I listed off, before repeatedly snapping my fingers. "But that's not it, now what's another symptom of nervousness... oh yeah, muttering." I emphasized the last word with a dry chuckle.

"But why would he even be nervous? I mean, it's not like he was about to take a super important test that would decide his entire future or anything." I finished my rant with a deadpan stare into Iida's eyes.

The future class rep now looked very uncomfortable. I sighed before placing a hand on my face again, "Listen I get it, someone muttering can be annoying, but when it is, you tell that person quietly, not in front of an entire auditorium. I threw that ball at you, not for shits-n'-giggles, but because you were being a jerk and were about to embarrass someone in front of a crap ton of people. Now if you would please excuse me, I'm going to continue to read." I looked down back at my phone, and continued into the fictional journey I was reading before Iida called me out.

The bespectacled teen said nothing to me before sitting back down in his chair, the room was quiet again for another ten minutes before another student entered this time I didn't bother to look up. After that, the flow of students entering the classroom increased. Roughly twenty-eight minutes had passed when I decided to look up. Let's see, laser belly, tail, Tentacruel, Invisible, Loudred, Pikachu, Mothra, tape, Metapod (now with red hair!) who was currently giving me a semi-serious glare, Politoed, pervert (damn), Murkrow, animal crossing, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki have arrived in the classroom in my mental absence. I looked at Kirishima and briefly morphed the words 'talk later' onto my head. He looks surprised for a moment before looking away and talking to his neighbors. So it seemed that everyone had arrived except small might, zero-G's, and Baku-

*BANG!*

The door was shoved open with a tremendous force, making everyone's eyes focus on the newcomer. With a ball of spiky blond hair and a fierce but uncaring glare, king ass hat strolled into the building. He closed the door, stormed over to a seat, sat down and put his feet on the desk. I now looked towards Iida who slowly began twitching faster and faster. And 5… 4… 3… 2… and there goes Iida marching his way up to Bakugou. Oh and look the doors opening up again.

"Take your feet off of that desk now!" Iida demanded.

"Huh?" The explosion quirked teen asked snidely.

"It's the first day and your already disrespecting the academy by scuffing school property, you cretin."

After this I tuned them out, I really didn't want to deal with this right now. I looked back down at my phone and-

"It's him," Iida said, drawing the attention of everyone in the class to Midoriya. OH COME ON, give my introverted brain a chance to rest, please. Like ten seconds at least.

"Uh, hi." Nervously responded the green haired teen.

"Good morning." Announced Iida as he began to walk towards Midoriya stiffly, "My name is Iida Tenya from-"

"Yeah, yeah I know," Midoriya stuttered nervously, causing Iida to stop in his tracks. "I'm Midoriya Izuku. It's super nice to meet you."

"Midoriya." Iida began seriously, "you realized that there was something more to the practical exam, didn't you. You must be very perceptive, and I completely misjudged you. I admit, as a student, you're superior to me."

"Umm..." Quietly hummed Midoriya with wide eyes.

"Also." Iida continued, surprising both me and Midoriya, "I wish to apologize about my actions during the exam briefing, it was extremely rude for me to call you out like that. I am sorry." He finished with a slight bow.

I blinked. Holy shit did -did my words actually sink in IIdas head? I'm actually a bit surprised there. Maybe he did just need someone to call out his crap. And oh, look there Uraraka, time to stop eavesdropping and move back onto reading. I still need to finish this chapter before Aizawa gets here.

"If you're just here to make friends then you can pack up your stuff now." said a blank voice from the hallway.

Ten fucking second's universe, that's all I'm asking for, ten fucking seconds.

"It took eight seconds for you all shut up, that's not gonna work. Time is precious, rational students would understand that." my new teacher said, slightly annoyed.

I sighed before placing my phone in my pocket, looks like I'm not going to be finished this chapter for a while. Aizawa came in and introduced himself, shocking most of my fellow students. And personally, Aizawa being a homeroom teacher didn't make that much sense to me. I mean, he mainly operates during the night, why would he even want to wake up so early to teach a bunch of fourteen-fifteen year old brats?

"Right, let's get to it." Aizawa said ruffling through his sleeping bag before pulling out a bunch of gym uniforms. "Put these on and head outside."

"What! A quirk assessment test!?" Half the classed shouted as one.

Seriously did no one read the pamphlet they gave us with our uniforms? I mean, I already knew a majority of the information on the damned thing, but I still give it a quick once-over. It explained the weird teaching styles some teachers could have and everything.

"Here at U.A, we're not tethered to traditions. That means I get to run my class, however, I see fit." Aizawa explained coldly.

Shit better pay attention, if I don't want to get in trouble.

"You've been taking standardized tests all your lives. But you never got to use your quirks if physical exams before. The country's still trying to pretend that we're all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel. It's not rational. One Day the ministry of education will learn." he then looked at king ass hat.

"Bakugou you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam, what was your farthest distance throw with a softball?" he asked the blond bomber.

"Sixty-seven meters I think," Bakugou replied.

I began to tune out everyone else as Aizawa tossed Bakugou a softball from a small rack that stood near him. I had to go over some plans for what I was going to do for the ball throw. All the other tests I could just make up on the spot but this one needs some thought. I could just throw it, but that won't get me very far.

*BOOOOOM!* The explosion from Bakugou's pitch rattled the air around me.

"All of you need to know your maximum capabilities." Aizawa explained, "It's the most rational way of figuring out your potential"

I could spring punch it, or use a spring cannon, or could Luffy the ball somehow, but max distance is the most important thing here and which one of those options will get me the farthest? I began to mull over my options.

"Whoever comes in last has none, and will be expelled immediately." Aizawa then turned to me.

"Kayama! Are you even paying attention?" Aizawa asked as soon as he noticed my far-off look.

"Yep." I calmly replied as I left my thoughts behind.

"Then what did I just say?" Aizawa asked sternly.

I sighed, "Some of my classmates thought being able to use their quirks for this was awesome and going to be fun, and because of that you decided that whoever comes in last place would be expelled for having no potential. Happy."

"You're saying you cannot pay attention to what's going on, but still be able to listen to what I have to say?" He questioned me.

"You're saying you can't do that?" I questioned in return.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Kirishima quietly signaling for me to stop.

"What was so important for you to ignore me like that?"

I groaned, looking away a tree in the distance caught my eye. "Well as we just covered I wasn't ignoring you, but if you want to know what I was thinking about. It was what I was going to do to throw the ball when I had to go up."

Aizawa subtly motioned for me to continue, but he was about to speak when I took his invitation. "The reason I was thinking about that is because, from what I can gather, I have one of the more versatile quirks in this class." Some of my classmates looked slightly offended at my words. "That's not to say I have a better quirk, or that my classmates can't use their quirks in versatile manners, but with a quirk like mine, I have a bit more options available to me. However, that comes with an entirely different set of problems."

I pointed a thumb towards Bakugou. "For example, Bakugou's quirk is fairly straightforward, he just makes explosions. My quirk allows me to stretch, bounce, harden and a whole lot of other things when I decided to get creative." I explained while briefly morphing my hand.

"Because of that, I decided to use the extra time I had before I went up to pitch to think of some ideas, and which one would give me the best results." I finished explaining.

Aizawa hummed for a second before tossing me a ball from the rack, which I caught easily.

"You have 5 seconds to throw that ball at least half as far a bakugou did. If you don't, you're expelled."

"WHAT!" Yelled half the class.

My eyes widened in shock, what the hell just happened.

"Five." Aizawa announced.

Shit! I imminently ran forwards and ripped off my jacket. I had no time to waist.

"Teach! That's not fair! Give him a chance" I heard Kirishima yell in my defense.

"Four. Life's not fair, deal with it." Aizawa coldly retorted.

I was now in the circle, the entirety of my arm morphed into a spring cannon. The ball already loaded, with tiny lines of sludge to keep it in place.

"Three."

I aimed my cannon at a fifty-degree angle and quickly rubberized some sludge in the base of it.

"Two."

I began to compress press the sludge, and after I compressed it, I compressed it some more. I squeezed the sludge so much that bit began to hurt, causing me to grunt in pain.

"One."

And with that I launched the ball as far as I could, the knockback rippling throughout my body. As soon as I launched it, fear took hold. How far did Bakugou throw it again, a little over seven-hundred meters, right? That means I just have to get it past three-hundred and fifty meters. But could I even do that with such a small cannon? The only reason I was able to launch Kirishima so fast was because of how big I made that cannon.

I watched the ball slowly descend to the earth and when it hit the ground, my fear doubled, was that even half of Bakugou's distance, it sure as hell didn't look like it. I slowly turned to Aizawa, doing my best to mask my fear. My shaggy-haired teacher looked down at his...phone… device… thing for a few seconds, causing the tension to build before he sighed and showed me and the rest of the class my score.

Four-hundred and thirty-three meters. Thank god I sucked at guessing distances.

My sigh of relief was joined by several of my classmates. Making me somewhat happy that I wasn't the only one feeling the pressure.

"Dude that was awesome!" Kirishima yelled as he ran up to me before pulling me into a headlock.

"You had me worried for a second there Kayama." My crimson haired friend said as he began to noogie me.

"It's not over yet," Aizawa interrupted drawing our attention to him. "Kayama passing this test doesn't change anything, the student in last will still be expelled."

Aizawa words brought everyone back to reality, immediately dampening the mood.

"Now let's get a move on. You still have to pass the rest of the tests."

As everyone else began to walk away, I felt a light tugging on my head.

"Umm, Kayama? Can you let go please." Kirishima said, bringing my attention the fact that my friend's fist was currently stuck in my head.

"Oh, sorry about that."

After that Aizawa gave a speech about a hero's duty and the unfairness of life. And then the tests began.

For the fifty meter dash, I was paired up with Kaminari, I spring loaded my legs and managed to get four point five six seconds.

For grip strength, I doubled the size of my arm and got three-hundred and forty-six kilograms.

For standing long jump I spring loaded before jumping, and while I was in the air I stretched one of my arms forwards before bringing my entire body with it. I managed to get second place in that, Tsuyu being the one to claim first.

Repeated side steps was a bit awkward but after some thought I just copied Mineta. Witch earned some complaints from the pervert.

I was excluded out of the ball throw as I had already done it, but watching Midoriya throw it was god damn awesome, I laughed in excitement when I happened. Earning me a heated glare from both Aizawa and Bakugou, though each was for very different reasons. I'm pretty sure I managed to Midoriya's soon to be friends list after that though as I saw him smiling at me afterward.

The sit-ups and seated toe-touch, were no issue for me as I don't have any muscles or bones, but the long-distance running was a bit tiring for me. After all of that Aizawa grouped us up and showed us the score. I managed to get sixth out of the entire class. Damn my quirk was awesome...ish. I mean while I hated how I got it and the baggage that came with it, it was still really handy.

Then came the surprise of the logical ruse, I actually kinda forgot about that. Wait, shit I actually kinda forgot about that! Note to self; when I get home to write down all the info I can remember from the show, and the little bits if manga I read/watched on Youtube. Oh and the bits of info I got off the wiki! Can't forget that! After some more talking Aizawa dismissed us.

After quickly changing back into my school clothes, running to class and grabbing my syllabus, I was ready to head home. As I was walking past the gates of the school, I heard someone yell at me.

"Yo! Kayama! Wait up!" A familiar voice yelled from behind me.

I turned around to Kirishima, Kaminari, and Mineta running towards me. When they reached me, Kaminari and Mineta began panting heavily, while Kirishima stood tall giving me a stern look.

"Kayama, you said we'd talk later." Kirishima said in a stern tone.

I blinked before snapping my fingers, "Totally forgot about that, sorry. What do you want to talk about anyways?"

"Well-" my friend began before he was shoved aside my Mineta and Kaminari.

"IS IT TRUE THAT MIDNIGHT IS YOUR MOM!?" They yelled at my face.

"What they said." Kirishima said from his place on the floor.

I gave them a blank stare. "Well considering that she adopted me, yes. Though I'm not really comfortable calling her mom. Like at all."

"You're so lucky Kayama." Mineta said with a small line of droll, "Being around such a babe like Midnight all the time must be awesome. If I were in your place I would-"

I interrupted the pervert by quickly leaning down and giving him a death glare. "You would what?" I growled out in anger.

"N-nothing!" Mineta squeaked in fear.

"That's what I thought."

"Well at least I got my answer." said Kirishima as he stood up.

"Having Midnight as a parent must be awesome, what's she like?" asked Kaminari.

I shrugged, "less flirty, and a bit more mature. That's about it."

"Ohhh Marc~" another familiar voice came from behind me.

I turned around so see Nemuri strutting towards me.

"Are these your friends?" she asked with a bit of excitement in her voice.

"The red one, yes. The other two are still up in the air at the moment." I said as I looked at my three companions awestruck look. I sigh internally. This was going to be a regular thing, wasn't it? This must be what Shinji feels like.

"Well, nice to meet you." She said to the trio of boys before looking back at me. "So did Aizawa give you any trouble?"

"No, not really." I said, not wanting to risk sparking her anger.

"You mean besides the part where he tried to expel you." Mineta said quietly.

Oh, fuck.

Nemuri was now sporting a look of anger in her eyes, her godforsaken whip somehow appearing in her hands.

"Really now." She said while grinding her teeth together, one of her eyes twitching. "I'll just have to have a word with him then."

Oh, god.

"No, no it's fine Nemuri, you don't have to do anything." I panicked, trying to calm her down.

My words seemed to have worked as her anger immediately halted, she stood stock still, her eyes shadowed. I was about to sigh in relief before a saw a tear fall from her face.

Oh, shit.

She immediately began to bawl, shaking my shoulders. "No, no!" she yelled, "Call me mom! Please call me mom! Please! Please!"

"OK! OK!" I yelled in panic, "just calm down mom."

And with that, she stopped shaking me and rested her head on my shoulder, "That's better." She whined.

I sighed as I heard several people snicker at my misfortune. The loudest of the bunch coming from behind me.

I huffed, the things I do for my mom.

Rino: Happy mothers day people!