All Might and everyone else stares at me, dumbfounded.

When no one says anything, I cross my arms and lean a bit on my cane. I dip my head and repeat, "You heard me correctly. I challenge you to a trial of battle, All Might-sensei."

I'm taking a gamble. From the way he described the task today, it seems that he views the world in a black-and-white manner. People are either good or bad, civilians or criminals, heroes or villains. He thinks that only two kinds of moralities exist: white and black. I bet he hasn't even heard of the term morally grey. Clearly, he believes that he and the other Pro-Heroes are morally white, and anyone who doesn't support them or the law is morally black.

What a naive way of thinking, All Might. The proverbial line separating good and evil is blurry. So blurry that the good and the evil coalesce into something different. Something new. Something that makes me.

However, I am not here to change All Might's opinions on morality. That's not my concern. Instead, I'm expecting All Might to accept my challenge. The best way to get a renowned celebrity's attention is by challenging him to a competition in said celebrity's area of expertise. And herein lies the risk. The result could be one or the either: he acknowledges me for my prowess or he resents me for daring him. However, this time I'm willing to absorb his quirk if he uses it. In fact, I'm sure he will. I'll let him be the hero, of course, although I would love to see him play the role of the villain. I'll let him win, too. It's possible his ego is as big as his body. If I let him win but not without a fight, he will notice me, making, hopefully making, my task much simpler.

It's been a minute since I repeated my declaration of war. I lift an eyebrow and look at him curiously. "Well?"

All Might finally comes to his senses. "That is a bold declaration, young Hanada. Are you sure?"

I tilt the corner of my mouth upwards. "Of course. I don't want to make any student have to participate twice because of me or give a team an unfair disadvantage in a two-against-three battle. Instead, I want to understand my abilities in a one-on-one battle. Yesterday's Quirk Apprehension Test gave me some idea, but it's not enough. And if you would allow me, I would like to be the villain."

I hear whispering amongst the other students.

"Is that even allowed?"

"Her reasoning actually makes sense."

"She's a bold one. Does that make her confident or arrogant?"

Todoroki-kun bends toward me and whispers in my ear, "Hanada-chan, I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe you don't know much about All Might because you lived in England, but he's Japan's Number One hero. And for a good reason, too. No villain has been able to defeat him."

I smirk at him, too. "Don't worry Todoroki-kun. I don't care about defeating him. As I said, I want to gauge my strengths and weaknesses by this trial." He doesn't say anything else, but the lines of worry don't leave his face. I turn back to All Might. I stare at him with questioning eyes.

"Alright, Hanada. I accept your challenge."

I bow. "Thank you, All Might-sensei."

He looks away from me and turns to two containers set side-by-side, labelled "VILLAIN" and "HERO" respectively. "And the first two pairs to do combat will be the following!" He pulls out a ball from each respective container. The balls have a letter on them. "PAIR D WILL BE VILLAINS! PAIR A WILL BE HEROES!"

I look at the two aforementioned pairings. Pair D consists of Bakugou-san and the other person in class who wears glasses, Iida-san. Bakugou-san's hero costume exemplifies his quirk. From the black and orange sharp mask to the green grenade-gauntlets to the knee-length black combat boots, every detail screams "Fire!" Iida-san's costume however confuses me. Covered from head to toe in plastic and metal parts, he reminds me of a robot. His helmet doesn't change that. Pair A consists of Midoriya-san and the brown-haired girl, Uraraka-san. Midoriya-san's outfit matches his hair and eyes nicely, but I don't understand the purpose of the head mask. As for Uraraka-san, I had a hunch she would wear something with a lot of pinks. She didn't make the best impression the first time. I hope her second impression is much better.

All Might continues. "This scenario has villains inside the building first! Then, after five minutes, the heroes will be let in as well! Everyone else will be able to watch what unfolds through the surveillance cameras!

This will allow young Iida and Bakugou to get inside the heads of the villain kind! This is a practical training exercise! SO GO ALL OUT WITHOUT FEAR OF INJURY!"

He yells his last sentence so loudly, I recoil and instinctively cover my ears.

Had he said that a decibel louder, I would have become permanently deaf.

Note: I have copied some dialogue from one of the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapter is here: /manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-8/