Hitoshi probably blanked out, that was the only reason why he didn't recall taking a softball from either of the teachers, or that he walked over to the pitch.
But there he was standing in the white circle with a soft ball in hand and no idea how he was going to stay in the hero course with the looming threat of expulsion.
His aim was shit and even if he was stronger now, he doubted he'd be able to throw the ball further than thirty meters, if that since most of the training he did with Kirishima was stamina stuff.
Someone was probably laughing at him right now.
Having him finally get his golden chance at the hero course only to be expelled on his first day because his quirk would be of no use to him.
He couldn't send the soft ball soaring off to the heavens like Bakugou just had or anything impressive like the rest will surely do with their quirks.
Hell, Uraraka would probably send the ball to space once it was her turn to throw with her...
Hitoshi's mind paused and he thought about when Bakugou asked about the rules again.
Anything 'technically' was supposed to be allowed so long as they were in the white circle, and they were explicitly supposed to be using their quirks right now.
Hitoshi raised his head and looked over to Uraraka was standing with the rest of his class and bit his lip.
He weighted his options and wondered if Deku-Sensei and Eraserhead would let him actually use his quirk or not.
Eventually deciding he needed to at least try Hitoshi licked his lips to wet them and spoke.
"Uraraka?"
Hitoshi felt the weight of his voice, the echos of it in his skull rolling over him and around him like gentle sensation of lapping waves as it danced through the air.
Looking, searching, waiting for someone to respond.
Uraraka's eyes seemed to brighten, and she didn't hesitate to answer him, her soft and eager voice pinging right back at him with simple but one worded answer of: "Yes?"
Hitoshi was quick to try and ensnare her mind, to wrap the edges of it in the webs of layers that was his voice.
But unlike every other time he'd taken someone over there was no resistance, like Uraraka had grabbed his quirk and twirled it around herself or willingly jumped into the unconsciousness that came with giving him control over her body.
It made him pause.
He'd never felt such a reaction to his quirk.
There were times when it felt like people were fighting his control like a wild animal he was only attached to by a fishing line, and there wasn't even the usual buffer that he typically felt from people, the one he felt when he used it on Uraraka during the entrance exam.
But Hitoshi didn't have time to question it.
"Uraraka, come over here and use your quirk on this soft ball to make it weightless." Hitoshi instructed, holding up the soft ball for her.
Uraraka quickly came over to him, not walking the slow shuffle that was typical of his control either, and once Uraraka used her quirk on the ball Hitoshi chucked it with as much strength as he could manage.
Wanting to have it thrown before anyone could think about what he just did or question what he had done either.
The ball didn't have the same wind-force that Bakugou's had but Hitoshi did watch as it flew up into the sky and didn't seem to come down.
And he waited with bated breath until Eraserhead's phone beeped.
"Hm, must have cleared the atmosphere, infinity then." Eraserhead commented causally, like he was talking about the weather and not a pair of students breaking the laws of gravity like it was a twig.
Deku-Sensei clearly looked happy with the result as well and wrote something down in a notebook Hitoshi hadn't seen him pull out.
Hearing that Hitoshi let out a breath of relief and turned to Uraraka, about to shake her shoulder to release her, already mentally prepared for the 'snap' that would come from breaking his control over her.
"Aizawa-Sensei!" Iida loudly called and Hitoshi flinched, pulling his hand away and waited for what he knew was going to be said.
"Yes Iida?" Eraserhead asked turning to the boy, with a raised brow.
"Sir, you cannot allow such a dishonest result stand!" Iida protested his arm making the chopping motion.
Hn, Hitoshi was starting to see why Uraraka did not like the boy.
Eraserhead scowled back that Iida, Hitoshi knew there was a reason he liked the hero.
"Can you explain what you mean by 'dishonest result' Iida?" Deku-Sensei questioned in Eraserhead's steed.
"Shinsou has not competed fairly, and his result is extremely ballooned because of it!" Iida answered, arm chopping without fail.
Hitoshi sighed in his mind and waited for Deku-Sensei to agree then order him to release Uraraka and try the throw again without her help.
He knew better than to think that a teacher would be taking his side, Eraserhead might but Deku-Sensei was his homeroom teacher.
Hitoshi knew that Deku-Sensei would turn around at any moment tell him to try again.
But that wasn't what happened.
"Iida, did Shinsou step outside of the circle?" Deku-Sensei asked instead.
"No Deku-Sensei, but he-" Iida replied but Deku-Sensei cut him off.
"Shinsou went up to the pitch, used his quirk and then threw the ball. Correct Iida?" Deku-Sensei outlined.
Iida blinked.
"Yes Deku-Sensei-" Iida answered off kilter like when Uraraka questioned him in class, and about to say more but Deku-sensei did not let him even say 'but' this time.
"Then Shinsou has done exactly as we asked and has done nothing wrong. If you continue to insist that he has for merely doing as he was asked, then I will give you a warning for quirk-based harassment." Deke-Sensei firmly told Iida.
Hitoshi stared at the back of back of Deku-Sensei's head, his mouth falling open slightly, just as stunned as Iida was, he was sure.
"Am I clear Iida?" Deku-Sensei questioned in a tone that Hitoshi was used to being directed at him and not the person accusing him.
"Yes Deku-Sensei." Iida said looking thoroughly abashed now after being scolded.
Then Deku-Sensei turned around to him.
"Shinsou, very good work. Release Uraraka and leave the pitch so Tetsutetsu can go next." Deku-Sensei softly instructed with a soft smile.
Hitoshi quickly nodded his head and shook Uraraka's shoulder.
It was never pleasant to have his quirk yanked out of someone's mind, the closest thing he could compare it to was having his hair ripped out very roughly, like the kind where skin came with the hair and left your scalp bleeding.
Except it wasn't physical and it wasn't his hair but the webs he wrapped around someone else's mind.
At least it never hurt the other person, just left them confused and a touch dazed.
Uraraka blinked a couple times then beamed at him "Thanks for letting me help Shinsou!" She happily told him as soon as she came back to herself.
Hitoshi couldn't help staring at Uraraka with disbelief, sure he knew she probably wouldn't reaction badly over him controlling her from how she reacted during the exam.
But that didn't mean Hitoshi thought she'd thank him for it!
She had to be crazy.
Hitoshi walked away from her and back over to Kirishima, fully expecting the hug that Kirishima wrapped him in and used it to hide his face.
"Bro, you did so good out there!" Kirishima praised him, hugging even tighter.
Hitoshi grunted back.
"Yeah! Don't listen to that meanie you did amazing out there Shinsou!" the shadow bird, exclaimed also getting in on the hug.
Hitoshi was about to protest but the loud crack made Hitoshi jump and whipped his head to the source.
Tetsutetsu stood grinning at the pitch, his arm coated in gleaming silver metal, sharp-teeth on full display as he seemed to be tracking something in the distance.
"One hundred, twenty-one meters point nine." Eraserhead stated once his phone beeped.
"Hell yeah!" Tetsutetsu cheered.
"Koda, please step up to the pitch." Deku-Sensei requested as Tetsutetsu started walking back over to the group of 1-B, high fiving a boy with a bandana as soon as he got back.
Hitoshi was tempted to let himself drift off again but the next person up was one of the bigger people in their class, and the way they carried themself wasn't how Hitoshi would have thought they would.
Koda was openly nervous, what with his ducked head and hunched up his shoulders.
His face was pretty different from most but Hitoshi was quite certain he was not thrilled to be up there or to show off like the previous guy had been.
There was a thick swallow where his throat bobbed then Koda timidly raised his head and spoke.
"Hello, are there any little friends here?" Koda timidly asked, his voice much higher in pitch than Hitoshi expected.
Koda reacting to something unheard, or something he couldn't hear turned around towards some bushes, quite a few meters away from the pitch.
"Hey little one, come over here." Koda requested motioning for the 'little friend' to come closer with one of his hands.
Then a cat of all things walked cautiously out of the bushes and slowly over to pitch, Koda knelt down and talked with the cat judging from the whispers Koda was making, then gave the cat the softball.
The cat sprinting off as soon as it securely had the ball in its jaws, disappearing from sight relatively fast.
Hitoshi wouldn't say it but was supremely jealous of Koda.
Having the ability to call up cats whenever he wanted was like his dream quirk, seriously why did his quirk have to only work on humans instead of animals?
Even if he would use it to make himself an army of cats, Hitoshi would have been a totally fair dictator with his feline army.
There was a beep after a couple of minutes, Eraserhead blinked at the number before speaking up.
"One thousand and three point four meters."
There were many gasps.
"Dude how!?" The blonde kid with a lightning bolt in his hair exclaimed, throwing his hands out with his disbelief.
"Very good Koda, go back so Kamakiri can throw next." Deku-Sensei cheerful instructed.
Koda nodded looking relieved with his score as well and when he started walking back, he paused for a minute before changing direction to walk over towards him.
Hitoshi wasn't sure why, he knew that Kirishima didn't know him but maybe Koda knew Uraraka?
Koda raised his hands, hesitating before he started to sign.
'I wanted to introduce myself earlier when I saw you signing, but I got nervous.' Koda told him, and with the way his mouth was curved it might be an uneasy grin but again Koda's facial features were very different from most.
Kirishima elbowed him and Hitoshi realized that he been staring too long and answered back in sign 'That's fine, with how I-I-D-A was I can't say I blame you for not coming over to us.'
Koda nodded his head.
'Still it's not often I meet anyone that also knows sign, it makes me feel more comfortable knowing there is someone else in class I can talk to, especially since we both have similar quirks.' Koda told him.
Hitoshi bit his tongue to keep from instinctively spitting that their quirks weren't the same.
Koda was trying to be nice, and for the most part he was right that mechanically their quirks worked the same.
They both used their voices to control others from what Hitoshi saw, only thing was no one would demonize Koda since he didn't steal people's minds from them and Hitoshi did.
Uraraka chose that moment to interrupt, thankfully saving Hitoshi from trying to find a way to politely reply to Koda's statement.
"You and Shinsou really do!" Uraraka commented happily.
Koda looked bashful under Uraraka's sudden attention, and fidgeted with his fingers while looking away from them.
"What did you guys say? I couldn't read half of that." Kirishima asked looking confused.
"Koda was telling Shinsou that he was glad to someone else that knew sign in class, and that their quirks are similar." Uraraka answered.
"Oh! Yeah bro you both got some pretty manly voice quirks." Kirishima said with a nod "Hey Shinsou and I like going to cat cafes together, would you want to come with us sometime?" Kirishima asked.
Hitoshi groaned in his mind, wondering how he became friends with such an extrovert like Kirishima as he buried his face in his hands.
Koda blinked but then to Hitoshi's surprise watched Koda sign his agreement.
'Maybe later next Sunday, I'll be busy getting Y-U-W-A-I settled in her new cage and I wouldn't want to smell like cats before then since that could stress her out.' Koda told them, Uraraka telling Kirishima what Koda said.
"Totally understand Koda, if you want help though feel free to come to us, I don't mind helping you carry anything to your room." Kirishima offered to Koda.
Koda smiled.
'Thank you, I might take you up on that later.' Koda said then left for the outer edge of the group with a wave.
Hitoshi, after having his time volunteered without his consent decided to punch Kirishima's shoulder.
Kirishima didn't even pretend to be hurt and just grinned back at him.
Hitoshi didn't know why he put up with Kirishima.
As the rest of the events rolled on, Hitoshi found himself feeling just as uneasy over his place in the hero course.
The soft ball throw had ended in a three-way tie between himself, Uraraka and Monoma from 1-B who could apparently copy quirks after touching someone.
And sure, there was some pretty big fails from the others, like when the French kid tried to use his naval laser to make the ball skip like a stone.
But Hitoshi had clearly underestimated how much physical work he needed to do.
Again, Kirishima had helped him be much better than he used to be, but he was not going to be at the top of most of the events.
And the quirks of the others were easily favorable over his own, some were just flat out impressive in ways his quirk never could, as much as it hurt to admit.
Like Yaoyorozu's ability to make seemingly anything, or Tokage's body breaking up to fly away and over the lines.
Monoma's quirk of course would allow him to use just about everyone else's once he had time to get used to them.
Whereas he did poorly in the flexibility of the toe touches, not the worst but certainly in the last five.
And his sit ups were not the best either.
The ones he did do well on were because he used his quirk to ensnare others to help him, like when he got a ride from Uraraka's friend Shoji for the first half of the endurance test, Shoji surprisingly keeping up and out doing the Yaoyorozu girl in their class who made herself a scooter with her quirk.
Eraserhead eventually called them back before Shoji even slowed down and gave them both a mark to test it again another time.
The short purple ball guy in their class tried to protest but Deku-Sensei once again shut him down and wasn't as nice as he had been with Iida earlier.
Hitoshi also got a good score in the long jump since he again asked for Uraraka's help to make him weightless and throw him, with orders to stop her quirk after a minute.
Monoma hadn't been so lucky that time when he copied Uraraka's quirk given he only made it half a minute and then began to puke up, the bile glowing and rainbow colored of all things.
Uraraka had to comfort him afterwards that it was completely normal and just a strange side effect of her quirk that changed the color of her stomach bile.
Acing three out of eight of the tests would probably keep him from being at the very bottom but that was a very cold kind of comfort since almost everyone seemed to do well for half of the tests without needing to rely on a third person.
But as the last of the tests were finished, it was finally time to face the music and cross his fingers in hope he wouldn't be at the very bottom of the forty.
"Given how many students were tested, we'll skip the full break down and just post the results on this screen." Deku-Sensei informed them, Eraserhead imputing the data and then the names were posted up on the board.
First place was no surprise to him, Uraraka was clearly very physically fit and for half of the tests she could use her quirk to go even further than the average person.
Second was taken by Shoji who was an utter beast with whatever mutation quirk he had that let him change his limbs so liberally and third was the Yaoyorozu girl.
Hitoshi's eyes went down the board until finally he found his place, which to his relief was that he had taken thirty-second place.
That his place in the hero course was still secure for now.
"Hm, seems that Mineta is in last," Deku-Sensei commented bring Hitoshi's attention to his homeroom teacher.
"Well, I suppose that I'll get your expulsion papers in order and call your parents about sending your things back home then Mineta." Deku-Sensei calmly stated pulling out his phone.
Hitoshi found himself part of a very small minority of people that apparently was not surprised that Deku-Sensei's threat of expulsion was one hundred percent serious.
It was hard to make any other kind of judgement when there were so many gasps and stunned looks from the others.
"Y-you can't do that!" Mineta, the short purple ball kid protested.
Deku-Sensei merely hummed back and gave the boy a single raised brow.
"You haven't heard much about me, have you?" Deku-Sensei said.
"I expelled three second years of the hero course on my first day here, and I certainly have no qualms about expelling an under-trained pervert." Deku-Sensei flatly told the boy.
"Or did you think I wouldn't notice how you were acting around the girls? All of which is on camera by the way." Deku-Sensei questioned as he bent down to whisper something else to Mineta eye-to-eye, something that caused Mineta to turn ashen pale.
It must have been something pretty bad judging from how Shoji seemed to glare pure murder at the short guy.
"Even if you hadn't been in last place, I would never allow someone so morally depraved to stay in the hero course." Deku-Sensei firmly stated loud enough for everyone else to hear.
"Now escort yourself to Principal Nezu's office so we can file your expulsion, I will not change my mind. Or do I have to drag you kicking and screaming to his office?" Deku-Sensei asked with a glare.
Mineta trembled under Deku-Sensei's gaze, running off after a moment clearly sobbing.
Eraserhead tsked.
"Rat's lucky he's just being expelled." Eraserhead growled.
"With a black mark." Deku-Sensei corrected then turned back to the rest of them.
"Apologizes for that, now the rest of you have done well today and given Aizawa-San and I a lot of data to go over that would help us form better classes for you later." Deku-Sensei informed them.
"Now go back to the locker rooms to get changed and we'll give you all a guide of your dorms so that you can get your rooms settled, and as a reminder, I will be coming by the dorms at three pm sharp to collect some of you, please be waiting at your dorms entrance when three comes." Deku-Sensei told them.
"Do you all understand?" Deku-Sensei asked.
"Yes Deku-Sensei." Hitoshi said along with most of the others in reply to Deku-Sensei.
And then Hitoshi was caught up in the group of his class moving to the locker rooms, Class 1-B surprisingly hadn't followed them towards that same set of locker rooms, but Hitoshi guessed there was probably a second set of locker rooms.
The place was big enough and had the money to build separate locker rooms for class a and class b.
"Well, that was nerve wracking, huh?" Kirishima said, maybe trying to lighten things up maybe.
Hitoshi scoffed and gave Kirishima a 'you think?' look.
Izuku *very proud of his new student*
Iida *rolls a 3 and 2 on perception and speech respectively*
Izuku: And I had such high hopes for you
Izuku *follows through and expels someone*
Momo *shocked Pikachu face*
Manga: Why are ya'll surprised?
Awase: Ha-HA! Get f*ked b*tch!