Kapitel 35: Chapter 34 – Quirk Assessment Test (part 1)

Chapter 34 – Quirk Assessment Test (part 1)

Kyotaka's POV

We headed to the changing rooms and quickly changed into U.A.'s P.E. uniform, dark blue pants and shirts with white lines forming "U.A." on them.

After that, we quickly went to the P.E. grounds, where Aizawa and another teacher were waiting for us.

The other person there was a 6'3" tall black-haired boy, looking like he was 18 or 19. He was wearing baggy black pants and an Eraserhead t-shirt, I didn't know they made those.

As I arrived, he subtly winked at me, and I looked around myself to be sure there was no one near, but I was amongst the first ones that finished changing. When I looked back at him, he waved at me, then exclaimed:

"Hey, Kyotaka! I see you made it in U.A. I knew you training would pay off!

"You know her?" Aizawa inquired.

"Yeah, I helped her with her quirk and her training. Made her realize how much her quirk could do," he replied.

"That explains a lot…" Our homeroom teacher grumbled.

While this interaction was happening, my confused face gradually turned stunned, as I realized something.

Six feet plus? Check. Blue eyes? Check. Absolutely ripped? Check. Helped me train? Check.

This could only mean one thing, this man was Knockout. I paled a lot when I realized that he was not a student, but a teacher, at U.A., and I think Knockout noticed my horrified expression.

After a hearty laugh, which was extraordinarily rare of him, he spoke again.

"I think she recognizes me, now…"

I could see it in his eyes, he was finding this situation incredibly amusing. Knowing him, this was probably the most fun he had in ages.

Knockout's POV

I could see it in Kyotaka's face, the exact moment she recognized me. She turned from confused, to shocked, to confused again, to absolutely horrified, quickly paling, before returning to her trademark emotionless expression, but still with wide eyes.

I was to use Emotional Manipulation to prevent me from laughing out loud when I asked myself: "Why?". I could laugh right now. So that's what I did, I laughed, a good laugh. I needed that, I really didn't laugh enough.

I don't remember the last time I had so much fun. When Kyotaka's heard me laugh, her face went through so many expressions in a short time that I thought was possible, for her anyway. Honestly, today, and when she had gotten her entrance exam result, I had seen her make more expressions than in the last six months.

She was normally expressionless, and it made her seem a bit haughty or arrogant sometimes, but she was not. She was a lot like me in the matter, and I should really remind her to try and make friends, because she was probably not going to, at least voluntarily.

High school was apparently a fun time (I don't know, I breezed through it in less than two years while being a full-time Vigilante, so I didn't have much time to have fun), and I wouldn't want Kyotaka to be like me and miss out on it, even if she was a hero in training she could still have fun and make friends.

I could see her classmate arriving, so I prepared myself for what was going to come next, and deactivated "Soul" (the one that made my quirks impossible to steal, erase, copy, etc.)

Yeah, I had made it so that I could turn it off whenever I wanted, otherwise I don't think I could've bought more quirks and it would've been extremely suspicious if my quirks, as Raiko, couldn't be erased anymore.

I looked at Kyotaka again, and she now had her usual emotionless face. At least I knew that she remembered the acting skills I taught her.

Kyotaka's POV

I stayed in a stunned state for a couple of seconds, processing what I had just learned.

Knockout was a teacher, in a school for heroes. The most wanted criminal in Japan would be teaching heroes.

This would be fun.

I could even see him smirk right now, I bet he was having the time of his life, laughing at me. I would if I was I nhis situation.

But I had to admit the whole situation was immensely ironic. Knockout and his student would be teacher and student at U.A. high school…

I had to put back was emotionless mask when I saw the rest of my class progressively arrived, looking confused at who the man with Aizawa was.

Finally, when everyone was there, our homeroom teacher spoke:

"Still too slow…Get faster, the villains'll be gone before you arrive if you don't. Also, say hello to your Quirk Analysis teacher, Shuzenji-sensei. He will be here with us today."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to say", he continued, "We'll be doing a quirk apprehension test. The tests will be a 50-meter dash, a grip strength test, a standing long jump, repeated side steps, softball throw, seated toe touch, 2 km run and sit-ups.

"Whoever comes into last place will be expelled. That also brings me to the main reason why Shuzenji-sensei is with me right now."

"Every year, there are some students that complain that it isn't fair, 'What if my quirk isn't suited for these types of tests and I get expelled because of it, it's unfair!', always complaining about fairness… This test isn't about the quirks, it's about the efforts that you all put into your training. If you put enough efforts, you won't come into last place, no matter was your quirk is, as simple as that."

"With that in mind, Shuzenji-sensei here will do all the tests that I will put you through, but quirkless, to prove to you all that the important isn't the quirks, but the training and efforts you do. Also, he will finish in the top five", Aizawa finished.

The last part was an affirmation, there was no doubt in Aizawa's voice. After the little speech of Aizawa-sensei, Shuzenji-sensei, or should I say Knockout, added his bit.

"Thank you, Aizawa. I just wanted to add that I won't be using a quirk for this test, my quirk wouldn't help me at all. I just trained, a lot, since I was five to get where I was today. As for who I am, I'm sure you're all curious, you'll get to know me in my class. Also, Aizawa, why don't you do the 50-meter dash with me, else I'll be all alone. And if you win, I'll stop wearing those Eraserhead t-shirts."

Aizawa answered with an affirmative grunt to the other teacher's challenge. This would be interesting. And Knockout's real name was Shuzenji and he would be a Quirk Analysis teacher. Logic.

"Wait, last place will be expelled! That's not fair, we passed the entrance exam", the same brunette, whose name was Urakaka, shouted, incredulous.

"Life isn't fair, now, if you don't want to be the one getting expelled, shut up."

Also, I could see that my classmates were more than dubious about how, without using a quirk, he would end up in the top five of the class, but I knew that the teachers at U.A. were no joke, even if he wasn't Knockout, if a teacher said he would end up in the top 5, he would end up in the top 5.

But since he was Knockout… I was a bit surprised, though, Aizawa-sensei said that Shuzenji didn't have a quirk which boosted his physical abilities, but Knockout had one. It made sense, though, he would make his two identities completely different, so that they couldn't be linked. It was a bit like he had done with me, but way more intense.

Shuzenji-sensei then took a softball and prepared to throw it. We could see his muscles bulging, and man, he was absolutely ripped. It was the first time I could really see his muscles, and the sight wasn,t unpleasant. Just before he launched it, he announced:

"379.4 meters, 1000 yen on that, you with me Aizawa?

"I already learned never to bet with you, just throw the damn ball and stop flexing."

"You're no fun", he replied, finally throwing the ball.

He threw the ball into a perfect arc and when he threw it, you could feel the strength he had, I wouldn't want to be punched by him. Just as he said, it showed 379.4 meters in the device Aizawa had to record the throw's distance.

There was an audible gasp in the class, and a purple-haired, ridiculously small student exclaimed:

"You're trying to tell me that there was no strength-enhancing quirks on this throw? Not buying it"

"Oh, you're not believing me? Why don't we redo it, but this time I'll use my quirk, Erasure. It allows me to erase someone's quirk by maintaining eye contact. We'll see if there's a strength enhancing quirk involved.", Aizawa harshly replied, but he looked amused but our expressions.

Shuzenzii looked at Aizawa in the eyes, and, moments later, the latter's eyes began to glow and his hair started to float. Then, our quirk analysis teacher threw the ball again, getting the exact same score.

"Since we humans manifested quirks, our bodies continued to evolve in order to be able to use those quirks. We don't have the same limits as the old humans anymore. Seemingly supernatural strength, speed or reflexes are attainable now with enough training. That's what it means to go Plus Ultra", the man who had just thrown the ball explained.

While the rest of the class had an expression of awe on their faces, I realized that all the training Knockout put me through was partly for me to break human limits. I remember when he made me sprint, without stopping, four minutes, then hours. He always pushed me beyond my limits so that I could become faster, stronger and tougher.

He had done the same thing, but he made me focus more on speed, as I didn't really need physical strength, while he focused equally on both speed, durability, endurance and power.

Shuzenjii-sensei continued each and do to every test except the softball throw as he already did it. He started with the 50-meter dash, where he competed against Aizawa.

Both the teachers readied themselves, and, as Iida gave the starting signal, the both dashed, going so fast we would only see a blur. A couple of seconds later, both were at the finishing line, and it seemed like they arrived at the same time, but Shuzenji had a big smile on his face, while Aizawa had his normal expression. They both showed their times, and the former had 3.46 seconds, while the latter had 3.51 seconds.

"You're getting old, Aizawa… And you're getting slower."

"You win, Shuzenji. Now, stop making my student wait."

Then, our blue-eyed teacher did the next test the grip strength one, where he scored 449 kg. Was he even human anymore? Even though I knew that he was Knockout, I also knew he wasn't using any quirks.

He continued with the standing long jump, where he cleared the sand box, the repeated side steps, where he sidestepped so fast he was a blur, the distance run, where he…ran, more like sprinted, for a whole 2 kilometers. He did it in less than 4 minutes, that was more than 30 km/h.

After each test he did, some of my classmates seemed grim and depressed while others were motivated, but one thing we all had in common was that we were impressed and respected the man for the efforts he had done in order to get this far.

Then, he did the seated toe touch, and it almost convinced me he had a quirk, or that he wasn't human. His flexibility was impossibly good for a man his size, or for a human, in fact. His back was bending in an awkward angle but he seemed perfectly fine.

Finally, he did the sit-ups, where he did more than 200 of them in a minute.

After he finished all eight tests, he stood up and walked toward us, not even looking tired at all. He seemed like he could do it all over again, and he wouldn't be exhausted a bit.

"So, are you confident I won't finish in the top 5 now? And those that still want to find themselves excuses, I just want to add that I'm fifteen myself, I had the same time to train as y'all. Even less, in fact, as I got a degree and participated in police operations, that left me with not a lot of free time, but I always put the efforts and all the minutes I could find. That's what it means to go Plus Ultra. And that's what we expect of you, at U.A., to put your heart in soul in your training, otherwise you won't last long as a hero. Trust me, I speak from experience. Now, if you'll excuse myself, I think I have a class to teach, but I'm not sure."

Following his little motivational speech, he left and walked back to U.A. The class stayed silent for a couple of seconds, digesting everything he had just said.

"SO MANLY!" A red-haired teen shouted, Kirishima, I think. Yeah, I had to agree with that, he was definitely manly. Man, those muscles…

I could feel his speech had that intended effect, everyone was way more motivated than before, but my mind wasn't on that.

No, it was on when he said that he participated in police operations, Knockout was working with the police or Shuzenji was? Probably Shuzenji. I was now really asking myself where he even found the time to sleep, because, for the last months, he had trained me, then probably worked with the police with his real identity, then trained me again, then worked as a Vigilante at night. Each and every day…

Knockout wasn't human.