Yoshihara woke up to the sound of snoring in her right ear. Not the most pleasant way to wake up, that much was for sure. As her eyes opened ever so slightly, squinting due to the morning sun, she felt her head pressed up against something hard. She slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her legs had been positioned weirdly, almost like she was riding on something, like a horse.
She put her hands down in front of her to keep balance, and as her vision focused, she could feel her face light up in a comical fashion as she looked down to see not only the source of the snoring but the rock-hard thing her head had been pressed up against.
It was Izuku, and she had woken up to her straddling him. Her hands were pressed up against his chest, and it felt hard, almost like his chest was rocky. Was he… buff? A part of her mind was curious to see what was underneath the green hoodie, but her rational side told her to get the fuck off of him before he woke up!
The last thing Yoshihara wanted was for him to wake up and see her straddling him and think the worst.
Just as she was about to, however, Izuku woke up, his eyes squinted at her before they sprang open like a jack in the box, his face going almost completely red. All she could muster out in response was a meek "Hello."
The two stared at one another, and Yoshihara's heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. She wanted to die, that was how embarrassing this was for her. All she remembered from last night was binge-reading Soul Eater with Izuku before she passed out on his shoulder—which admittedly was a dumb mistake but he didn't seem to mind.
But how she ended up in this position with him was all the more confusing.
And then, things got worse.
"K-Kira-san!!!" The boy screamed, and it was at that point when the blond jumped off of him like a springloaded toy rocket. Keeping in mind that she was only wearing an oversized black shirt, made things even more embarrassing for the blond. If she had at least been wearing pants, then it would be better, but all she had underneath the shirt were her panties, making the situation worse.
"I-I swear it wasn't what it was looking like!" Yoshihara nearly shrieked, hiding her embarrassed face, and it was then that Yoshihara noticed Nemuri standing in the doorway, where she had been repressing a giggle.
Both Izuku and Yoshihara shared a look, then looked over to Nemuri, then back at one another. The fact that she was repressing a laugh meant only one thing happened.
"Mom…" Yoshihara spoke through grit teeth. "I'm only going to ask this once, and only once. What the hell did you do?" Yoshihara asked, slowly turning her head back to Nemuri with a vacant look in her eyes.
"Hm? Me? Oh, I did nothing but put a blanket on you two. Izuku must've fallen asleep and then collapsed under your weight. When I walked in to check on you two, you had fallen atop of him in such a cute way that I couldn't help but throw a blanket on top of you. Plus, I didn't want you to catch a cold," Nemuri replied, not an ounce of a lie in her voice.
It was at that moment when Yoshihara's cheeks became flushed again, and without a word, she pushed Izuku out of the room and closed the door before shouting: "I'm getting changed, stay out!"
Izuku only looked at the door with regret. He didn't know if he screwed up, or if it was something else, but Yoshihara seemed extremely flustered at Nemuri's response. The green-haired boy looked up at Nemuri, who smiled at him.
"It's all right, she's just flustered, you haven't blown your chances yet~," The ravenette said, giving him a playful elbow, only resulting in the green-haired boy's face flaring up red even more than before. "If you want something to eat, there's some leftover stuff in the kitchen, it's only 7:30 AM, so you still have some time before your mom comes to pick you up," Nemuri said, walking to the bathroom.
Izuku simply stood on the top of the stairs before shaking his head, the blush on his cheeks fading before walking down the stairs to attempt to ignore the feeling in his chest that only continued to grow the more he thought about what had happened when he woke up.
He sat on the couch, grabbing the T.V. remote off of the table before switching the device on. He unconsciously flipped through the channels to distract himself, still wearing the shorts and the hoodie from yesterday. Having an impromptu sleepover with a friend, that just so happened to be a girl, didn't happen often for him—actually, it never happened but that was beside the point.
As he continued to switch the channels, he heard something that caught his attention for a split second, which made him stop.
"Hospitals have been filling up recently due to an outbreak of mass shootings in the streets, carried out by strange hood and mask-wearing individuals. Death tolls have also been skyrocketing, as those who have been shot seem to contract some sort of illness never once seen before in the records of mankind. Speculation about the diseases these bullets spread being manmade is not off of the table just yet.
We have a special interview with a lead scientist that is working on trying to figure out what this disease is. We'll pass it off to you, Doctor Tsubasa," A reporter spoke as the screen cut to a man wearing a strange set of gear-like glasses, a thick mustache, and small stature. He wore a white lab coat, and underneath it was a black shirt.
The doctor looked familiar, being that of the doctor that had diagnosed him as Quirkless.
"Why thank you, ma'am. Now, despite all the research I have done, I could not find a single suggestion that this disease, which is most likely a viral strain, does not seem manmade. What's worse is that it almost acts like cancer. It eats the human body's natural cellular structure, and, in a bizarre twist, even enhances resistance within the human body. However, it has a mortality rate of 99.9 percent, as shown by those who have been shot. In almost all of the cases, people have died. On the rare chance that they have survived, they claim that they, and I quote, 'feel stronger than they ever had in their lifetime.'
But what catches my attention, however, is that their Quirk just disappears! Any slight idea that they even had a Quirk, to begin with, disappears, though those with mutations don't seem to be affected physically, they still retain their features—which scratches off those quirkist assholes that scream for the deaths of all mutants being a culprit behind the creation of the bullet.
That is all I have to say on the matter. Thank you for having me on, ma'am."
The screen cut back to the reporter, who stacked a few pieces of paper in front of her. "In other news—" and then Izuku switched the channel, not all interested in whatever else was happening. Hospitals filling up? 99.9% mortality rate? Missing Quirks? It couldn't be a coincidence, it was the Stand Bullets.
"Damn…" A casual voice spoke behind him, causing the green-haired boy to jump and turn around. When he saw Yoshihara, he sighed. She was wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt and black jeans with a belt. Her hair was tied up at the back, styled into a ponytail.
"O-Oh, Kira-san… I, I uh, wanted to apologize for—"
"No, don't. I told you to stop apologizing so much. Besides, it was an innocent accident that didn't equate to anything, you're fine, Midoriya-kun," Yoshihara interrupted, a half-smile on her face as Izuku sighed in relief.
"Oh, okay…." Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked over his shoulder to the window as the blond approached it. She put her hand to the glass, watching cars drive below her. Her reflection showed a sombre expression on her face, almost like she was upset. "Is… everything alright?" the green-haired boy asked as Yoshihara's eyes looked in his direction through the glass.
"Yeah. I'm just… thinking," Yoshihara said, a soft smile on her face. "You know. Had it not been for my… mom… stepping in when she did, I don't think I would be here right now," Yoshihara said, her eyes shooting to the streets.
"I-I mean, of course, you'd still be in that job," Izuku said as Yoshihara shook her head. She stayed facing the outside, not bothering to look over at him.
"No. I don't think you understand what I mean, Midoriya-kun. I wouldn't be here right now if you catch my drift," Yoshihara said, outstretching her arms as if to gesture to the city. "My life sucked up until now. I was in a dead-end job, living in terrible conditions, with no one to turn to. I had no one to rely on, and even if I said that I considered Otoshi and Akira my family, I knew that they had more important things to deal with," Yoshihara said, turning around to face Izuku, her eyes closed, a sad smile on her face.
"Back then, I had nothing. I had no one. There wasn't a point in my life back then where I thought otherwise. I was aimless, clueless, and maybe I still am, but at least I have direction now," Yoshihara said, her smile fading slightly, turning into a soft expression. "I have friends now. People who I can rely on in the future. I'm no longer feeling that way anymore. Call it campy, call it dishonest as much as you want, but that's just the truth."
As Yoshihara spoke, Izuku could have sworn he saw the sun's light fall on her, as if the world was screaming out to him to say something. It felt like something one would see in a romance show, that was how out of place it felt.
"Hey, Midoriya-kun, do you remember that promise you made me, or well, the promise I made you make? That you'd tell that Bakugo guy that you'd be going to U.A. regardless of what he thought, and that nothing was going to stop you?" Yoshihara asked as Izuku snapped out of his trance.
"Y-Yeah! Of course, I remember, why?" Izuku said, nearing a shout almost. He didn't know why he sounded desperate. His heart was beating a mile a minute, and because of that, he felt like something bad was going to happen.
All Yoshihara did was smile, walk up to Izuku, put her hand on his shoulder, and squeeze. "Don't chicken out, big guy. Make sure you tell that asshole that he's wrong about you. Because if you don't, I will," Yoshihara said, walking past him as his heart settled down as she let go of his shoulder.
For the next few hours, Izuku stayed downstairs, not once seeing Yoshihara since early in the morning. He felt bad. He didn't know why he felt bad, but he did. Hearing what Yoshihara had said, he had been thinking about it too much. He was reading into it too much.
From what she had said, it almost sounded like she was…
"Was she suicidal before she met Kayama-san?" That was the question on his mind, and he didn't know if it would've been right to ask the blond about it. He didn't want to be insensitive, hell if he did that, that would've been bad and possibly ruin their friendship.
And that was the last thing he wanted to do.
When the elevator bell rang, and when Inko stepped out of the elevator, she looked to Izuku with a smile. "Are you ready to go home?" Inko asked as Izuku glanced over his shoulder. Yoshihara was standing at the top of the stairs, waving to him.
"Thank you for coming over, Midoriya-kun, it was nice to have you here! Good luck with the upcoming exam!" Yoshihara said a smile on her face.
He had been so kept up in his thoughts about the meaning behind Yoshihara's words that Izuku had forgotten all about the U.A. Entrance exam.
"Crap."
-1 Week Later-
When Yoshihara stood at the gates of U.A. high, dressed in the school's uniform for girls, which consisted of a grey blazer, white shirt, green tie and skirt with black stockings and typical black shoes, she felt exposed.
The uniform was uncomfortable in a metaphorical sense. Yoshihara wasn't one to brag, but she had what some would say "thighs that save lives" and all that the skirt did was make it more obvious. They weren't ridiculous, but she had to assume that it was meant to compensate for her being flat-chested.
Not that she minded having a flat chest, but the point still stood. Unfortunatly, U.A. had a strict "no switching uniforms unless for medical reasons" policy, so there was no way she was going to be wearing the male's uniform unless she considered herself to be a guy, of which she did not. She wasn't going to lie on her documents just so she felt comfortable.
But that wasn't all.
The day before, she had gotten an exciting call from Izuku saying that he had gotten into U.A. and had passed the entrance exam with 60 points.
From what she knew about Izuku and the fact that he had been Quirkless, she was shocked, to say the least. She knew what the entrance exam consisted of, mostly through the drunken slurred words from Nemuri on the night before the exams were held, that the participants had to destroy robotic villains to get points.
So for Izuku to have walked away with 60 points without a Quirk showed the blond that he had some pretty good adaptional skills.
She looked down at the piece of paper and stared at it with reservation. "1-A," Yoshihara said, looking back at the school. She had no time to waste. If she wanted to be on time, she couldn't stand around and look like a dunce.
She passed by a few people in the halls, keeping to herself and not bothering to talk to any of them. The school was like a maze, but it wasn't all that hard to figure out where the classrooms were. It didn't take her long to find her classroom, and when she did, she looked up at the door with mild amusement.
The door was easily 13 feet tall, if not taller, with the words 1-A in massive font. It was probably for people with gigantification Quirks. She grabbed the door handle before pushing the door open, and before she could take a step inside, her eyes snapped to the attention of two red ones, and a boy with blue hair seemingly looking at him with an annoyed expression.
"Take your feet off of—"
"Shut it, four eyes," Bakugo Katsuki snarked, glaring at Yoshihara. He took his feet off of his desk to sit hunched over, looking at Yoshihara with a glint in his eye. "You. You're that shitty Deku's friend. You're the reason he's been acting so confident lately. I knew something was up when he told me that he was going to get into U.A. without stuttering once. You have some nerve, you know that?" The blond spoke with a threatening tone.
The two continued to stare each other down, anger in Bakugo's eyes, while Yoshihara showed no emotion towards him. "What? You gonna say somethin' or what?!" Bakugo growled, gripping the side of his desk.
And in response, Yoshihara simply ignored him, walking to the back of the class. This seemed to irritate the blond for some reason, as he nearly exploded out of his seat.
"OI! DON'T FUCKING IGNORE ME, BIMBO!" Bakugo shouted as Yoshihara sat down at the last desk in the class, fished out a book, then opened it to read. She had some time to read before classes started, therefore she decided to read the 16th Volume of Soul Eater, seeing as she had wanted to continue where she had left off from yesterday.
It didn't take long for things to go awry, however, as she suddenly started hearing a painfully familiar voice that sounded like the person it belonged two hadn't slept in what felt like years.
"If you're here to socialize, then get out." The unmistakably dry-sounding voice of Aizawa Shouta made Yoshihara cringe, closing her book and putting it away in her bag.
"Don't tell me… he's my teacher for the next 3 years of my life?" Yoshihara thought, disdain in her eyes as she looked over to a giant yellow sleeping bag in the doorway.
"This is…" Aizawa started, sucking back a juice box in one go. "The Hero Course," the man continued, standing up without the help of anyone. The sleeping bag unzipped itself and fell off—kinda like a cacoon being shed by a butterfly—as he stood in the doorway.
He was wearing his hero costume, that being the black bodysuit with the massive white scarf around his neck and the tool belt around his waist.
"It took eight seconds for you to quiet down. Time is a precious resource. You lot aren't very rational, are you?" At this point, everyone was looking at the man, and out of the corner of her eye, Yoshihara could see Todoroki from the recommendation exam, and surprisingly enough, Josefumi as well.
"But where is Sakunami-san?" Yoshihara thought as Aizawa's words caught her attention once more.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shouta Aizawa, pleased to meet you." As the man drawled on, he fished out a new set of uniforms that looked like gym attire. They were blue with a U-shaped thing around the chest and shoulders area, and an A covering the rest of the tracksuit top. "Quickly now. Change into your gym uniforms and head out to the grounds."
And with that, he left a pile of tracksuits, all fitting one universal size of "teenager" on the floor. Everyone quickly snagged a tracksuit of their own, including the reluctant Yoshihara, and then proceeded to walk to the change rooms, wherever those were.
Seriously, she had only been in the school for all of five minutes and he expected them to know where the change rooms were? Luckily, they weren't that hard to find, considering they were pretty much just down the hall by the classrooms. Even better was that there was a sign pointing to where the "grounds" were.
Once she entered the change room and quickly got into the tracksuit, she walked outside, joined by the rest of the class as she walked out into what could only be explained as an athlete's training haven.
There was a 50-meter track to run around in, a long-jump pit, a place to do rudimentary workouts, and a ball pitch.
"Was U.A. a baseball academy before all this hero stuff went down?" Yoshihara thought to herself as she glanced over her shoulder to see Josefumi standing next to her. He looked at her, smiled, then looked back. She would have to ask why Karera wasn't in the same class as them later.
"Alright, you're all here. Not as fast as I would've liked, but some things take time to iron out. Here's how things are going to go. As of right now, we're going to be doing a test of your Quirks."
And with that, a sense of dread washed over most of the class. Josefumi and Yoshihara didn't seem to mind, but one particular person with brown hair in the style of a bob-cut did. "What about the Entrance Ceremony?! Or the Guidance Sessions?!" The brunette called out as Aizawa tilted his head.
"No time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes," the scraggly black-haired man said, lazily looking over his shoulder. "U.A. is known for its 'freestyle' educational system. That applies to us teachers as well." As Aizawa explained this, he turned around to everyone, facing them all as the students all lined up.
"Softball throwing. The Standing Long Jump. The 50-meter dash. Endurance running. Grip strength. Side-to-side stepping. Upper-body training. Seated toe touch. You all did these in Junior High, yes? Your standard No-Quirks-Allowed gym tests. This country still insists on prohibiting Quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating," Aizawa stated, giving everyone a once-over before his eyes landed on Bakugo.
"Bakugo," Aizawa said, catching the teen's attention. "How far could you throw in middle school?" the teacher asked, causing the explosive blond to give a straight-faced answer.
"Sixty-seven meters," Bakugo responded, adjusting his hands in his tracksuit pockets. The teacher gestured him over to one of the pitcher's stands as Yoshihara watched him with a keen eye. Bakugo stood in the center, adjusting his footwork as Aizawa threw him a softball.
"Great. Now try it with your Quirk. Do whatever you need to. Just don't leave the circle," Aizawa said, bringing out a small device that looked sort of like a walkie-talkie with a screen in the middle. "Give it everything you've got."
Bakugo rolled his throwing arm's shoulder, cracking his neck as he gripped the ball. Yoshihara narrowed her eyes at the boy as he smirked. He reeled back his arm, and with a malicious grin, he threw the ball with a massive explosion following it.
"DIE!!"
The ball went flying into the air at rocketing speeds before it finally fell to the ground, bouncing off the floor a few times before stopping dead in its tracks. Everyone, including Yoshihara, was stunned by the display.
"I knew he also had an explosion-based ability, but that is insane! Not even Killer Queen can make an explosion that big! But I reckon my Stand can do a hell of a lot more damage than what his most powerful explosion can do," Yoshihara thought, staring at the boy.
Aizawa looked down at the device before looking up at Bakugo. "It's important for us to know our limits," Aizawa stated, turning the device to show Bakugo. The screen read – 705.2 meters, an impressive score by any means. "That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you'll be."
Just as Aizawa finished speaking, a girl with pink skin and poofy pink hair with yellow horns smiled brightly before speaking. "Whoa! This is awesome!" The girl said as someone made an off comment about the distance of how far the ball had travelled thanks to Bakugo. "So we can use our Quirks for real!! Man, The Hero Course is the best!!" The pink-skinned girl said as Yoshihara glanced over to Aizawa, who seemed to have an annoyed glare in his eye.
"Something tells me this isn't going to end well…" Yoshihara said, a singular bead of sweat making its way down her forehead as worry strewed itself over her face.
"…Awesome… you say?" Aizawa's voice was filled with nothing but contempt, and it sent a chill down everyone's spine. The way he said it, and the way his body language gave off a menacing vibe, it was checking all of the boxes for some people that something bad was about to happen.
"You're hoping to become heroes after three years here… and you think it'll be all fun and games?" Aizawa said, a lump forming in Yoshihara's throat. She did not like the look on his face as he said that. The oppressive air that suddenly sunk around the whole class was suffocating, and that worry that had built up in Yoshihara's body was now making itself known as she reflexively summoned Killer Queen by her side.
"Such nonsense. The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged as hopeless and will be expelled." And as Aizawa stood there, his face adorned with a smirk that seemed downright psychotic, he spoke once again. "Your fates are in our hands. Welcome. This is… The Hero Course at U.A. High!"
The collective shock from the entire class of 1-A was enough to overpower even Yoshihara's stone-cold exterior and interior. She had only been in the school for not even ten minutes, and she already had to deal with the threat of being expelled?!
"Mom never warned me that Aizawa was a goddamn psychopath?!" Yoshihara thought, panicked as she stared ahead in abstract fear.
But just when things couldn't get any worse, someone had to open their loudmouth.
"The lowest scorer will be expelled…? It's only the first day! I mean, even if it weren't… That's totally unfair!!" the culprit for the one who had called out like a damn idiot was the same girl who asked about the entrance ceremony.
"Something tells me I am not going to like her, am I?" Yoshihara thought, glaring daggers into the back of the girl's head. If looks could kill, the brunette would've been stabbed to death by Yoshihara's eyes alone, something that the girl didn't seem to notice.
Aizawa only seemed to get more annoyed by the brown-haired girl's antics as he shook his head in disappointment. "Natural disasters… highway pileups… rampaging villains… Calamity is always just around the corner, I'd say Japan is full of unfair things." Aizawa let out a tired sigh, fixing his hair so it didn't cover his eyes, allowing the class to see the fiery determination hiding within them. "The heroes are the ones who correct all that unfairness. If you were hoping to spend your evenings hanging out at McDonald's… I'm sorry to tell you, but in these next three years of your life, U.A. is going to run you through the wringer."
Aizawa then gave the class a smirk and gestured his finger as if to say "come at me," his eyes giving them all the same dull, tired look. "That's Plus Ultra. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it."
All Yoshihara could do was stare back at him with a determined gleam in her eyes. If he was issuing a challenge, then so be it.
And then, for the next two and a half hours, the students of class 1 – A were put through test after test.
[EVENT 1 – 50-Meter Dash]
The boy with blue hair and a girl who looked like a frog were the first two to be put up against one another, and both of them got interesting scores. The boy with blue hair, Ida Tenya was what Yoshihara thought she had heard when Aizawa called his name up, got a score of 3.04 seconds, while the girl, Asui Tsuyu, got a score of 5.58 seconds.
When Yoshihara was called up, she was paired with a guy who had a massive tail. The boy's name was Ojiro Mashirao from what she heard. Using Killer Queen to shadow over her legs, Yoshihara got a score of 4.39 seconds, while the guy with the tail got 6.73. A pretty good start if she had to say so for herself.
Izuku ended up getting paired with Bakugo and got a score of 7.02 seconds while Bakugo got a score of 4.13 seconds. She was worried for the boy and shot him a concerned look.
[EVENT 2 – Grip Strength]
The one with the highest score was a guy by the name of Mezou Shoji. His Quirk: Dupli-arms, made him really strong, not even considering the fact that he had four arms on each side of him. He had a total grip strength of 540 Kilograms, which was outlandish, to say the least.
Yoshihara didn't want to attract attention to herself, so she didn't summon Killer Queen, instead only using her base grip strength, getting herself a score of a mere 60 kilograms. It wasn't insane like Shoji's, but it was decent enough. She wasn't trying to get first place, she was just trying to stay in the top ten if she could manage even that.
Izuku had about the same grip strength clocking in at 56 kilograms. However, adding on top of the previous score of 7.02 seconds, it wasn't looking good for the boy.
[EVENT 3 – Standing Long Jump]
Yuuga Aoyama was this test's exceeder. His quirk allowed him to fire out a laser from his stomach. Because of this, he was able to propel himself across the entire pit in a single jump, though his stomach hurt afterward.
Yoshihara sighed, shadowing Killer Queen's hands over the top of her own. She picked up her feet and placed two bubbles on her shoes. From a distance, Josefumi had watched and raised an eyebrow at seeing her use bubbles—almost like his own Stand. She looked at Aizawa, who nodded, and then, when she jumped, the bubbles exploded, propelling her up into the air, covering half of the sandpit.
Bakugo sat back and saw with his own eyes wide. "Someone else with an explosive Quirk? Wait a second, didn't she have a psychic Quirk the last time I saw that bitches face? That doesn't sound right. Something's going on here…." Bakugo thought, a scowl on his face as he narrowed his eyes.
"Wow! Did you see that? Her Quirk's almost like Bakugo's!" One of the other class members said aloud as another one huffed.
"You think they're related?" Another one questioned as Bakugo's eye twitched. He was going to say something but decided against it. It wasn't worth his damn time or pride.
Izuku didn't even get a decent score for his jump, which was saddening. That nervousness from before that Yoshihara was feeling was now inside Izuku as well.
[EVENT 4 – Side Stepping]
No one did exceptionally well on this, not even Yoshihara. Her total score for side steps in a five-minute time limit was 58, and that was with the help of Killer Queen, so it wasn't like she could've done much better. Though Josefumi was able to get a pretty good score of 87 after removing the feeling in his legs so they wouldn't be sore after the fact—an ingenious move on his part.
Once again, Izuku got a poor score, only getting 23 consecutive side steps.
"Damnit, Izuku! I know you're better than this! I swear to god if you get expelled today I'm going to lecture you until the cows come home!" Yoshihara thought as she sent a concerned look at him, though he seemed to be off in his own little world of stress.
[EVENT 5 – Softball Throwing]
The brunette, Uraraka Ochako, got a score of infinite, something that no one was expecting. No one had expected that coming from such a short and sweet-looking girl. Her Quirk was Zero Gravity, so it only made sense for her to get a high score, but not infinite.
"Great, not only is she bubbly and annoying, but she has a stupidly overpowered Quirk as well. Like that helps matters. Actually, I'm kind of glad that she's here and didn't become a villain. That would be downright terrifying if she had."
Yoshihara was up next, and when she stepped up to the plate and took the ball, she had Killer Queen shadow over her hand and place several small bubbles on the back end of the ball. She threw it up into the air, then, after quickly turning her hand into the mimicry of a hand detonator, she pressed her thumb down and the ball went soaring afterward.
The ball eventually hit the ground, but in the process, it fell apart at the seams and disintegrated into nothing.
Aizawa's machine read a score of 785.9 meters, causing a smirk to appear on her face, sending a quick glare over to Bakugo, who sent another one back at her. She got back in line, and the next one up was…
"Midoriya Izuku." Aizawa's cold voice spoke out, and as Izuku took the ball, he stood in the circle for a moment, deep in thought.
"Midoriya isn't doing very well…." The blue-haired boy said as Bakugo piped up.
"Duh! He's a Quirkless runt! What the hell is that dumbass gonna do?" Bakugo snapped, earning a raised eyebrow from Ida.
"Quirkless? Haven't you heard about his feats in the entrance exam?!" Ida said, confused, all the while making a chopping motion, earning an annoyed 'huh' from Bakugo.
Midoriya's eyes closed, and when they opened up again, his eyes were filled with determination. And then, much to Yoshihara's, Josefumi's, and Bakugo's shock, Izuku's veins began to glow red.
"What the hell?!" Bakugo thought, a rush of emotions clouding his mind.
"Huh… Midoriya, did you lie to me about being Quirkless?" Yoshihara thought, feeling a bit of her heartbreak as a result.
"Was Kira-san wrong about him being Quirkless?" Josefumi thought, confusion shuffling through his head as he stared in awe.
Just as Izuku was about to throw the ball, the glow disappeared, and when it did, Izuku stopped. He didn't even throw the ball, it just stayed in his hand. His head turned, glancing over to Aizawa.
"I knew something was familiar about you, Sensei," Izuku spoke, a bit of confidence in his face and voice. "You're that guy Kira's guardian is friends with. Kira-san even said that you helped her defeat a villain, so that means you had to be a pro hero," Izuku said, turning to face Aizawa, who had actually been caught off guard by his statement. Instead of Izuku being startled, which was what he had hoped the boy had been, he was acting… snarky?
"You're the pro hero Eraserhead, aren't you? You erased my Quirk because you were going to try and teach me a lesson about how my Quirk was going to be more detrimental to my future colleagues rather than help, right? I know this because I know your personality already, I haven't met you before or anything like that, but Kira-san told me enough about you just to guess, and my guess served me right," Izuku continued, bouncing the ball in his hand.
"Truth be told, I know that my Quirk damages me. I've only had it for a month—I'm a late bloomer before you ask. Even before my Quirk emerged I wanted to be a pro-hero, and I had already submitted my application to U.A.'s Hero Course. Call it irrational, call it stupid, call it whatever you want. I. Don't. Care. I'm not going to let anyone, not even my teachers, make me look like a wimp just to prove a point. I've had enough of that in my life as it is."
Izuku's sudden confidence boost was something no one, not even Izuku, had been expecting. Ever since he had told off Bakugo, he vowed that he wasn't going to let anyone make him look like a fool anymore.
He was going to be a Pro Hero, regardless of what anyone thought of him. He had Yoshihara to thank for it, and he was going to do so after the fact.
"This kid. He's got nerves of steel. Still, his score is low, extremely low. But if he's confident that he can pull himself ahead, then fine, I'll give him a shot," Aizawa thought, huffing. "Alright then, kid, let's see if you can only talk the talk, or both talk and walk at the same time. In the entrance exam, you shattered your entire body. Let's see how much you've improved in a week."
Aizawa's eyes lost the sharp red colour, and his hair let back down (A side effect of his Quirk was that his hair stood up on end) and crossed his arms. Izuku turned back around, clenching his hand around the ball, then, proceeded to do the same thing, only this time, the power seemed more concentrated into one spot than last time, specifically, his middle finger.
The ball went soaring in the air, and when it landed, he got a score of 702.6. His middle finger was broken, but all things considered, it was leagues better than it was before.
It hurt, it hurt a lot, but it was better than having his entire arm broken. At least, that was how Midoriya rationalized it. "It took a lot to focus all of my power on my finger, but it was enough so that I didn't look like a complete idiot. What the hell was I doing, talking back to my teacher like that! I could've been expelled just by doing that! I like all this new confidence, but I have to use it more wisely, otherwise, I'll get in trouble!" Izuku thought, letting out a shaky sigh.
"See… Sensei? I can still… move…." Izuku said, his middle finger throbbing as he bit his lower lip.
"This kid…!" Aizawa thought as Yoshihara stared at her friend with wide eyes.
"He only got his Quirk a month ago, and sure, he didn't tell me, but why? Why didn't he tell me? Was he worried that I would've thought that he lied to me about being Quirkless? I'll have to talk to him after today…." Yoshihara thought.
But the one having a crisis at the moment wasn't Midoriya. It wasn't Yoshihara. It wasn't Aizawa. It was Bakugo Katsuki.
"It's impossible… What the…! Quirks never manifest past age four! But it really happened!!" Bakugo thought, his face contorted into one of anger, and confusion. But then, it shifted straight into anger as he took off dashing toward the green-haired boy.
"DEEEEEKKKKUUUUU!!!! YOU SHITTY BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL WAS—" But before he could continue his charge, Aizawa bound the kid up in his binding cloth with his Quirk-activated, Erasure.
"What the… this cloth is so… stiff?" Bakugo grunted, gnashing his teeth together as he tried to push through it.
"That's enough out of you, Bakugo. Stop using your Quirk and get back in line. This "cloth" is a capture weapon. It's made of carbon fibres and a special alloy wire. If you don't stop using your Quirk, Bakugo, I'm going to expel you. Now get back in line!" Aizawa snapped, causing the boy to relax, and for the cloth to go back to Aizawa.
"What a waste of time. Prepare for the next event…." Aizawa said, walking back to the front of the class as Bakugo returned to his spot in the line-up.
The rest of the events came and went. Due to the pain in Izuku's finger, he became distracted by it and as a result, his scores dwindled. Yoshihara continued to get average scores, none of which were impressive, but none of them were disappointing.
And when the events concluded….
"…Moving along. Time for the results. Your total scores are simply based on your performance in these events. Explaining the process would be a waste of time, so all you get are the final rankings." As Aizawa explained this, a digital board came out from one of the miniature droids that had been recording the scores. Yoshihara searched for her name, and it was smack dab in the middle, tenth place, wedged between a kid by the name of Rikido Sato, and Josefumi Kujo. However, as she scanned for Izuku's name, she found him all the way at the bottom ranking twentieth, just below a guy by the name of Koji Koda.
"Oh no… Midoriya…" Yoshihara thought, giving Izuku a sympathetic stare. The boy looked down at the floor, nearing tears, when suddenly….
"Also, I was lying about expelling someone. "
Silence. Absolute, pure, silence.
And then, Aizawa grew the biggest shit-eating grin that showed that not only was he not lying, but he also showed no sympathy towards the fact that he had lied either.
"That was a rational deception... meant to bring out the best in all of you."
It was that day going forward that Kira Yoshihara firmly planted the idea in her head that she was NOT going to like Aizawa as a teacher for the next three years of her life. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and tried her damndest not to have a migraine.
"By the way, that's all for today. I'll pass out your curriculum for the year then you guys can leave for the day. Oh, and Midoriya, get to Recovery Girl, she's the school's nurse, get your finger fixed up." And after that, once he finished handing out the papers, he left the grounds. Kira went to go get changed back into her school uniform, then she headed for home.
She didn't even bother to wait for Izuku.
She had decided that she was going to talk to Midoriya over the phone, that way she didn't have the urge to slap him silly across the face for her own amusement. After all, they all had a long day, and the last thing that she assumed either of them wanted was to talk about that nonsense.
Because that was all it was…
Nonsense.