Of Tests And Questions

The opening ceremony had come to pass and to the students of Class 1-B, it was more tame than they could have ever anticipated. Though maybe not at the level of genericness that most other high schools would have shown during their opening ceremonies — and all the other formalities taken care of during the opening day of the school year — U.A's assembly was nothing special.

The principal gave a speech, a couple of third-year students known as the Big Three gave the incoming freshmen class a welcoming address, more forms were handed out, before the students were taken back to their homerooms. From there, Vlad King ordered his class to change into their gym uniform and gathered at the P.E. Grounds.

"Now, then," Vlad King started after his twenty students gathered around him, "the Quirk Apprehension Test. In it will be eight different exercises which I expect each and every one of you to utilize your Quirks to get the best possible results. There will be four tests of mobility: an endurance long distance run, the standing long jump, the sidestepping test, and a fifty-meter dash. There will be three tests of strength: a grip strength test, the softball pitch, and an upper body conditioning test. And finally, there will be one test of flexibility: the seated toe-touch.

"To begin," Vlad King gestured at Pony and a green-haired girl Izuku remembered cutting into his earlier talk with the blond-haired boy, "Tsunotori, Tokage, line up. We'll be conducting the fifty-meter dash in pairs of two, first."

After the two girls got into position and Vlad King sounded off the whistle for them to begin, their Quirks immediately came into play.

Pony opted to launch the massive horns affixed to her head like rockets, which seemed to be controlled by her will to return and pick her up, sending her flying through the length of the fifty-meter track. Tokage, however, immediately split up her body into dozens of fragments which each flew at car-like speeds, only reforming after she crossed the finish line. Pony scored a time of 3:37 seconds while Tokage scored an impressive 2:99.

"Fragmentation?" Izuku asked as Tokage approached, "How'd you manage to pass the Entrance Exam with a Quirk like that?"

"First off, I call my Quirk, 'Lizard Tail Splitter,' and I'd appreciate it if everyone called it that," Tokage said, more playful than upset. "Secondly, I got in through recommendations. I don't know about the normal Entrance Exams, but for the recommendation student's practical exam, we simply had to race in an obstacle course."

"I see," Izuku said before he directed his focus to his peers which continued to test their fifty-meter-dash times.

Some of his classmates had Quirks which helped them out during the test: Shishida for example had a Quirk that transformed him into a Beast, Honenuki could manipulate the ground with his Softening Quirk, and Ibara could propel herself with her vine-line hair. Most students though, either had Quirks that would not directly improve their short term speed or their physical abilities in general.

Monoma with his Copy Quirk simply copied the person who had the best time by the time he had been called up — Tokage — and managed to get a similarly high score, setting the standard for his ability; he could essentially outperform everyone in a group overall, but only if there was a large pool of Quirks to choose from.

Izuku, though, limited himself to only using his Wrath's transformation. He had thought more about why it might have been that he'd been put in Class 1-B and seemed certain it was because of the overt lack of control he had displayed during the Entrance Exam's practical. Still, even when he limited himself, the results were spectacular.

Lining up at the starting line with a boy by the name of Tetsutetsu, Izuku's eyes blackened and his skin paled as he glowed a dim red. He instantly intimidated most of the class into shying away a step from him even as he moved further away, but Tetsutetsu held his ground rather adamantly; only the sweat that was starting to build on his forehead from being so close to a transformed Izuku betrayed his bravado.

When Vlad King blew his whistle, Izuku took off with a surplus negativity quotient of 3%; any higher and he might have cracked the polyurethane-paved track field. He took ten steps total, each covering just over five meters, before ending with a most ridiculous score of 1:59 seconds. Tetsutetsu would unfortunately finish nearly six seconds later as his Steel Quirk did nothing to boost his speed.

It was insane, worthy of his classmates hooting and hollering at the impressiveness of his Quirk, but Izuku knew he'd barely scratched the surface of his potential. Unfortunately, Vlad King also seemed to think so, as he solemnly said, "Midoriya." His grave tone silenced the class of impressed students as he continued, "I thought I was clear when I said I expected everyone to utilize their Quirks to get the best possible results."

"Was that result not good enough for you?" Izuku's transformed state loosened his lips quite drastically. "I halfway doubled the next best score and even limited myself to not ruin this fragile little track field."

"Regardless of those facts, you clearly didn't optimize the use of your Quirk. Do the test again, and please," he intoned, "use your Quirk to the best of your ability. Any damage done to the track field can easily be repaired with Cementoss' help."

"Tch," Izuku clicked his tongue, but he returned to the starting line anyway. When he got in a sprinting position, the dim red glow covering his body slightly brightened and just underneath a hint of green could be faintly seen.

He didn't even listen in to hear for the whistle as he better trusted his eyes. True to his confidence, the moment he saw the timer, by the finish line, change by ten milliseconds — the lowest unit it was capable of displaying — he shot forward with imperceivable speed to the naked eye. Anyone with anything less than a Speed or Reaction-Improving Quirk would have seen Izuku simply teleport across the track; well, if it could see past all the dust he had kicked into the open air.

Ironically, it was Fukidashi, who had a text-bubble for a head, who asked, "0:06? Are my eyes fooling me, or did he just 'run' fifty meters in under a tenth of a second?"

Alas, he didn't receive a response as most people were distraught by the resulting damage left by Izuku; one at the start of the track which was at least a full inch deep, and the web-like craters which he was currently standing on. He had just crossed the line between amazing and terrifying.

Izuku withdrew his Pride and lowered the output of his Wrath as he returned to his peers' side and asked Vlad King, "Was there even a point to me doing that? I mean, my guess as to why you're even having us do this test is to find our limits. But, I'd think U.A. would know better than to fill their newest class of first-years with the idea of going 'Plus Ultra' so soon.

"For most of us, me included, this will probably be the first time we go all out with our Quirks; so, what then of our control? What if I had lacked the control to move at my max speeds? What if my Quirk's more… negative, influences took over?"

"Midoriya," Vlad King started, "I can assure you that every move I'll make as your teacher here at U.A. will be measured and calculated. The purpose of this Quirk Apprehension Test is to find your limits, but not necessarily for you to recklessly perform at your highest capacity all the time. One must first learn what they can do before they can make any valid decision out in the field as a hero; I'm sure everyone here knows this.

"Moreover, this is only your first day as a freshman. Statistically speaking, by the time you graduate, the kind of performance you'll be putting out today will be commonplace. Make no mistake, the only reason you were called out was because you clearly displayed greater speed and control of your Quirk during the Entrance Exam.

"It would be in everyone's best interests if you simply showed your limits irregardless of how others perform so that they will at least know what you are capable of during the exercises we will be doing starting tomorrow for your Foundational Heroics class."

With a smile teeming with palpable malice, Izuku said, "So long as you understand that there will probably be a ton of collateral damage… I'm game." He didn't simply mean physical collateral, as he understood that putting on his best performance might even emotionally traumatize his peers.

While most of the class edged away from Izuku as they started walking over to a medium-sized gym building, Vlad King announced, "Next we'll be doing the grip strength test."

Izuku ignored the skeptical fearful looks most of the class gave him as he had come to expect such a result. What he didn't expect was for Monoma to walk right over to him and extend a hand for a handshake as he smirked knowingly and asked, "You don't mind if I borrow your Quirk for the next couple of tests, right?"

Taking the hand, Izuku smirked right back, "I can't really say it's my Quirk after you copy it, now, can I?"

A moment passed after the two released their handshake before Monoma sighed, "Damn. Must be a stockpile-type."

"Yes? You make it sound like that's a bad thing," Izuku said.

"Well, maybe not for you, but it basically makes the Quirk unusable for me."

The group made it to the site of their next test and again, some students shined brighter than others, some had Quirks that didn't help them at all, and Izuku… Izuku took his teacher's words seriously and turned the grip strength testing device into a piece of scrap metal; he took overkill to a new level.

During the standing long jump, Izuku jumped straight up and used his Pride to add enough horizontal kinetic energy to himself to clear three of the sand pits worth of distance used to assess them. He didn't do his best in the event, but Vlad King didn't call him out on it as everyone understood by that point that if he truly wanted to, Izuku could jump out of the school's campus.

When he took the side-stepping test, Vlad King had to tell him to tone it down. Verbatim, he said, "Alright, we get it," when Izuku used his Pride to move back and forth quick enough to create three distinguishable afterimages.

For the softball pitch, Izuku actually had to ask Vlad King what the maximum range he could throw was as he was afraid a full power throw from him would escape the bounds of the campus and land on a person or private property. Five kilometers was the answer Vlad King responded with and Izuku more or less limited his power output to what he thought would toss the ball below that range. He didn't even wind up a pitch, instead opting to shoot it with less than the totality of his Pride to score 4.67 kilometers.

"Eh, close enough," he commented before his class was taken to do their endurance running test. By that point, his nonchalance and overt arrogance were no longer taken as negative points as everyone fully understood Izuku had every right to feel like his behaviour was normal. After all, who wouldn't be arrogant if they had abilities that seemed on par with the number one pro hero, All Might?

It would be almost an hour into casual run at 45 kilometers per hour (~28 mph for us nonconforming Americans) that Vlad King would call for him to stop and move on to the seated-toe-touch. For the first time, Izuku failed to get first place in an event, not really being able to compete with people like Tokage who could split up her body, or another girl named Kendo, who could enlarge her fists and had trained in martial arts for longer than him.

Then, it was business as usual as Izuku only needed to rely on his Wrath to dominate in the upper body conditioning test. If not for Vlad King's intervention, Izuku would have been able to continue doing push-ups and pull-ups for weeks; until his reserves in Gluttony were completely exhausted.

"Ok then..." Vlad King sighed for the umpteenth time after he had told Izuku to go all out, "I've compiled your scores, so here are your initial rankings."

Very anticlimactically, everyone accepted Izuku when he got first place. Monoma easily got second place by copying all the other viable Quirks that best suited the tests, while Tokage and Honenuki got third and fourth place respectively as their class' recommendation students and due to their overall stellar performance. Then, after Shishida and Ibara, the majority of the class performed rather similarly in terms of overall rating.

"Remember, take today's results as your starting point. In a matter of months, if not weeks, these rankings may be completely flipped; it all depends on your effort and dedication. With that, you are all free to change out of your gym uniforms and leave for the day," Vlad King said.

…

Izuku wasted no time to change and leave school. While some, like Monoma, Tokage, Ibara, Pony and Kurorio didn't really change their attitude towards him after the Quirk Apprehension Tested ended, Izuku wasn't a dense idiot. He understood the looks most of the class were giving him and knew when to take a hint.

Having left around noon, he checked his phone as he was making his way to the train station to go home when Camie suddenly sent him a message.

"Yo, opening day just ended for me, fam," Camie's text read.

"Same here," Izuku replied.

"Noice," a string of emoji's followed. "You want to meet up for lunch?"

"Sure, but since you're the one who brought it up, you pick the spot."

"I guess that means we're hitting up the new pizza spot by the beach, fam."

"The New York style pizza place?"

"Yessir~"

Twenty minutes later, Izuku found himself sitting at the restaurant and looking through the menu as he waited for Camie to arrive.

"Holy… Is that you Izubro? Your outfit's fire, my guy," Camie's voice brought Izuku out of his thoughts. He also thought he looked quite dapper in his long-sleeved white undershirt, gray and blue-striped jacket, red tie, and dark blue pants. Though…

"You're looking mighty fine yourself," Izuku said as he let his eyes take in her borderline militaristic look. She wore a collared white undershirt and dark-blue orange-highlighted jacket along with a uniform cap and a thigh-high skirt.

Uncaring of the glances she attracted or Izuku's comment, Camie started unbuttoning her jacket as she asked, "Anyway, how'd your first day go, homie?" After taking off her jacket and laying it on the back of her chair, picking up her menu, and sitting down, she added, "At Shiketsu we just had the usual opening ceremony show. Though there was this Quirk test right after."

"Hmm," Izuku said as he flipped the page of his menu. He continued reading as he said, "Must be a national standard for hero high schools, since we also had a Quirk Apprehension Test. Did yours test for the basic gym assessment tests, just with Quirks added on?"

"Yup. We had a fifty-meter dash, softball pitch, and the rest of the bunch. So, I ranked pretty low overall," Camie sighed.

"Cheer up," Izuku snorted, "at least you weren't forced to traumatize the rest of your class by having to show your maximum effort."

"You got first?" Camie asked, knowingly by the inflection of his tone.

"On just about everything but the seated-toe-touch."

"Hmm… Must be nice having such a powerful Quirk," Camie whined as she set down her menu.

"Really?" Izuku snickered, "You of all people should know that there are pros and cons to all Quirks. Remind me again how many times you managed to trick me with your Quirk during our training sessions. Was it dozens or hundreds of times that your 'weak' Quirk managed to get the better of mine?"

"Aight, chill. I get it. I just wanted to complain a little," Camie said as a smile graced her face. She understood that by "getting the better" of Izuku's Quirk, he didn't mean she had literally beaten him, since that wasn't really the route she wanted to go with her Quirk — not like she could if she wanted to in the first place.

Instead, the instances Izuku mentioned were times where she had managed to successfully fool his senses, distract him, or create an opening she could capitalize on. She might never in her life find the power to actually beat Izuku in an all-out fight, but with her Quirk she might give a group of people the chance needed to achieve such a feat; in such settings she might be among the most dangerous combatants.

"Heh, you won't be complaining for long when we dive head first into our heroics' classes. People won't know what hit them when you start being able to use your Quirk effectively during simulated training exercises." Having read the syllabus for his Foundational Heroics class, Izuku guessed Camie would undergo similar types of training.

A waiter soon came and took their orders, leaving them in a comfortable silence until Camie suddenly recalled a rumor and asked, "Say, is it true All Might is teaching this year at your school?"

"All Might?" Izuku paused, "Yeah, this will be his first year teaching. I even got to see him at the opening ceremony. But, because of his inexperience, he won't be teaching me and the rest of the freshmen. I heard he's teaching third-years. I think I heard the principal joke something along the lines of him having less of an impact if he messes up teaching them since they already have solid foundations. Though he might be teaching second-years in the next semester or school year."

"Still pretty cool knowing he might teach you in the future. Actually, knowing all your teachers are pro heroes is pretty dope. The only pros in our school are the security and hero class' teachers."

"Hmph, I think it's a stupid gimmick. I mean, what self respecting hero has the time to learn about teaching teenagers how to read english or factorize trinomials? I'm not saying they're guaranteed to be bad teachers since I haven't actually taken a class yet, but I thought we were living in a time that lacked enough heroes to combat all the villains that keep popping up. Where do they find the time?"

"Geez kid, we haven't even been introduced as teacher and student and already you're throwing all this heat at us," a boisterous voice suddenly startled Izuku and Camie.

Izuku's eyes narrowed as he watched the owner of the voice that called out to him and his two companions approach and take their seats on the table next to his and Camie's. "Present Mic, Midnight, and… Oh? Is that Eraserhead?" Izuku asked.

"Crap, now I don't know whether to like or dislike him." Midnight said. Present Mic jabbed at her side with his elbow before she smacked his arm away and said, "What?! He recognized Shota!"

"Izuku Midoriya," Eraserhead sighed, "it's only been a day, but I've already heard so much about you from Kan. Maybe I should be glad he managed to convince us to take you away from my class; that's one less problem child I have to worry about."

"Yo! You saying the homie was supposed to get into that premier class' action 'till someone sniped his spot?!" Camie asked, sounding almost offended.

"...What?" Eraserhead clearly didn't speak slang.

"She asked if Midoriya was supposed to be in your class, Class 1-A, before someone overturned the decision." Present Mic said before addressing Camie, "And, yes. He was supposed to be in Shota's class, originally."

"Well, why'd you change your minds?" Izuku asked.

For a second Eraserhead looked like he was going to answer as he slowly opened his mouth and adopted a contemplative posture. But in the end he snickered and said, "Maybe I'd have told you if you hadn't just offended my associates; your teachers, by the way."

"Fair enough," Izuku started, "though, my point still stands. You seem to be Class 1-A's homeroom teacher and I can understand why it wouldn't matter if you are a pro hero. But those two, my English and Modern Hero Art History teachers," Izuku pointed at Present Mic and Midnight in that order, "I'd think they'd have better things to do with their time than to get certified to teach highschoolers."

As Eraserhead shook his head, Present Mic asked, "You know you won't constantly be working when you become a pro hero, right?" He didn't wait for Izuku to respond as he continued, "Even the most dedicated heroes like All Might and Endeavour need breaks and time to unwind. For us, that just so happened to manifest as a desire to get a higher degree in our respective teaching subjects, at first.

"Then, we got to try our hand at volunteering our teaching at primary schools before finally moving on up to working at U.A. Sure, it's a pretty big commitment that sometimes stresses me out more than it helps me settle down from all the hero work. It also takes around seven hours off our days to be teaching at U.A. but, I at least like to think of it as completing a different kind of service to the public; ensuring the next generation of heroes are properly educated."

"Don't forget that our presence increases the security of the school," Midnight added.

"It also gives us homeroom and heroic teachers many variable Quirks to introduce into your future classes," Eraserhead said.

"I see," Izuku nodded. "I apologize for my earlier comments, then."

He and Camie would soon get their food and be joined by the group of pro heroes in eating, before he took his leave. Izuku would later have his usual training with Camie at Dagobah Beach later in the day before his first day at U.A. would come to an end.

He never did learn why his spot on Class 1-A was rescinded, but he understood he had no right to press his teachers after what he'd previously said. The only thing he did know for sure was that the school year was shaping up to be quite interesting; promising an untold amount of chaos, if the ordeals of just this first day were any indication.

Naturally, that only meant that his daily routine had to stay as intense as ever. He hadn't been joking when he talked to Camie earlier; and that was exactly his problem. He consciously knew his power was far from absolute, but subconsciously and under the duress of his Sins, it was one thing to know and another thing entirely to practice.