Sasuke shot up out of his seat and Mina ran at him with open arms that wrapped around him, "Sasuke! This is so crazy! I like, never thought I'd see you again!"
Sasuke raised his arms halfway to return the hug, but his arms froze before returning to his sides as he looked out the window, "Yeah... You can stop hugging me now."
"Just a little longer."
The sudden physical affection caught the attention of a lot of the students in class. One student in particular was approaching them fast.
He started pointing at them over and over again with his entire arm, "Excuse me, but this kind of physical contact in the classroom is inappropriate! Please cease it this instance."
Sasuke made a death glare toward Iida making him tense up in response.
She separated from him and put her hands behind her back with a wide smile, "Alright Iida loosen up a bit! It's been a long time since I've seen Sasuke."
Iida regained composure, "Even still,"- Iida stopped speaking when he heard the sound of feet plopping on a desk and his head shot left. He grumbled to himself, "Are those feet on the desk?!"
He turned away from the two of them and began to lecture Bakugo.
She laughed nervously, "He's a pretty intense guy."
"I agree."
She turned back towards him, "Anyways, I haven't seen you for what? Five years?" She playfully punched him and made a fake pouting expression, "All that time and you haven't tried to reach out at all?"
Sasuke put his hands in his pockets, "By the time I could do that you'd be at some random Middle School already. You expect me to just go from Middle School to Middle School looking for you?"
She pulled out her phone and showed him her social media profile, "You could have like easily found me on LINE."
Sasuke turned his head and closed his eyes, "I don't use social media."
Ashido's eyelids lowered and she tilted her head, "Oooohhhh? Who have you been talking to for the past few years?" She put a hand on her hip, "I'm not the only person you've talked to right? That would be so cute!" She whispered to herself, "And a little sad."
Sasuke opened his mouth but was quickly cut off, "Teachers don't count."
Sasuke closed his eyes and mouth and gritted his teeth. She tilted her head further and put a finger under her chin. A sly grin spread across her face, "You gotta say something, Sasuke."
His face lightened up. He faced her and sighed, "No, you're the only person I've talked to."
She straightened up and started patting his shoulder, "Still as antisocial as ever! Don't worry, Sasuke. I'll help you make plenty of new friends!"
A twitch mark appeared on his forehead, and he lightly swatted her hand away, "Not interested."
She put both hands on her hips, "Oh come on! Everyone needs friends. Even my favorite brooding loner!"
He shook his head, "You're more than enough for me already, Mina," he rolled his eyes.
She blushed and put a hand on her cheek. She turned away and hid her conniving smirk from him, "Sasuke, I knew you were blunt, but..."
He winced and his hands came out of his pockets, "You know what I meant, Mina."
She turned towards him and a plain genuine smile was plastered on her face and she waved him off, "I know. I'll stop now... I'm really happy to see you again, Sasuke."
The lightest of blushes that would only be noticed by someone paying close attention showed up on his cheeks. "Yeah..."
The door slid open and the guy who interviewed Sasuke entered the room in a sleeping bag. Sasuke sighed, 'The one teacher that hates me is also my homeroom teacher, of course.'
After Aizawa introduced himself he showed them a uniform, "Wear these immediately, and then shove off to the P.E. grounds."
Once they were all dressed and outside, Aizawa announced that they'd be doing a Quirk Apprehension test.
A brown-haired girl spoke up, "What about the ceremony?! And the Guidance Counselor meeting?!"
"If you want to be heroes, we don't have time for frilly niceties." He looked at them all out of the corner of his eye, "You all understand the school's reputation for freedom on Campus. Well, that "freedom" goes for us teachers too."
Sasuke smirked, 'Straight to the point, and not wasting time on useless crap that won't help us. He's a good teacher.'
Aizawa proceeded to explain each exercise they'd be doing. "The teacher still hasn't got around to standardizing those sorts of records or keeping track of average performance levels. Well, that's negligence on the part of MEXT."
Ashido nudged Sasuke's arm, "Psst, you know what MEXT is?"
He whispered, "The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. They're responsible for a lot of the stupid laws we have." The off-hand comment made her snicker.
Bakugo stepped into the middle of the circle on the field and did a softball pitch using his quirk, "DIE!" The ball left a smoke trail behind and armed high in the air before landing back down on the field.
"Before anything else, one must know what they're capable of," Aizawa held up a device to the class that showed Bakugo's 705.2-meter throw. "This is a rational metric that will form the basis of your "Hero Foundation."
Some students called the ball pitch fun and Aizawa shut them all down and said he'd expel whoever ranked last in total points.
Sasuke didn't show any sign of being fazed by the threat. Cutting the weak link made sense to him, if that was even the case which was doubtful. Most of the other students reacted similarly. Although Midoriya was sweating and had worry written all over his face.
"I expect you to overcome these trials and climb to the top. Now then, that was the demonstration. Time to step up to the plate."
Each student lined up two at a time for the 50-meter dash. First up was Iida and a frog girl. Once the drone said GO, Iida swiftly ran across the finish line in 3.04 seconds and the girl hopped behind at 5.58 seconds.
'Once again, the things we're being tested on are biased towards certain quirks. I suppose it makes more sense for this though, it'll reveal what we need to improve on.'
Next up were the brown-haired girl and a guy with a tail. He went faster than her, but she didn't do too badly. Going off the weird way her feet floated after she touched them he guessed that her quirk had something to do with flying or gravity.
After that, it was time for Mina and some laser guy to run. Mina started stretching, "Yay it's my turn! Wish me luck, Sasuke."
"Tch, you don't need luck."
She playfully pouted, "Always so difficult."
They lined up and the laser guy faced away from the starting line. Once they started he jumped and used the laser to propel himself toward the end. Although he fell short of the finish line which gave enough time for Mina to pass him and win.
'Her quirk can probably be applied in a way that it helps mobility or something like that, but she still won either way.'
Next was Midoriya and Bakugo. Seeing Bakugo made Sasuke remember how poorly their last interaction went which made a scowl form on his face. Although he decided to switch his attention to Midoriya. He still didn't know what Midoriya's quirk was. He stared attentively at Midoriya as the race started.
Bakugo had a devilish grin like always and held his hands behind himself and used his explosions to propel him past the finish line. Achieving a time of 4.13 seconds. Although Midoriya just ran like normal with no signs of having used a quirk. Getting a time of 7.02 seconds. 'It's probably not a mobility type then.'
Sasuke and Mineta were called up to the starting line and Mina slapped him on the back, "Good luck, Sasuke!"
Sasuke sighed and he and Mineta both got ready. Sasuke side-eyed him, 'This guy is the same age as us?'
"On your mark."
Sasuke's eyes turned red.
"Get set."
Purple energy was manifested and coiled around his legs.
"Go!"
He blasted past the finish line as quickly as he could and almost got whiplash, but he regained his balance and managed not to fall, unlike last time.
"4.20 seconds!"
Sasuke grunted as he walked back beside Mina, '.13 seconds behind. I'll have to find ways to improve that mode.'
Bakugo smirked as Sasuke got back in line. Mina tilted her head to the side and half smiled, "Sasuke, I don't remember your quirk having purple energy."
Sasuke froze. "And your eyes didn't turn red back then either. I remember it involving"-"Quiet, Mina."
Her smile disappeared, "What? Am I wrong? Your quirk definitely involved" -"Shut up, Mina," he turned his head toward her, "I don't want to hear anything about what you used to see me do. I've buried that past power, and it will never come back."
Mina's mouth opened and her eyes tensed. She stayed quiet and turned away from him. Sasuke turned away and briefly glanced back at her with softer eyes before looking forward again.
The grip strength test soon started and Sasuke went up first. Coiling purple energy around his arm he clenched it as hard as possible and got 80 kgw. He smirked at Bakugo who only got 60 kgw while he glared back.
'That... That was nothing like the Sasuke that I knew. He used to be proud of his quirk, and now he wants to forget it exists. What could have happened to Sasuke to ever make him say something like that?' She smiled again, 'I guess I'll just have to wrangle that information out of you somehow.'
Little did she know, Aizawa was paying attention to their interaction out of the corner of his eye.
Sasuke side-eyed at Midoriya's grip device and saw that it said 56kgw. His eyes narrowed, 'Is it not a strength-based quirk either?'
This trend continued for both the standing long jump and sustained sideways jumps challenge. Next was the pitch, and Sasuke was expecting to see his quirk at this point.
Sasuke had cemented himself in the top five point earners of the class at this point. He finished with a ball throw of 700 meters, but there was a chance that Midoriya might end up last at this point.
His eyes tensed as he stared at Midoriya who was sweating with a tense jaw, 'Is this as far as your resolve to be a hero will go, Midoriya?'
Midoriya walked up to the pitching circle stiffer than a robot left in a dump yard for years and Iida crossed his arms and spoke up, "Midoriya's not doing too well, is he?"
Bakugo pointed at Midoriya, "Of course not! He's a quirkless fucking guppy!"
Iida faced him, "Quirkless? Did you not see what he did at the entrance exam?"
This made Sasuke look toward Iida, "What happened?"
"Ochaco was stuck under a robot, and the giant zero-point robot was about to crush her, but Midoriya jumped high in the air and destroyed it with one punch."
One of his eyebrows raised, "Zero-point robot?"
"Yes, it was taller than the buildings. You didn't take the exam?"
"I took the recommendation exam."
Their conversation was cut short when they saw Midoriya start his throw, his arm glowed for a moment and he chucked the ball. But it only went a mere 46 meters. Sasuke thought, 'So it is a strength-based quirk after all. Maybe he just doesn't know how to control it yet, he's had it for months though, hasn't he?'
Midoriya looked down at his hands with a scrunched brow and Aizawa stated, "I erased your quirk," his bandages loosened, "It defies reason. How did somebody like you manage to enter the Academy?"
Aizawa lectured Midoriya on his inability to control his quirk while the students talked among themselves about how he was the underground hero known as Eraserhead. Sasuke thought, 'Eraserhead? I think I heard that name once when Midoriya wouldn't stop rambling on about underground heroes."
After Aizawa's lecture was over Midoriya tried the ball throw again. This time the glow was concentrated in just his finger, and right before he lost contact with the ball his power activated and the ball shot through the air. Better than even Bakugo's throw earlier.
Everyone's eyes including Sasuke's went wide at the ball throw of 705.3 meters. 'All that power came from just his finger? That's on the level of All Might,' Midoriya smiled while biting his lip and clenching his fist with a broken finger.
Aizawa smiled, "Oho."
Bakugo looked distraught and started charging at Deku and yelling, but Aizawa wrapped his cloth around him. After explaining his quirk and dry eye they started the next trial which was the long jump. While the other students were going, Sasuke walked beside Midoriya and his eyes narrowed, 'Trained with All Might for months, and now he has a quirk with insane strength like his?'
"Midoriya."
He jumped a little when his name was called, "S-Sasuke? Yes?"
"Your quirk is some kind of insane super strength, right?"
"Yeah."
Sasuke glanced down at his finger which was purple from damage and shaking, "What's up with your finger? Is it so strong you can't even handle it?"
Midoriya rubbed the back of his head, "Pretty much, yeah."
Sasuke sighed, "Hn, it's a good thing your quirk awakened this late, or else your body probably would have exploded as a kid, right?"
Midoriya nodded fast, "Y-yeah, pretty much!"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed for a moment before returning to normal. "Well anyway, you should do the same thing for the long jump. Just concentrate the power on one of your toes or something. You'll probably set another record."
Midoriya winced, "I'd rather not use it again," he raised his hand with the broken finger, "This pain is already unbearable."
He grunted, "Midoriya if you wanna become a hero then just bear through it. It's not gonna get any easier."
Sasuke walked away and left Midoriya to his thoughts. Midoriya's eyes lingered on Sasuke before starting down at his hand. 'He's right, I can't let this little injury distract me! All Might would never falter over something as tiny as this!'
As the next few trials played out, Sasuke excelled at all of them due to his calisthenics training and recent body-enhancing ability.
In the end, Aizawa revealed that the expulsion was a logical ruse and a lie. Which surprised everyone besides the recommended students of the class.
"And, right. Yup, with that it's over. Your curriculum sheets are back in the classroom so give them a once-over. And Midoriya," he flinched and Aizawa pulled out a nurse's note, "Go to Recovery girl, and get yourself patched up. Since your eyeballs will doubtlessly pop out of their sockets at tomorrow's ordeal."
On his way to the nurse's office, he thought, 'I'm glad I'm safe, but there's still too much I can't do. Thanks to what Sasuke said, I just barely avoided last place. But I have to do better! From here on, I'll study my butt off! So I can reach my dream.'