Chapter 11: Midoriya Quirk...
...
After Aizawa-sensei's bombshell about expulsion for the lowest score, the whole vibe shifted. Everyone got way more serious, and I could feel my own nerves creeping up.
I was really hoping to beat at least one of the guys. I mean, could I actually get kicked out on day one? Nah… probably not. I can't be at the bottom, right? There's no way…
Well… I think. But still, better safe than sorry, so I gave it my best for each test, hoping to at least avoid the bottom.
But things didn't exactly go as I'd hoped…
"..."
As the tests went on, that green-haired guy seemed to be doing way worse than I'd expected.
In the 50-meter dash, Iida naturally shot forward using his engines blazing, clocking in at an insane 3.04 seconds. I just stared, wondering what it'd be like to have that much horsepower in your legs.
So yeah, seeing Iida rocket through the 50-meter dash like a bullet was crazy! The guy's got real horsepower… or, well, leg-power, I guess.
Even Bakugo seemed impressed, though he wasn't about to admit it.
Then other classmates took their turns, and eventually, Midoriya and Bakugo lined up. When the signal sounded, Bakugo blasted forward using his explosion to hit 4.13 seconds…he looked a bit smug, too, like he was born to blow things up. Midoriya, though, barely managed 7.02 seconds…
I blinked. What was going on? This was the guy who took down the Zero Point? He's not even faster than me!
Where was all that speed and strength I'd heard so much about? I'd expected this guy to blow everyone away with his super strength, but… he clocked in at 7.02 seconds. Seven seconds?
"..." Really?
When the grip strength test came, Shoji demolished everyone else with 540 kg. Dude's like a one-man powerhouse.
I walked up to Midoriya during the test, hoping to chat a bit.
"Hey, uh, Midoriya, right?" I asked, smiling and trying to sound friendly.
The guy jumped, clearly startled, and turned to me, stammering a bit as he looked at me nervously. I tried to keep things relaxed and kept my smile. But man, this guy seems like he could use a confidence boost—guess I'll try to cheer him up a bit.
"My name's Kaminari. You can call me Denki if you want. I was curious what your score was… if you don't mind me asking"
"Oh, uh, no, I don't mind, but it's nothing impressive," he replied, showing me his score, looking a bit embarrassed. It was 56.0 kg—not bad, honestly, and even better than mine. But for someone who'd smashed the Zero Point, I'd expected something much higher.
His score was below average. This guy was supposed to have amazing strength—what was going on?
Still, I tried to encourage him.
"Hey, that's solid!" I said, grinning. "A decent score. Definitely higher than mine, anyway"
Aizawa-sensei cut in, reminding us we weren't here to socialize, so I hurried to get back to the tests, feeling kinda bad for Midoriya. It seemed like everyone had hyped him up, but so far, he wasn't living up to the rumors.
Next was the standing long jump. I thought, Okay, here's his chance to shine. But Midoriya didn't clear the sandbox at all. He just kinda… landed.
Yep, he jumped and landed right in the sandbox… nothing impressive happened.
I turned to Kirishima and asked in disbelief, "Hey, you sure he jumped a hundred feet in the entrance exam?"
Kirishima nodded, looking just as confused as I was.
"Yeah, man, I saw it with my own eyes! He jumped as high as that giant robot! No clue why he's not giving it his all."
It was weird, but I didn't have time to think about it more. We moved on to the next test, which was repeated sidesteps. The most impressive thing here was actually Mineta, the short guy with the purple sticky balls on his head. He used his balls to bounce back and forth, getting a crazy high score. I hadn't thought he'd stand a chance in any of these tests, but in this one, his quirk actually worked in his favor.
Mineta was clearly doing everything he could to avoid being in last place.
In the softball throw, Uraraka stunned us all by getting "infinity" by using her zero-gravity quirk. Midoriya was up next. From what I heard Iida comment, it seemed like Midoriya wasn't doing as well as he'd expected, and everyone seemed confused. Suddenly, Bakugo scoffed, calling Midoriya "Deku" and saying he didn't have a quirk.
That left me confused. What did he mean?
No quirk? That didn't make sense. I watched as Midoriya took the ball and got ready to throw, with Aizawa-sensei watching him closely. At first, nothing special happened because Aizawa had used his quirk to nullify it. After letting him go, Midoriya tried again, channeling his power through just his index finger as he threw the ball with a yell:
"SMASH!"
The ball shot forward, and when Aizawa-sensei checked the result, it hit 705.3 meters, just barely beating Bakugo's mark of 705.2 meters. It was impressive! Finally, I was seeing some of the potential people were talking about. But when I looked at his finger, I saw it was broken. No need to be a doctor to see that had to hurt, which made the feat even stranger. He seemed strong, yet… vulnerable.
I kept looking over at Midoriya, kinda feeling bad for him. Like, dude has power, but what's the point if he keeps breaking himself every time he use it?
Oh and for some reasome, immediately, Bakugo exploded with rage and screamed, lunging at Midoriya. I watched as Aizawa's scarf wrapped around him, suspending him mid-air, and Aizawa-sensei scolded him for his attitude. The whole class watched in shock as Bakugo kept trying to break free, absolutely furious. He was calling him "Deku" and demanding answers.
When things finally calmed down a bit, Aizawa-sensei released Bakugo, and the tension in the class settled… a little. As we all went back to the tests, I noticed Midoriya was struggling more and more, and it seemed obvious that the broken finger was affecting his performance.
…
At the end of the tests, we saw the results. Aizawa pressed something on his phone, and the results appeared for everyone on a holographic screen.
And yep, I didn't do great, but at least I wasn't in the bottom three. Small victories, right?
That's kind of a win for me.
The top three were Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Bakugo. As for me, I ended up in 16th place, just above Jiro at 17th, Hagakure at 18th, Mineta at 19th, and to my surprise, Midoriya came in dead last, at 20th place…
Mineta looked seriously relieved not to be the one at the bottom.
But then, Aizawa-sensei suddenly told us the whole expulsion thing was a lie. He looked at us, smirking, and explained that the expulsion threat was just to pressure us to use our quirks to their fullest.
The only one who seemed to have figured it out from the start was Yaoyorozu, who commented that it was obvious the whole expulsion thing was fake and that anyone who thought about it carefully would've realized it… Yeah, I felt really stupid in that moment, but I wasn't alone. I could see Mineta and even Jiro looking just as shocked as I was, with expressions that matched mine.
I even saw Midoriya breathe a sigh of relief that he wouldn't be expelled. Frankly, I hadn't seen anything too impressive from the guy, and I wasn't really sure what was so great about a quirk that, as powerful as it was, ended up hurting him. It was like my own quirk—too much electricity leaves me knocked out for a while, but at least I can use electricity without hurting myself as long as I don't go overboard. Midoriya didn't seem like he could use his quirk without hurting himself, though maybe he just needed control, like I did.
The day ended, and as we were leaving, Kirishima invited me to check out an arcade that had just opened near the station. I accepted, and we headed out of the building, ready to unwind after such an intense day. We ran into Sero on the way, who looked like he was about to head to the place he was staying instead of the U.A. dorms, and we invited him to come along. He quickly accepted, so we ended up being three guys at the arcade.
The three of us headed off to the arcade, ready to unwind after a long, insane day at U.A.
Arcade time with the bros… now that's more my speed.