The words came out as Izuku bowed his head deeply, shocking the entire class.
"I finally realized... how insensitive I was," he said, his voice steady, "and how I undermined all of your efforts with my half-hearted ones. I'm... really sorry."
The class froze—some uncomfortable, some conflicted.
Anger? Pity? Admiration? None of them were sure.
But beneath it all, a single, unnerving thought was still lingering in their minds from the very first verdict:
'That was him holding back...?'
Some of them shuddered at the thought of what he could've actually done.
Izuku straightened slowly, facing Aizawa once more.
"So then, sensei..." he asked, forcing a weak smile, "...what's my next guilty charge?"
Aizawa had a small smirk etching his face—amused by the display.
He pulled the last remaining capture cloth wrapped around Izuku's right arm, before folding them all back into one giant scarf.
"...The second reason for my judgment..." he declared, his tone snapping back to stern, "is that this is a 'Quirk Apprehension Test,' and yet you didn't use your quirk."
... ... ...
A complete silence ensued.
Aizawa delivered the charge without flinching, without a single hint of jest—he was dead serious.
The same, however, could not be said for Izuku.
He was pursing his lips, holding on to a wry smile as sweat poured down his face.
His awkward expression was mirrored by Katsuki and Ochako too...
Because... they all knew the cold, hard truth.
"Uh... Sensei?" Izuku finally spoke up, his voice shaky yet attempting to sound casual, breaking the silence at last.
"So what's your excuse now, Midoriya?" Aizawa pressed, his tired gaze narrowing, tone colder than before.
"Ugh... I'm not even sure how to say this, but... I don't think I would've passed this test in the first place if that was your reasoning."
"Why so, Midoriya?"
"Well..."
Izuku's wry smile turned melancholic, before a sigh escaped his lips...
"The thing is... I'm quirkless."
... ... ...
Another silence descended once more...
Until finally—his entire class erupted, shattering the air.
"YOU'RE QUIRKLESS?!?"
The class was shaken to the core. Eyes wide, jaws slack—they could hardly believe that one of their classmates had no quirk at all.
"He's... quirkless...?" Iida Tenya muttered in disbelief.
He was especially baffled, as he himself had been questioning it since the entrance exam, wondering how Midoriya Izuku's feats lined up with everything else...
Only for him and everyone in the class to now learn the truth: there had been no quirk behind them in the first place.
And yet—he had still managed to keep up, even in these physically grueling gauntlet tests.
The whole class was about to burst into a clamoring mess—
"Order!"
But Aizawa's sharp voice cut through the chaos, his glare silencing the class in an instant.
He turned back toward Izuku, who still wore that same small, melancholic smile.
"Then... is that your defense?"
"Huh...?"
Izuku blinked, taken aback by the bluntness in Aizawa's tone.
"W-well, yeah? I mean... what else am I supposed to say here?" he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't have a quirk, sensei. So, it's kinda unreasonable to expect me to use one and all, you know?"
"...That's where you're wrong, brat."
"...Excuse me?"
"Tell me... what is a quirk?"
"...What?"
Izuku froze, blindsided by the sudden pop quiz.
But Aizawa's stare was unwavering, serious, leaving Izuku uneasy at being asked something that felt like common sense.
"Uh... a quirk is... a special power someone's born with, right?"
"Wrong."
"...Huh? W-wrong...?!"
"That's not the definition I was looking for, Midoriya," Aizawa said flatly, his voice edged with impatience. "That's just the modern label people slap on superhuman abilities. Convenient, but quite shallow. However, it's not the real answer."
"Uh... okay. So... what's the actual answer then?"
Aizawa let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You really don't know?"
Izuku's evident confusion on his face was the only answer Aizawa got... then another tired sigh escaped Aizawa as he fixed the boy with a sharp stare.
"Listen here, Midoriya. A quirk… means something unique, peculiar, special," Aizawa began, his voice low but firm. "It's not just about flashy powers. It's the thing that makes you stand out. The one thing you have… that nobody else does."
His gaze swept across the class, every student hanging on his words.
"That's what a quirk truly is—what makes each of you unique."
Then he turned back to Izuku, his tone dropping heavier, cutting through the silence.
"...So you think you don't have a quirk? That's where you're wrong, brat."
"Wh-what…?" Izuku blinked, dumbfounded. "Are you saying I… actually have one?"
"Yes, you do," Aizawa confirmed without hesitation, "and it's one nobody else has, nor could they ever replicate."
He let the words hang like a sentence.
"And that quirk of yours... is 'Kamen Rider.'"
... ... ...
Yet another silence ensued...
But this time, those who hadn't known—or hadn't witnessed it firsthand—were left reeling.
Their faces froze, eyes wide, their minds scrambling to process Aizawa's words—
Midoriya Izuku, their (debatable) classmate now on trial for expulsion...
He was none other than the infamous armored vigilante—
The Kamen Rider.
And the man in question... held a stunned expression himself.
Izuku had not expected Aizawa-sensei to just flat-out reveal his second persona...
But he was more shaken by what the teacher had said—
"My quirk... is the Kamen Rider, huh..."
His head lowered, expression hidden—seeming as if he were caught in a daze.
"Izuku...!"
"Midoriya-kun...?!"
Both Katsuki and Ochako called out, their voices laced with concern. Neither of them knew how to approach him in his state of mind.
But... he wasn't despairing.
"Ahaha..."
A quiet chortle escaped his lips...
"Haha... ahaha..."
His laughter grew louder and louder—until—
"Ahahaha~!!!"
He threw his head back in full-blown laughter!
"That's right—! That's indeed my 'quirk'! Ahaha!!"
He wiped away tears born not of sorrow, but of sheer, overwhelming relief—as if he couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all.
Everyone else just stared, stunned, while Aizawa only looked on with his usual lazy eyes.
But Izuku met his gaze with eyes alight in joy.
"Aizawa-sensei, you're a real pain in the ass, you know that~?"
Aizawa raised an eyebrow, but that only deepened Izuku's grin.
"And here I thought you were just some hardass I'd never get along with…"
He lifted his left arm high—
A digitized aura suddenly enveloped it... before something began to materialize—!
A white apparatus—!
"...But turns out, you're just a really, really passionate hero fanboy, huh?"
The class's eyes locked on the forming device—!
"Wait—!"
"That's—!!"
"Is that—?!"
Iida Tenya stammered, his voice trembling with disbelief. "...The 'Driver' of the Kamen Rider...!"
Seeing their collective shock only made Izuku's grin widen.
"Fine then. You guys wanna see my 'quirk' so bad?"
He slammed the driver against his waist—
["IMAGI FUSION DRIVER!"]
The apparatus snapped into place, a belt of metal forming and locking tight around his waist!
"...Then I'll show it to you~!"