Arthur POV
The entire class of 1-A was now standing on the school grounds, and I found myself wondering what we were going to do. I felt a bit naked, as I had to leave my scarf in my backpack, of course Excalibur and Avalon were still with me.
Aizawa stood in front of us, his tired expression unchanged from when we'd first met him in the classroom.
"We'll be doing a quirk apprehension test," Aizawa announced matter-of-factly.
I heard one of my classmates, I think it was the brown-haired girl from earlier, the one who had spoken to the green-haired boy, speak up. "Wait, what about the ceremony? And the guidance counselor meeting?"
Her question seemed to echo the thoughts of several other students. I could see other students wondering the same.
Which I couldn't fault them for. U.A. was huge, it should have been natural to begin by exploring the building where they would spend most of their time for the next three years.
"If you want to be heroes, you don't have the time for frilly niceties," Aizawa replied without hesitation, dismissing her concerns with a wave of his hand.
I could agree with that point, in fact I had proved it time and time again.
"You all understand the school's reputation for freedom on campus, right?" Aizawa continued. "Well, that freedom doesn't only go to you students, but to us teachers too."
There was something ominous in the way he said that, and I noticed several of my classmates shifting nervously.
"Softball pitch, standing long jump, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strengthening, sustained sideways jumps, upper body exercises, seated toe-touch." He paused. "These are all activities you know from middle school, naturally."
I felt a familiar knot form in my stomach. Middle school. I had never gone too middle school. Hell I had even missed the last three years of primary school.
"Uhm, Aizawa-sensei, what if we don't know these exercises?" I asked, immediately feeling the weight of several curious and confused stares from my classmates.
Kaminari just looked confused at my side and at my words, which made me want to dig myself in a hole.
"They are intuitive," Aizawa said. "You don't need to worry, just look at the rest."
I nodded along.
"As I was saying," Aizawa continued, his voice drawing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand, "during these tests you were barred from using your quirks. The country still hasn't gotten around to standardizing those sorts of records or keeping track of average performance levels. Well, that's negligence on the part of MEXT."
The abbreviation meant nothing to me, and I found myself genuinely lost. Another gap in my knowledge.
"Who's MEXT?" I asked Kaminari, who was standing closest to me. He looked just as confused as I felt and shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
Did Kaminari miss years of school too?
"It's the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology," a girl with black hair tied in a ponytail said from my other side.
"Oh, thanks," I replied, grateful for the clarification.
"No problem," she said with a small smile that seemed genuine.
Our brief conversation was cut short as Aizawa continued with his explanation, his tired eyes scanning our group, still I didn't feel that weird stare from the first time he had laid eyes on me, more than a year ago now.
"Bakugo, how far could you pitch a softball in middle school?" he asked, directing his attention to the explosive blonde who had tried to grab me earlier.
"67 meters," Bakugo answered without hesitation.
"Come here, and try using your quirk this time around," Aizawa instructed, and Bakugo followed his words with eager enthusiasm. When he reached the designated spot and stood within the marked circle, Aizawa handed him a baseball from a box near the area. "As long as you don't exit the circle, anything you do is fine. Don't hold back."
"You got it," Bakugo answered, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders in preparation. I watched with genuine curiosity as he pulled his arm back into a throwing position, and then his arm jerked forward with explosive force. A massive explosion crackled from his palm, releasing a thunderous boom as he released the ball.
The sound was impressive, my eyes followed the ball, 100 meters, 200, and on and on it went, until it landed on a soft patch of ground, perfectly fine, which made me wonder.
What were the baseballs made of to withstand that kind of explosive force?
"Before anything else, one must know what they are capable of," Aizawa said, looking at a device in his palm. After a moment, he turned the screen toward us, displaying the result.
705.2m
Several of my classmates gasped audibly.
"This is a rational metric that will form the basis of your hero foundation," Aizawa explained.
Then some of my classmates began to react with excitement.
"Awesome, that looks so fun!" Kaminari called out, his earlier confusion replaced with obvious excitement.
"700 meters, that's unreal!" another student added.
"Can't believe we actually get to use our quirks now!" came from somewhere behind me.
I found myself pondering what my own score might be. I looked down at my arm, trying to gauge my own capabilities. It wasn't like I had ever tested out how strong I really was in such a controlled, measurable way. My strength had always been applied practically, lifting debris, stopping vehicles, catching falling people. I'd never tried to see how far I could throw something just for the sake of distance.
How much force could I actually generate? How much force could I increase with Mana Burst?
However, that train of thought was cut off abruptly as I heard Aizawa's voice turn darker, more serious.
"It looks fun, you say?" His tone had shifted completely, and his hair fell over his face, making him look slightly menacing. "So you were planning to spend three years having a good ol' time? What happened to being heroes?"
The excitement that had been building among my classmates died instantly.
"All right then, in that case, new rule," Aizawa announced, his voice carrying a finality that made everyone straighten up. "The student who ranks last in total points will be judged as hopeless and instantly expelled."
That seemed like a bit of an overreaction. I understood the need for high standards, but expelling someone on their first day based on a single test seemed harsh beyond reasonable measure.
"Our freedom means we dispense with students as we please," Aizawa continued, holding up the hair that fell in front of his face, revealing his eyes fully for the first time. Still I didn't feel that weird gaze from our first encounter just what the hell was that. "Welcome to this department of heroics!"
"The kid who ranks last will get expelled?" someone whispered, the disbelief clear in their voice.
"This is our first day here, but even if it weren't, isn't this too unreasonable!!" another student protested, though their voice carried more fear than real indignation.
"Natural disasters, massive accidents, egomaniacal villains, irresponsible vigilantes," Aizawa began, and I felt a sharp pang at the last item on his list. He was including vigilantes, people like I had been, in the same category as disasters and villains. "All kinds of calamities can happen when we least expect them. Japan is now positively drenched in unreasonable situations, and it's our job as heroes to reverse it all and restore reason."
I felt a pit form in my stomach at the reminder.
"If you were counting on a friendly chat at the local McDonald's after school, well too bad," Aizawa added with what might have been the ghost of a smirk. "From now on, for the next three years, all you can expect from U.A. is one hardship after another."
Wait. So I'd have to give up sleep and food again? No he couldn't possible mean that, after all the other students needed to eat and sleep.
"This is Plus Ultra," Aizawa declared, his voice carrying the weight of U.A.'s legendary motto. "I expect you to overcome these trials and come out on top. Now then, that was the demonstration. Time to step up to the plate."
A/N: I feel kind of meh about this chapter, in fact, I'm almost finished with another chapter which I won't count as a bonus since this chapter was basically a rehash of chapter 5 from the manga so... yeah. Expect another chapter soon.
Also I've been thinking most of these chapters take a long time to write, so I thought that maybe I'd start a patreon....
SIKE
I'm not gonna make a patreon of this shit, maybe in the future but no plans for that right now lol. See you guys soon. Thx for reading. Author out.