"6 seconds... 6.1 seconds."
After Ren and Hayato's turn, Aizawa (after he recovered from the shock their performances gave him) continued to call the other students one after the other, until it was finally Dante and Kioko's turn, who both ended up reaching the finish line in six seconds after doing the bare minimum as usual.
After they were done, Dante analyzed the data he managed to gather.
'Although it's a bit hard to judge how fast All Might is in the anime, I can now positively say that that guy is a monster...'
All Might... Japan's greatest hero, the eighth holder of One For All, and a man who would play an important part in Dante's plan.
'In his last fight against All For One, it was said that All Might took a bit more than 30 seconds to cross a 5km distance... that's basically the equivalent of 200 meters per second, and that's All Might at his weakest.
In our current state, although it's quite hard, it's not impossible for us to reach that kind of speed, but even then... Damn, now I wonder what kind of monster All Might was at his peak, and even more so how strong was All For One for him to be able to fight on equal terms with All Might.'
.
..
...
After the class was done with the 50-meter dash, they then continued with the grip strength test, the standing long jump test, the sustained side-ways jump test, all the way until the fifth test... the softball pitch test.
"Aaaaaah, I'm bored!"
"What? You have finally run out of excuses to challenge Ren-kun?"
"Please don't say that Kioko, you can't blame me for trying to make those childish tests a bit more interesting right?"
After the 50-meter dash test, Hayato no longer had the heart to continue with another challenge, the tests were way too boring for him after all. Because of that, Hayato's performance in the next tests dropped to a level similar to Dante and Kioko who were simply not trying, and since Hayato didn't want to compete anymore, then Ren no longer had a reason to try too, so his results also dropped significantly.
'Their results dropped a lot... Does that mean that the speed they had during the first test was a one-time thing? Perhaps it is something extremely draining for them and they can't keep it up for long.'
Without knowing, Hayato and Ren's performance drop made the other students believe that the speed they had during the dash test was the result of them going all out and overtaxing themselves, Aizawa was the only one who knew that that wasn't the case at all.
'Strong quirks have big drawbacks', such a concept was well known in MHA world. Endeavour's Hell Flame, Dabi's Blue Flame, Twice's Double, Tokayami's Dark Shadow, All For One, One For All... All these characters had extremely strong quirks, and they better than anyone showed throughout the manga that strong quirks have big drawbacks.
Although Hayato and Ren had not done it on purpose, Bakugo couldn't help but find his confidence back.
'Other than their speed, they don't really have anything else to talk about, and they can't maintain such a level of speed for long... As long as I can place in a good explosion to block their course, I can then easily grab the win.'
As the students were studying each other, the softball pitch test continued. One after the other, the students continued to go up and throw the ball as far as they could.
Twenty minutes later, almost all the students had already thrown their balls. Regarding Dante, Kioko, Ren, and Hayato's performances, they all got scores ranging from seventy meters to one hundred and fifty meters. Although their performances were severely lacking compared to Bakugo's 705 meters or Uraraka's infinite score, it was still impressive enough to place them in the category of people who could pack quite the punches, especially when they didn't use any ability and only a tiny bit of their physical power.
"Alright... Midoriya! It's your turn."
When Midoriya heard Aizawa calling him, he slowly and nervously made his way toward the throwing circle. As he was making his way there, Kioko couldn't help but say...
"If things continue like that, this kid will definitely get expelled."
When Dante heard her, he couldn't help but think of that part of the anime.
'Well, at least this time it would make more sense.'
Dante had always thought that Midoriya getting last place on the quirk assessment test was just pure bullshit.
'I mean think about it... How the hell would Midoriya score less than Toru the invisible girl? That girl wasn't even able to do a single pull-up before the U.A. festival, how the hell could she beat Midoriya who had trained his body for ten months? That just doesn't make sense, hell, Toru being accepted in the hero course doesn't make sense in the first place. How come Toru go accepted and not Shinzo? She is even less capable than him in terms of fighting.'
While Dante was criticizing Kōhei Horikoshi, Kioko was busy observing Midoriya, who was currently panicking at his lack of points.
'The poor kid has it rough... He only got his quirk less than a month ago, and now he is asked to compete with people who trained their quirks for the last ten years...'
Kioko had always loved children. Although she was in reality the same age as the other kids in her class, Kioko was also technically older than even the man supposed to be her sensei.
'I can't stand the sight of kids suffering...'
Inside the throwing circle, Midoriya was currently thinking of ways to not get expelled.
'This isn't looking good! I can't work out how to use One For All properly with so little time! Everybody else had at least one trial they excelled at... Now all that's left after this is the endurance run, the toe touch thing, and the upper body exercises... If I'm going to grab a high score, it's now or never, because at this rate... I'm going to be dead last!'
As Midoriya was lost in his thoughts, he suddenly heard someone calling for him.
"Modiya-kun! Don't panic! Do your best!"
"Eh?"
The moment Midoriya looked up to find the source of the voice, his eyes met those of a beautiful young woman with long black hair. Although Midoriya never talked to that girl before, he knew that she was a friend of the man who had offered him his help during the entrance examination.
'A-A girl has encouraged me!... What a nice person!'
As Midoriya was furiously blushing after receiving the encouragement of a beautiful girl like Kioko, Dante who was next to her couldn't help but look at Kioko with a surprised face.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that from you..."
"What are you saying? I simply don't like to see children being so desperate... it reminds me too much of that hateful day..."
After hearing her, Dante, and even Hayato and Ren turned somber and nodded quietly, they all decided to not say another word.
Other than Dante and his friends, the other students too were surprised to hear Kioko encouraging Midoriya, it was also their first time hearing the sound of her voice. When he heard Kioko encouraging his childhood "friend", Bakugo couldn't help but sneer.
"Ah! Don't waste your time encouraging him! This guy has no quirk, he is bound to get expelled!"
Although she heard Bakugo, Kioko did not even look at him and immediately went back to observing Midoriya, she was dying to understand how his quirk worked. When he saw that Kioko was ignoring him, a vein appeared on Bakugo's forehead, but he held himself back from lashing out, he was still in class after all.
On Midoriya's side, receiving some encouragement allowed him to regain his composure and regain his determination, but...
'Mom... All Might... I will become a hero!'
The moment Midoriya activated his quirk and was about to break his bones and throw the ball, Aizawa prepared himself.
'Here it comes.'
Aizawa wasn't the only one waiting for that moment, Dante was too.
"Kioko-chan, you were curious about Aizawa's quirk right? Then look carefully."
"Mm? Wh-"
Before Kioko could say anything, Midoriya, cocked back his arm, and threw the ball as far as he could!
"HA!"
But...
"46 meters."
"What?! How?! I'm sure I tried to use it just now! "
The moment the ball touched the ground, Kioko who was not far quickly turned her head in Aizawa's direction with a surprised glint in her eyes.
"I erased your quirk."
The moment those words left Aizawa's mouth, Kioko finally understood what his quirk was.
"It defies reason. How did someone like you managed to enter this academy?"
Kioko wasn't the only one to realize things, Midoriya too had realized who the man before him was.
"You erased it? And those goggles... I see! You must be the hero who can cancel the quirk of whomever he is looking at! The erasing hero... Eraser Head!"
While the students were trying to remember who their sensei was, Kioko, Ren, and Hayato's reaction were different.
"The ability to erase quirks... Now that's an interesting quirk."
"Kioko is right, depending on who the user is, such a power can be really powerful."
"Mm... I wonder what would happen if he were to use his quirk on us..."
Hearing Hayato's question, Dante gave his opinion.
"Although I can't be a hundred percent sure, I think that your quirks will probably be erased, but you will still retain your ability to use your other skills."
One way to explain how Dante gave their powers to his friends was quite similar to how a gaming console could have games and mini-games at the same time. Dante's friends' bodies were the gaming console, Dusk, Lightning, and Invincible were the main games, and the other skills they had were the mini-games they installed in the gaming console. When Kioko and the others didn't want to use their main abilities, they could then use those skills instead... their skills were like mini-quirks.
"So if he were to erase your quirks, I think that it would affect your main quirks, but keep in mind that the possibility of his quirk only affecting one of your abilities also remains."
Hearing that, Hayato nodded and then asked another question.
"What about you though, Dante?"
"Me? Mm, it will probably work on me too, but that would be useless since I don't use my quirk to fight. The only way for it to effectively affect me would be if Eraser could erase what has already been dreamed, but he can't do that."
As Dante was giving his little explanation, Aizawa had already spoken his mind to Midoriya and told him how he thought that he could not become a hero.
Unlike the other students, Kioko was able to hear what Aizawa said to Midoriya loud and clear, and she wasn't exactly on board with it.
"This Eraser guy sure is telling a lot of stupid things. Although the kid's performance until now is less than satisfactory, he still has tremendous potential... Expelling him would be this school's most stupid decision, especially when today's heroes are just a bunch of weaklings."
Kioko's opinion was also shared by Ren.
"Yeah, even though he lacks control, that's something that can be easily worked on. Plus, isn't it the school's job to do exactly that? I mean what kind of top school would expel a student with tremendous potential without even trying to help him get better?"
While everybody was having their own thoughts, Midoriya prepared himself to throw the ball again. As he was about to throw the ball and Aizawa had already deemed him without potential...
'Not yet... If I keep going at it like I have been up till now, then there is no way I will ever be a hero! If I don't work a dozen times harder than everybody else... I will never make it!
At the very last instant... For the very shortest duration... I will go full power and show you what I can do!'
While Midoriya was having those thoughts, Dante who knew what was happening couldn't help but say out loud.
"Although he isn't worthy yet, I can't help but admit that this kid is... talented as hell."
And then...
"SMAAAASH!!!!!"
BOOM!!
In a fit of power, Midoriya used his full power on a single finger, and sent the ball flying far away!
"705.3 meters."
When Aizawa saw the score, he heard Midoriya's pain-laced voice.
"Sensei... I... I can still move!"
Which managed to surprise Aizawa.
"This guy..."
When the class heard his score, they too couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Wow! Another seven hundred performance!"
"Crazy!"
While everybody was looking at Midoriya in surprise, there was someone else that was looking at him, but this time with interest.
'As I thought, he is an interesting kid...'
Unbeknownst to even Dante, the flame of interest toward Midoriya that had bloomed inside Kioko had just gotten bigger.
As everybody was having different reactions, there was one particular person that seemed to be the most surprised out of everyone.
'What the fuck?! A quirk manifests at the age of four at the latest! It's impossible! And yet...'
Confronted with something he didn't comprehend and didn't want to happen, Bakugo's answer was... violence.
"What is this Deku?! Explain yourself now, you shitrag!!"
Thankfully, Aizawa quickly stopped him before he could reach Midoriya. Then, without reprimanding Bakugo, Aizawa told the class to prepare for the next tests, greatly surprising Kioko.
"Mm... I have to say that I'm getting more and more disappointed with this school..."
And just like that, the class went on with the tests.
.
..
...
"Alright, here are the results."
Just like in the anime, Midoriya ended up last, although this time it was actually a logical conclusion to the whole thing. Before Midoriya could start crying though, Aizawa then went on and said that the expulsion thing was a lie, greatly surprising the class, and even more so Hayato and his friends who were surprised for another reason.
"Why is he retracting his words? Although he says that right now, my haki told me that he was dead serious when he said that."
When Kioko heard Hayato, she couldn't help but answer him while looking at Midoriya with a smile.
"It's because he saw some potential in the kid."
After the class was done with the tests, Eraser told them to get back in class and look at their curriculum sheets.
While they were walking back to their class, Ren started to analyze the overall test results.
"In the end, first place went to that Yaoyorozu girl, the burned guy got second place, and that prideful kid ended up third..."
As he was thinking out loud, Ren was soon joined by Kioko.
"Although that Todoroki's quirk is strong, it's nothing that out of the ordinary... That Yaoyorozu girl on the other hand sure has an interesting quirk, it looks like she can create things out of her body."
"Yeah... do you have an idea of how her quirk works?"
"I don't think she can create things indiscriminately, there has to be a cost, I saw her getting tired after each use."
"Yeah, I saw that too. Since her creations are coming out of her body, we can then guess that she has to give up something present in her body to use her power... is it blood? Water? Vitality? Fat? Vitamins?"
"We also need to find out the limits of what she can create..."
As Ren and Kioko were discussing the interesting quirks they saw during the tests, a yellow-haired boy suddenly approached Ren.
"Hey there... Ren was it? My name is Kaminari Denki. I saw during the dash test that you have a quirk that lets you generate electricity, we are the same!"
Ren wasn't the only one to get approached, Hayato too was.
"I'm Kirishima Eijiro! Man, you showed some crazy speed during the first test, how did you do that?!"
Then came Kioko's turn.
"I'm Tsuyu Asui, call me Tsuyu, Musashi-chan!"
And just like that, the students of class 1-A started to bond with Dante's friend, a bond that would later lead some of them to greatness.
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After the day came to an end, Dante and his friends said goodbye to their classmates and walked toward what would be their new homes.
U.A.'s dormitory was situated inside the school's campus, a few minutes away from the school building. When they finally arrived at their destination, Dante and his crew found out that the place looked like a two-story hotel, equipped to the fullest.
As they were observing what would be their living quarters for the next months, Aizawa suddenly came out of the building.
"Looks like you guys are finally here."
When he saw him, Dante quickly bowed.
"Thank you for having us."
As Aizawa wasn't intending on wasting too much time, he quickly took them inside the building.
"Welcome to the school's dormitory. Although this place was built just in case kids in the same situations as yours were to show up, you guys are actually the only ones living here.
The building is divided into two floors, and all the living quarters, toilets, and bathrooms are upstairs. Downstairs, you can find the kitchen, living room, and dining room, the kitchen will be provisioned by the school every week so you don't have to worry about that.
Finally, just because there won't be someone to live with you doesn't mean that you can do as you please, you guys need to be responsible and disciplined. If you ever break one of the school's rules, you will immediately be expelled... Alright, that's it for me, good night."
As his friends were busy watching Aizawa leave the building, Hayato took the chance to look around.
"That's quite the luxury for a simple dormitory... U.A. sure likes to do things on a great scale."
After Aizawa was gone, Dante and the rest took the next hours to move in. When everything was done, Dante quickly gathered his friends in the living room.
"Alright guys, as you can see, this is going to be our temporary base, being the only ones here is a nice surprise so let's use this place to get stronger without causing a ruckus.
Now that that's done, I would like to get your thoughts on this first day of school, and then we will talk about our next goals here."
After Dante's little speech, the first one to talk was Kioko.
"Well, there isn't much to talk about if not that strong presence I felt during the tests."
Ren quickly added to that.
"Yeah, I was really surprised at first when I noticed it, I didn't know there was someone this strong in U.A."
Hearing them, Dante decided to not hide the identity of the presence they felt.
"That was All Might, he was there to observe us."
Hearing that, Hayato's brows rose in surprise and also confusion.
"That was All Might? So the rumors were true, he truly is teaching here... Weird, I thought he would be way stronger than that."
Hearing Hayato, Kioko and Ren could only nod and agree with him.
"Mm, I thought so too"
"Yeah."
To that, Dante simply smiled.
"There are reasons for that, but that's a story for another time, it's time to talk about our goals here, a little recap so to speak."
After that, Dante took a quick pause to organize his thoughts.
As he had said before, Dante did not come to U.A. to learn how to be a hero, he didn't care about that. What Dante was interested in, was the people that could be found there.
"Our big goal is to create the greatest hero organization this world will ever see, and for that, we need to find the members that will be a part of this team.
Right now, to the eyes of the world, we are just a group of nameless kids with nothing for themselves, we have no credibility. If we go now and ask anybody to join our cause, they will probably laugh at us and think we are funny or crazy. To avoid such a thing happening to us, we first need to prove ourselves and show to a certain someone that we are more than just simple students."
When Dante reached that point, he snapped his fingers, the air churned, and the image of a white creature that looked like a mix between a dog, a mouse, and a bear appeared in front of everybody, it was none other than the image of principal Nezu.
"Nezu is the director of U.A. Because the school managed to form heroes like All Might, Best Jeannist, Endeavour, and Edge Shot, who are all in the top 10 of the hero billboard chart JP, U.A.'s influence in the hero world is quite important. If we can gain the support of Nezu, we would then have major support in our cause, and our plan would go even more smoothly."
To Dante's words, Ren nodded in understanding.
"Indeed, if we can have the support of Nezu, then convincing the other heroes will be much easier."
When Dante saw that his friends were getting what he was trying to say, he continued.
"Earning Nezu's cooperation won't be easy, for that, we will need to show him that we are different from the rest."
To that, Hayato asked.
"What do you want us to do? Since you haven't been showing off much since we got here, I guess excelling in school isn't what you are thinking of right?"
To that, his friend smiled and answered.
"You are right, showing off our abilities during tests for children won't change anything, that would only earn us the title of genius, what I want to do is something more complex than that."
Seeing that he was about to say what was on his mind, his friends stayed silent and let him speak, and the next words spoken by Dante caught them by surprise.
"Soon, a villain organization will attack this school."
"Mm?"
"What do you mean Dante-kun?"
"Attack? Oh oh, now that's interesting!"
Seeing the surprise and confusion on his friends' faces, Dante continued.
"In a couple of days, a group of villains led by a dangerous individual will attack our class to kill All Might. Although they will probably fail, this incident will only be the start of a grand plan designed by none other than our dear friend All For One."
The moment they heard the name of their enemy, the eyes of Kioko, Ren, and Hayato immediately became cold and emotionless. Seeing that, Dante smiled and said.
"It's good to see that you guys are rearing to go, and don't worry, our chance will come.
This attack is actually a good thing for us, I want to use it to show Nezu that we are way stronger than the rest, and more importantly, I want to show him a part of my powers, more specifically, my ability to gain information."
Kioko immediately understood.
"Someone who knows what is happening behind the curtains will always have more weight to his voice."
"That's right, I want to use this opportunity to let Nezu know that he can always come to me to find the answers he needs, and also let him realize that I know more than anyone!"
Dante's plan was big, and he would need to proceed step by step for it to come to fruition.
"When Nezu realizes that, slowly but surely, my name will start to spread among those that we are interested in, and when we reach that point, we can then go on with the next phase of the plan."
After Dante was done with his explanations, Kioko smiled and said to him.
"It's good to see that you haven't been idle for the past decades."
To that, Dante smiled back and said something that made his friends smile too.
"Of course, I haven't been idle, haha, plus, I want to use this opportunity to do something else, something not related to Nezu or the other heroes.
Ren asked with curiosity.
"What is it?"
To that, a feral grin appeared for the first time on Dante's face, a grin he would only show when he was truly excited...
"I want All For One to know that... we are entering the game!"