MHA Universe, Earth, Japan, Musutafu.
"Today, we'll be performing a series of exercises to assess the power of your [Quirks]." Shota said while spinning the softball in his hand. "Now, I'm sure you've all done all these exercises in middle school. But you were not allowed to use your [Quirks] back then. Well, this time you'll be able to see exactly what you can do with your [Quirks]."
Hearing that, the students of Class 1-A showed expressions filled with excitement.
"Hell yeah!" Denki exclaimed excitedly.
"This will be fun." Mina said while pumping her fists in the air.
"This is so manly." Eijiro shouted while flexing his arms.
While those three were the loudest of the students, there were not too many students who were not excited to be able to use their [Quirks] more. Unfortunately, because they were so excited, they did not notice Shota's changes in expression.
'They don't have the right mindsets.' Shota thought to himself while looking over the students. When his eyes fell on Tatsuo, Akatsuki, and Sakura, however, he nodded slightly. 'Those three look different, though. Maybe All Might was right about them.'
"So, you think this is fun?" Shota said, cutting through all the excited chatter. "You're all just here to have fun, huh? Fine then... Let's put an end to that. Effective immediately. The one with the lowest overall score will be expelled."
"What!?" A collective shout came from the students.
"That's not fair!" Ochaco said indignantly, lowering her head a moment later when Shota glared at her. "We worked so hard to get into U.A. How can you expel us on the first day."
"Heh!" Shota tutted mockingly as he narrowed his eyes. "This is my class. And things will go the way I say they do. If you don't like it, you're free to leave."
Naturally, after trying so hard to get into U.A.'s Hero Course, no one was willing to just leave. As a result, the excited atmosphere was completely replaced with one filled with apprehension and competition.
'Good.' Shota thought while nodding internally. 'Now they look like real aspiring Heroes.'
Letting his gaze wander over the students for a moment longer, Shota's eyes eventually fell on SAkura.
"Matou-Kun, step forward." Shota ordered.
Without changing her expression, Sakura followed the order, approaching the circle Shota was standing in. When she arrived, Shota handed her the softball.
"You were first in the entrance exam. So, you'll go first." Shota said calmly as he stepped out of the circle. "You've done this softball throwing exercise in middle school, correct? What was your best distance in middle school?"
"forty-seven meters." Sakura replied calmly.
Hearing that, Shota nodded his head. Then, he picked up a device that was placed near the circle and showed it to Sakura and the rest of the class. On one side of the device, there was a handle and a display screen. On the other side, there was a sensor. More than likely, that sensor was connected to something in the ball.
"Good." Shota said as he pointed the device into the distance. "This time, I want you to use your [Quirk] to throw the ball. Let's see how much further you can throw it in this case. The only condition is that you cannot step outside of the circle."
"Understood." Sakura replied with a nod.
Sakura then turned in the same direction Shota was pointing the device. She then took a deep breath and activated her [Quirk]. In the next instant, Sakura's shadow extended before it rose from the ground in the form of a giant, muscular arm.
"Whoa! That's amazing!" Toru exclaimed.
"If you think that's amazing, you should have seen her in the entrance exam." Eijiro said while shuddering minutely. "This was nothing compared to that."
Hearing Eijiro, Sakura glanced in his direction momentarily.
'He was in my group?' Sakura asked herself. 'I don't remember seeing him at all. Well, not that I was really looking. But I guess it's good that I held back towards the middle of the test. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made it into the school, at all.'
After that thought passed, Sakura returned her attention to the task at hand. She then controlled the shadow arm to reel back into a throwing posture. Then, she let it throw the ball with all its might.
*Beep!*
A few seconds later, the device in Shota's hands beeped, signaling that the ball stopped moving. He then checked the distance himself before showing it to the class.
609.74 m
Seeing the distance, many of the students widened their eyes while a few of them showed expressions that shouted, I'll beat her.
"As you can see, a [Quirk] can greatly augment your physical abilities." Shota said after the excitement died down a little. "And we're here to see just how much you're capable of at this very moment. With that said, let's move to the first exercise, the fifty meter dash."
With that, Shota put the device down and started moving toward the nearby track, closely followed by the students. He then separated the twenty students into five groups of four to run at the same time. And because the distance was not too long, this event did not take too long to finish. And there were a few stand out participants in terms of speed.
First, was Tatsuo, who simply [Blinked] to the finish line once the signal was given, taking less than a second to complete the run. Next was the bespectacled boy, Tenya. With his [Quirk], [Engine], which caused him to grow car-like engines from each of his calves. As a result, his running speed was quite impressive, as he finished the dash in 3.04 seconds. And the third stand out student, with a time of 4.13 seconds, was Katsuki, who used his [Explosion Quirk] as propulsion to increase his speed greatly. Lastly, Akatsuki managed to cover the fifty-meter distance in 4.37 seconds thanks to her increased speed and agility granted to her by her [Quirk].
The next event tested grip strength. And the one who stood out the most in that event was Shoji Mezo. With is [Quirk], [Dupli-Arms], that allowed him to create enhanced copies of parts of his body on the tentacles that grew from his torso, his natural grip strength was amplified when he created an additional hand for the test. With an impressive score of 540 kg, he came in first in this test.
Izuku also put a fairly good showing, achieving a grip strength of 360 kg when he used [One for All] to the limit of what his body could handle. Then, there were Tatsuo and Sakura, who achieved grip strengths of 300.76 kg and 476 kg, respectively.
The third test was the standing long jump. And with the use of their [Quirks], many of the students were able to clear the sand pit used to measure distance. Though, there was no one who really stood out above the rest.
The fourth test was repeated side steps. Using their [Quirks], everyone put on a respectable showing in this event, as well. Though, there was nothing special to mention during the test.
The fifth event saw the students returning to the softball throw. And that allowed many of the students to show off, once again. For example, Katsuki, just as he released the ball, while shouting his catch phrase, "Die!", launched the ball 705.2 meters. Then, there was Ochaco, with the use of her [Zero Gravity Quirk], who achieved a throw that reached an infinite distance. Izuku also put up a commendable score of 400.91 meters thanks to using [One for All]. And the last one to throw, Tatsuo, caused many of the students to drop their jaws in surprise.
"Okay, you're the last one." Shota said as he handed the ball to Tatsuo. "Show us what you can do."
Nodding in response, Tatsuo accepted the ball. Then, he backed up to one edge of the circle before taking a throwing stance.
After a deep breath, he took two crow hops forward as he tensed his right arms. At the same time, the nails on his left hand began to glow in a blackish-purple light. He then brought his arms forward, the left one first, to throw the ball.
However, as Tatsuo's left arm streaked forward, his nails tore a hole in space. And on the other side of that hole, the scenery of Musutafu from the top of Alfonzo's building could be seen. Then, in the next instant, his right arm snapped forward, launching the ball through the tear in space. The tear snapping shut a moment later.
"What the...?" Sero Hanta, a tall, lean young man with spiky, black, chin-length hair exclaimed in surprise.
"Did he just create a worm hole?" Sato Rikido, a tall, muscular, broadly built young man with short, spiky, brown hair asked in a dumbfounded tone.
"That's insane..." Toru muttered in amazement.
*Beep!*
5,347.6 m.
"Hmm... Not bad, I guess." Tatsuo said nonchalantly. "I could have opened the gate further away, but it would have taken up too much stamina. And there are three tests left."
After speaking, Tatsuo shrugged his shoulders before walking out of the circle and rejoining the rest of the class.
Seeing how nonchalant Tatsuo was, the two students with the greatest desire to be the best in class, Bakugo Katsuki and Todoroki Shoto, a relatively tall young man with short, half-white and half-red hair, white on the right and red on the left, and heterochromatic eyes, dark grey on the right and turquoise on the left, stared at him intensely.
Shota did not give them time to discuss the matter any further, however, as he ushered them to the next test. However, there was not much to talk about from the final three exercises, a long-distance run, seated toe-touches, and sit-ups. Though, thanks to their training, everyone did fairly well in these events.
And just like that, after a few hours, the [Quirk] Apprehension Test came to an end, and Shota and the students were once again gathered where everything began. And this time, instead of being filled with excitement, many of the students who felt they did not perform well were quite nervous. Especially when they remembered Shota saying that the worst performing student would be expelled.
On a side note, a certain blond-haired, muscular Symbol of Piece had been sneaking around to watch his successor's test the entire time. However, other than Tatsuo and Akatsuki, no one seemed to be able to detect him, despite how abysmal his stealth skills were.
"Alright, now it's time to see the final results." Shota said in his usual tone. "Oh... By the way, that thing I said about expelling you if you came in last... It was a lie. A necessary deception to make you put everything you had into this test."
"What~~~~~!?" The class chorused in surprise.
"That makes perfect sense." Tenya said after regaining his wits. "There's no way someone would be expelled on the first day of school, after all."
While most of the other students nodded along with Tenya's opinion, Tatsuo, Akatsuki, and Sakura all exchanged glances before shaking their heads simultaneously.
'I wonder how long it will take for them to realize that there is no Class 2-A.' Tatsuo, Akatsuki, and Sakura thought at the same time. 'When they do, they'll understand that they were truly in danger of being expelled today.'
"Anyway, now that the test is over, you all can see your overall rankings." Shota said, his expression not giving away that his recent deception was the real deception.
{[Quirk] Apprehension Test Overall Results]
Rank Name
1. Soramoto Tatsuo
2. Yaoyorozu Momo
3. Todoroki Shoto
4. Matou Sakura
5. Bakugo Katsuki
6. Hanekura Shizuka
7. Ida Tenya
8. Midoriya Izuku
9. Tokoyami Fumikage
10. Shoji Mezo
11. Kirishima Eijiro
12. Ashido Mina
13. Uraraka Ochaco
14. Sato Rikido
15. Asui Tsuyu
16. Aoyama Yuga
17. Sero Hanta
18. Kaminari Denki
19. Jiro Kyoka
20. Hagakure Toru}
"Oh my God!" Toru cried in relief. "If Aizawa-Sensei wasn't just lying to motivate us, I would have been expelled. My heart can't take this."
"It's okay, Hagakure-San." Momo said in a consoling tone. "Because of that, you gave it your best. And that's all anyone could ask for."
"Yeah, you're right." Toru replied, her body language making it clear that she was both excited for the future and relieved. She then raised her arms in front of her chest, presumably clenching her fists, as well. "This just means I have to work harder."
"That's the spirit!" Mina cheered.
"That's enough." Shota said, cutting off the chatter. "That's it for today. Go back and get changed. Proper classes will begin tomorrow. As for the rest of today, use it to familiarize yourselves with the campus if you want. Or don't. It doesn't really matter to me."
With that, Shota left without another word, leaving the students to their own devices. When he did, Tatsuo was swarmed with people wanting to know more about his [Quirk] while all the students made their way to the locker rooms.
Meanwhile, Shota made his way to where Toshinori had been hiding.
"So, are you satisfied with the results?" Shota asked in his usual tone.
"More than satisfied." Toshinori replied with his signature smile. "The next generation of Heroes will probably been even stronger than ours."
"That remains to be seen." Shota said as he turned to watch the students leave the field. "But... If they put in as much effort in their training as they did in today's test, things are definitely looking promising."
Hearing that, Toshinori's smile widened. A moment later, however, he flinched when he saw the time on the large clock mounted on U.A.'s main building.
"Well then, Aizawa." Toshinori said, his toen confident as ever. "It's time that I leave. I need to finalize the content for my first class tomorrow afternoon."
"You mean you need to memorize the script the principal created for you, right?" Shota shot back while rolling his eyes.
*Cough* Anyway... It's time I be on my way." Toshinori said, an embarrassed blush coloring his cheeks.
Then, without another word, Toshinori dashed away from Shota. Meanwhile, Shota spent the next few seconds watching Toshinori go. Then, he followed him towards the main building to take care of his own responsibilities.