As the class makes its way to the P.E. grounds, I think about my initial impression of Aizawa-sensei. He's antisocial, reclusive, uncaring about most things, fatigued, and most importantly, bored out of his mind. However, he's been a teacher at U.A. for a long time. He must have something to offer.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I wait for Aizawa-sensei to tell his plans. Meanwhile, I look for Hanada-san. No, Hanada-chan. If we are going to be friends, I should call her by a less formal name. If she will allow me.
I see her standing at the edge of the group and make my way toward her. She's leaning a bit on her cane. And her cane isn't just any geriatric cane. For the first time, I can see the head of the cane. It has the head of an eastern silver dragon, complete with fangs, snout, and eyes. For eyes, there are onyx stones in place. It's quite a work of art.
She dips her head a little at me and faces Aizawa-sensei.
"Today all of you will be taking a Quirk Apprehension Test."
A girl with short, brown hair exclaims, "What about the ceremony! And the guidance counselor meeting!"
"If you want to be heroes, we don't have time for frilly niceties. Besides, there is a welcome party after school tonight. You can attend that.
"You all understand the school's reputation for freedom on campus. Well, that 'freedom' goes for us senseis, too." He looks around at all of us.
Everyone waits for him to continue.
"Softball pitch. Standing long jump. 50-meter dash. Endurance running. Grip strength test. Sustained sideways jumps. Upper body exercises. Seated toe-touch. These are all activities you know from middle school, naturally. Physical tests where 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 the negligence of MEXT.
"Bakugou, how far could you pitch a softball in middle school?"
"67 meters," that ash-blonde, angry dude from class replies.
He calls Bakugou over to a circle drawn in the field and tosses a softball to him. "Try using your quirk this time around. As long as you don't exit the circle, anything you do is fine. Don't hold back."
Bakugou says "You got it," and to my confusion, he yells "DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" and explodes, rather than throws, the ball into the air.
Aizawa-sensei measures the distance on his phone and shows to the class and him a range of 705.2 meters. "Before anything else, one must know what they're capable of. This is a rational metric that will form the basis of your 'hero foundation.'"
I'm glad that I gave Sensei the benefit of the doubt. Impressive score. And Sensei's logic makes sense. Gauging our skills and potential now to determine our standings as future heroes.
Bakugou walks back with a smug look on his face. The rest of the class is cheerful, thinking that these tests will be fun. But Aizawa-sensei is not done yet.
"It looks fun you say? So you were planning to spend your three years here having a good ol' time? What happened to becoming heroes? All right then. In that case, new rule: the student who ranks last in total points will be judged 'hopeless' and instantly expelled."
The class shuts up now.
He lifts his messy hair from his face. "Our 'freedom' means we dispense with students as we please! Welcome to The Department of Heroics!"
With a steady flow of self-confidence inside me, I internally smirk to myself and think,
Let the games begin.
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Image URL: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f2/3e/fb/f23efb6827d762174a537d300b04cd92.jpg
Note: I have copied some dialogue from one of the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapter is here: https://bokunohero.online/manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-5/
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Blossoms of the Dark
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