Playing the Hero

Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one, I forgot which chapter I was supposed to post and accidently made another piece of art for chapter 3 instead of 4!

No TW for this chapter!

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Vallerie knew something was up with the green hair guy when he just stood there, staring at his hand, like a weirdo. Not that Vallerie was one to judge but still, why the hand? What did he do with that hand that was so special? Vallerie could feel him start to freak out, like really panicking. They swore they could see him shaking.

She looked back at her teacher for a moment, was his gaze really that intimidating? Vallerie didn't really think so. "Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs. Understand?" Mr. Aizawa spoke up, eyes still locked on the poor boy. "If that's a problem you can head home right now." He stated. Vallerie turned their head as the girl with rosy-cheeks stepped forward, "You can't send one of us home! I mean, we just got here! Even if it wasn't the first day, that isn't fair." she protested, Vallerie wasn't sure if she agreed with that, doing something big like this was a good way to see how these students acted under pressure, but at the same time, too much pressure could greatly impact their performance. It was a fine line to balance on.

"Oh and you think natural disasters are?" Mr. Aizawa retaliated, "Or power hungry villains, hm? Or catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities? No. The world is full of unfairness, it's a Hero's job to try to combat that unfairness." The class watched in silence and Aizawa continued his speech. "If you want to be a Pro you have to push yourself to the brink, for the next three years, U.A will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So go beyond, Plus Ultra style. Show it's no mistake that you're here." he gestured at the class, wagging a finger in a 'come at me' or 'show me what you got motion'. It was quite a good speech, Vallerie could practically hear the inspiring music in the background.

"Now then, we're just wasting time by talking, let the games begin." At that sentence, Vallerie could feel excitement coursing throughout their body, feathers raised to attention, and fingers twitched with anticipation.

The first test was the fifty-metre dash. Easy peasy. She patiently waited her turn, a great challenge for a girl as wound up as her. She walked up to the starting line, put her feet in position and waited. The robotic voice of the timing machine filled the air, and Vallerie tensed,

"Runners on your marks! Ready!"

Vallerie sprung forward the second they heard the shot fired, merging with the energy around her, she became as fast as light, and reached the ending mark, coming back into physical form as the machine announced her time. "0.5 seconds!" she smiled to herself as she waited for the other person to finish the dash. Faster than usual, but only by point two seconds. Still faster, though. The girl she was running with, who had an invisibility quirk, finished at ten seconds.

Vallerie watched as the others went, pair by pair. There was the pink girl Teruhashi had flipped off earlier, she had an acid quirk. Another blond with a sparkly laser that shot from his bellybutton.

"Shooting my beautiful beam for more than a second hurts my tummy." He announced once he had finished his run. Why he would explain a weakness to people that he would probably fight against was beyond Vallerie, it was just a plain stupid move to give information like that away to anybody. Explosion boy and green hair dude were up next. As expected, explosion boy got a fairly good mark. Not as good as the engine leg kid from earlier, though. Once they watched the rest of the class speed by, they moved on to the next test.

Grip strength was next on the list, she placed second. Aizawa said anything goes, so she used her vines to help increase her strength. Sure, it felt a little like cheating to her, but the teacher didn't say anything, so she did it regardless. Standing long jump came after, again, she placed high, using a burst of energy while she was in the middle of the air to propel herself forward. Repeated side steps she absolutely crushed, dents were left in the ground from how fast she went. Before the next event, they took a moment to appreciate how hard Adeline had pushed them their entire life, sure, sometimes it made her feel terrible both inside and out, and yeah okay maybe it wasn't the healthiest way to live. But she was winning! And according to Adeline, nothing else mattered as long as you win.