Beast Speaker, Monster Tamer

9: Dodging Skills

"He got over 700 meters?!"

"Finally a hero-like record!"

What the?!

Gawking, Elise gave Midoriya a once over. I never knew Midoriya had quirk... the two of us were the ones who performed poorly. Even if my scores on some of them were above the national average, I could-- Elise gritted her teeth and looked away. She refused to shed the tears burning behind her eyes. Improper, a lady doesn't cry. A hero doesn't cry. Besides, it's not finished yet.

Hot air pushed past her and Elise saw the ash-blonde hair of Bakugou moving towards Midoriya. Before Elise could react, Aizawa's scarf lashed around Bakugou and prevented the boy from coming into contact with Midoriya. Strained exclamations left Bakugou's lips as he strained against it. "What the—? Those fabrics are hard!"

"They're weapons for capture, made out of carbon fiber woven together with metal wires made of a special alloy." The pro-hero sighed. "Stop making me use my quirk over and over. I have dry eye!" With a tired grumble, the hero let Bakugou go and waved his hand dismissively. "Whoever's next, get ready."

Bakugou walked back to the group of students and stood next to Elise. She gave him a comforting look. "Don't worry Katsuki, you'll beat him just fine."

The ash-blonde gave her a fiery look, vermillion eyes gleaming with anger. "Damn right I will. The bastard never said he had a quirk. Still, I'm going to wipe the ground with that shitstain," he said.

***

Wiping the sweat off her brow, Elise joined the group of students gathered around Aizawa. Even after all the strenuous activities, there was still nervous energy left in her, and Elise didn't notice her leg bouncing in her worrying. "Okay, I'll quickly tell you the results," he said, bringing out a remote. "The total is the marks you got from the tests. It's a waste of time to explain it verbally so I'll just show you."

A blue screen displayed the scores. Elise fixed her uniform collar after it got tugged out of place by her. Scanning the lower ranks, she saw that she got nineteenth out of twenty-one. The other two names below were Minoru Mineta and... Izuku Midoriya. Elise winced but at the same time was relieved that she wasn't going to get expelled.

"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion," Aizawa added.

Something reminiscent of a frog croak left Elise's mouth as her eyes bugged out of her head, shame coloring her face as a few students looked at her.

That same odd twisted grin came back on the teacher's face. "It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your quirks," he said.

Screams of incredulity erupted around Elise and she flinched, clasping her hands over her ears. One would expect any friends of Katsuki Bakugou to be used to loud noises but the sheer volume of the noises that leave class 1-A as a whole would rival an angry Loudred mob.

A tall black-haired girl spoke up, "Of course that was a lie. It should've been obvious if you just thought it through." Oh... should've thought of that, huh. How stupid of me.

"Handouts with the curriculum and such are in the classroom, so look over them when you get back," Aizawa dismissed. He looked at Elise and beckoned her to him. "Wing, come with me."

More sweat beaded on her forehead as Elise dutifully followed the teacher. She saw other students chatting amongst themselves and wished that she could have been part of them. Walking alongside the teacher, Elise tensely awaited his words.