Puppet Strings

Chapter Five

It was the perfect day; the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and there was a light breeze to make sure the air was not too hot, and not too cold. Aizawa and Alluna led class 1-A out onto the school grounds. The students had changed and they were now here for the quirk assessment, the rules of which Aizawa had explained to Alluna that morning. Alluna stood a meter or two away from Aizawa as he faced the class, bustling with questions.

"What about the entrance ceremony? Or guidance sessions? And um, why is there a little kid here?" Uraraka asked.

Alluna frowned.

"No time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes. As for Alluna, she's here to watch. Don't bother her and don't let her distract you."

"O-okay?"

"UA is known as a freestyle education system, that applies to us teachers as well." Aizawa started his speech.

"Softball throwing. The standing long jump. The 50-meter dash. Endurance running. Grip strength. Side-to-side stepping. Upper body training. Seated toe touch. You did all these in middle school, yes? Your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests. This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating.

"Bakugo. How far could you throw in middle school?"

"Sixty-seven meters," the explosive boy grunted.

"Great. Now try it with your quirk. Do whatever you need, just don't leave the circle. Give it all you've got."

Alluna and the other students watched as Bakugo warmed up his arms. With his quirk, he should be able to throw pretty far.

He reared back, and yelled. "Die!"

The ball flew into the air with a huge boom. The wind nearly knocked Alluna back a step.

The grounds were silent as the robot let out its result. "705.2 meters."

The field immediately exploded with people talking.

"Whoa, this is awesome!"

"705 meters! Seriously?"

"So we can use our quirks for real! Man, the hero course is great!"

Alluna couldn't help but smile at their excited chatter. But she couldn't help the rising wave of jealousy that followed. These kids could use their quirks without worry. Why couldn't she? No, these thoughts are dangerous. She shook them away, gazing up as Aizawa spoke.

"Awesome, you say?" he loomed forward. "You're hoping to become heroes after three years here, and you think it'll be all fun and games? Right. The one with the lowest scores across all eight events will be judged hopeless...and expelled."

Alluna looked around at the shocked faces of the students, and recalled Yamada's words. Was that what he meant?

"Your fates are in our hands," Aizawa continued.

"Welcome to the UA hero course."

~~~

While the tests began, Alluna leaned over to Aizawa. He bent down so she could whisper to his ear. "Yamada-san told me to not let you expel anyone on the first day."

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "I'll try. This is a tactic to make sure everyone tries their very best, but if I don't sense potential in someone, I'll expel them anyways. No use having them here if they can't become a hero."

Underneath her hair, Alluna frowned. What about me? But she nodded. "Okay."

The two watched as 1-A completed the 50-meter dash. The fastest was a boy with blue hair and glasses whose quirk took the form of engines on his calves.

"The younger brother of Engenium," Aizawa mentioned. Alluna nodded, pretending she knew who that was.

The students completed the other tests with decent results. Alluna thought it was entertaining watching the various quirks of the students. Her jealousy rose with each astonishing feat, but she pushed it away. The sky was too pretty for stains like this. It was quite clear that these children were hero students. They all had strong, beautiful quirks — befitting that of a hero's. Everyone had found something they were great at — be it sidestepping or long-jumping, everyone except Midoriya.

Midoriya was the green haired kid from the entrance exam — the one who had saved Uraraka. He had earned sixty rescue points and he obviously had a strong quirk; so why didn't he use it? His results were ordinary at best, and at this point he would end up in twentieth place. Aizawa might even decide he "didn't have potential" and expel him. His quirk wasn't bad like hers — from the entrance exam she was able to tell that it was a strength-based quirk.

But, it did hurt his arm. Could that be why he didn't use it?

Her theory was proven correct during Midoriya's ball throw. Aizawa erased his quirk.

"You cannot become a hero with that quirk of yours."

Alluna flinched back, hearing his words. She wasn't stupid, she knew it wasn't directed towards her, but she still felt hurt. This was proof; quirks could define people. A "bad" quirk would determine your future – not a hero's for sure.

So what would he do? Would use his quirk and end up injured? Or would he decide not to and end up with the worst score? It wasn't a good choice either way.

But Midoriya's next actions astonished Alluna.

He reared back, and whipped his arm forwards, at the last second hitting the ball using just his fingertip with all his might. The ball shot into the air.

"705.3 meters."

Alluna and Aizawa stared, eyes wide.

Midoriya slowly turned around, holding his finger. He had a grim but determined look on his face. "Sensei...I can still move."

~~~

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