Chapter 20: First Day Of School! A Contest Of Speed!
Japan, Musutafu, U.A. High School.
"We are finally here..."
That's what Dante said out loud as he was trying to find his class.
Seven days after the entrance examination, Dante and his friends who were back at the orphanage finally received a letter from U.A. that informed them that they were all accepted into the school. When the news spread in the orphanage, all its residents and staff went crazy, it was the first time in the history of the orphanage that some of its kids managed to enroll in a school as famous as U.A.
'The director was pretty excited...'
Even now, Dante still remembered the excited face of the orphanage's director who sent them out with tears and a beaming smile.
'He was probably even happier at the idea of not paying the school fees though.'
In the first chapter of the manga, U.A. was stated to be a national school, which meant that it was funded publicly and overseen by the central government instead of a local branch. Such a thing was good news for Dante and his friends, the orphanage would not have been able to pay for their tuition, fortunately, Dante and his friends were able to get in without problems. In addition to that, Dante was glad to hear that the school had dormitories ready for them, saving him the trouble of using his powers to solve that problem.
'Although I am capable of creating money, I'm not stupid enough to actually do it... Inflation is a scary thing. Plus, I don't really need money right now, if I do one day, I can always get some easily by using my power one way or another.'
The U.A. campus was pretty big, it took Dante and the rest ten minutes before they managed to find their class. When they finally reached their destination, they were greeted with the sight of a giant door with "1-A" written in big red letters on it.
The moment they got close, Hayato noticed that something was going on at the door.
"Oya? Isn't that the little Midoriya dude? Looks like we will be in the same class!"
Dante who had more information quickly added.
"And the girl with him is Uraraka Ochaco, the one who was ranked fifth on the exam."
When they got close enough, Midoriya and Uraraka finally noticed them, and Midoriya was even particularly surprised to see Dante.
"Ah! It's you!"
Surprised by Midoriya's outburst, Uraraka got curious.
"Do you know them?"
"Mm! I know the one in the middle with the blue eyes, he helped me during the exam!"
Hearing Midoriya, Uraraka got curious and looked at Dante. When she saw his eyes though, she couldn't help but be mesmerized.
'What a beautiful color... I wonder if his eyes are like that because of his quirk or...'
As if he could guess what she was thinking, Dante smiled and said...
"My eyes aren't like that because of my quirk, I was just born like that."
"Eh? Eeeeh?! How did you know..."
But before Dante could answer, another voice entered his ears.
"It's you!"
This time, it was Hayato who recognized the voice.
"Lord have mercy..."
"My name is Tenya Ida! I graduated from Soumei Junior High School, looks like we will be classmates from now on! Now that the introductions are done... How can you guys arrive late on your first day of school?! We are in U.A. now, we represent the elite, and we should act like it!"
As Ida was preaching his heart out, Dante simply passed by him and entered the class, his friends right behind him.
"Oh?"
As he was looking a the different members of the class, Dante quickly realized that there were some changes from the manga.
'The animal guy, the invisible girl, and the traitor aren't here... Weird, shouldn't there be one more person out? Does that mean that they accepted one more student this year?'
Dante was right, this year, U.A. had made an exception and had decided to accept two more students in the hero course.
'That means there are now twenty-one students in each class. Now the question is, were the ones who are not here not accepted in the first place, or were they placed in the other class? Mm... Well, I will have my answer sooner or later.'
As Dante was observing his new classmates, they were observing him too, with the girls being a bit more enthusiastic than the boys. Quickly, a girl with horns and pink skin came close to him and brought her face close to his.
"Whoa! Your eyes are so beautiful!"
Although he was already prepared and knew the personality of each of his classmates, Dante was nonetheless surprised by the courage of this girl.
"Thanks, I often get that."
"I can imagine! By the way, my name is Mina Ashido, nice to meet you!"
Hearing that, Dante smiled and replied.
"And I am Dante Kuroda, nice to meet you."
"Dante? That sounds Italian, are you perhaps a foreigner?"
"Mm... maybe, who knows haha."
Before Mina could say anything else, Dante heard Midoriya's voice again.
"Hum, excuse me! H-Here!"
When Dante turned around, he found Midoriya with his hands put forward, and a pair of gloves in them.
"Oh, I completely forgot about those, thanks."
"N-No, I should be the one to thank you! You even took the time to help me... I on the other hand wasn't even able to..."
While Dante was talking with Midoriya, the other students in the class were still observing him and his friends.
"Look at that girl with the black hair, what a bomb!"
"U.A. banzai!"
True to how they were depicted in the anime, the first thing Mineta and Kaminari noticed was how beautiful Kioko was, they didn't even care about the boys surrounding her.
'I can feel it, that guy is a real man!'
Another person that was interested in one of Dante's friends was Kirishima Eijiro, the boy seemed to feel that he shared something with Hayato.
Little by little, all the students from the class made their first impression of Dante and his friends. While the majority had a pretty good first impression, some saw things differently, Bakugo being one of them.
"Tcht! More mobs!"
After Bakugo, there was also a person that simply didn't care, his name was Todoroki Shoto.
"..."
And after him, some simply saw them as potential rivals like Momo Yaoyorozu or Fumikage Tokoyami.
As the students were observing each other, a new person suddenly entered the room, and in a surprising way at that.
"Uwah! What's that?!"
Uraraka's outburst quickly caught the class's attention, and soon, they found the source of the problem.
"A... worm?"
At Midoriya's question, the "worm" answered...
"If you are gonna be hunting for buddies, do it elsewhere... This is the department of heroics..."
After he said that, the "worm" got up, and a man came out of it.
"Hmm, it took you lot eight seconds to calm down... Life is short kids, you are all lacking common sense."
While the students were still shocked, Dante was having different thoughts.
'And here he comes in the flesh... It's hard to know by watching the anime, but this guy sure is in a bad shape...'
After he was done with the sermon, the man finally introduced himself.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota... Pleasure meeting you."
After he was done with the introduction, Aizawa took his sleeping bag and pulled a training garb out of it.
"Wear these immediately, and then shove off to the P.E. grounds."
After he was done, Aizawa left without saying another word. As he was leaving, Kioko couldn't help but evaluate him.
"He looks capable. Looking at his trained body and that scarf-like weapon around his neck, probably something to restrain his targets, it's easy to guess that he is someone who fights up close. The question now is... what is his quirk..."
Hearing Kioko's evaluation of Aizawa, Dante simply smiled and left her guessing.
"The answer will come soon enough, now let's go."
.
..
...
""""""A quirk apprehension test?!""""""
"What about the ceremony?! And the guidance counselor meeting?!"
To Uraraka's question, Aizawa's answer was simple.
"If you want to be heroes, we don't have time for frilly niceties.
You all understand the school's reputation for freedom on campus right? Well, that 'freedom' goes for us senseis too."
After the students heard that, they finally seemed to realize what kind of school they would stay in for the next three years.
"Softball pitch, standing long jump, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength test, sustained side-ways jumps, upper-body exercises, seated-toe touch...
These are all activities you know from middle school, activities where you were barred from using your quirks."
Aizawa then went on and explained how there still wasn't a standard for those kinds of data and how they were useless anyway.
"Bakugo, you ended up first on the entrance exam, how far could you pitch a softball in middle school?"
"Mm? 67 meters."
"Try using your quirk this time around. As long as you don't exit the circle, everything is fine... and don't hold back."
"Alright then..."
After receiving Aizawa's instructions, Bakugo went into the designated circle and then took some momentum...
'With the shockwave of my explosion...'
"DIIIIEE!!!"
BOOM!!!
By using his quirk, Bakugo created an explosion, using its shockwave to blow the ball far away! When Eraser saw the ball fly away, he continued.
"Before anything else, one must know what they are capable of..."
A few seconds later, the phone in Aizawa's hand beeped, and a series of numbers appeared on it.
705.2m
"This is a rational metric that will form the basis of your hero foundation"
When the students saw Bakugo's record and understood that they could use their quirks without restraint, they immediately became excited!
"Awesome! That looks so fun!"
"705 meters?! Unreal!"
"We can really use our quirks now?! That's the department of heroics for you!"
While the kids were getting more and more excited, Ren saw things more logically.
'Well, that's indeed a good way to find out how much potential each one of them has. It's also a good way for Aizawa to know what they can and can't do so that he can later design a better training program for them.'
When Aizawa saw that the kids weren't taking things seriously, he suddenly decided to up the stakes.
"'That looks fun' eh? Did you think that the next three years here would be 'fun'? What happened to becoming heroes?"
The more he spoke, the lower Aizawa's tone got, sending shivers down the students' spines.
"All right then. In that case, here is a new rule: the students who rank last in total points will be judged 'hopeless' and... instantly expelled.
Our freedom means we dispose of students as we please... Welcome to the department of heroics!"
When the students heard that, the majority of them went into a panic and found it unfair, only Dante, Kioko, Ren, Hayato, Bakugo, Todoroki, and a couple of other confident students stayed calm and collected.
"Natural disasters... Massive Accidents... Ego-mad villains... All kinds of calamities can happen when we least expect them. Japan's now positively drenched in 'unreasonable', and it's our job as heroes to reverse it all and restore reason.
If you were counting on a friendly chat at the local McDonald's after school that's too bad. From now on, for the next three years, all you can expect from your life in U.A. is one hardship after the next.
This is PLUS ULTRA.
I expect you to overcome these trials and climb to the top!"
.
..
...
Not long after Aizawa's speech, the series of tests finally began, and as they always did, Ren and Hayato used that opportunity to compete again.
"Ha! Although you won last time, it won't be that easy this time, prepare yourself, Ren! You will lose today!"
"Haha, alright Hayato, come!"
Seeing her two friends back at it again, Kioko rolled her eyes and then looked at Bakugo who was standing not far from her.
"That kid's quirk is indeed powerful, he has a lot of potential."
Hearing her, Dante nodded but soon added something else.
"He indeed has a lot of room for growth, but people with potential aren't that rare, people with a strong heart are."
When she heard him say this, Kioko could only agree with him. Power and money were the same, they both would push someone to show their true colors and only those with a strong heart could stay the same.
Next, Dante turned toward Ren and Hayato.
"You guys can compete if you want, but don't go overboard alright?"
When they heard him, Ren and Hayato laughed.
"Of course."
"This time, you will lose Ren!"
Soon, the first test began, it was the 50-meter dash.
The test in itself was simple, the students would go up in groups of two, and after a robot gave the signal, the students would run as fast as possible toward the finish line where they would get their time.
The first students to go up were Ida and Tsuyu Asui, a girl with frog traits.
"On your mark... ready... go!"
The moment the robot gave the signal, Ida used his quirk "Engine" and ran as fast as he could! Although she wasn't as fast as her classmate, Asui still used her frog traits to jump her way to the finish line. In the end, Ida crossed the fifty meters in three seconds, while Tsuyu finished in five seconds fifty-eight.
After Ida and Asui were done, Aizawa then called the other students one after the other, who would then use their quirks in ways that would help them get the best results possible.
Soon enough, it was finally Ren and Hayato's turn.
"I honestly don't understand why you keep challenging me in speed contests while clearly knowing that it's where I excel at..."
"Ah! Who said that you were the fastest among us?! I don't remember showing you how fast I really am Ren!"
While the duo was bickering on the finish line, Kioko couldn't help herself from asking Dante.
"Who do you think will win Dante-kun?"
Hearing her question, Dante turned towards Kioko with a teasing smile.
"Oya? Oya oya? Oya oya oya? Is our precious Kioko-chan finally interested in one of their duels??"
"I will kill you."
"Hahahaha, sorry sorry! It's just that you never seem to be interested in this kind of thing."
"Just answer the damn question..."
"Alright, alright haha... Well, it's actually a reasonable question, I'm the only one who knows what your abilities are after all..."
That's right, Kioko knew nothing about Ren and Hayato's techniques, and it was the same for the others. Dante was the only one who knew all their abilities since he was the one who had to give them their powers in the first place.
"Hmph, we do it for safety. If any of us were to get captured, at least he wouldn't be able to give more information about the others than what is already known... Plus, no warrior wants the world to know their life-saving skills, not even their closest kin."
After hearing her, smiled and finally answered her question.
"Well, when it comes to speed, Ren is above Hayato for sure... but that's only in general."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say that Hayato has ways of fighting on equal terms with Ren on short distances... he can probably even beat him."
"Oh?"
While Dante and Kioko were talking, Ren and Hayato were finally ready to go, and the robot started the countdown.
"On your mark..."
While Ren and Hayato were getting ready to run, the other students also took this opportunity to gain more information on the quirks of their classmates, while Aizawa wanted to gain more information on this particular duo who showed a stellar performance during the entrance exam.
'If I remember correctly, the one with the blue air has an emitter-type quirk, he can generate and manipulate lightning. From what we have seen during the entrance exam, he is capable of moving as fast as lightning.
Regarding the second one, he seems to have a mutation-type quirk that grants him a superhuman level of strength. Although he is not at All Might's level, it is still an extremely powerful quirk."
As Aizawa was lost in his thoughts, the robot, finally gave the go.
"... ready... go!"
'Soru!'
'Lightning Chakra mode!'
BANG!!
The moment the robot gave the signal, both Ren and Hayato kicked the ground hard and bolted toward the finish line. Fifty meters was nothing for people as physically strong as them, the moment they moved, their silhouettes immediately became a blur to everybody except Dante and Kioko!
The moment they started to run, the world around the duo immediately slowed down. While he was in that state, Hayato looked at Ren who was already in front of him, electricity blazing around him.
'Damn, he is fast haha... but I can be even faster!'
Feeling the air around Hayato changing, Dante who could also see everything in slow motion, thought...
'He is about to use 'that'...'
With a feral grin, Hayato finally activated a skill that could allow him to fight on even grounds with Ren on short distances, a skill that could even allow him to possibly... defeat him!
'Moa Moa Ju-bai Soku!'
Suddenly, Hayato's body accelerated even more, and before Ren could do anything, Hayato passed him and...
"0.8 secondes... 1 seconde."
Before anybody could react, the robot who had managed to track the duo's movements, announced their time, causing a ruckus among the students.
"What the?!"
"Less than a second?!
"So fast!"
"That reached the finish line almost instantaneously..."
Even Bakugo couldn't stay as indifferent as he was before.
'Such speed... it's just like All Might!'
At that moment, Bakugo Katsuki experienced his first moment of doubt. Although it wasn't much, it was still only the first time of a long series of similar things that would happen in the future.
After Hayato reached the finish line, he turned around and looked at Ren with a victorious smile before yelling while doing the V sign...
"VICTORY!!!"
After seeing Hayato's antics, Ren simply laughed and congratulated him.
"Hahaha! Looks like you got me on this one Hayato... I didn't know you could go that fast..."
Hearing his friend praise, Hayato humbly replied.
"Nah, you are still faster than me, it's only a trick that I can use to move faster on short distances... In the end, speed is really your thing haha."
While the two friends were busy complementing each other, Kioko was already analyzing what happened.
"I see... A skill that allows him to boost his speed by at least ten times... The question is, is ten times the maximum or can he go even faster..."
Hearing Kioko's analysis, Dante simply smiled.
"Who knows haha."
While he was laughing, Dante couldn't help but think of the ability Hayato had used to grab the win.
'The Moa Moa no Mi... a devil fruit that shortly appeared in the movie One Piece: 3D2Y, it's a Paramecia-class Devil Fruit that allows its user to amplify the size, speed, and strength of any object they touch. It was eaten by a guy named Byrnndi World or something if I remember correctly... That's a fitting ability for someone like Hayato haha.
The quirk apprehension test was just getting started.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone