Power Quaking - Chapter 6.1

"The one who ranks last…gets expelled?" There was a stunned silence from the vast majority of the gathered twenty-one students, and it was Ochako herself who found herself speaking up, eyes narrowing, "This is our first day here, but even if it weren't, isn't that seriously unreasonable!?" she demanded.

But it wasn't for herself. Despite the stakes, and despite the nerves that were tingling in the pit of her stomach, she was sure she wouldn't rank last, because her quirk was incredibly helpful for most of these assessment tests.

It was for the others she worried about. Her eyes flickered to the boy with wild red hair spiked like a mountain peak with two odd horn shapes styled into his hair at the front as well.

If she was right and he was RedRiot, then his quirk only allowed him to harden his body, it wouldn't help at all with the assessments here except maybe the grip test.

And what if others had quirks like that? That wasn't fair at all to them.

Aizawa-sensei though, just snorted at her words, and spoke uncaringly of the tension and palpable fear of failure emanating from the gathered glass, "Natural disasters, massive incidents, ego-mad villains and more, calamities beyond reason, the world we live in during this day in age, as the definition of unreasonable, and to be a hero is to defy it and right them for the good of the people and society," their sensei rebuked, "Let me tell you, as an educator of heroes, I have high standards. If you were counting on a friendly chat at the local burger join after school, tough luck. From now on, for the next three years, if you manage stick it, all you can expect is one hardship after another."

Ochako noted his pitch black eyes flicker to the right towards Kano who in contrast to most of the class, was eyeing their sensei with a bland unconcerned look on his face, before his eyes flickered back to them, "The first student I ever had, was a four year old brat, I was chosen specifically to teach him because my quirk could stop his. See, his quirk wasn't at all pleasant, not only was it massively destructive, but it hurt and almost killed him too, but it didn't end there," Aizawa-sensei began a tale, "I watched over that child for three months straight, watched as he cried himself to sleep every night from the sheer agony of both his quirk and how hard he had to train to build his body up just to endure his quirk, yet he didn't buckle and give in despite how many times I thought he would. He rose to the occasion and showed even back then the will needed for a true hero, the will to endure everything that came his way. He went Plus Ultra every damn day, and if you wannabe's can't even match up to the will of a four year old brat, then you aren't worthy to be heroes."

It clicked for Ochako, he was talking about Kano, right?

While most of the class was stunned into silence by the tale, and RedRiot outright burst into tears declaring how manly such a child was, her eyes flickered over to Kano.

And saw an absolutely aghast expression on his face now as he stared their sensei. His head turned and for a moment, her eyes met his own, and she blinked as his cheeks burned red and he looked away.

Yeah, the man was definitely talking about Kano. It was a cute reaction to what almost amounted to Aizawa-sensei near bragging about him as a child…but, it the heaviness of it struck her.

Because she knew Kano, not all that well, but she knew him nonetheless, and that was perhaps why it struck her more, because she knew the person behind the story.

'He told me his quirk was really painful to use originally and nearly killed him, but…it was that bad even after that?' she bit her lip as she stared at him.

It was hard to imagine with how big and strong he was, but he was only the same age as her, and there was once a time when he was just a small, scared boy in pain huh?

"I expect you all to rise to the occasion and overcome these trials I'm putting in front of you," Aizawa-sensei's bland look formed into a small almost contemptuous smirk, "Break your limits continuously, rise to the top and go Plus Ultra, show me you have what it takes to be heroes."

'I'm super far behind.' Ochako realised, her fists clenching and a determined frown appearing on her face. It seemed Kano had been training to be a hero more or less since he was a toddler. Compared to that, her efforts were paltry.

'Plus Ultra, break my limits, huh?' Ochako's determined frown flipped up into a grin, yeah, she could get behind that. If she wanted to be a hero that could provide for her parents, she needed to go all out, and then even further beyond!

"Kano, we'll be going through your assessments first," Aizawa-sensei turned to the number one ranked student, "Show your classmates what Plus Ultra means."

Kano sighed and looked over his shoulders rolling his eyes in annoyance, "What, am I a show pony or something now?" he huffed, and Ochako could still see a dusting of red on his cheeks.

Beyond maybe his brother, and the angry blonde guy, she was probably the only one who knew that it was him their sensei was talking about, but it seemed to still have embarrassed him a bit.

Which was kind of weird with how confident he always seemed to be.

"If the obnoxiously bright boots fit," sensei snorted back at him, "Now, fifty metre dash, get to it and watch the lip or I'm expelling you for insubordination."

Kano snorted right back at him, raising an eyebrow, unimpressed, "If you expel me, I'll just become a villain, how's that sound?" he shot back.

Ochako heard a few gasps of shock behind her, even somebody, the angry blonde she thought, gave a barking laugh.

"…Just get in position you brat."

_________________

There was no hiding the fact, that Aizawa-sensei was using Kano to set a standard. It wasn't fair at all, Ochako knew that from the very beginning, but she also clocked on to something else.

It might have seemed mean to show off all of Kano's results first, and show an overwhelming discrepancy in ability between him and most of the class, but it wasn't about showing them all a standard they needed to reach or surpass.

It was about installing the will to try and chase those results regardless of how obscenely more powerful he was than most. The will of a hero to overcome the odds.

And they were obscene results for sure.

Soft ball pitch - 4405.8m.
Fifty metre dash - 2.54 seconds.
Grip Strength Test - 999.99 KG

The grip test machine couldn't even fully measure his grip strength because it didn't even go that high. Even when it came to the endurance run, Ochako and the rest watched as he didn't even get tired and Aizawa-sensei had to end it early because they'd be there all day before he lost any steam. He exploded forweard on the fifty metre dash, twin orbs of light erupting from the soles of his feet and propelling him forward explosively into a blinding dash, while he repeated the same with a leap for the long jump and cleared over a hundred metres.

They were overwhelming scores across the board.

And they lit a fire in Ochako's belly when she finally got the chance to step up to the plate herself.

"Infinity!?"

"Holy cow, an infinity, she broke Midoriya's record!"

A pleased smile spread across Ochako's face at the result of her first test, the soft ball throw was tailor made for her quirk. And then she was on to the fifty metre dash herself.

And she put the work she'd done through the last few weeks of seeing some of Kano's basic muscle building tutorials to work. Her clothes lightened, and then she lightened herself for just a brief moment as he pushed off from a crouched position.

6.26 seconds.

And then she was on to the grip test. Not her best showing for sure, where she only got a 42 kg. The side jumps were a lot easier with her clothes and body lightened, and she aced the long jump by reaching over seven five metres, she struggled a bit with the seated toe touches, and was average among the class at the distance running even with her clothes lightened.

They were out there for hours.

But finally, it came to a close. And with baited breath, the class on nearly as a whole palpable with nerves-

The results of the assessment were revealed.

"GOD DAMNIT!" the angry blond exploded with a roar almost immediately at the results displayed holographically above Aizawa-sensei's smart device.

1) Kano Midoriya
2) Katsuki Bakugou
3) Izuku Midoriya
4) Momo Yaoyarozo
5) Tenya Iida
6) Shoto Todoroki
7) Ochako Uraraka
8) Mezo Shoji
9) Mashiraoi Ojiro
10) Ejiro Kirishima
11) Tsuyu Asui
12) Mina Ashido
13) Tokoyami Fumikage
14) Mineta Minoru
15) Rikido Sato
16) Hanta Sero
17) Yuga Aoyama
18) Koji Koda
19) Toru Hagakure
20) Kyoka Jiro
21) Kaminari Denki

"Bastard, making me number two again!?" the angry blonde, who's name was Bakugou apparently raged.

While another bright blonde, literally slumped to his knees, "Oh man, no you gotta be kidding me, my first day here and I'm already getting kicked out….this sucks!" he shouted, before trailing off into a defeated whimper.

Ochako winced, a surge of pity welling up inside her for the boy. Kaminari was his name, and from what she'd overheard, he had a pretty powerful quirk that let him let loose blasts of electricity, sadly though, nothing that would have helped with the assessment despite the power of his quirk.

"Hmm, not bad I suppose, least none of you buckled, I suppose you can all proudly state that you don't lose outright to a four year old, maybe, well, we'll see going forward I suppose," Aizawa-sensei mused blandly, before giving a grin, "Oh…by the way, that whole expulsion thing was a lie, a logical ruse if you will to pull out your best performances."

…Eh?

"Whaaaaaat!?" an explosion of outraged cries erupted from the class and Ochako was not at all ashamed to admit that she was amongst them.

There was sigh at her side and Ochako looked to see the tall girl with the ebony black hair done up in a high ponytail shaking her head in exasperation, "C'mon you guys, use yours brains," she shook her head, "Of course it was just a ruse."

"He's lying," Kano who was standing not far away and hadn't really spoken much so far during the tests said, his eyes on Aizawa-sensei as he man walked away while dismissing them for the day, apparently they were getting a half day for their first day after pushing their limits, "I don't blame you for not realising it Yaoyorozu, but if he thought any of you didn't have potential to be a hero, he would have expelled you on the spot."

"…Eh?" it was the girls time to be surprised. Yaoyorozu froze and her mouth went agape, "Are…you serious?" she asked, swallowing heavily.

"Believe me if you want, or not, but I'm wholly serious." Kano shrugged and walked away, following after Aizawa-sensei, "Nice going out there." he praised Ochako as he passed, giving her a small smile.

Yaoyorozu stared after him mouth agape.

"Ah, thanks." she beamed at him. He didn't stick around though so she couldn't get to say anything more to him.

…Wait, where was he going actually? Aizawa-sensei was walking the completely different way from where they had to go to the changing rooms?

'Eh, whatever, I'll ask him later, now's time to celebrate!' she pumped her fist into the hair happily. Seventh place, it wasn't first, but it wasn't bad either.

Kaminari chose that time to cry out in joy that he wasn't getting expelled.