Chapter 19: Within My Power
Should he give up and accept last place, or should he throw caution to the wind and go all out? No matter which he chose, it seemed hopeless.
Midoriya stood at the pitching circle again. It seemed he had come to a realization. Without any hesitation, he threw the ball with all his might. That's right. I can't control my power right now, so I just have to use everything I've got!
This time, Midoriya didn't seem to use his Quirk. He threw the ball with all his strength, and just as it was about to leave his hand, the blood in the veins of one of his fingers began to flow wildly.
"SMASH!"
The ball was struck by a sudden, immense force, flying straight and true toward the sky, soaring to a place far beyond.
"705.3 meters!" The display screen showed the astonishing result.
He didn't swing blindly with all his might, but focused the power into his fingertip...
Aizawa looked at Midoriya, whose arm was hanging limply. He turned his head, his face beaded with sweat from the pain. He then turned his body, clenching the hand with the now-ruptured blood vessels in his index finger, and flashed a smile that looked like he was about to cry. "Sensei... I can still move!"
This guy... is so cool, Yoshikage Kira thought for some reason. Beside him, Katsuki Bakugo wore a look of utter disbelief, his mouth agape as if his jaw had dislocated.
What was that power?! Everyone awakened their Quirk before the age of four, but Deku was Quirkless! It was impossible!
Kira noticed Bakugo's mood was off. Small explosions were going off intermittently in his hands. And then, he charged!
"Deku! You better explain yourself! What the hell is going on?!"
He roared, a bomb seemingly brewing in his palm, and rushed toward Midoriya, demanding he show his Quirk and fight him.
Suddenly, a cloth wrapped around his body. The nitroglycerin-like sweat on his palms turned back into regular sweat. He was completely restrained.
"This is a capture weapon made of a special alloy woven into carbon fiber."
Bakugo twisted his head and saw Aizawa, his eyes glowing red again, the cloth scarf holding him back.
"Honestly, don't make me use my Quirk over and over again. I have dry eye, you know," he said, retracting the scarf. "Don't waste any more time. Next up."
Although Bakugo desperately wanted to interrogate Midoriya right now, it was clear Aizawa wasn't going to let him. He stood frozen in place, watching Midoriya slip past him and run over to Ochaco Uraraka.
This guy... he used to be nothing but a pebble in my path...
"Midoriya-kun, is your hand okay?"
Yoshikage Kira walked up to Izuku Midoriya. Hearing Uraraka's concern, he smiled wryly and said to Midoriya, "Give me your hand."
Without waiting for either of them to react, Kira took Midoriya's injured wrist and pulled his hand toward him.
"It's alright. It looks bad, but because you've been training regularly, your recovery ability isn't weak. It can be fully healed." Kira let out a soft "Hamon Overdrive," and instantly, golden ripples of Hamon flowed from his hand into Midoriya's injured one.
"The wound is healed!" Ochaco Uraraka exclaimed, looking at Midoriya's completely restored finger in disbelief. She snatched his hand from Kira's and examined it closely.
Midoriya wasn't surprised. He had been healed by Recovery Girl during the entrance exam. He was just a little shocked that Kira had a Quirk that could heal others. However, with Uraraka touching his hand, his face suddenly turned beet red, and he stammered, "Hand... hand..."
Uraraka froze for a moment before realizing, her own face turning red. She quickly turned her gaze to Kira. "Thank you, Kira-san! I didn't know you had a healing Quirk..."
Midoriya recovered as well and said gratefully, "Thanks a lot, Kira-san! You've helped me again!"
"It's nothing," Kira said with a small smile. "If you went through the rest of the test with an injured hand, this score would have been meaningless, right?"
A thought suddenly popped into Midoriya's head. With Kira-san's help, could I use my Quirk one more time?
"Midoriya-kun, I forgot to tell you," Kira said, turning back suddenly as he was about to head to the next test site, startling Midoriya. "This method of injuring yourself is not acceptable. So, if you do it again during this test, I will absolutely not help you."
"Right, I agree," Ochaco Uraraka chimed in. "You're not taking care of your body at all."
"Alright..." Midoriya thought with a wry smile, dismissing the idea.
Next, they completed the sit-ups, sit-and-reach, and endurance run, one after another.
"Now, for the results," Aizawa said, looking at the students gathered before him. "The total score is simply the sum of your scores in each event. It's too much trouble to explain them one by one, so I'll just show them all at once."
The recording device in Aizawa's hand projected a screen of light, displaying everyone's scores in order.
1st, Momo Yaoyorozu. 2nd, Shoto Todoroki. 3rd, Katsuki Bakugo. 4th, Tenya Iida. 5th, Yoshikage Kira... 18th, Izuku Midoriya. 19th, Toru Hagakure. 20th, Minoru Mineta.
Although Kira didn't have any standout results, his scores in each event weren't too bad. After all, the maximum score for any single event was only 100. As long as he didn't have any major weaknesses, his total score would naturally be high.
There were too many people with Quirks in this world. They might have advantages in some areas, but they could be a complete mess in others. A "Quirk" like Kira's, which could evenly improve every physical attribute, was truly rare.
Suddenly, a boy with hair like a bunch of grapes and a body as small as a seven or eight-year-old's, slumped to the ground with a thud. Needless to say, he was the last-place student, Minoru Mineta. His eyes lost focus, and he kept muttering "It's over, it's all over..." as if he had dementia.
Midoriya saw that he wasn't last and breathed a sigh of relief. He then looked worriedly at Mineta sitting on the ground. If Kira-san hadn't healed my wound, I would have been a mess in the next few events...
"By the way, the expulsion was a lie."
"Huh?" A dead silence fell over the group. Mineta instantly shut his mouth; it seemed his despair was just an act.
Aizawa retracted the light screen, his eyes bloodshot. He flashed a triumphant smile. "It was a rational deception to draw out the maximum potential of your Quirks."
"What?!" Midoriya was instantly dejected. So the test he was willing to risk his life to pass had no punishment at all? What was all his hard work for?!
"Isn't it obvious that it was a lie?" Momo Yaoyorozu, the girl who had ranked first in the test, said with a sigh. "Expelling someone on the first day of school? How could that be possible?"
Is that so? But I definitely saw you breathe a sigh of relief when Aizawa-sensei said that.
Kira's gaze fell on Momo Yaoyorozu's hands. Her pale, smooth hands were clearly those of a well-to-do young lady who had never done a day of hard labor. Those hands are worthy of being in my collection, a thought suddenly popped into Kira's mind.
"I don't believe we've met, Kira-san. I'm Momo Yaoyorozu. I was admitted through special recommendation. My Quirk is 'Creation.'" Seeing Kira looking at her, she cleared her throat slightly and introduced herself formally.
"Yoshikage Kira. Quirk, Hamon," Kira said simply, tearing his gaze away. This thought is too dangerous. Is that other personality influencing me again?
She's a classmate, after all. If she went missing, the investigation would immediately focus on us students. Unless there's an opportunity, a way to do it without anyone knowing...