The remaining three trials went by quickly enough, though each one left me feeling increasingly self-conscious about the gap between my abilities and those of my classmates.
The sixth was lifting, where I tied for first place since I just lifted a ten-ton cub, the heaviest weight they had available. I watched as other students struggled with weights a fraction of that size, their faces red with exertion, sweat beading on their foreheads. Not that I could blame them, most of their quirks weren't really designed to lift heave objects.
The only one who did worse than I expected was Ochaco since as her quirk allowed her to manipulate the gravity of objects I simply thought she could ignore the mass of the objects.
The seventh was endurance running, which once again saw me in first place, although this time my speed was much slower than the 50-meter dash since I didn't use Mana Burst, well more like I couldn't. There was a reason it was called Mana Burst and not Mana Continuous or something like that.
The eighth and final trial, however, I wasn't as good in. It was a flexibility test, and I came in the middle of the pack, with Mina Ashido taking first, and Momo Yaoyorozu taking second, whose names I had learned during the course of the trials.
"Finally!" Ashido laughed good-naturedly as she bent herself into what looked like an impossible pretzel shape. "Something the super-vigilante can't dominate at!"
"Hey, that's pretty good actually," Yaoyorozu said encouragingly, watching as I managed what I thought was a respectable toe-touch. "Most people with strength-type quirks struggle with flexibility. You must have put in some real work to maintain that range of motion."
I nodded, grateful for her kindness.
"Time to present the results," Aizawa announced, his tired voice cutting through the chatter of students comparing their performances.
I looked at Midoriya, who was standing slightly apart from the group, his shoulders hunched with what I could only assume was the weight of expectation and dread.
He had clearly come in last place overall, despite that incredible final throw that had rivaled Bakugo's performance. The sight of him standing there, trying to put on a brave face while clearly preparing for the worst, made my chest tighten with sympathy.
I found myself wondering if I should have gone easier during the trials, maybe held back just enough to make the gap between first and last place less staggering. But as I glanced at Aizawa, remembering his earlier words about the harsh realities heroes faced, I knew I had made the right choice.
If I had gone easy, he probably would have expelled me for it. He had the freedom to do so, after all, and he struck me as the type of teacher who valued honesty and effort above all else.
"The total is simply the aggregate sum of each of your scores," Aizawa continued, pulling out a small remote device. "If I recited all your scores individually, it'd take a million years, so I'll disclose them all at once."
He pressed a button, and a holographic display materialized in the air above us, showing a ranked list of all twenty students. I couldn't help but notice how the technology here at U.A. continued to amaze me.
It was like living in an entirely different world.
"Oh, and the whole expulsion thing was a lie," Aizawa added casually. "It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performances."
"WHAT!" The collective shout from my classmates was so loud I instinctively checked to make sure there were no windows nearby that might shatter.
I turned to look at Midoriya and felt a genuine smile cross my face for the first time all day. The relief and joy on his face was infectious, he was grinning from ear to ear, his whole body practically vibrating with happiness. When I glanced back toward the building where I'd spotted All Might earlier, I could just make out the distinctive silhouette of the Symbol of Peace, and even from this distance, I could tell he was smiling too.
The relationship between All Might and this green-haired boy was becoming clearer by the minute.
It really seemed like I had hit the nail on the head. I had figured out who All Might's protege was on the first day of school, wait school, I looked at Midoriya, I wonder if Nezu knew.
"C'mon, you guys, use your brains," Yaoyorozu said with a slight laugh, her ponytail swaying as she shook her head. "Of course it was just a ruse. U.A. wouldn't actually expel someone on their first day for poor physical performance. The whole point of school is to improve."
"She's got a point," Kirishima added, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "I should have figured that out. It's not very manly to fall for mind games like that."
"And right, yep... with that, it's over," Aizawa said, his expression returning to its default state of mild irritation mixed with exhaustion. "Your curriculum sheets are back in your classroom, so give them a once-over. And Midoriya..."
The sudden shift in Aizawa's attention wiped the grin clean off Midoriya's face, replacing it with a look of nervous anticipation.
"Go to Recovery Girl and get yourself patched up. Since your eyeball's will undoubtedly pop out of their sockets at tomorrow's absurd ordeal."
Before Midoriya could respond, a sharp, electronic voice cut through the air.
"Security level 3 has been breached! Students, please promptly evacuate!"
The change in atmosphere was instantaneous. Aizawa's entire demeanor shifted, his casual tiredness replaced by alert tension. His hand moved toward the capture weapon around his neck, and his eyes began scanning our surroundings for potential threats.
But I was already moving, my enhanced hearing picking up the commotion before the announcement had finished. My head snapped toward the main entrance of the school, where I could hear shouting, the rapid clicking of cameras.
The reporters had made it through. The question was how?
"Okay, stay put," Aizawa commanded, his voice carrying an authority that brooked no argument. "We're already outside, so just look at your scores and wait for further instructions."
I should have listened. I knew I should have listened. Nezu's lessons about restraint echoed in my mind, along with Aizawa's clear instruction to stay with the group. But something about this situation felt wrong.
Nezu prided himself on U.A.'s security systems. I'd heard him talk about them during our meetings, describing the multiple layers of protection, the state-of-the-art sensors, the carefully vetted personnel, he even had zero pointers placed at critical areas to act as the last layer of defense.
Of course this was just level 3 so it wasn't like it had all that but it was still pretty secure. For that system to have been breached by ordinary news reporters? It didn't make sense.
Without fully realizing I'd made the decision, I found myself sprinting toward the main entrance. The world blurred around me as I pushed my speed to just below supersonic levels, fast enough to cover the distance in seconds, but not so fast that I'd create a sonic boom that might endanger the civilians I could hear gathering near the school.
I vaulted over the crowd of reporters who had somehow made their way onto U.A. grounds, landing gracefully on the reinforced walls that surrounded the campus. One of the reporters, a middle-aged man with an expensive-looking camera, recognized me immediately. His eyes widened and he held his camera up at me.
"Arthur!" he shouted, his voice cutting through the general chaos. "What do you have to say about-"
I tuned him out, my attention focused entirely on the entrance they had supposedly used to breach U.A.'s security. What I saw made my blood run cold.
The massive reinforced door that served as the main eastern entrance to U.A.
A door that I knew was designed to withstand direct hits from most quirk-based attacks, had been completely destroyed.
Not blown apart, not melted, not shattered.
It had crumbled into a fine gray powder.
It almost looked like it had... decayed?
"Could this really be the work of a reporter?" I muttered to myself, looking more closely at the remains.
No it couldn't have been.
The reporters below were still shouting questions at me, their cameras flashing incessantly, but I barely registered their presence.
I wondered if I should run a 10km radius of the school simply to see if I could find the perpetrator, but that was a stupid idea, it wasn't like you tell the quirk of a person at a glance if they were an emitter and this definitely looked like the work of an emitter.
So I did the next best thing.
Pushing off from the wall, I launched myself through the air, the wind whipping my hair back as I soared over the campus. I aimed for the window that led to Nezu's office, a window that I had noticed was almost always open, as if the principal expected me to use this instead of the door, but hey maybe I wasn't the only one.
"Oh, Arthur, what are you doing here?" Nezu asked without looking up from his desk, where he appeared to be reviewing some kind of financial reports. "Shouldn't you be in class? Aizawa won't take kindly to you abandoning your post."
"Sorry," I said, landing softly on the office floor. "I heard about the breach, and I couldn't stop myself from investigating."
This time, Nezu did look up, his small black eyes studying my face with that unsettling intelligence I'd grown accustomed to. "Hmm, I suppose I can't fault you for that. I'll speak to Aizawa to make sure he doesn't penalize you for it. But do remember our lesson."
"Yeah, restraint. I know. I'm trying."
"That's all I ask," Nezu replied, his expression softening into what I had learned was his version of a genuine smile. "So, what did you find? You wouldn't have come here if you hadn't discovered something significant."
"I didn't really find anything since it's impossible to miss. The eastern door has been completely destroyed, it's how the reporters got through. Reduced to powder."
"Let me check the security footage from that area," he murmured, his brow furrowing in concentration, as he grabbed his phone. After a few moments, he shook his head, his expression troubled. "Nothing... very strange indeed."
He looked back at me, and I could see the gears turning behind his eyes.
"The cameras have a blind spot but you have to be almost next to the door to get in it."
"So what can I do?" I asked, my hand unconsciously moving to rest on Excalibur's hilt.
"Do?" Nezu's voice carried a note of gentle but firm reproach. "You've already done too much, Arthur. I want you to find a life outside of being a vigilante or a hero. Get back to class, apologize to Aizawa for running off, and talk to your classmates. Leave this to the adults. Understand?"
I nodded slowly, though every instinct I had developed over seven years of vigilante work was screaming at me to investigate further, to hunt down whoever had done this and make sure they couldn't threaten my new home.
"Good," Nezu said, pointing toward the window with one small paw. "Now off you go."
I nodded again and headed back through the window, landing softly on a patch of grass below. As I sped back toward where my classmates and Aizawa-sensei were gathered, I noticed that All Might was no longer behind the building where I'd spotted him earlier. Had he gone to investigate the breach as well? Or was he involved in the response in some other way?
The questions would have to wait. I had a class to return to and an explanation to give.
When I reached the group, I found them clustered around the holographic display that showed our test results. Several pairs of eyes turned toward me as I approached, curious.
Aizawa's tired gaze found mine immediately, and I could see both irritation and understanding warring in his expression.
"Sorry, Aizawa-sensei," I said, bowing deeply in the traditional Japanese manner, to show my respects. "I heard about the security breach, and I couldn't help but check it out. It won't happen again."
Aizawa studied me for a long moment, his dark eyes seeming to peer directly into my thoughts, I still didn't feel his erasure from before fall on me. "Your vigilante instincts are showing again," he said flatly. "In the future, when there's a security issue, you stay with your class. That's an order, not a suggestion."
"Understood, sensei."
"Good." He gestured toward the holographic display with visible impatience. "Now look at your results instead of playing detective."
I felt a hand slap my shoulder with friendly force as Kaminari grinned at me, his golden hair catching the afternoon sunlight. "Dude, you're all good. I'm skittish too, you should see how many times I've been yelled at by teachers for flipping a pen in class.."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah, I'll show you sometime. But seriously," Kaminari continued, pointing enthusiastically at the display, "check out these rankings. Your quirk is something else entirely. Any chance you could teach me your ways? Maybe some training tips?"
I looked up at the holographic list floating in the air above us. I had expected it but still seeing it there in bold letters was somewhat surreal. I really was doing this. I was going to be a student.
1st Place: Arthur
A/N: I love that you guys made the right choice, that being the second one, seriously you don't know how much good you've done to Arthur's character by not having me regress him to being a vigilante, and now that I'm on the topic of vigilantes, one of you got scarily fucking close to Arthur's true psychology, good job, still a little off though.
I have been dropping clues over the chapters little by little about Arthur's past and it's awesome to see that it paid off. To the person who got it, you know who you are, I honestly feel like giving you a small cameo on this story, maybe as a civilian Arthur saves or something. I am that impressed lol. Oh and I deleted the voting chapter just so you cheeky readers didn't go back and try to figure out who it was.
Thx for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Author out.