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The Successor Ch. 9 (My Hero Academia)
🕑 Added 2021-12-28 16:30:06 +0000 UTCA/N: Here's the artwork of Katsumi Bakugou and Shouko Todoroki to go with this chapter~
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“Alright, let’s get started! Who wants to go first?”
“I’ll do it! Best to show these Extras who’s boss nice and early!”
Is Izuku surprised that Katsumi is the one who steps forward, brandishing her usual trademark arrogance and a cocky grin across her face? No, not really. Even as some of Class 1-A shrinks back and others bristle indignantly, Katsumi is just being herself. Still, as she steps up to the plate for the first test and proceeds to show off the versatility of her Explosion Quirk by speeding down the Fifty Meter Dash, Izuku can’t help but watch her… and want nothing more than to beat her.
Heh, it was silly, maybe. After all, weren’t he and Katsumi already scheduled to settle things after school? There was no reason for him to get up in arms here and now when he already knew that he was better than Katsumi, and he already had a time and place when he was going to show her that he was better than her.
And yet… and yet, Izuku was still young. He acknowledged that fact about himself. He was young, somewhat untested, and almost entirely unproven. He wasn’t a big shot Pro Hero yet, even if he was stronger than pretty much every Pro Hero on the leaderboard. None of them had any idea what was coming for them just yet, but for the moment at least, he was who he was.
He wanted to make a name for himself. He had, in the Recommendation Exam. He’d broken records there. But that wasn’t enough, not really. That wasn’t in front of the entire class of his peers. These were the people he would be training beside for the next several years, and only a few of them had gotten to see him during the Recommendation Exam.
Really, there was no reason to hold back here. Like Mirko had said… Plus Ultra.
And so Izuku waits his turn, letting some of the others go ahead of him. Katsumi’s Quirk certainly lets her go fast, but it doesn’t make her the fastest person in the class. Just close to it. When its finally Izuku’s turn, Katsumi’s time has already been beaten, with the temperamental blonde busting a gasket over it and having to be brought down to Earth by a knuckle sandwich grinding atop her head from Mirko the Rabbit Hero of all people. But even with Mirko forcefully settling Kasumi down, the explosive girl was still fuming.
Of course, when Izuku makes his way to the starting line, Katsumi all but visibly perks up, looking at him anticipatorily, clearly expecting to see a wimpy, Quirkless failure of a brat… or maybe hoping she would. After all, he’d already shown her how strong he was now just this morning. He’d caught her explosive fists in the palms of his hands. Did she really think he was going to fail here so she could just laugh at him or something?
Making eye contact with Katsumi, Izuku grins… and then turns to focus on the task at hand. Having had more than enough time to plan this out, he draws upon a carefully curated suite of Quirks. Like usual, they’re focused around One For All specifically, All For One’s primary use in Izuku’s life to support the Quirk that those who thought they were in the know believed him to have. Everything he did needed to be able to be traced back to One For All… at least for now.
Part of the upside of letting certain individuals, like the Principal, know that he was All For One’s son, meant that one day Izuku could ‘discover’ having more Quirks than One For All. Though, whether or not he would be able to swing it so that he was ‘allowed’ by the individuals who thought they had authority over him to take Quirks from irredeemable villains or not, was still up in the air. Not that Izuku would let anyone stop him from being the greatest hero that not only Japan, but the entire World had ever known. He just had to be a little more discrete about it, potentially.
For now, though, it was the first day of school. A lot of that was in the future. Right now, he just needed to show his former childhood friend turned childhood bully that she wasn’t going to be able to smack him around anymore. And so, as Mirko calls out for him to go, Izuku dashes forward… and is well aware that he’s using enough power to blow everyone else’s speed, even those who haven’t gone yet, clear out of the way.
Coming out the other side of the Fifty Yard Dash, Izuku grins as he looks back to see stunned faces on not just his classmates, but also his teacher. Even Mirko is visibly shocked and altogether impressed for a moment, before she manages to collect herself far faster than the kids around her. If not for his sensory Quirks, he might have even missed it.
Of course, there’s absolutely no way for him to miss Katsumi’s reaction.
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT?! WHAT THE FUCK, YOU SHITTY DEKU! YOU-GAH!”
Once again, Mirko’s fist comes down atop Katsumi’s head, grinding away into the blonde’s spiky hair as the Rabbit Hero grins.
“Your yelling is hurting my ears.”
As cheery as she sounds, there’s no denying the tone in Mirko’s voice brooks no argument, and even arrogant, cocky Katsumi isn’t dumb enough to pick a fight with the Number Five Pro Hero. Meanwhile, Izuku sees several of the girls in Class 1-A looking at him in a new light… and one girl, one Momo Yaoyorozu, looking at him in the same light she’d already been looking at him… just with even more desire than before.
Giving Momo a wink and Mirko a nod, Izuku moves back to stand among the rest of the class like nothing had happened. Seeing this, Mirko just moves them along to the next test.
The day continues on in a similar vein, of course. There’s no way Izuku can be convinced, even by his own mind, to rein himself in after how good the reaction to that first test felt. And so, he continues to blow things out of the water. There are a multitude of different tests, of course. All of them designed to find the limits and the potential of their Quirks. As potential Pro Heroes, each and every member of Class 1-A has to have SOME value, right?
Well, not all of them. Some individuals are… perhaps not meant for Pro Hero work. Someone like Mineta Minoru, for instance. Oh, don’t get Izuku wrong, the short boy’s Quirk is a versatile one. It’s perfect for capturing villains, from what Izuku can see. And if that Quirk belonged to someone with a decent work ethic and a good, solid head on their shoulders, then maybe that person could become an exceptional hero.
Unfortunately, Mineta was neither of those things. In fact, the longer the day went on, the more Izuku felt like Mineta was wearing his welcome in Class 1-A thin exceptionally fast. The boy was an incorrigible pervert, and quite rapidly earned the enmity of every girl in the class, as well as several of the boys. On top of that, his Quirk, while slightly useful, did not lend itself to the physical tests that Mirko was running them through. Mineta was small, slightly overweight, and altogether weak. He was easily coming last in every single test they did.
Meanwhile, Izuku was coming first… in every single test they did. As previously mentioned, there are a multitude of tests, and Izuku does his best to excel at every single one of them. From the Grip Strength Test to the Standing Long Jump, and every other test in between. Calling upon One For All and the Quirks he’s curated to support it in a myriad of different ways, Izuku constantly shows up not just Katsumi, but everyone else in the class as well.
He'd feel worse about it, if he wasn’t seeing Mirko paying him more and more attention, or the way Momo looked like her panties were fucking sopping from watching him kick ass. The other girls were also giving him looks, some of them appraising him, some of them competitively frowning and wanting to show him up somehow.
Needless to say, Katsumi undeniably fell into that latter category… but then, so did Shouko. Shouko Todoroki, with her red and white hair, the daughter of Endeavor and the perfect combination of Ice and Fire Quirks. Except, she only ever used her Ice for the entirety of the Quirk Apprehension Test. At one point, Mirko commented on that when Shouko got a lower score than she otherwise might have if she’d just used the full strength of her Quirk. Her response… definitely spoke to some sort of issue.
“I refuse. I will be a Pro Hero with just my Ice. This is my pledge.”
Sooo yeah, that was awkward. But regardless, Izuku was almost regretting choosing to chat up Momo instead of Shouko at the Recommendation Exam. Or… not regretting, but still pondering what could have been. Because the more he won, the more intensely Shouko seemed to study him, and not in the same way some of the other girls were studying him. Certainly not in the same way Momo was studying him.
Whereas Katsumi was all fire and brimstone every time Izuku showed off, forcing Mirko to come down on the explosive girl hard each and every time, Shouko’s growing incensed attitude was all too icy, as if the frigid girl saw him as her rival. Which of course, only pissed Katsumi off more, when Shouko would beat her score in some test and not even care because Izuku had beat them both.
It was an unreciprocated three-way triangle of hate, with Katsumi angry at both Shouko and Izuku, Shouko seemingly angry at Izuku, and Izuku refusing to hold back just to make either of them happier. When the final test arrived, it was clear that neither girl was willing to even remotely back down.
“Alright then! Final test of the day… the Pitch! Simple enough, throw a ball as far as you can, heh! Any volunteers?”
By this point, everyone just turns to Katsumi as she all but rockets forward.
“Me!”
No one is remotely surprised, even as Katsumi grabs the baseball and grits her teeth, glaring at Izuku in particular. Offering her a benign smile right back, he just watches her along with the rest of the class… which of course, only pisses her off more, that he’s acting so casual about it.
Still, with her Quirk, Katsumi soon has the baseball all ‘lubed’ up if you will. Her secretions, a nitroglycerin-esque sweat, soon cover the glistening baseball. Then, she leaps into the air… and explodes upwards with her other hand. Everyone watches, with Mirko holding up a device clearly meant to measure the distance the ball goes, as Katsumi flies up maybe a hundred feet before exploding the baseball out of her swung hand, flinging it high in the sky.
The baseball disappears from normal view, but the device Mirko is using continues to track it, even as Katsumi comes down in a three point landing, a vicious grin on her face.
“Let’s see the shitty deku beat that…”
Her words are muttered, and though Mirko’s ears twitch, clearly hearing them, the Rabbit Hero doesn’t come down on Katsumi’s head again. After all, its progress after a fashion.
“Nice one, Bakugou. Alright, next?”
Now everyone is looking at Izuku, as if all of their pitches are just going to be filler compared to his and Katsumi’s rivalry. Which is true, but before Izuku can step up, he’s surprised when someone shoulders past him instead.
“I will go.”
Shouko Todoroki steps up to the place, with Mirko raising a brow but handing her a baseball all the same. After a moment of staring at it, ice begins to form around Shouko, until there’s something of a cannon right in front of her. Placing the ball inside of it, she just stares for a moment… and then a pillar of ice slams out of the center of the cannon, going and going as the ball travels on the end of it for a moment before finally, the ice stops and the ball keeps going.
Up and up and up, this baseball too leaves everyone’s natural sight. But of course, Izuku, with his vision enhanced, can track it for a while longer. Which is why he knows even before Mirko says it that Shouko…
“Hm, not bad at all. But not quite as good as Bakugou’s.”
As Katsumi crows with victory, Shouko doesn’t pay the other girl the slightest mind. Instead, her eyes move to Izuku and it’s VERY clear that she knows she lost, not because she didn’t do as good as Katsumi… but because by not doing as good as Katsumi, she has no chance of beating him. Which… is very perceptive. Izuku tries to give her a commiserating grin, but Shouko just stiffens and turns away, disappearing back into the class.
Finally, it’s Izuku’s turn. He takes the baseball from Mirko, who gives him a knowing grin and a wink that almost seems borderline sultry. Is his teacher being inappropriate with him? Well, no matter. Izuku just grins and winks back at her, before stepping up to the throwing line. All of Class 1-A is watching him as he winds up. Nothing flashy like Katsumi or Shouko. Nothing explosive, nothing constructed. Just him and his arm strength, or so it would seem.
Calling upon One for All, Izuku uses his other Quirks to regulate the insane power of the stockpile Quirk. A slight green glow surrounds him as he draws upon this power that All Might so foolishly gave him, and that his father’s sacrifice has let him begin to master in record time. And… he uses it to throw a baseball. Such epic, immense power, being used for such a benign purpose…
For Class 1-A, all they see is a blur as Izuku’s arm explodes into action before settling back down less than a second later like nothing happened. But the ball that was previously clutched in his fingers is gone… and Mirko, with her device, can’t help the look on her face as it chimes… and then chimes again… and then beeps.
Everyone looks to her for confirmation, with Shouko seeming resigned and Katsumi trembling with anticipation. Mirko, meanwhile, just grins and shrugs as she looks at Izuku.
“Out of range. Looks like it probably burnt up leaving atmosphere.”
Izuku’s grin is victory made manifest, even as Katsumi positively howls at the ridiculousness of it all. The rest of the Quirk Apprehension Test passes in what feels like the span of a moment, with Izuku riding high, feeling like he’s on Cloud Nine the whole way through. Everyone else throws the baseball, and to be fair, some of them do really well. Mineta takes last again of course, and that’s that.
The Quirk Apprehension Test took all day, so when it’s over, Mirko dismisses them. However, after doing so, she calls out to Izuku.
“Yo, Midoriya. You have time to stick around and chat for a little bit back in my office? Nothing too important… can wait, if you have other things to do.”
It’s clear that Mirko is really not used to being a teacher, because she technically has the authority to just… order him to stay after class and talk with her. That IS a thing she can do. Instead, she’s treating him like he’s her peer already, despite her being the Number Five Pro Hero, and Izuku being who he is.
It leaves him in a bit of an odd spot, because technically Mirko is his teacher so he should say yes and find out what she needs. But on the other hand, he already made plans with Katsumi ahead of time, and really is looking forward to putting the explosive girl in her place, once and for fucking all. Its possible he might be able to do both, depending on what Mirko needs. Its also possible that an impatient Katsumi will decide he’s a no show and just bail, only to cause greater problems down the line.
By giving him the choice, Mirko has put the ball in Izuku’s court. Blow off Katsumi to see what his teacher wants from him, or offer Mirko tomorrow after school to talk instead, so he can properly deal with Katsumi today?
One way or another, it would seem he’s got a meeting with a gorgeous woman to get to. Just a matter of deciding which to attend.
Comments
Readm
i feel like blowing off katsumi would be better cause it shows his disdain for her
Bert Torres
I really want to see Izuku put katsumi in her place
