Izuku had spent his whole life admiring heroes. It got to the point where he kept notebooks containing all kinds of information about all his favorite heroes, from height and preferred movements to Quirk information, even down to weight. Since he was younger, he had always admired his "friends," so naturally he had also noted down lots of information on all of them, especially about Bakugo.
So once Izuku saw that Kacchan had stepped in with a wide right blast, he already knew what was coming. Having already turned on his Full Cowl, he dashed in to meet Kacchan’s explosion in the middle. He smoothly slipped past Bakugo’s right hand and delivered a nasty gut punch.
Bakugo spat saliva as the pure force of the impact launched him backward, sending him crashing hard into the other end of the building corridor. He tried to get up, but could only gasp for air. He was stuck on his knees as saliva kept coming out of his mouth.
’He was only a pebble on the side of the road!’ he thought to himself, as he looked up through the dust. ’What the hell happened!’
Gray smiled, watching the entire showdown from inside the monitor room. He crossed his arms, thoroughly amused by how one-sided the clash had become. ’It seems it was unnecessary for me to intervene...’ Gray thought to himself with a smirk.
While Izuku and Bakugo continued with their own brawl, Uraraka had checked every single room on each floor until she finally arrived at the fifth floor, where Iida and the bomb were. What struck her as strange was that on each lower floor, there were at least some miscellaneous items, like metal barrels or wooden pallets, scattered around. But on this floor, she hadn’t found a single object she could use her Quirk on.
"Oh?" Iida was now completely immersed in his villain role, puffing out his chest dramatically. "It seems the heroes have finally arrived!"
"Pffft!" Uraraka clamped a hand over her mouth, desperately trying to hold in her laughter at how Iida was acting.
"As you can probably tell, I took measures to ensure you don’t have anything to use your Quirk on!" Iida declared, pacing around the empty concrete room.
Uraraka finally went serious, lowering her stance. Iida, seeing that it was only one person standing before him, thought to himself that Bakugo must be successfully holding the other hero back. As long as he captured Uraraka right here, the villains would win the match. Iida instantly activated his Quirk as the exhaust tips on his calves began to sputter, and he dashed straight towards Uraraka with high-speed momentum.
Gray, meanwhile, stood in the dim light of the monitor room with a small notebook in hand. He kept taking notes on what each student lacked and how he could use the Training Dimension to make them stronger later. So far, he had Bakugo down in bold letters, explicitly writing that the blonde needed to chill out and completely get rid of his toxic attitude. For Uraraka, he noted that he would make her undergo physical conditioning first, then have her learn close-quarters martial arts.
Iida seemed fine on paper, but his fighting style was still basic and incredibly easy to read. Some basic physical training to improve his reaction time should be fine for now.
And as for Izuku, Gray kept his section completely blank. He planned to keep pushing the boy to his absolute limits until he could maintain Full Cowl at a stable 40%. He wanted to see if hitting that specific power threshold would allow the kid to unlock the previous carriers of One For All much earlier than in the canon timeline.
Momo Yaoyorozu noticed Gray diligently taking notes, and she quietly stepped closer to have a better look over his shoulder. Once her eyes scanned the analytical breakdowns on the pages, she started wondering how this person, who had been branded a villain by the news non-stop, would actually help them. Since his upcoming weekend class was the only optional one, she couldn’t help but wonder how much potential value lay behind his teachings.
Back at Ground Beta, Izuku kept shutting down everything Bakugo attempted to do, to the point that the entire exercise looked one-sided. Bakugo was losing his patience by the second, his movements growing sloppy and frantic.
Finally, he started completely breaking down after Izuku threw him against the hard concrete floor once more. "Was it fun keeping your Quirk hidden all this time!?" he roared, pure frustration and betrayal written all over his face.
Even Izuku looked taken aback by the sudden outburst. He had never seen Kacchan act that vulnerable or desperate before. But looking back, Izuku couldn’t really tell him or anyone else the truth: that he had inherited his Quirk directly from the Symbol of Peace. He chose to mask it behind a partial truth.
"I didn’t have a Quirk until a few weeks back," Izuku explained, his voice steady. "Even when I first got it, I was over the moon. But it turned out I could not control the output at all... Every single time I used my Quirk, my body would break."
Back in the monitor room, a few of the confused students didn’t know what he was talking about. Sensing the room’s curiosity, Gray turned to All Might. "Hey, All Might. Show them the footage from the practical entrance exam to get everyone up to date."
All Might hesitated for a brief second, but he finally clicked the terminal button. The whole class watched the secondary screen, gasping in shock as they saw Izuku send the massive zero-pointer robot flying back with a single colossal punch. But their excitement died instantly when they also saw how he broke both of his legs and the very arm he used to strike the robot, falling helplessly from the sky.
Izuku continued with his story out on the field, ignoring the smoking gauntlets. "That was until Gray-san showed me a better way of using my power."
Gray, back in the monitor room, nodded with a satisfied expression. "I raised that boy," he said proudly to the surrounding students, leaning against the console. Under his breath, he smirked. ’Even though I completely stole the training methods from the anime.’
"That guy?..." Bakugo muttered, his voice ragged. At this point, he looked exhausted, his hair messy and his knees shaking as he sat on the dusty floor.
"Yes. I’ve been to two of his weekend classes already, and I’ve made huge strides towards my goal," Izuku said, reaching down to unloop his capture tape. "If it wasn’t for his guidance, I would have probably still been using my Quirk the wrong way and destroyed my body in the process." He locked his eyes onto his childhood friend, getting ready to close the distance.
Dashing forward in a green blur, Izuku anticipated the counter perfectly. He effortlessly dodged a frantic, wide explosion and slapped the adhesive tape directly onto Bakugo’s left arm.
Bakugo, seeing the danger instantly, panicked. He desperately wanted to pull his gauntlet’s pin to deploy his stored nitroglycerin sweat, but he skipped the maneuver since he needed both hands free to safely activate the mechanism. Instead, he channeled a massive, raw explosion from his free palm to try to force Izuku to move back.
Izuku, seeing the massive wall of fire and concussive force coming his way, didn’t panic. He instantly pushed his Full Cowl up to 15% for a split second, his speed spiking as he managed to barely avoid the brunt of the blast. Seeing the extended, smoking arm Bakugo had left exposed, Izuku used his new momentum to lunge inside his guard. He pinned Bakugo hard to the concrete floor, twisting his frame seamlessly before wrapping the white capture tape around his body.
The mechanical buzzer blared across Ground Beta. "The villain Katsuki Bakugo has been secured!" All Might’s voice boomed through the building’s intercom speaker.
Meanwhile, back on the fifth floor, Iida stopped dead in his tracks the second he heard the buzzer echo through the concrete room. "Seriously? Bakugo-kun was defeated?" he muttered in disbelief.
Uraraka didn’t waste a single second of his distraction. Using the sudden pause to slip away, she leaped forward and tried to float straight into the dummy nuclear bomb. Iida came out of his stupor quickly. His engines roared as he dashed across the room, physically moving the massive bomb out of the way just in time.
Izuku used his ear communicator to check in on his partner. "Uraraka-san! How are things going up there?"
"I can’t touch the bomb at all!" she gasped into the comm. "Iida-kun is too fast, and I don’t have anything around here to use my Quirk on!"
Izuku ran through the blueprint layouts in his head. "Which floor are you on?"
"The fifth!" she shouted.
Izuku didn’t waste another second. He quickly turned on his heel and began climbing the concrete stairs at top speed, leaving the bound and fuming Bakugo behind on the lower floor. Bursting through the heavy double doors of the top floor.
Working seamlessly as a team, Izuku and Uraraka launched their counter-strategy. Izuku utilized his Full Cowl to effortlessly match Iida’s speed, diving into the space to keep the Villain busy with a flurry of parries and dodges. Now that Iida was locked down in a high-speed skirmish and couldn’t stop Uraraka, the path to the objective was wide open.
The heroes successfully won the match with around 3 minutes remaining on the digital timer.
The moment Uraraka’s fingers made contact with the metallic surface, All Might’s booming voice came over the intercom. "The bomb has been secured! HEROES WINNNNN!"
After around 5 minutes, Iida had successfully unbound Bakugo from the capture tape, and the four combatants made their way back to the main monitor room. The room was thick with tension. Bakugo walked in with his head hung low, his eyes fixed on the floor as his fists trembled in silence.
All Might cleared his throat, trying to regain control of the lesson. "Well then! Now that the first match is concluded, let us evaluate the performance. What would have been better for the losing team to do?"
Momo Yaoyorozu instantly raised her hand, her expression serious as she analyzed the data templates. "Sir, if Bakugo hadn’t let his personal grudge take over, abandoned his partner, and gone on his own, the villains would have had a significantly better chance. His rash actions left Iida completely isolated on the top floor and allowed the heroes to utilize a highly efficient two-on-one strategy to secure the payload."
While that technical evaluation was happening across the room, Gray casually walked over to stand right next to Izuku.
"I guess you wanted more training, huh?" Gray asked, his voice low and casual.
"Huh? What do you mean, Gray-san?" Izuku’s triumphant smile instantly evaporated. His forehead started sweating profusely, and his legs violently began to shake as a wave of pure terror washed over him.
"I saw that last dash, kiddo," Gray said, a menacing smirk spreading across his face as he placed a heavy, firm hand on Izuku’s shoulder. "That was not 10%, like we agreed on before the match started. You hit 15% to dodge that final blast. You better be prepared for this weekend."
Izuku slumped onto the concrete ground, his soul practically leaving his body. He had won the trial. Best of all, he had finally beaten Kacchan, the guy who had made his life a living hell since they were four years old. It was a massive milestone for his confidence... but looking up at Gray’s terrifyingly cheerful expression, he couldn’t help but wonder at what cost.
"Gray-shonen, do you have anything else to add?" All Might asked, turning the floor over to him.
"Yes, I do," Gray replied, stepping forward. He first pointed a finger at Iida. "Can you only move in a straight line?"
"Uh... yes, kinda," Iida replied, scratching his cheek. "It’s pretty hard to move to the sides and change directions once I get enough momentum..."
"Got it," Gray nodded, logging the detail in his mind. Then he turned his gaze towards Bakugo. "And you... have you finally come to your senses?"
"Huh?" Bakugo finally looked up.
"I’m guessing you were the strongest in middle school and thought this academy would be a walk in the park, huh?" Gray continued, his voice calm. "It seems you needed a serious reality check. Izuku over here..." Gray pointed down at the depressed pool of green currently shivering on the floor. "...he only had his Quirk for around a month. And he already managed to beat you."
All Might was getting concerned that Gray was picking on a student. His body shifted as he prepared to step in and de-escalate the tension, but Gray kept talking before the teacher could intervene.
"What I’m getting at is that if you think you’re talented enough on your own, and think your quirk is strong enough for it to not matter... you will not make it far in this world," Gray said, addressing the entire room. "You will also need to work hard and put in the work. If you guys want a real shot at graduating and making it to the top, I’m expecting every single one of you on Saturday to be ready for some serious training. You all need it."
Gray finally gave a brief nod towards All Might, signaling him to continue with his class, and stepped back to stand next to Eri.
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