The locker rooms were filled with nervous whispers, but I changed without haste. My body was in absolute perfection thanks to the constant completion of tasks from the System and improving my Quirks, never in my previous life could I have imagined that I could ever look like this….
When I walked out onto the field, Aizawa was already waiting for us, a digital panel in his hand. "Bakugo," he turned to the blond. "What was your best score in throwing a ball in elementary school?"
"Sixty-seven meters," Bakugou snapped.
"Fine. Now try using your Quirk. As long as you stay in the circle, do whatever you want."
Bakugo stood in a circle and, with a wild roar of "CHQIIPNI!", launched the ball high into the clouds with a massive explosion. The device in Aizawa's hands beeped:705.2 meters.
"Seven hundred meters?!" Midoriya blurted out in shock.
"And to make the rules clear..." Aizawa continued coldly. "The one who finishes last in the overall ranking will be judged hopeless and immediately expelled from school."
While a wave of pure terror swept through the entire classroom, I remained icy calm. I knew it was just Aizawa's logical fallacy. But of course the System had to speak up.
[System notification.]
[Special Task: Show Your Dominance!]
[Objective: Finish 1st in the physical fitness test.]
[Reward: Quirk Boost, Random Loot Crate.]
[Penalty for failure: Penalty in the form of a random dungeon with no escape.]
Great. So I can't hold back, I thought, a cold smile appearing at the corner of my mouth.
"First event," Aizawa announced. "50-meter sprint."
I stood on the starting line next to Tenya Iida. Engine exhaust pipes jutted out from his calves. "Let's put on a clean, sporty performance!" he shouted robotically.
"Prepare..." came the robotic voice of the starter.
I focused on my Etheric core in my heart. I immediately felt that familiar, warm feeling. Red lightning flashed around my legs as energy poured into my muscles.
BUM!
Iida charged forward with a loud roar of his engines, but I simply bounced off. My boot sank into the ground with such force that it cracked slightly. I shot across the runway like a meteor.
"Tenya Iida: 3.04 seconds," the robot announced. "Mephisto: 1.89 seconds."
The field fell into a deathly silence. Iida stopped, breathing heavily, and stared at me in shock through his glasses. "Less than two seconds?! Those red flashes... is that energy manipulation?!"
Aizawa just wrote something down on his tablet, but his eyes narrowed dangerously.
Next came the grip strength test. I took the digital force gauge in my hand. I activated only a tiny fraction of the force from the Divine Body. The device cracked dangerously. The display jumped 999+ kg and then the sensor simply went out under that crazy pressure and the device slightly deformed in my hand.
"I'm sorry," I said calmly and returned the broken force gauge to Aizawa.
Bakugo, standing nearby, was grinding his teeth so loudly that it must have been heard all the way to the main building. The air around his hands began to boil from the constant small explosions. "You bastard..." he growled, his eyes a pure murderous gleam. "I won't be overshadowed by some foreign zero!"
And finally came the ball throw.
Uraraka sent her ball into infinity thanks to zero gravity, which caused huge applause. Then Aizawa called me out.
"Mephisto. It's your turn. Show us what Principal Nezu has been pushing you for," the teacher said, a clear challenge in his voice. He wanted to see my true strength, he wanted to see what they had seen on the cameras during the European exams.
I entered the circle. I took a small ball in my hand.
Want to see what the Ether Core can do? Then watch.
I released my control over the energy. My suppressed aura suddenly burst forth. The air around me instantly grew heavier and colder, as if the very gravity of the field had changed. Thick red lightning began to dance wildly around my body, and the shadow beneath my feet undulated dangerously. My eyes burned bloodshot.
Midoriya took a step back, hand in front of his face, as the shockwave of my aura hit him. Todoroki immediately shifted his weight to his heels, creating a thin layer of ice under his feet for stabilization.
I straightened up. I focused a huge amount of energy from my core directly into my right hand. I made one clean, perfect swing.
BOOM!
The shockwave created by my throw literally blew away the dust and grass within a radius of several meters. The ball disappeared from sight with such speed that only a red energy line remained in the sky, slowly dissolving.
Aizawa's device searched for a signal from the satellite for a long time before the data finally stabilized. The teacher looked at the display, pausing for a moment before turning the screen towards the shocked class.
The display showed:4,520 meters.
"Four kilometers?!" Kaminari blurted out, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. "That's a monster!"
I turned, drawing the energy back into my Aether Core, causing the red lightning and heavy aura to instantly disappear. With complete calm, I returned to the line. My eyes met Bakugo's for a second. The boy looked like he was about to have a heart attack from rage. His ego had just taken a hit he had never experienced in his life.
Aizawa sighed wearily, put the tablet in his pocket, and looked at his papers. "Next up... Izuku Midoriya."
Zuku Midoriya flinched. He was visibly shaking as he walked slowly, unsteadily towards the circle. His entire being radiated pure desperation. I looked at him through my peripheral vision. I knew what situation he was in. Unlike the rest of us, who had been training our abilities for years, he had only recently received the One For All from All Might. If he used the Quirk to its full potential, it would destroy his body. If he didn't use it, Aizawa would throw him out.
"My lord," Agron's thought echoed softly in my head. "That boy with the wild hair... his energy is unstable. There is immense power within him, but his container cannot contain it. It is fascinating and pathetic at the same time."
That's One For All, Agron, I replied to him in my mind. Watch what happens now.
Midoriya stepped into the circle. He took the ball, took a deep breath, and for a moment determination flashed in his eyes. He straightened, dug his boots into the ground, and a massive, devastating force pulsed in his right hand. He wanted to give it his all. He wanted to sacrifice his entire arm.
But as he was about to hit the ball, something strange happened. The immense energy in his hand simply... disappeared.
Fwump.
The ball flew harmlessly out of his hand and landed lazily in the grass after a few meters. The digital panel beeped:46 meters.
"What?!" Midoriya blurted out, looking at his hands in shock. "I was going to use it... I'm sure..."
"I deleted your Quirk," Aizawa's cold, uncompromising voice said.
We turned. Aizawa stood there, his hair flowing, the scarves around his neck floating in the air like live snakes, his eyes a bright, menacing red. "These entrance exams aren't rational. They're letting a boy like you in here..." Aizawa took a step towards him, his gaze full of contempt. "I saw what you did in the exams. You destroyed yourself to save someone else. Do you think someone will save you every time you get maimed? With this much power, you can't become a hero, Midoriya."
The class watched the scene with bated breath. Midoriya stood there, broken, on the verge of tears.
Aizawa blinked. His hair fell back, his eyes returned to normal, and he waved his hand wearily. "I've given you back your ability. You have one more try. Do it rationally, or pack your things."
I watched Midoriya return to the circle. The system in my head was silent, this moment belonged to the canon, but I was fascinated by it anyway. Midoriya knew he was at the bottom. But instead of giving up, the stubbornness that would one day make him a symbol of peace awakened in him. He took a new ball.
"He's concentrating that power on just one point," Agrona noted, a hint of appreciation in his voice. "Impressive. He's found a way to minimize the damage."
During that attempt, just as Midoriya was standing in the circle preparing to throw, I decided to intervene. I saw how he concentrated, how the desire to prove his worth was beating inside him, knowing that he would destroy his hand.
I activated Divine Body and moved straight towards him in a flash. Before he could throw the ball, I placed my hand on his shoulder. My presence forced him to withdraw that wild energy for a second.
"What are you doing?!" Aizawa immediately came after me from a distance, but I ignored him. What was important was that the wild, red-black lightning around Midoriya's arm calmed down for a second.
The green-haired boy turned to me, pure shock in his eyes and beads of sweat running down his forehead. "M-Mephisto? What's up..."
"Listen to me," I interrupted him, my voice low but icy calm. I looked him straight in the eye, taking in every word I said. "I see what you're trying to do. You want to squeeze all that power into one finger to save the rest of your hand, right?"
Midoriya swallowed in surprise. "How come..."
"It's clever, but still stupid," I squeezed his shoulder. "I had a similar problem with my Ether Core. When the energy first woke up, it tore my body apart. My shell couldn't hold it because I was throwing one hundred percent of what I had into every attack."
Interest flashed in Midoriya's eyes. A born analyst, he immediately began to gobble up information.
"Your body isn't ready for a hundred percent of that power yet," I continued, watching Aizawa slowly walk towards us out of the corner of my eye. "Imagine that energy like a water tap. You don't have to turn it all the way down and let it flush you. Try turning it just a little bit. Try releasing even five percent of that enormous power. Spread that five percent evenly throughout your body, or just in your arm, but never, you hear, never put everything in. Control the flow."
"Five percent... spread it out..." Midoriya whispered, and in that moment I saw the right circuits in his head connect. The idea that in canon he was supposed to have only weeks later took root in him right now.
"Mephisto, get out of the circle immediately, or you'll be flying home," Aizawa's cold voice came from right behind me.
"I'm coming, sensei," I replied calmly, letting go of Midoriya's shoulder and walking back to the line with my hands in my pockets.
Midoriya was left alone in the circle. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was no despair in them, but concentration. He straightened up again.
"Will he take your advice, my lord?" Agrona asked curiously.
Watch, I thought.
Midoriya summoned his power. This time, however, there was no massive, destructive explosion of energy that had previously pulsed wildly through his veins. Fine, green lightning streaked around his right arm and, to a lesser extent, his entire torso. The air around him vibrated slightly, but his skin didn't turn purple. He kept it in check. Five percent.
With a loud roar, he reached out and threw.
Phew!
The ball shot forward, accompanied by a strong gust of wind that ruffled our hair. It wasn't a brutal blast like my throw, but it was pure, controlled power.
Midoriya finished his swing and landed heavily on both knees. The entire class, including me, immediately looked at his right hand.
His fingers... were perfectly fine. No fractures, no purple swellings. His arm was shaking from muscle exhaustion, but it was intact. Midoriya looked at his palm, then at me, and the happiest, most relieved smile I'd ever seen appeared on his face. He'd done it. He'd used his Quirk and not gotten hurt.
The digital device in Aizawa's hands beeped loudly. The teacher looked at the display, his usually apathetic face showing genuine shock for the first time. His eyes widened as he watched the number.
He turned the display towards us. The screen read:350 meters.
"Three hundred and fifty meters?!" Kaminari blurted out.
"That was amazing!" Uraraka said, jumping up and down happily.
Aizawa slowly lowered the tablet and his searching gaze moved from Midoriya directly to me. He knew that the few words I had said to the boy had completely changed the outcome. There was a huge calculation in his eyes.
But there was someone else on the field who was completely paralyzed by this result. Katsuki Bakugo. His brain refused to process what he had just seen. Deku. The insignificant, incompetent zero he had bullied for years. Not only did he have a Quirk, but he had just demonstrated a controlled power that, while not greater than Bakugo's, proved that Deku was no longer the weakling he had been. What's more, Bakugo could see that he had helped him do it.
Bakugou's eyes became bloodshot. It began to erupt wildly around his palms as pure, uncontrolled rage boiled within him.
"DEKU!!!" Bakugo roared with a deranged expression and charged forward. Massive explosions shot from his palms, propelling him forward like a rocket. "What kind of tricks are these?! Tell me how you did it right now, you bastard!!! And you, you white-haired zero, don't get in my way!!!"