[Ground Beta]
Aizawa and the students were now inside the monitoring room. Ground Beta was a 1:1 reconstruction of an urban city area, the area had multiple cameras in every building monitoring the inside and the outside, and the monitoring room had access to all the feed from all the cameras.
"Alright, listen up, class. Today, you'll be testing out your quirks; I want you to use them to their fullest extent."
The students cheered after hearing Aizawa tell them to use their quirks. For the most part, using quirks was illegal as many of them are dangerous if used recklessly; however, since these students were in the hero course, it was permissible for them to use their quirks.
"Alright calm down, and let me explain."
The teacher waves his keyboard in the air, gaining their attention. He understood their excitement. Unless you were a hero, you weren't allowed to use something that was a part of you regardless of circumstances. He has his own thoughts on that, but that isn't relevant right now.
"Since this is your first training exercise, I will be focusing more on how your quirks work and for me to get a clear idea of how they work."
He explained Momo raised her hand, and Aizawa allowed her to speak.
"Does that mean we can use our quirks to their fullest extent?"
"Yes but you'll be facing off against each other, so try not to go too hard"
"Would it not be better to use the robots that we faced during the entrance exams?"
"Yes it would, however, those things are expensive, plus, facing off against human opponents will help in preparing you to fight against villains, robots can only mimic human behaviour"
The students nodded in understanding.
"Alright, who wants to go first?"
"Me!"
Taro was quick to raise his hand up; the excitement in his voice as he shouted was palpable; the young man wanted a good fight, even if it was just.
"I wanna fight him!"
Seeing Taro want to go first, Bakugou volunteered to be his opponent. He was going to show everyone here that he was the strongest.
"Nope, I choose the opponent. You can go next. Kirishima, you're Taro's opponent"
"Hell yeah! Get ready, Taro, you're about to taste these manly punches"
The redhead exclaimed with a wide grin on his face.
"Well don't disappoint me then"
Was all Taro said as they made their way out of the building, with Taro flying out.
…
The spectators watched as Taro menacingly descended from the sky, his arms folded and his face showing a scowl.
"Is it me, or does he give off villain vibes when he slowly descends down like that"
Mina was the first to speak as she watched through the cameras.
"I know, right? It's like he's about to destroy the city or something"
Toru added, although she omitted the part where she thought it was kind of hot, how intimidating he looked.
"It's a total switch from the personality we saw yesterday"
Ochako chimed. To her, the way Taro looked right now felt completely different from the mood she saw yesterday. She had initially thought he was a fun guy, but now she thinks differently.
"Don't tell him any of this. You'll make him think his cool"
Momo warned she knew her brother well, and any sort of praise went to his head, and he would be annoying about it.
"I mean, he is kind of cool"
Denki stated, and some of the boys agreed in their hearts with Katsuki huffing as if not impressed, but he was. Shoto, who stood next to him, only had a single thought.
'Flying is cool'
He inwardly thought.
"Don't tell him that he'll get a big head and start acting up"
She reiterated, although she would never admit it, he definitely did look cool.
"Regardless of how he looks, he seems to be at least taking this seriously, which is something I didn't expect from him"
Aizawa commented that it was certainly a surprise; from his first impression, he had thought Taro was the type to not take things that seriously, which was not a bad thing, as a hero always needs a level head, but it was also detrimental as well.
"Can we focus less on why he's cool and watch the match."
Tsuyu reminded everyone. She couldn't really blame them, but in her opinion, what was cooler than a villain descending down to destroy the city was the hero standing below to stop them.
"Are you just gonna fly over there the whole time?"
"I'm descending down menacingly, it's an art"
Taro educated the ignorant, his arms still folded while looking down on his opponent. However, Kirishima simply huffed in dismissal as he spoke.
"Floating is not an art; get down here and fight the manly way."
Eijiro demanded as he balled and hardened his fists, ready for the battle; Taro sighed and complied with the young man's request.
"Alright come at me!"
Taro touched down as he said, and Ejiro was not one to be told twice; he launched himself at his opponent and reached him within seconds, demonstrating a speed that Taro did not expect from the young man.
With steel in his eyes, Eijiro threw a punch, aiming for Taro's stomach. However, the young Viltrumite blocked the punch by letting it collide with his hand and generated a shockwave that shook the air.
Eijiro was not deterred. He threw another Punch, this time faster, and it landed on Taro's jaw, causing the young man to stagger to the side as another shockwave shook the air.
Taro found himself surprised. He was confident in his own durability due to that he didn't expect to feel that punch, but it actually stung just a bit.
Taking note of Taro's surprise, Eijiro repeated his initial attack and delivered a powerful punch to Taro's stomach and sending his opponent flying back and crashing onto a nearby building and getting implanted on the wall.
"How'd you like that?! That's how a real man throws a punch"
Eijiro shouted as he did a fist pump and a broad grin spread across his face.
Everyone in the peanut gallery found themselves impressed by his power. They hadn't thought he would be powerful after all, his quirk just allowed him to get hard.
"That's impressive, I didn't think his hardening made him that strong"
Ochako Uraraka spoke with more than a little surprise in her voice and got nods from both Asui and Kyouka.
"He always talks about being manly, so I'd expect his quirk to be that strong"
Toru chimed in. Despite her words, she was impressed by Kirishima's strength.
"No, his quirk doesn't give him that level of strength. He got that because he works out a lot"
Mina corrected; it was true; Eijiro's hardening only allowed him to get hard. However, the young man was a gym enthusiast and always made it a point to get stronger. Ever since the run-in with that giant villain back in high school, he's been driven to get stronger.
"That makes sense, but the match isn't over yet"
Aizawa stated, and just as he finished saying so, Taro removed himself from the wall of the building.
"Wow that actually kind of stung"
"What'd you expect? I'm not someone so weak"
Eijiro responded with a smile and flexed his lean but defined muscles. Taro couldn't help but smile before he rolled up the sleeves of his gym clothes.
"Aight get ready"
"I'm always ready, Come on!!"
With such an enthusiastic response, Taro could only oblige. With the swiftness of the wind, he moved from his position and arrived before Eijiro, who widened his eyes at such a feat of speed.
"Grit your teeth!"
Taro warned as he balled his fist and threw a punch. In the split second, It took for the punch to land. Eijiro hardened his entire body as hard as he could, sensing the danger of the punch.
The fist met the stomach and the hardened skin gave way and cracked, Eijiro's eyes widened in disbelief but that shock was followed by a devastating feeling of pain as the punch pushed against the stomach forcing saliva out his mouth before he was lifted off the ground and flew through multiple walls before the momentum if the punch was stopped by a wall.
Taro quickly flew towards Eijiro, ready to deliver another punch, but just as he arrived, the sight that greeted him was disappointment followed by immediate worry.
"Eijiro you alright?"
He quickly got close and saw that the young man who had been his opponent was not alright. He was knocked out. He quickly checked if there was anything broken but found none, so he hoped there was no internal bleeding.
"Phew! Thank god!"
He expressed relief, but unfortunately, relief was quickly overshadowed by the same feeling of disappointment he felt previously. He reconsidered if UA would actually be as fun as he thought it was going to be.
...
A/N: Thoughts on the chapter?