Two Truths and a Lie, Part II

Izuku had to admit, he was really excited to see his classmates' Quirks in action. Even though there was Aizawa's threat of expulsion for whoever came in last place looming over his head, this was still a learning experience to see how far his and Katsuki's training under All Might had paid off, and how far he could push himself with Gold Experience.

And also to see how the two of them compared in situations outside of fighting.

With great interest in Tenya's Quirk and seeing how fast he had cleared the running track, he began to stare off into a random area on the ground, as he became deep in thought. "Based on the mutation Quirk in his calves, there's a good chance he's related to Ingenium, meaning that his Quirk should be similar to a car engine's, with multiple gears. It looks like that's the fastest he can go in that distance, but..."

It was really a shame he didn't have his notebook with him.

Ochako, in the middle of walking over to him to try and make conversation, suddenly paused when she heard his muttering, and took a cautious step backwards. "Does...does he do that a lot?" she asked, turning to Katsuki.

"Just about every time he finds out about a new Quirk," he replied. "I tried to get him to stop talking to himself a lot over the years, but he gets pretty fanatic when it comes to studying Quirks. Fairly sure he's even got a couple pages dedicated to you, too."

Ochako looked away as she felt her face start to heat up. "O-oh." Deciding to instead turn her attention back to Izuku, she couldn't help find herself staring at his face as he continued to mutter up a storm, watching all of their other classmates run the track .

'C'mon, Ochako,' she thought, in an attempt to reason with herself. 'It's because he looks weird doing that...right?'

Slightly shaking her head, her thoughts then turned to Izuku's own Quirk. When he had told her the name of his invisible (to everyone but him, at least) companion, and how it would repeatedly yell out the word 'useless' as a battle cry, she was overcome with the strangest sense of déjà vu, although she couldn't seem to recall where she had heard the information before. She swore she had never seen nor heard of anyone who had done that before in her life, but there was a strange feeling of...familiarity to the knowledge.

Katsuki, meanwhile, had noticed her odd behavior, and was watching her out of the corner of his eye with a raised eyebrow, before ultimately deciding to ignore it.

---

Eventually, it came time for Izuku's turn to run the test. Walking up to the starting line, he took a deep breath and began lightly stretching and mentally preparing himself, as he bent down into a running start position. Turning to his right, he saw Katsuki doing the same thing. "Kacchan." At the sound of his nickname, the boy turned to see Izuku holding out a fist to him. "Ready to show everyone who's boss?"

Katsuki looked at the offered fist for a moment, before smirking and returning it. "You know me so well, Deku." Turning their attention back to the track, a few moments of silence passed, before the robot that oversaw and recorded each score began to speak the countdown.

"On your mark...get set..." With the sound of a gunshot, Izuku shot forward, with his legs imbued with Gold Experience's. Through countless hours of experimenting, Izuku had concluded that the speed at which Gold Experience could attack had to be somewhere close to, if not faster than the speed of sound, based on the fact that he couldn't even see Gold Experience's fists flying during a punching barrage. Unfortunately, however, it couldn't exactly apply to whenever he himself would use it to enhance his own body, because it had its own physical limits, and he could still vividly recall how painful that event had been.

One day during the ten months spent training for the exam, Izuku had tried to push himself as much as possible during a sprint exercise. And while he was able to run at a speed that far outclassed his middle school gym scores, it ended up with most, if not all of the muscles in his legs being torn apart from the massive strain. After about a minute of panicking from him, Katsuki, and Toshinori, they eventually remembered that he had the ability to heal himself, and so calmed down. Once he had repaired the damaged limbs, he received a stern warning from the man to be careful with pushing himself, and to count himself lucky for being able to undo any damage done with ease, which he had taken to heart.

At least it wasn't too bad, even if the memory did keep him up at night from time to time.

"4.13 seconds!" the robot loudly announced. It seemed that Katsuki was the one with the upper hand, as he used his Quirk to repeatedly ignite small explosions and propel himself forward, which eliminated the need to set his feet on the ground. Izuku wasn't too far behind, though, as he still managed to train his body up to the point of being able to run at a speed that was still impressive, managing to stay right behind him with a time of 4.46 seconds.

"Damn...it..." Izuku said, slightly disappointed that he couldn't beat his friend, but it was obvious that he would have the disadvantage no matter what. He briefly considered having Gold Experience throw him at full strength, but he didn't think Aizawa would appreciate the landing part.

After another moment of recovering his stamina, he made his way over to Katsuki, who was busy studying his hands. "Still don't regret not getting One For All?" the other boy jokingly sniped without turning around.

"Eh, it would've been nice to wait an entire three seconds seeing you try to catch up," Izuku deadpanned. The other boy just barked out a laugh in response.

---

Izuku stared at the grip device with a calculating expression, wondering what the best course of action was for this particular test. Obviously, if he tried to grip it as himself, he would end up getting a weak score, but it was a no-brainer that Gold Experience would be used here, so the question was how to use it. He could simply just have the golden being do the test for him, but to be honest...he liked freaking people out when it came to revealing the 'punch ghost'.

In the end, he opted to instead stack both his and Gold Experience's strength, which he hoped would give him a good enough score to-

Oh.

It seemed that in his haste to get the test over with, he forgot that Gold Experience possessed the strength to actually break the device, and rather loudly, at that. As he stared at the now-mangled piece of technology, Izuku briefly wondered if Aizawa would let this slide, before looking up and noticing the stares the people he was nearest to were giving him.

"Uh...whoops?" he said, in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"Deku, it's a grip strength test, not a 'break everything' test," Katsuki snidely remarked. Before Izuku could let out a retort, he noticed a a flash of movement in his peripheral vision, and turned to see a boy with the mutation of a bird's head holding the device, with a large, shadow-like creature similar in appearance floating next to him.

Izuku's eyes widened at the sight and he suppressed a gasp, before quickly making his way towards him. "Wait, you have one, too?!"

At his excited words, the other boy just looked at him with confusion from the lack of context. "...What are you talking about?"

"Your Quirk!" Izuku summoned Gold Experience in his growing excitement at finally seeing another person with a Quirk similar to his. "Can you see mine?" he asked, enthusiastically gesturing to the space next to him.

He only received a blank stare in return. "I...I'm afraid I don't see anything."

"Oh..."

An awkward silence passed between the two of them, before the boy decided to speak up. "I am Tokoyami Fumikage," he began, then pointed to his shadowy companion. "And this is Dark Shadow." On cue, the being silently waved. "And you?"

"Midoriya Izuku," he replied, his disappointment making itself known in his tone of voice. "I apologize for disturbing you, Tokoyami-kun."

Fumikage noted the change in Izuku's behavior, and continued to speak in an attempt to make the situation less awkward. "Does your Quirk function similarly to mine?" At seeing his face light up, he mentally pat himself on the back for a job well done.

The two boys spent the next few minutes comparing their respective Quirks and the abilities each had. Izuku had found it very interesting to know that different levels of light directly affected Dark Shadow's power, and Fumikage was intrigued to know that Gold Experience's strength was dependent on Izuku's mental fortitude.

"...But I don't think Gold Experience is sentient," Izuku said, when the topic of control came up, and why he kept referring to his own companion as an 'it'. "And it always responds to what I'm thinking or feeling, but it'll usually move by itself if I'm in danger."

"Hm..." Fumikage hummed. "I usually have to verbally command Dark Shadow in order for him to do what I want. Generally, he's usually very compliant most of the time, but if there's very little light, then there is a high risk of him getting out of control."

Izuku nodded in understanding, before suddenly remembering something that was quite an important detail when it came to Gold Experience. "Wait, can everyone else see yours?"

Fumikage gave him an odd look. "...Yes? Why do you ask?"

"Because absolutely no one can see Gold Experience, and it doesn't make any sense!" he exclaimed. "Quirks are directly related to the physical body, so everyone should be able to see it! Ours function so similarly, but yours is summoned by floating out of your clothes, and mine just appears out of thin air and just stands there until I think of a command, or will it to go away." Well that certainly was odd, Fumikage noted. To be honest, he did wonder about how Dark Shadow would look with legs from time to time, instead of just floating there so-

Wait.

Fumikage's eyes slightly widened at the epiphany he just experienced. While the chances of it were very small, they were still there, and the characteristics of Izuku's Quirk lined up with the stories he remembered being told when he was younger, some years after he had first manifested Dark Shadow. "I see," he said neutrally, while his thought process started working at hyperspeed at the prospect of the true nature of Izuku's 'Quirk'.

Unfortunately, the one person he thought was best suited to talk to Izuku currently wasn't present.

---

Weighing the softball in his hand, Izuku thought of how to approach this next test using Gold Experience. While he could simply just have it throw the ball for him, it wouldn't really get him a good score. Oh sure, he knew he would get a better score than most of his classmates, but Katsuki had managed to get over seven hundred meters, and Ochako beat him with an infinity, just by sending the ball to space. Unfortunately, no amount of punching and turning things into animals would help him with throwing a ball.

Izuku's eyes lit up. 'Wait, that's it!'

With a sly grin breaking out onto his face, the faint sound of reversing musical notes played, and the softball was transformed into a alpine swift, which he then directed to fly for as long as physically possible. While Gold Experience's strength far exceeded that of a normal human's, Aizawa did say that the only thing he cared about was everyone staying in the circle.

"He just turned the ball into a bird."

"Geez, just how many Quirks does this guy have?!"

"He's only got one, as far as I can tell, unless he's been lying to me the whole time I've known him."

Aizawa, meanwhile, simply stared off into the direction the swift was currently flying. With a nod of approval, he turned to Izuku. "How long until it reverts back?"

Izuku just grinned in response. "There is no time limit," he replied. "All of the objects that I've turned into animals can only turn back if I want them to, and I've never tested how far my effective range can go up to, but I can still feel a connection all the way from here. So I guess that means I'll just keep it going until I want it to stop, which is probably never, when it comes to this test."

Aizawa grew silent for a few moments before speaking. "Hm. I'll just give you an infinity and move on."

---

After all of the tests in Aizawa's 'Quirk Apprehension Test' had been completed, he directed the class to head back to the front of the field, where they were all eagerly waiting to see how they performed. "Whatever your total score will be is just all of the scores you got from the tests added together." Tapping on the screen of his phone, a large hologram was displayed for all the class to see, which displayed the individual students' scores and where they ranked when compared to each other.

After a moment of searching, Izuku found his name ranked at fourth place, with Katsuki and Ochako respectively being placed at third and eleventh. He moved to walk over and congratulate his friends, but then paused when he heard the sound of a panicking voice.

"Oh no. Oh nononono." Turning around, Izuku saw a short boy with purple balls for hair holding his head in his heads, looking as if he were in the midst of the beginning of a panic attack. Reflexively, he turned back to look at the scoreboard, and saw that 'Minoru Mineta' was the name in last place.

"Um, Mineta-kun?" he tentatively asked. When the grape-haired boy looked up at him and confirmed his fears, Izuku felt pity begin to well up inside him, as the reality of the situation made itself known. It wasn't fair that that boy would be kicked out at the end of the day, because apparently it didn't matter how hard he had worked to get into U.A.

If he was unable to show he had potential, then there was no groundwork where he could improve on to become a hero.

"Mineta." The boy visibly flinched when he heard Aizawa speak. "While I did say I was going to expel whoever came in last place, you managed to show that you at least had some potential. So congratulations, you can stay."

"Oh, thank you, sensei! Thank you!" the boy exclaimed, bowing as deep as he could out of gratefulness to the teacher. When he stood back up, Izuku noticed that his posture and body language had visibly changed. "Well I think this calls for a celebration!" He turned around to face the crowd. "Hey Yaoyorozu! Uraraka! How bout we go to my place after school, and you two show me your goodies so we can...celebrate?'

At hearing his proposition, all of the girls (and a large portion of the boys) in the class were visibly disgusted, while the girls in question began to feel increasingly self-conscious.

"Okay, you know what?" Aizawa growled out. "Never mind." Grabbing the boy by the back of the shirt, he dragged him to the edge of the crowd, where he started to berate him. "Did you seriously think that kind of behavior's tolerable here?" Before Minoru could let out a reply, Aizawa cut him off. "Actually, don't say anything, I don't care." Dropping him, he turned around and made his way towards the locker rooms. "Get your things. We're going to the principal's office. Now."

"B-but-"

"Do I look like I care?" While the man's volume was still somewhat quiet, his latent fury could be felt. "Let's go."

"You know what?" Ochako spoke up, as she watched the two walk away. "I don't feel so bad, anymore."

Izuku nodded as he felt himself agreeing. "Neither do I."

---

After the debacle that was Minoru Mineta's sexual harassment and his likely expulsion, the rest of Class 1-A returned to the locker rooms to get dressed and went back to their classroom, where they found a stack of packets containing information about the hero course's curriculum. After mingling for a bit and everyone introducing themselves to each other, they all went their separate ways home, with Izuku, Ochako, and Katsuki all walking towards the train station.

"Excuse me!" someone yelled out behind them. Turning around, they saw Tenya doing his best to quickly walk up to them. "Do you mind if I join you?" he asked, stopping in front of them.

"Well, I don't mind, Iida-kun," Izuku answered, with Ochako and Katsuki nodding in agreement. The trio now becoming a quartet, Tenya fell into step beside Ochako, and they continued walking outside of U.A. High School's grounds.

A few moments of silence passed between the teenagers, before Tenya cleared his throat. "Uraraka-kun," he began. "I am sorry that you had to deal with such harassment on the first day of classes. I was not expecting such deplorable behavior at U.A. out of all places, but...there's a first time for everything, I suppose."

"I-it's fine, I guess..." Ochako said quietly, feeling herself start to grow ashamed at having been reminded about the earlier event.

Sensing the mood turn sour and awkward, Katsuki opted to change the subject. "Deku, Uraraka, and I are gonna go get some food. You wanna come with?"

Tenya thought about his offer for a moment, before coming to a decision. "While I appreciate the offer, Bakugō-kun, I have some matters to attend to at home. Perhaps another time." With a shrug from Katsuki, they continued to walk in silence.

"Can I call you Deku, too?" Ochako eventually spoke up, as she turned to Izuku. Looking to his other side, he silently asked Katsuki if he was okay with it.

"The hell you lookin' at me for?" he asked. He leaned forward slightly so that he could face Ochako. "It's just the other way you can read his name, Uraraka, so I don't really care if anyone else uses the nickname. But I will start throwing hands if you start calling me 'Kacchan'."

"Sounds good!" she replied, and the overall mood became much lighter, as Tenya started questioning them how they thought their performances in the entrance exam went.

---

Upon making his way outside of Class 1-A and towards the school's entrance, Fumikage spotted Midoriya, Bakugō, Uraraka, and Iida all walking together. He began to move towards them with the intent on joining them, but he was stopped by the sound of a male voice whispering in his ear.

"So what do you think?" asked Dark Shadow, who was now floating beside his head.

"He's...interesting, to say the least," Fumikage replied. "While some of his mannerisms are a bit much, I do think we could end up becoming good friends."

"I meant the Quirk," the shadowy being reiterated. "Do you think Midoriya's Quirk could be one of those?" Based on their interaction with Izuku earlier that day, Fumikage had a very strong suspicion as to the true nature of the other boy's 'Quirk', but he wasn't someone that had the ability or resources to find out.

But he knew someone that did, however.

He nodded. "I don't know for certain," he began, reaching into his pocket and pulling his phone out. Turning it on, he searched for a particular contact, and upon finding it, began calling the number, patiently waiting for it to be answered. "But even so, this is something that the Foundation would need to know about."

"Fumikage?" asked the man who was on the other line. "What is it?"

"Good afternoon, Uncle," the boy greeted. "I apologize if this is a bad time to be calling, but...I think one of my classmates may be a Stand user."