20; Ranking

After the unexpected display of their classmate, the tests came to an end. Those who had struggled stood nervously as they waited for Aizawa to show the results.

"That was eveybody."

The impassive drawl of Shota Aizawa reached eveyones ears. There they stood frozen, waiting for him, for anything.

"Mmm well lets see then." With that pallid pro hero began tinkering with something in his hands. No amount of palpable impatience from his students made any rise in his actions.

He seemed completely unaffected by the multitude of eyes boring holes into him as they stared venemously at their lanky teacher.

"Hmm interesting."

The words tantilising as they were terrifying for those who knew that they would be placed at the bottom of their classmates.

"Looking at the upper limit of your Quirks and the room for growth in each result,

it becomes clear what you can and can't do."

For those at the top the words invited curiosity and intrigue. Were would they be able to see potential growth.

For those less confident, the words "can't do" rang about in their head as worry grew withing them.

A thick miasma of worry and nerves crippled the surroundings, Denki dampened his senses as he tried to remain unaffected by his classmates strong emotions.

Overtuning his olfactory senses had become both a blessing and a real curse when you find yourself surrounded by hormonal teenagers constantly stressing.

"Okay I've talloed up the combined scores. Her are where you all stand in this class."

With that a large screen was projected infront of them all as they hurriedly surrounded it.

Some rushed through the names, hoping that they would be anywhere but that last place.

Whoops of joy and cries of relief filled the heavy silence from before.

"Im 8th! I got in the top ten!"

"Thats awesome! I got 11th place."

"You guys, did so well, Im only 15th."

Chatter rose as people shouted out their placements. Some were happy, they had done reasonably in the test.

Others were filled with pride as they saw the expectations beaten. They had managed to score higher than they had expected.

Then there were those whose quirks were limited in their uses in such tests. They could only smile sadly at their lower scores, satisfied that at least they weren't last.

Denki strolled forwards. His mild curiosity at his results a stark contrast to the extreme reactions of his classmates.

Even Momo had been quick to see her score. She had gotten the second place. Her ingenius use of such a versatile quirk made it hard for anyone to be a match for her.

Denki didn't even bother looking through the whole board. He slowly lifted his gaze to the top. There his name was loacted emblazened on the semi transparent blue blackground.

He nodded simply. As it always was. This was the reason he could never work up much passion for any competition.

He enjoyed the thrill of competing but the end result always ended up the same. Him at the top, surrounded by sour jealousy. No one bothered to see the hard work he put in.

All they saw was his name in first place over and over and over again. It was easier to blame it on the disparity in their quirks.

After all having to admit that he was better simply because he put more effort in, was always a hard pill to swallow.

It wasn't long before the others noticed his spot too. Denki prepared himself for the innevitable envious looks and snide comments of jealous kids.

"Wow! Denki, bro, you got the top spot!"

"I knew you would, you were so cool!"

"Yeah man, you must've worked hard to make those techniques!"

Denki turned around in suprise. His mask of indifference slipping as he registered their words. They weren't angry and upset.

They were kind and full of praise but in a genuine way. Not the sycophantic attempts he was used to by shameless old classmates to ride on his coat tails.

He smiled. A dazzling smile as he looked and listened to his new classmates. 'Maybe Momo was right. This place might be different.'

Momo watched from the side. She was just happy seeing Denki enjoying real admiration. She saw how his face lit up and his guard dropped even if just slightly.

Maybe one day others would be able to see the true Denki like she could. His defenses may seem impenetrable but she had long since snuck through them.

She could easily see every tell he had. A wamr smile rose as her eyes softened watching him.

Not all were so happy though. Toru slumped unnoticably. Her invisible body completely hiding her dissapointed reaction.

It wasn't that she was suprised. A physical fitness test like this was always playing to her weaknesses. Her whole thing was being invisible after all.

No buffs or other enhancements. She was just as strong and fast as any quite fit girl her age but that was hardly enough to keep up with some of the monsters in her class.

She crouched dejectedly as she murmured softly to herself. No one knew about any of this as they couldn't see her. Her quite muttering was lost amongst the excited babble too.

Denki noticed through his sixth sense but was too pre-occupied with the intense attention his achievements were getting.

Jiro was another. Her rank was also low, again mostly because the test wasn't suited for her quirk. She just sighed and stood quietly eyeing her rank like it would suddenly change out of fear.

Not all who got a low rank were undeserving though. Mineta scored last. Midoriya had just about eeked ahead because his physical fitness was decent and his ball throw was among the top.

Mineta had obviously pinned all his hopes on the side to side test. His blubbery round body clearly showcasing a severe lack of any training whatsoever.

He had easily scored the lowest in every other test by quite a noticable margin too. Nothing could save the innevitability that was a lack of training.

Denki felt it was deserved, but couldn't help lament the waste of a possibly good quirk.

The side to side test had shown that the unique qualities that it provided could have interesting capabilities if only it was trained right.

The crowd around him hadn't noticed the miniature figure huddled over in a mixture of panic and despair.

The little guy was clearly beyond destraught at seeing his result. 'This. This is why training and hard work will always beat any amount of natural talent.'

Denki broke off from the group as they started to talk amongst themselves again. He walked up to the small Mineta.

"You got last place." He stated without any emotion. His words cut through the happy chatter of their classmates as they turned to face them.

Interest mixed with the hum of schadenfreud like excitement welled up as they saw what was happening.

Denki stood ominously over the much smaller Mineta who shrivelled up at his arrival. He looked halfway between a grap and a raisin as he stared up with round eyes at Denki.

The blonde simply stared back. Mothing was said for a tense moment as their eyes locked. Denki's a calculating look impossible to read. Minetas a terrified one filled with resistence.

Denki sighed audibly. "You know why, don't you?" Again it was more of a statement than a question.

Mineta paused as he heard him. Slowly he shook out an uncomfortable nod. His body trembled imperceptably but he stood suprisingly firm under such intense scrutiny.

"A hero who refuses to train and become as strong as he can to protect others... Is no hero at all." After saying his piece Denki turned around walking over to Momo.

The rest were lest confused. They had been waiting for some kind of verbal beat down or an I told you so at the very least.

Instead all they got was a cryptic one sided conversation which none of them really understood.

Some did though. Those that did looked at Denki in a different light. His last words had left an impact on them.

Aizawa's hardened eyes took on a slight sheen. His lips seemed to tug into the slightest of smiles. It was gone in a second but it had been there.

Shoto watched on in silent contemplation. His face devoid of any of the inner workings going on within him, but it was clear he had been affected too.

Bakugo simply snorted as he turned away. His screwed up features a tell tale sign he wasn't happy. He had lost to several people in the rankings and he was pissed.

Midoriya stood at the back with wide round eyes full of admiration for Denki. The words the taller boy had said deeply impacted him.

His eyes shone brightly as he looked up at the tall blondes imposing back. Silently putting him on a pedastal among his idols.

Obviously another much larger blondes pedestal stood impossibly higher than any others though.

Denki ignored it all as he smiled at Momo. "Congratulations on second place," his tone sickly sweet as he paused for a fraction of a second.

"Again." With that he winked as he laughingly dodged a weak punch from the onyx haired girl.

"Shutup buzzboy!" Momo snorted back with a mock hurt as she pretended to be pissed off.