What Was Within One's Power

Should he give up here and accept last place, or fail to learn his lesson and use all his strength? Whichever he chose, it looked hopeless.

Midoriya returned to the throwing point. He seemed to have worked something out and threw the ball with all his might, without a moment's hesitation. That's right, I can't control my strength right now, so I can only use all of it!

This time, Midoriya did not seem to use his Quirk as he threw the ball with all his strength. An instant before it left his hand, the blood in the vessels of one of his fingers surged wildly!

"Smash!"

The ball was struck by a sudden, tremendous force and flew straight toward the sky without wavering, soaring into the distant beyond!

"705.3 meters!" The astonishing result appeared on the display.

Instead of blindly swinging with all his strength, did he concentrate his power in his fingertip...?

Aizawa looked at Midoriya, whose arm hung limply at his side. Midoriya turned his head, beads of sweat from the pain on his face. He turned around and tightly gripped the hand whose index finger had ruptured blood vessels, smiling as if he were about to cry. "Teacher... I can still move!"

This guy is so cool... Jilan Jiyu thought for some reason. Beside him, Katsuki Bakugo wore an expression of disbelief, his mouth hanging so wide open that his jaw looked as if it had been dislocated.

What was that power?! Almost everyone awakened their Quirk before the age of four, but Deku was Quirkless. This was impossible!

Jilan Jiyu noticed that something was wrong with Katsuki Bakugo. Small explosions were going off intermittently in his hands, and just then, he charged forward!

"Deku, you'd better explain this clearly! What the hell is going on?!"

He roared, his palms seeming to contain bombs, intent on rushing at Midoriya and making him show his Quirk and fight him!

Suddenly, a strip of cloth wrapped around his body. The nitroglycerin secreted from his palms turned back into sweat, and he was completely restrained.

"This is a capture weapon made of ferric fibers woven with copper wire of a special alloy."

Katsuki Bakugo forced his head around and saw Shota Aizawa, whose eyes were glowing red again. His strip of cloth was holding Bakugo in place.

"Honestly, don't make me use my Quirk over and over. I have dry eyes." He withdrew the cloth and waved a hand. "Don't waste time. Next person, get ready."

Although Katsuki Bakugo wanted to press Midoriya for answers right then, Shota Aizawa clearly had no intention of letting him do so. He stood where he was and watched helplessly as Midoriya slipped past him and ran over to Ochaco Uraraka.

This guy was just an inconspicuous pebble before...

"Midoriya, is your hand all right?"

Jilan Jiyu walked up to Izuku Midoriya. Hearing Uraraka's concern, he smiled and said to Izuku Midoriya, "Give me your hand."

Without waiting for either of them to react, Jilan Jiyu took hold of Midoriya's injured wrist and drew his hand toward himself.

"Luckily, although the injury looks serious, you exercise regularly, so your ability to recover isn't weak. It can heal completely." Jilan Jiyu called out softly, "Hamon Overdrive," and golden Hamon immediately flowed through his hand into Midoriya's injured one.

"Your injury healed!" Ochaco Uraraka stared in disbelief at Izuku Midoriya's finger, which had returned completely to normal. Unable to believe it, she snatched his hand from Jilan Jiyu and examined it closely.

Midoriya did not find it miraculous, having previously been treated by Recovery Girl during the U.A. High School entrance exam. He was only a little surprised that Jilan had a Quirk that could heal others. But when Ochaco touched his hand, his face suddenly flushed red, and he stammered, "My... my hand..."

Ochaco froze for a moment before realizing what she was doing. She blushed at once and hurriedly turned her gaze to Jilan Jiyu. "Thank you, Jilan. I didn't expect you to have a healing-type Quirk..."

Izuku Midoriya also recovered and said gratefully, "Thanks, Jilan. You've helped me again!"

"It was no big deal," Jilan Jiyu said with a smile. "If one of your hands was injured, wouldn't the results you got be meaningless?"

A thought suddenly occurred to Izuku Midoriya. If Jilan helps me, could I use my Quirk one more time?

"Midoriya, I forgot to tell you something." As Jilan Jiyu was about to head to the next testing location, he suddenly turned around, startling Midoriya. "The way you harm your own body isn't acceptable, so if you do it again during this test, I absolutely won't help you."

"That's right, I agree too," Ochaco Uraraka chimed in. "You're being far too careless with your body."

"All right..." Midoriya gave a wry smile inwardly and dismissed the thought.

After that, they completed the sit-ups, seated forward bend, and endurance run, one event after another.

"Now I'll announce the results." Shota Aizawa looked at the students gathered in front of him. "The total score is simple: it's the sum of your scores in each event. Explaining them one by one would be too much trouble, so I'll show them all together."

The recorder in Shota Aizawa's hand projected a screen of light, displaying everyone's results in order.

First place, Momo Yaoyorozu. Second place, Shoto Todoroki. Third place, Katsuki Bakugo. Fourth place, Tenya Iida. Fifth place, Jilan Jiyu... Eighteenth place, Izuku Midoriya. Nineteenth place, Toru Hagakure. Twentieth place, Minoru Mineta.

Although Jilan Jiyu had not achieved any particularly eye-catching results, none of his scores were too bad. After all, no matter how high a score was in any one event, it could not exceed 100. As long as he had no major weaknesses, his overall score would naturally rise.

There were far, far too many people with Quirks in this world. They might have advantages in various areas, but they could also be a complete mess in others. A "Quirk" like Jilan Jiyu's, which could improve every aspect of his physical abilities evenly, was truly rare.

Suddenly, a person with grape-like hair and a build as small and thin as a seven- or eight-year-old child sat down on the ground with a thud. Needless to say, he was Minoru Mineta, who had come in last. His eyes lost focus, and he kept repeating like someone with senile dementia, "It's over, I'm done for this time..."

Izuku Midoriya saw that he was not in last place and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he looked worriedly at Minoru Mineta sitting on the ground. If Jilan Jiyu had not healed his injury, he surely would have done terribly in the remaining tests...

"By the way, expulsion was a lie."

"Huh?" The air fell silent at once, and Minoru Mineta instantly shut his mouth too. It seemed his dejected appearance had only been an act.

Shota Aizawa put away the screen of light. His eyes were bloodshot, and he smiled like a man whose scheme had succeeded. "It was a rational deception to draw out your Quirks to the fullest."

"What?!" Midoriya instantly shut down. Did that mean the test he had been prepared to risk his life to pass had no punishment at all? What had he been trying so hard for?!

"Wasn't it obviously a lie?" Momo Yaoyorozu, the girl who had placed first in the test, said helplessly. "How could they make someone leave school on the very first day?"

Is that so? But I clearly saw you breathe a sigh of relief when Shota Aizawa said that.

Jilan Jiyu stared at Momo Yaoyorozu's hands. Her fair hands looked extraordinarily smooth, the pampered hands of a wealthy young lady at a glance, hands that had never done any hard labor. Hands like these would be worth making part of my collection-the thought suddenly popped into Jilan Jiyu's mind.

"I don't believe we've met before, Jilan? I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, a recommended student. My Quirk is Creation." Seeing Jilan Jiyu looking at her, Momo Yaoyorozu coughed lightly and introduced herself with a perfectly serious expression.

"Jilan Jiyu. Quirk: Hamon." Jilan Jiyu briefly introduced himself and looked away. That thought is too dangerous. Could that spirit be influencing me?

After all, she's my classmate. If she disappeared, they'd investigate us classmates first, unless I could find an opportunity to do it without anyone knowing...