Chapter Twelve: The Grind of Scrap and Spark
"This will be the ball throw test."
(Shota Aizawa) stood before the students, a slumped monument in black, holding a baseball-sized ball in one limp hand.
He looked at them, his gaze sweeping across their faces with the enthusiasm of a man checking a grocery list.
"This is the first test for you. You must throw this ball as far as you can possibly manage. You are permitted to use your full capabilities."
Clearly, that meant they could use their Quirks.
Of course.
For someone like him, who possessed no Quirk, it was impossible to have a chance to surpass these people.
A dark, cynical chuckle echoed in his mind. The playing field was never level. It's a cliff, and I'm at the bottom with a shovel.
(Suzuki) watched as (Bakugo) flexed his fingers, tiny crackle-pops of nitroglycerin sweat igniting in the air.
He watched others with strength-enhancement Quirks roll their shoulders, their muscles bulging under their gym uniforms.
"You. How far can you throw it?"
(Aizawa)'s flat voice addressed the explosive blonde.
The number (Bakugo) gave—boasting he could send it well over 700 meters—surprised the rest of the students.
So, the user of the [Explosion] Quirk stepped forward.
He grabbed the baseball, his grip tightening with a leathery squeak.
Then—BOOM!
A short, controlled detonation erupted from his palm.
The sound was less an explosion and more a violent CRACK that split the air.
The ball rocketed away at a ridiculous speed, a white blur screaming against the blue sky.
A digital meter beeped before displaying the number: 705.2 meters.
The sheer kinetic force explained the ball's launch velocity easily.
The motion had been too fast—it was like a cannon shot, not a throw.
(Suzuki) observed this destructive power and couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.
But in the end, he accepted it.
This was their world. His was one of leverage, angles, and scavenged parts.
The test continued, a parade of superhuman feats.
(Ochaco Uraraka) sent her ball into the stratosphere with a touch and a cheerful "Release!"
(Tenya Iida) revved his engines with a sound like VROOM-whirr and threw with piston-like precision.
(Momo Yaoyorozu) created a polished titanium javelin launcher from her arm, the components forming with soft shink-shink sounds.
Then it reached (Izuku Midoriya).
He was nervous, his hand trembling visibly as he took the ball.
He held it like it was a live grenade—which, in his case, it metaphorically was.
"It's your turn now. Try to prove your power isn't just a bomb waiting to go off."
(Aizawa) said this calmly, his eyes—which looked like they belonged to a man who hadn't slept for several days—fixed on the green-haired boy.
Most students who didn't know (Midoriya)'s Quirk didn't understand the reason for the teacher's specific wording.
"His Quirk is super strength?" (Momo) wondered aloud as she watched the boy. Her voice was near (Suzuki), who didn't react, only looked towards the green-haired boy.
(Midoriya) seemed to be in deep thought about how to use his power optimally.
Inside, (Suzuki) was analyzing:
One For All. That explosive power is like a nuclear reactor in a frail vessel. Without sufficient physical strength, that power is just a manual on how to destroy your own body. I can't believe All Might really entrusted such power to someone he just met after a single act of attempted heroism. True, he stayed behind, trained him until he was sure the boy deserved a chance. But still...
That power is monstrous.
(Midoriya) drew the attention of (Suzuki) and the rest of the students.
He pulled back his finger, then gripped the ball.
FWUMP-BOOM!
A concussive blast of air pressure erupted.
It wasn't a clean explosion like (Bakugo)'s; it was a shockwave, a WHUMP that visibly distorted the air and kicked up a cloud of dust and sand from the ground with a sound like shhh-SWISH!
The ball shot into the air like an artillery shell, spinning madly.
Everyone looked at the digital meter.
Beep.
705.3 meters.
It had just barely, barely edged out (Bakugo)'s score.
---
"What?! How did that weakling do that?!"
The Lord of Explosions was stunned, watching the projectile that had been launched as if it had been hit by one of All Might's punches.
Just air pressure had been enough to send the ball a tremendous distance.
"That's unbelievable! What is this insane amount of power?"
The students of Class 1-A were awestruck by this destructive force.
But then they looked at (Midoriya)'s hand.
(Suzuki) did too, and his eyes narrowed.
The finger was purple, swollen, dangling at a sickening angle.
He hadn't respected the boy at first.
But when he thought that (Midoriya) had to endure the backlash of blowing up his own finger—which was an immense amount of pain—without crying or screaming, just trying to smile and bear it to prove himself… (Suzuki) couldn't help but feel a sliver of respect form.
Perhaps my thoughts about him being unworthy aren't correct. He just didn't have a real foundation before receiving One For All. And that could happen to anyone, couldn't it?
---
Anyway, after (Midoriya) finished, and the rest of the other students—whose abilities he was assessing to see if they differed from the manga—proved their level was at least the same… it was finally his turn.
There were differences, but in the end, that was normal because the manga didn't depict every second-by-second scene; it focused only on the main characters.
So, after the secondary characters—who were most of Class A—had finished, the teacher (Aizawa) looked at him.
It was as if he was saying: My turn. Prove yourself.
It seemed the man was interested in him in some way.
Not the kind of interest that says I will nurture you, but the kind that says I will watch and test you to decide if you stay or not.
In the end, for a man who only possessed the power to nullify others' Quirks, plus some capturing cloth, he was focusing an awful lot on a Quirkless person, wasn't he?
(Suzuki) mentally scoffed at that.
This teacher doesn't even have a super-powered Quirk other than erasing others' abilities for a very short time. He could die even more pathetically than I will, since he only uses martial arts and some capturing cloth.
---
(Suzuki) stepped forward.
The eyes of the other students were on him.
They lingered on the scuffed, yellow-accented reinforcement gauntlet on his right forearm and hand.
"When you're ready, throw the ball."
(Aizawa) replied to him with indifference, looking at him with his half-lidded eyes.
But there was a sharp intelligence in those eyes.
For (Suzuki), however, he looked at his fist, which was gripping the reinforcement device.
---
On the other side, the students wondered about the type of gauntlet he was wearing.
"Wait, isn't that support gear...? Isn't it prohibited to use it?"
(Momo) said this in a low voice, not wanting to raise it, but everyone heard.
Their eyes also turned to the gauntlets.
It was common knowledge that using support items in these kinds of assessment tests was forbidden, wasn't it?
So, these thoughts were in most people's heads.
But in the end, (Suzuki) didn't say anything, and (Aizawa) didn't say anything either.
(Mina), who knew that (Suzuki) had no Quirk, also didn't say anything.
In the end, she thought he would reveal the matter if he wanted to, and she wouldn't be the one to say something.
---
In front of them, the gauntlet on (Suzuki)'s hand began to glow faintly.
Small electrical sparks danced across its surface with a soft fizz-crackle.
This gauntlet worked on the same principle as Conan's power-enhancing shoes from the Detective Conan anime.
It amplified the neural signals to the arm continuously for a maximum of a few seconds.
But that was only to increase grip strength slightly.
(Suzuki) had drawn inspiration for making this gauntlet from Conan's powerful kicks in the anime.
True, the technology was difficult to implement, but in the end, with study and a bit of understanding—plus this world being very advanced in terms of technological fundamentals—he had managed to create a prototype made from some scavenged parts.
First, he bent his knees slightly, making his posture more fluid.
He grabbed the baseball.
The gauntlet amplified his strength to its limit.
He squeezed the ball with all his enhanced might.
The powerful, reinforced pressure compressed the ball in his hand to an extreme degree.
Creak. The leather of the ball protested.
From a distance, with a strong wind-up—like a pitcher in a baseball championship—he launched it.
Fwip- WHOOSH!
A sharp sound came from the air as his arm whipped forward.
The ball, finally released, shot away.
It flew, spinning madly at a high speed, before landing at a distance...
A distance that was far less than what (Bakugo) had achieved.
The digital meter beeped.
86.5 meters.
A respectable distance for a human, utterly pathetic for a UA hero student.
But in the end, the stares of everyone were fixed on him, as if they were wondering how he had done it at all.
How had he thrown a ball that far without a visible Quirk?
The silence was heavy, broken only by the distant caw of a crow and the low hum of the measuring device.
(Suzuki) lowered his arm, the gauntlet's glow fading. He met (Aizawa)'s gaze, his own expression unreadable.
The test wasn't about beating them. It was about proving he belonged on the same field, even if he was playing by different, scrappier rules.
The score was low, but the statement was made.
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End of Chapter.
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📝 Observers in the Stands,
The ball throw test concludes with a whisper, not a bang. Suzuki's pragmatic, understated performance stands in stark contrast to the class's explosive displays. What did you think of his approach? How do you interpret Aizawa's silent allowance of the support gear? And what about that flicker of respect for Midoriya's grit? The dynamics are shifting in subtle ways. Share your analysis and predictions in the comments below!