That night after dinner, I was checking out some robot forums online when Kyoka-chan knocked on my door. She looked more unhappy than usual.

"Excuse me, do you have a minute? I have a question."

"Sure, please sit down." She took a seat on the bed. "What's up?"

"Were you trying today?"

"What?"

"During the practice combat. Did you try to win?"

"Umm…Not really. It just didn't seem important to me."

"That's what I thought." She got up and started out the door. I watched her, confused. Just before left she turned back and asked, "Did you know that Koda-kun is the first person from his town to attend UA ever?" She walked away before I could answer.

What did that have to do with the price of coffee beans in Guatemala? I knew nothing about Koda, other than his power.

Shrugging, I turned back to my tablet. They were streaming a robotics competition and my friends' team was in the running. It was so close, but they just got beat. Fifteen minutes later I was condoling them over their loss. After I closed the window I tried to watch some anime, but Kyoka-chan's questions kept bugging me.

With a curse, I got up and went to the family room. My classmate was playing her guitar with her ear jack plugged in. I waited for a bit, but she never acknowledged me. After a while I sat at the piano and started playing. Mrs. Jiro came in from the kitchen and listened. Shortly Mr. Jiro joined us and started accompanying me on his guitar. Kyoka-chan glared at us, took her instrument, and went into her bedroom. I didn't see her for the rest of the night.

The next morning Kyoka-chan talked as much to me as she did most mornings, which is to say not a lot. She was not unfriendly, just quiet. I was getting the impression she was more than a bit emo. On the train, the kids from Class1-B was pretty talkative. They were scheduled for their practice combat that afternoon. When we got to the school, there was a crowd outside the main gate. When we got closer they turned out to be reporters looking for a scoop on All Might. That guy needed more publicity like the Sahara needed more sand. We made our way through with a simple "No Comment."

"Otis!" I turned and saw Pony calling me. I stopped to talk with her and the others went into the building.

"Hey, what's up?" it felt a little odd to be speaking English.

"My host mom wanted me to invite you and your host family to a matsuri this weekend. We live in one of the temple districts and there are a lot of festivals and such."

"That sounds pretty cool. I'll ask if they want to go. Give me your number incase Mrs. Jiro wants to ask for details. How are you liking your new place?"

"It's great. They have this old traditional house. It's just like my grandfather talks about or like you see in the old movies. Way different from living on the ranch. How about you?"

"Not bad. The family are all musicians so I get to keep up with my piano practice." Just then the first bell sounded. Even though a lot of students were delayed by the press at the gate, I didn't want to be the one late for class.

"Gotta run!" Pony said. Then, with a wave, she started trotting away. I quickly changed my shoes and followed her.

Homeroom was once again chaotic that day. But this time it was with a pretty mundane activity – class elections. While we did not have these in the US, I had seen them in anime a dozen times. In Class 1-A everyone seems to want to be the leader. Even Kyoka-chan had her hand up, which surprised me. I had no idea why these people wanted to take on extra work and responsibility. It wasn't like many, or any, of them were planning on going to university. So having a school government position on their academic resume didn't matter. Needless to say, I keep my hand down and my mouth shut during the whole election process.

I was tempted to vote for Yaoyorozu. She was smart and pretty and I really wanted her to smile, even if it wasn't at me specifically. But host family loyalty and all that won out. As Kyoka-chan wanted the position, I cast my vote for her.

In the end, most everyone voted for themselves. Midoriya had three votes and Yaoyorozu and Kyoka-chan each had two so Aizawa-sensei declared Midoriya the class rep with the two girls as deputies. Woohoo. At least my host sister seemed pleased. And the girl I did not have a crush on gave a bit of a smile to the class as well. Everyone was satisfied, except for Bakugo, much to the surprise of no one, who freaked loudly about "Deku" winning. Drama queen. The rest of the morning was school. Nothing more really need be said, save that I was really not prepared for ancient Japanese.

I decided to grab a sandwich from the cafe and take my lunch in the woods behind the school. People had been looking at me like I had something smelly on my shoe all morning and I didn't feel like dealing with it in a crowded cafeteria. There were some comfortable benches in the shade and the weather was particularly nice. Sitting down I pondered the vagaries of the high school social scene, Japanese style. I knew that as a gaijin I was always going to be somewhat on the outside of the tight knit society. But I didn't know if that was what I was experiencing. It was only a few days into the year. Maybe my novelty had worn off and this was how it was going to be for the rest of my time in Japan. But I didn't think that was the case. I thought I had done something specific to offend everyone, and I had no idea what.

I noticed Koda seated under a tree, munching on an onigiri, surrounded by birds and squirrels. As I ate, I watched him talking with the various critters. I couldn't hear what he said at that distance and wondered if he was speaking Japanese or some other language. I thought about what Kyoka-chan had said about him being the first from his town to get into UA. Why would this guy want to be a hero? He seemed too gentle to be in it for the violence, like my brother; too shy to be in it for the publicity, like my sister. Maybe he was in it for the money, like my father. Maybe his town needed an influx of cash and he was the lucky one chosen to make some dough. I just didn't get it. Before my mental questions could expand to encompass the motivations of all my classmates, Koda and I were disturbed by an alarm going off.

"There is a Level 3 security breach. All students evacuate outdoors." The voice on the loudspeaker was calm, but the students I could see in the building through the windows were just the opposite. I saw a man with light blue hair entering the building through a side door. I didn't recognize him, but figured he had to be a staff member. I just didn't know them all by sight. Koda and I stood, but I had no idea where to go. Leave it to our lackadaisical maniac of a homeroom teacher to forget the little detail of how to deal with a school emergency.

"Were are we supposed to go?" I asked the squirrel whisperer. He shrugged then pointed toward the sports fields. I shrugged and we started walking in that direction. It made as much sense as anywhere else. When we got there a number of other students were gathering. They seemed to be segregating into groups. I assumed these were classes and started looking for ours. I saw Yaoyorozu and Todoroki and headed nervously towards them. They were not the least intimidating people in the class.

"Any idea what is happening?" I inquired, bravely I thought, when we got to the pair.

"I was in the class when the alarm went off. I did not see anything, but exited the building as directed." Todoroki said emotionlessly. I wondered about this guy. Did his powers make him such a cold fish, or was it the other way around?

"I saw nothing either," agreed Yao … I decided to just call her Momo-chan. She was too amazing to have an awkward sounding name. She was looking towards the main gate where you could hear the distant sounds of many raised voices.

"You think it might be the press at the gate?" I asked.

"Maybe." She agreed. "What's that?" The sound of sirens could be heard growing over the noise of the crowd. "The police are coming."

"Look!" Asui, who had joined the group, was pointing towards the back doors of the building. A large crowd of students was pouring out into the fields. They were talking about Iida and a stampede in the lunchroom. For a school for heroes they don't seem to have mastered crisis management. Eventually we heard that the press, or someone, had somehow destroyed the barrier at the gate and surged on to the school grounds.

After lunch Midoriya abdicated his position as class rep to Iida. So much for democracy.

Over the next two days I realized that I really was being shunned by my classmates. It even spread to the other classes. People all over the school were staring at me and whispering in the hallways. They went out of their way to avoid interacting with me. In class, no one wanted to partner with me, so the teachers let me work alone. It was particularly noticeable in hero basic training. Even Kyoka-chan spoke to me only when courtesy required it and her parents were around.

Sunday came and the Jiros declined the invitation to attend the festival with the Hados, though they encouraged me to go. So I went. Pony and her host sister Nee-chan met me at the station.

"Hey!" Pony cried and hugged me. "I'm so happy you could come."

"Me too!" Nee-chan squealed and hugged me when Pony let go. Wow… full body hug from a gorgeous senior girl. That may have finally kick started puberty for me. "We are going to have such fun." She as speaking in English with a very cute, slightly British, accent. "We thought we should meet you here as the neighborhood is a little confusing to navigate. This is one of the oldest districts in Tokyo, with loads of old temples and shrine and ryokans and …old stuff."

"The streets are really twisty and all the houses are so traditional." Pony added. She linked her arm in mine and we started into the maze. I felt a strange weight lift from my chest as we strolled.

"You know, this is the first time anyone has talked to me in days." I said.

"Yeah, you're on everybody's shit list." Pony frowned and poked me in the ribs. "But I figured you needed a break and some human interaction before going back into quarantine."

"Thanks…" I said uncertainly.

"So what did you do to gain the wrath of the first years?" Nee-chan queried.

"I have no frikking clue!"

"Really?" Pony sounded surprised.

"Really."

"They say that you sabotaged your partner's performance in the 2-on-2 combat test. That you're untrustworthy, not a team player."

"Oh yeah!" the blue-haired senior chimed in. "I did hear about a foreigner firstie that was out to bring down the whole school. I thought it was you," she pointed to Pony.

"Jiminy H. Cricket on a pogo stick!" I expostulated. "Are you serious?"

Both girls nodded their heads, their big blue eyes very serious. "I did not sabotage anyone, and I'm certainly not out to destroy the school. We lost a match. It was no big deal. Half the class lost their matches. That's the nature of the frikking exercise."

"Whoa, Nelly," Pony placated. "Calm down. I had the same exercise last week and I'm sure Nee-chan had it in her first year. We know how it goes. Tell us what you did and maybe we can help."

"Fine. I was paired up with this quiet guy that has some sort of animal control Quirk. But there were no animals in the building, so he was useless. I didn't really care about the whole exercise, so I used it as an opportunity to test out some of my new tech. I discovered several shortcomings in my ground-based drone design, but in general it seemed to work as planned. I just need to upgrade the specs to meet new requirements…" I saw those were not the details they were looking for. "Anyway… That's it. We didn't stop them. They got the bomb and we lost. No deliberate sabotage. No plans for world domination. It was just a stupid exercise."

The two girls looked at me then at each other.

"He screwed up, didn't he?" Pony put forward

"Big time." Nee-chan agreed.

"How?" I demanded "I didn't do anything."

"Exactly!" Pony agreed.

"Worse, it sounds like you didn't even try to do anything." The senior's tone was somber. "I don't know how things are in the US, but in Japan the group is more important than the individual. By ignoring the exercise objective and not preserving you let down the group - your team, your class, and the whole school. Did you want to win?"

"I don't even want to be in the frikking school. I. Don't. Want. To. Be. A. Hero."

"But we all do." Pony almost pleaded. "Every student in the hero course, probably in the whole school, is trying their damnedest to become a hero. While you, who I know could do great at this, can't even be bothered to try. Do you know how that makes everyone else feel?"

"That's why people are avoiding you." Nee-chan stated. "They see you are not firm in your resolve to become a hero, therefore you are wasting their time. Possibly even endangering their chances of succeeding, as you did for your partner in that exercise."

"But…" I tried to protest. She just continued over me.

"Even worse, by sitting in the hero course you are taking the opportunity away from someone who really does want to become a hero. The same opportunity we all struggled so hard to get. A place at UA is probably the thing these students value most. And you are spitting on it. Yeah, I can see why you are unpopular."

I was gutted. Was I really screwing up that badly? Was I wasting everybody's time? I knew I wasn't taking Sado's opportunity away. But the others probably didn't see it that way. How could the other students really value becoming a hero? Heroes were just mercenaries. They didn't care about helping people. They just wanted to get rich and famous, or to beat people up without getting in trouble. How could everyone want to be a hero?

"Well, Crackdoodles!" I cursed. Both girls cracked up.

"Crackdoodles?" Pony whickered (a cross between a whinny and a snicker. You have to hear it to understand.)

"Hey! My grandma can't abide cursing. You have no idea what she does if she ever catches one of us saying one of the forbidden words. And even though I'm in Japan, she might hear me and I'd be in so much trouble. No way can I risk it." That just made them laugh harder. I pouted.

"Anyway!" Nee-chan spun around and clapped her hands. She had a huge grin. "Let's go to the festival. They have jasmine tea. I love jasmine tea!"

So, we went to the festival and had fun. But in the back of my mind I kept asking myself how the whole world could be so wrong.