Author: undefmidi

2018

Boku no Hero characters, original story and everything belongs to Kohei Horikoshi, the author of said series. I only own the Plot.

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It's undef_midi

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GET REKT, M8!
(For those who don't know, I've done an april fool's joke that triggered a lot of people…)

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Chapter 10 – The New Assignment

The students were spread across the room, occasionally talking with each other and interacting. The chit-chat of their conversations filled the room, along with the colorfulness of the youth they all were living.

The Big Three had gotten used to the class after some weeks, as well as 1-A. But after the Sports Festival, nothing much happened; only the regular classes, and some theoretical introductions regarding the Hero Studies.

Though, Mirio and Amajiki felt that Nejire was quieter than usual. Her gaze seemed unnaturally bland and unfocused, just as if she was thinking about something else; maybe a plan for something?

After a certain day, when she decided that she would train at the school's gym, Nejire just shut herself off of everyone else and worked on autopilot. The two other members of the Big Three just became confused, and shrugged it aside…

"Though, when is she coming back to herself?" Mirio whispered to Tamaki. They were casually talking to each other when the topic of Nejire's behavior was brought up.

"I don't know…" Tamaki shrugged.

"… Look, I know that there are sometimes that her curiosity breaks through the roof, though I've never seen the opposite happen…"

"… Me neither…" The black-haired senior was less talkative… Over the years since he met Mirio and Nejire, he felt that he could talk openly to them, express his thoughts, and surprisingly tease Nejire whenever there was an opening. Gradually, she became the sister he never had to him, and as such, he instinctively began to do that.

But that could only happen to them since he was socially awkward to anyone apart from his two friends.

Mirio was like the righteous brother, that guided his siblings to safety and success. Nejire and Amajiki followed and believed in him with all they had; he was the lighthouse, and they were the boats in the darkness that is the world.

Shrugging his reminisce aside, he continued to think about Nejire's behavior. Oh, how strange it was that she, of all people, would be that thoughtful in a normal situation. Usually, she would just behave until something interesting happened, and then incessantly question everything until her curiosity would be satiated.

Since she saw Izuku for the first time, the lack of using his quirk called her attention, and then something kept attracting her, over and over again—or at least, that's what he thought up until then.

Breaking his thought process, the door opened. As if the president had shown up, the class went silent and everyone was on their own and respective seats, correctly arranged and behaved.

"… Class, I have an announcement," Aizawa, the scruffy man, said. He was a good teacher and cared for his students, but he was really draconian. Usually, his methods of teaching were strict, albeit working.

The class became a zoo-mess. Just like every time he announced something new to the class, he expected that; but that didn't mean that he would let that be.

"Shut up," The class went ghost-quiet. "… After we gave you enough time to rest from the Sports Festival, we thought that we would 'spice' things up a notch."

And then, the previous zoo-mess became something otherworldly. Even Iida was having a hard time keeping himself composed. Aizawa, expecting that as well, activated his quirk and kicked the floor in order to shut them all up.

After seating down, the entire class fidgeted in their seats, eagerly waiting for the details.

"Ugh… Anyways, we're having a Battle Royale. Since villain groups could clash mid-hero duty, and the battleground of such battles would become a mess, villain vs. villain vs. hero, we decided on doing that," before the class became a worse mess, he continued. "With this exercise, you will train your teaming-up capabilities in large-scales… Also, the Big Three will participate normally, as to simulate stronger enemies, and to not waste their stay in our class."

After finishing the explanation, he immediately glared at the class. They cleverly understood; except for Mineta, who received a graceful tongue-slap from Tsuyu.

"You will be placed under teams of two people, as personally selected by the principal," he scratched his short beard. "Since everything is still getting ready, tomorrow will be the day the assignment will happen. Until then, rest up, or strategize."

Soon after Aizawa finished explaining the basics of the activity issued, a small rhythmical array of taps could be heard; the door opened again, revealing the principal, clad in his usual white button-up shirt and black vest.

"Hello!" He gleefully greeted the classroom. They answered normally, as one would expect.

Nezu walked over to Aizawa, and they switched places (though the scruffy teacher got back to his beloved 'caterpillar' sleeping bag), however, even in the podium, the principal was still really short.

"I am here to inform you of the teams in this activity," he studied the student's reactions. They were jittery and impatient. They expectantly stared at the principal as he continued with his everlasting grin. "Oh yeah! Since there will be 23 participants, with Nejire, Amajiki, and Mirio, there will be an odd-man out. For fairness purposes, Mirio will be it."

The principal glanced over at Mirio, whose face was plastered in a disconcertingly gleeful grin. The class was drowned in uncertainty and fear.

Ignoring the sudden change in atmosphere, Nezu walked over to the chalkboard and scribbled the teams' participants:

Katsuki Bakugo & Hanta Sero;

Tamaki Amajiki & Ochako Uraraka;

Toru Hagakure & Tenya Iida;

Tsuyu Asui & Mezo Shoji;

Shoto Todoroki & Momo Yaoyorozu;

Kyoka Jiro & Fumikage Tokoyami;

Nejire Hado & Izuku Midoriya;

Koji Koda & Denki Kaminari;

Rikido Saito & Mashirao Ojiro;

Yuga Aoyama & Eijiro Kirishima;

Mina Ashido & Minoru Mineta;

Mirio Togata;

After the last stroke of chalk, the principal went back to the center of the podium and eyed every student there.

"I recommend you to try and use your quirks, abilities, and everything in your reach together; teamwork is key. I also take it that the pairings are somewhat unusual, so there will be no classes for today—use strategies, and all the tricks you can perform!" Nezu opened his small fluff pair of hands, and his everlasting smile widened. "I wish you the best of luck, and may the best win!"

The students' faces were plastered with determined grins and hard eyes. They all knew that they had to win, to plan. A battle royale isn't something you can win by sheer force, no. You need strategies, traps, vision, and in this case, teamwork. As powerful as you may be, if you get trampled over by strategy, you're done for.

As the Chinese general, and military strategist Sun Tzu once quoted, "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."

So instead of using pure quirk strength, use the head. Of course, a powerful quirk can be used as a stronger tool, instead of a weaker quirk—but that, depending on the circumstances, would be invalid. If someone with a quirk befitting for making traps, in a battlefield that allowed it, successfully laid all his traps, the one with a stronger quirk, if unprepared, would be trampled over.

That is the art of war.

Naturally, not many in the class had that mentality, as one would expect from 15-year olds.

But some of them did. Maybe once in their lives, in a history class, they've read Sun Tzu or other strategists' works or were simply interested in the strategy itself. That alone, gave them an advantage, even if they were really few.

"Hey, Izuku! Do you want to make a plan regarding the whole assignment?" Nejire, who sat at Izuku's left, eagerly asked.

"Yes, I've already planned some of it though… Do you want to hear what I have in mind?" The green-nette stared into her pristine sky-blue eyes with an unusually certain gaze.

She brought her chair closer to Izuku and nodded. As he was in his 'focused-Izuku' mode, he didn't react to the strands of hair that brushed tenderly across his shoulder, or how incredibly close she was to him. Right then, Izuku was a strategizer and someone who wanted to win.

Nejire admired his determination. The look in his eyes was something she's only seen in the Sports Festival, or when he needed to win; a fierce enemy and a determined student.

But she had also noticed something he did that wasn't really good—he hurt himself too much. The scars in his hand were taunting her whenever she locked her gaze unto it. While she may not have had any influence over it, it hurt her to see someone so young, as she was, to accept something like that as something normal.

But again, the hero business was a dangerous one; and he chose to trail that path on his own. The glimmer in his eyes whenever he had Hero Studies was something somewhat amusing to her. Anyhow, she knew that he was happy doing what he wanted.

Throwing her thoughts out of her head, they began to strategize.

He noticed her gaze.

The gaze of someone in love; and it hurt him.

He wanted to be the target of that look… Though he didn't know why.

Maybe something she said? Something she did? How did she look?

That, he didn't know, but he did want to.

His interactions with her were… limited, to say the least. He had no reason to talk to her, even if he wanted to.

But the way she looked at him, how she wanted to be closer to him… That incited something he'd never felt before.

His chest clutched his heart desperately, and it burned. From the inside out, like all his blood cells were replaced by magma, it hurt.

Though those things only flurried his mind recently… He didn't know, he couldn't know.

He had no experience with it.

But maybe, just maybe, in this assignment…

He could try to ease that emberly feeling in his chest, one way or another.

Thanks for reading!

I am really happy with where this series is going, and with the evolution of my own writing style! I mean, you can definitively see it, right?

Please do comment, or send a review—that's what keeps me writing!

I also have a twitter, it is undef_midi , so I could do some polls, meme-posting, and whatnot.

doesn't have a good way of connecting with the readers apart from the chapters, so that's what I've done.

Oh well, thank you for reading (again), and see ya next time!

That's it,

Undef's out,

Stay cold!