So...I'm still alive and healthy?

Honestly, I have no excuse for my lack of writing this past bit, I've been home the last 10 days cause work shut down and I'm really great at stocking up before panics, but its just been hard to get into the kind of writing I enjoy with all the stuff happening recently. Still, I have the time, and I want to fill this point of time with great works that help those who struggle with all this right now. So let's get to it.

I still own none of the properties I write about here. I don't claim to, nor have I ever. What I do own is the time I use to write however, and any bits thrown towards me help me write for longer, as well as eat while doing so. Available here, is a link to my P A Treon. And if you're looking for something not once a month try here, which is a link to a pool, for those of you looking to commission or just some incentive for me.

No distractions, do more waiting. Now, is the time to create.

Chapter 23: First Teacher

OR

That's One Way to Get A Raise

There was a VERY pretty lady in Izuku's bed. She was also in business formal.

Naturally, Izuku screamed loud enough to rattle the walls of his room. Well, it was either the scream or the chains shooting out from the walls to grab the intruder, who gave their own startled squawk as they connected and rattled back into the wall.

The image was thus frankly ridiculous when his students burst into the room, trying to see what had caused the scream, only to see a woman chained to the wall pouting angrily and their Sensei shaking and stammering as he held his bedsheet to his bare chest. It had Megumin trying to hold back chuckles behind her hand, and everyone else either facepalming or letting loose the tense stances they'd adopted from expecting a fight.

"W-W-W-W-HHYYYYYY were you in my bed!" Izuku half shrieked as scrambled to cover himself, wondering with no small amount of trepidation who had stripped him.

The chained girl, or rather, woman, pouted harder before answering in a breathy voice that made Izuku VERY happy he had a blanket to cover himself with.

"MHmmm, I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't get through that thick skull of yours! So, since I had nothing better to do, I joined you!" She exclaimed as if it was obvious, trying to cross her arms for a moment before stopping as they were literally stopped, succeeding only in doing a sort of half-pullup that did...interesting things.

"Wha? Buh da ba. Haroo?" Izuku stuttered as his eyes rolled in their sockets at the realization he was sharing a bed half-naked with a girl. He was also promptly dope slapped back to reality by Chris, who was now by his side with a furious blush of her own.

"He means why were you in his room to begin with! Who even are you! And WHY IS HE NAKED!" Chris demanded, before bristling and shouting the last bit, as if that was the biggest offence.

The woman just rose an eyebrow and continued to look confused.

"I'm Mari, I was in his room because I wanted to talk to the principle of this school, and the poor boy looked like he was sweating through his tunic, so I took it off him lest he ruin the material. Really, that's that proper sleepwear is for, you know?" Mari explained before ending with a lightly admonishing tone to her voice as Izuku curled up a little further to hide his face.

"Well that answered everything and nothing. Thanks, we've been getting a lot of that lately. Let's try this again. WHY, should we not be throwing you off this trine ""-train.""-train, right, sorry, within the next few minutes." Andrew sighed heavily as he lifted his hand from his face, his other already resting on his oversized brush-hilt.

For the first time this meeting, 'Mari' showed something other than oblivious confusion, if the small gulp and sweat trail down her neck meant anything.

"Ahhhhh, that's ah, sure a sharp turn of consequence there. Okay, so, uhhh. Ummm...I'm here...to...apply as a teacher?" Mari slowly said, pauses breaking up the sentence as she struggled for something to say.

Can't exactly tell the students of the guy you were hired to drain to a lifeless husk the truth after all. Wasn't her fault the kid couldn't have just been normal and let her dive into his dreams, no, he had to have some weird Skill or something, so she had to try and drain him the old fashion way, with skin contact. Then these guys, and girls cause when is life easy, and boy is death suddenly a possibility. Mari felt and could see how fast this 'train' was moving, and wings like hers tended not to help much in an emergency escape with the sudden case of bondage she'd also somehow acquired. She should have charged more for this. Maybe she could bullshit her way through?

That brought everyone to a halt, even breaking Izuku back above the covers, letting the blanket fall even as he rubbed his now sore cheek.

"Are...are you serious?" Izuku voiced what everyone was thinking.

Mari, sensing a way to avoid a horrific death, decided to double down.

"Yep! A teacher! To teach things! And nothing else." She exclaimed with several sharp, quick nods, and a tight smile she hoped conveyed excitement and not the extreme cursing she was doing in the back of her mind.

Megumin stared at Mari for a moment, getting right up into her face as if inspecting a piece of art.

"Hmm, suitably ominous words, a sharp dress sense, and you tried to usurp our wonderfully brutal sensei on the first day...Yep! That's a teacher all right!" Megumin, only used to the twisted standard of the Crimson Academy, declared after a bit of thought, shooting a thumbs up to her fellow students. She didn't really understand why Chris started bashing her head against the wall, but she had seen an odd Crusader doing the same before, so maybe it was some kind of odd Eris follower tradition.

Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose at this sudden curveball, but the small pain did help him move past the embarrassment he had been previously feeling.

It wasn't a regular interview, but if someone was willing to help them, and seemed at least relatively harmless, he'd give them a chance. What they did with said chance, he'd need to see.

"Right. Sure. Of course you are. Alright, what do you want to teach?" Izuku casually asked, making Mari freeze again, and start to sweat even more.

She darted her eyes amongst the crowd of people, saw no great number of specific type or Caste of Classes, and promptly cursed again in her head.

'C'mon, think! Think! Sex Ed? NO, TOO RISKY! History? I DON'T KNOW HISTORY! Cha-!' Mari frantically ran through and summarily discarded options before stopping flat, allowing a prideful grin to make its way to her face.

"Why, some Magic courses." Mari giggled with a small flash of her hair. It would have been more impressive if she wasn't held against a wall, but it still caught the interest of the gathered people.

"Oh? You're a Magic teacher then? Tell me about that." Izuku asked again, shame and embarrassment completely forgotten, now leaning forward and locking his hands in front of his face, elbows resting on his knees. It also made for a wonderful show of muscle, but Mari was a bit too afraid of an imminent demise to appreciate that.

"W-well! A Magic teacher is absolutely essential to any true Adventurer's School! Why knowing how much mana a spell takes and ways to reduce it is are often matters of life and death!" Mari bullshited slightly. While determining mana rates for Spells was important, it was generally meaningless in regards to lower-level or common use magics, like knowing how to use slightly more or less water for certain plants.

"Hmm. I see." Izuku hummed in thought, thinking of his own experiences with modulating power, and how even just a change in what he viewed his power was had such a massive effect. It did make logical sense to have someone capable of such around at all times. And really, hadn't that been exactly what he'd had Megumin focusing on this entire time? Understanding just what an 'Explosion' was and could be? This could simply be the other side of the equation working to the same final product...

"A-and! And, with a good teacher, it can even be possible to help students learn Skills or Spells they would usually have to spend Skill Points on!" Mari continued to babble, though she snapped her mouth closed as Izuku instantly centered eyes on her, and hoo boy could she understand why he had a hit on him. She felt like she was being torn apart and inspected under that gaze...

'Learn Skills or Spells they would usually have to spend Skill Points on...' Izuku latched onto, feeling a grin work its way to his face even as information connected in his mind.

Izuku was right. A land filled with Blessings this may be, but the basics still held to truth. If you knew the function behind how something worked, how and what it did, and knew how to shape the Mana or muscles, or anything else, what was the difference between what you learned and what the Adventurer's Card 'learned'? If the Card's original function was to show you what the person COULD learn as they progressed, it would make more sense. Like a Skill Tree...then the God's probably made shortcuts. Ways for people to become credible threats to the Demon King or whatever enemy they originally did it for quickly without years of trial and error.

The grin he had however, slipped into a small grimace even as he got up from the bed, ignoring the shocked exclamations around him as he stared at Mari.

It was ingenious, it was gamechanging, explained so much...and was the worst thing Izuku had ever heard of. The Skill Cards were wonderful things, allowing Izuku, and doubtlessly countless others to do amazing things they never could have dreamed of doing in any other circumstances...but it didn't change the problems it started. Levels, for all they let people break their limits, shackled so many more. How many people never made it past some bygone number, before stopping as they knew they'd never be the strongest. Why try for unique, powerful attacks when brute force or bought Skills got the job done, until it didn't?

None of that had been specifically said to Izuku, but he could read between the lines. Really, it was barely a better situation than it was in his old world. No-one in this, or apparently any other world, was created equal.

But it never said anywhere people couldn't become more or less, either.

"Ms. Mari. No, Mari-Sensei. I will hire you for my Ultimate Academia as its first Magic Teacher. It will be hard work, and I don't fully trust you yet, but I'm willing to give you a shot. You got into my school, let's see what you do while you're here. So, want to see what kind of change we'll make?" Izuku spoke confidently, gripping a hand tight momentarily as the chains which had held her to the wall blended back into regular paneling, leaving the woman to rub her wrists and stare up at him.

"Uhh, sure? Thank you, but, ah, you might want to put on some pant?" Mari hesitantly spoke as she shyly pointed downward, drawing Izuku from his little introspective monologue-fugue as he looked down and realized, yes, he wasn't wearing pants, or anything else.

With an ungainly cry, Izuku dove back to his covers fast enough to leave imprints of his feet in the floor, and only once he was covered up in a cocoon revealing only his eyes did he dare look at his students.

Andrew looked exasperated, Ivy was bemused, Megumin had been enjoying the view and was now whining about the loss of it, and Chris was flushed completely red down to her neck, hands covering her face with painfully noticeable gaps to look through, and seemingly babbling about nothing under her breath.

Yep. Okay, Izuku was ready to die again.

END OF CHAPTER

Woo, yeah, this was completely different at one point, but I like this. Do you all like this? Let me know! Also, next up...

BREAKTHROUGH!: The Village of Latis! Beware, a sudden chill!