A.N. (4/4/22) - Another chapter so quickly after the last one! Here's a treat for y'all.

Chapter 19 - A Much Needed Talk

Recently, I felt like my recent actions were a bit more outrageous than usual.

I mean, why is it that I've been forced to resort to brute force so much nowadays? In my mind, I assumed I was more of a pacifist type of person. Rather than engaging in the noble art of fisticuffs, my optimal tool was supposed to be the wisdom of humanity that is communication, right?

And what was with my last fight?

Ugh, to think I would actually shout out an attack name like some kind of shounen protagonist. This was worse than eighth-grader syndrome* since it was literally the influence of [Three] that made me keep that technique in mind. Ah, my dark past~ so embarrassing! No matter what people said about the version of me at that time, I was a massive nerd at heart.

Speaking of which, that was something that was going to bother me for a while. To think that a remnant of [Three] still existed somewhere in my mind. Either that, or it was the onset of a potential multiple personality disorder caused by my delusions. Although, the fact that there was a tangible effect helping me break out of Shinsou's quirk does lend some credence to the theory that it may be related to my quirk instead.

Said person in question was now resting on a bed in the first aid room set up for defeated contestants. I noticed that Iida was no longer here, which I attributed to the fact that he was barely injured after the two of us fought. Unlike Shinsou here, who Recovery Girl had diagnosed that yes—he indeed did break a couple of ribs and was now under observation after being healed by her.

Understandably, she had some words with me about the excessive use of force from the fight earlier. I couldn't even argue with her, seeing as I had shown that I was able to take out Iida with no problem. Shinsou's state was definitely due to a fault in myself, and I bitterly accepted the tongue lashing I got.

By the time she left, Shinsou had gained enough awareness to begin conversing with me.

"Not going to watch the other matches?"

"I'm not in the mood," I muttered in reply. "Besides, I was kinda thinking of forfeiting the next match. There's not much I can do against either Bakugou or Midoriya unless things go lucky for me."

It was a miracle that I made it this far as it was. Iida was only beatable because he couldn't make tight turns instantly, and that he wasn't using overworking his engine quirk to quickly take me out. Shinsou was a different type of enemy that had alternate victory conditions compared to most other contestants in this tournament.

But against opponents like the two main characters? Yeah, I doubted I would last long in a regular fight. Unless Midoriya decided to not use his quirk, and even then I wasn't completely sure that I would win.

It was somewhat faint, but the two of us heard Present Mic's voice boom through the stadium.

"—And it looks like we have a winner! After an incredible battle, Midoriya advances on to the next round!"

I glanced back at Shinsou and gestured vaguely in the direction of the action. "Let's be honest, if I go out there I'll absolutely get slaughtered."

"I dunno, you might pull a surprise from out of nowhere."

"Lay it out for me, what are my chances against Midoriya? Scale of one to ten?"

Shinsou thought about it hard. "If things go well… probably a solid three."

Wow, real encouraging odds there.

"Never mind, then." I gave out a sigh. "Are you alright? How are your injuries?"

"I don't need your care, leave me alone." He gave me an exasperated look. "Since Recovery Girl's quirk is working alright, I should be fine in less than an hour."

"Yeah…" My words trailed off as I prepared myself for the upcoming talk. "Hey, Shinsou. Is it alright if I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

"Back then, you said… well, quite a lot of hurtful things to be honest." Shinsou at least had the good grace to flinch. "But there was one part that confused me. 'You don't even know what you're lacking now, do you? Because of that, it irks me how you can think you can act happy like everyone else.' What exactly did you mean by that?"

"Erm," Shinsou blinked. "Well, I was mostly throwing together words that could make you react."

"Maybe I'm just overthinking it then, but how exactly do you perceive me? I'm a little worried about a few things you said. Guess I'm just interested in what my image is in your mind."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Are you kidding? I still haven't completely forgiven you for what you said during our match. I won't be able to excuse it until you tell me what you meant."

"Then don't forgive me," Shinsou scowled. "I'm a horrible person, haven't you figured it out by now?"

"I mean, it's going to be a bit difficult to be friends if I'm holding a grudge."

"For such a reason…"

"Hey, I won against you. Doesn't that entitle me to an explanation at the very least?" At the look on his face, I gave out a heavy sigh. "Let me be blunt. Shinsou, what do you think of me?"

"I think you're a bit creepy when you ask me that so honestly."

How hurtful, what exactly was that supposed to mean?!

"You annoy me when you show off how much better you are than me. I get irritated when you can't say things properly and when you act weird sometimes." His words were getting more painful one after another. "Plus, despite calling you by your first name for a while now, you still call me by my last name like I'm just another acquaintance of yours."

"What?"

I blinked in confusion while he seemed to get embarrassed. "T-That! And the fact that you can make me say stuff like this pisses me off!"

"How is that my fault?!" Seeing the flustered look on his face, I realized that he wasn't going to answer. "Well, if it means that much to you… Hitoshi."

When he didn't say anything for a while, I felt my face warm up.

Seeing that, he immediately leered back in disgust. "Gross! If it's so embarrassing, then don't do it! Why are you blushing like you're some kind of pure maiden?!"

"Don't call me gross!"

The two of us glared at each other for a moment, before we both turned away at the same time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him glance back first. Shinsou said nothing for a moment before he gave out a groan so pained and aggrieved, that it was almost a work of art.

"As I thought, you're weird. But… I don't hate you like this."

I was moved.

"Hitoshi…"

Shinsou's face warped with disgust. "You know what, never mind. Just keep calling me by my last name. I feel shivers run down my spine when you say my name like that."

"Too late, I'm not changing it now."

A pillow flew into my face. "Just get the heck out of here and let me rest. Concentrate on your next match, and don't even think about forfeiting. I'll mind control you and make you do something embarrassing if you do. Got it?"

Would that even work? After all, I somehow managed to break out of his quirk once before. Still, I wasn't going to remind him of that.

Smiling, I made a finger gun and pressed it against my head. "Yes, Your Highness**."

He tilted his head in confusion but shrugged as I stood up to leave. I doubted he would get the reference of an anime several centuries old.

"It's drive."

I stopped and turned around to look at him. "Huh?"

"Your earlier question," Shinsou clarified. "That thing I mentioned that you were lacking. It's drive."

"I don't understand."

"You have no motivation. No desire to win at all. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, I think. If you're not interested in being a hero, that's fine. But our school motto is literally 'Plus Ultra', and you're up against hero students. I guess some people would take offense to you not caring to put the effort into winning. Not everyone will know that you're just not interested in transferring to the hero course like me. They might think you're looking down on them."

That… I didn't know what to say.

Exiting the room, my thoughts went over what Shinsou just told me. Was he right? Was my lackluster attitude to this entire festival wrong or something? It felt weird, being told that not wanting to be a hero made me stand out. But maybe he was pointing out a contradiction about myself that I tried to ignore.

I enrolled in UA High School because I wanted to honor the dreams of my former self. But was that selfish on my part?

"—Looks like this match will be the most exciting one! The ice-cold prince versus the gale-force soldier. Who will prevail in this battle of the elements?!"

With Present Mic's commentary acting as noise in the background, I loitered around the hall thinking about what I should do about the upcoming match. I was going to be fighting Midoriya, but I also had the choice to forfeit right now. Despite what Shinsou threatened me with, there was no actual need to go up against him. It was just asking for pain on my part to go up against someone like that.

"—Oi, oi, oi! Isn't this getting a little out of hand for a simple match? Rather than a fight, it looks like the scene out of some natural disaster."

Speaking of which, where was he? Going up against someone like Bakugou, there was no way he would have left that match without getting injured. Shouldn't he be here in the first aid room? Unless Recovery Girl healed him while Shinsou and I had our talk.

"—And now it looks like both students are having an intense shouting match with each other—which has devolved into what looks like a pub brawl. What happened to using your quirks?! The two students are now rolling around on the floor, fists flying everywhere!"

I should talk to her at some point about my quirk. No doubt there would be some weird quirk interactions between the two of us, better have it on record that it would be unwise for her to try and heal me.

Which just adds more reasons as to why I should forfeit going against Midoriya. Going up against him would mean I would definitely get injured, and I wasn't willing to succumb myself to that. Either because I didn't like pain or because I didn't want Recovery Girl to use her quirk on me.

"—Suddenly, a blazing fire erupts on the stage! Todoroki has finally decided to go all out—ahh! E-Endeavor, I understand that you're excited. B-But please note that the match is still undergoing and that it is not nice to interrupt!"

I feel like I'm missing something really incredible right now, but I have bigger things on my mind.

Several voices echoed from further down the hallway.

"It's fine, I can still continue. Iijima-san doesn't look like he'll use his quirk, and I can beat him without breaking too many fingers. Please, Recovery Girl! Don't make me forfeit the match."

"This is a completely idiotic decision. Just because I can heal you, doesn't mean that you should be damaging your body like this. Rather, I feel like I should stop healing you on principle if it gets through that thick head how reckless you're being, Hippocratic Oath be damned."

"Please… I just need to try. I-I can't just give up here…"

"Foolish boy. Don't you know that—"

A crazy idea came to me.

"Ahem," I interrupted the two of them.

Both Midoriya and Recovery Girl turned to look in my direction, their eyes focusing on the scowl on my face.

I gave Midoriya an unimpressed look.

"Did you know that my quirk came from a stress awakening?" I said out of nowhere. "Extreme trauma caused my quirk to manifest in an uncontrollable manner. My body was actually in danger of exploding from the large amounts of energy running through my body at the time. The doctors even quarantined a wing of the hospital because they thought I wouldn't make it and that my death would take out dozens of others with me."

Walking up to him, I stood before him until my face was only a few centimeters away from his.

"That's why I know what your problem is, because I had the exact same problem in the past. You're running too much energy through your body into one spot that it's causing harm to you. Instead of circulating the energy, you're just pouring it all into a fragile container that's gonna break. I don't know why you're using such a suicidal method, and that's ironic coming from someone like me. But let me pose an ultimatum."

I leaned forward. "If you don't get that quirk under control, you'll be responsible for murdering me."

Midoriya's eyes widened.

"I'm not going to dodge an attack," I told him. "That is, if you're using your quirk, I'll face it head-on. If you try to defeat me using other methods, I'll beat you. You know that I'm not boasting, the chances are that I'm better at you fighting quirkless. Either use your quirk as it is and kill me, lose out of fear of being unable to control your power, or get your shit together and fucking learn how to use your stupid quirk correctly."

Those last words came out with a snarl. Midoriya flinched at the frustration in my tone, but I decided that we were done talking. Walking past him, I made sure not to look back while I hoped that my gamble would pay off.

Obviously, that was only a performance. I highly doubted that he would actually try to use his full-powered quirk on me anymore. And since this was a shounen story, the chances are that a speech like that would help Midoriya get a breakthrough in unlocking Full Cowl early.

At the very least, I now had a goal for the next match.

To beat the stupid out of the main character.

I have one last midterm left this week, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the next chapter. I'll be busy studying my butt off for that. Afterward though, I'll be able to relax for the next two-four weeks, so hopefully, that'll mean I can bump up my post speed again.

As for this chapter, yahoo! Clueless Hatsu and Tsundere Shinsou finally reaffirmed their relationship as friends, yay! No more jerking left and right about weird social cues that I tried hard to incorporate into past chapters.

Next up will be the match between Hatsu and Midoriya, and that's going to be quite the event!

Stay tuned!

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Note:

*(eighth-grader syndrome) - Also known as chuunibyou, it's basically a Japanese slang term for the embarrassing behavior of young teens.

**(Yes, Your Highness) - A minor reference to Code Geass, specifically the moment Lelouch uses his power for the first time.