Chapter 10 - Room Contest 2.0

After the hostage exercise was finished, the students of Class 1-A, along with the American students, were called back to the gates of Ground Omega. When they exited the grounds, Aizawa and Cementoss were waiting for them, along with the bus that would take them back to U.A. The class and the American students, all confused by why Matthew was disqualified, stood in a combined group, all waiting for Aizawa's verdict.

"Matthew Noble, step forward." Aizawa spoke, his tone dull as usual.

Matthew, still shirtless and with a look of rebellion on his face, stepped forward and stood before Aizawa and Cementoss, his hands clenched to his sides like he was about to explode into a fit of rage. All students were waiting to see what would happened, becoming tense that Matthew was going to do something.

"You've been caught cheating in this exercise." Aizawa continued. "You stole a piece of equipment from your opponent, and you nearly killed him by beating him senseless. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Yeah." Matthew replied, the look of rebellion still on his face. "You and both know that I can't keep up with the group in certain ways. I didn't know there were rules about stealing other people's equipment, so I apologize for that. There's no need to-"

"Eraser Head!" Bakugo yelled out, causing everybody to look at him. "Don't disqualify the quirkless nothing!"

Everyone in Class 1-A turned their heads to look at Bakugo, who was still wearing his usual, angry killer expression on his face. Cementoss, and even Matthew, looked up at shock at Bakugo and what he said. Aizawa's reaction was surprised, but still bored looking.

"What did you say, Bakugo?" Aizawa asked.

"That quirkless nothing won the fight, despite being powerless! He shouldn't have to suffer cause of some dumb rules!" Bakugo replied, still yelling. "And I don't even remember there being rules like that! So I say screw the rules and don't disqualify him!"

Class 1-A and even the American students were all shocked by what Bakugo had said; he never defended anyone before! However, Aizawa didn't seem phased by this…

"Bakugo, the only reason you are defending him is so that you'll have another chance to beat him, right?" Aizawa asked.

"Yes." Bakugo replied bluntly. "I want to beat that quirkless nothing!"

The shocked expressions of the class and the Americans students went back to normal; Bakugo wasn't defending him because it was the right thing to do, he was doing it for his own agenda.

Aizawa thought about this for a few seconds, and then said, "Despite your reasons for defending one of our new students, I guess I will have to comply. In other words… I'm lifting the disqualification on Matthew Noble; due to being quirkless, he's allowed to fight as he pleases."

"He's quirkless?!" Most the students, except for those who already knew, yelled out in shock.

"Yep." Matthew replied, turning back with a smile. "I don't have a quirk like any of you guys."

"How did you make it into U.A without a quirk?" Yaoyaorozu asked, a look of bewilderment on her face.

"He can explain himself on the bus." Aizawa replied. "We need to head back to U.A, as the day is almost over."

"Alright, you heard Mr. Aizawa!" Iida announced, moving his arms like a robot. "Everybody board the bus in an orderly fashion!"

All of the students complied, except for Iida, who was directing them towards the bus. Matthew also hung back to talk with Aizawa about what had just happened.

"You disqualified me cause you wanted to see if Bakugo was going to defend me?" Matthew asked, his tone confused.

"In a way, yes." Aizawa replied, a small grin forming on his face. "I saw how you defeated Bakugo, and I know he's one for fair play. Being quirkless, you have to fight anyway you can. So, if I were disqualify you cause of some rules that were never said, Bakugo would come to your rescue. Yet, all he wants is to beat you, and he can't do that if you're disqualified or thrown out of U.A."

Matthew chuckled a little bit, and then said, "Looks like I misjudged you, sir; you're a lot more fairer than I was expecting."

"Don't forget, we still have that bet going on. Today is Thursday, and day one for you is going to be over soon. Then you'll have six days left in our little bet. Hopefully, you'll be able to outlast the training I have for you. However, I have very little hope that will happen."

"Yeah?" Matthew asked, the smile returning to his face. "Well, you're going to have another thing coming, sir; I'm not backing down."

"I hope not." Aizawa replied, the dull expression returning to his face. "Now board the bus; we're the last ones to get on."

Matthew obeyed and began boarding the bus, along with Iida. Aizawa looked at Cementoss, nodded once, and then boarded the bus himself. The bus drove away from Ground Omega, leaving Cementoss behind to clean up the mess.

On the bus, Yaoyaorozu created a t-shirt for Matthew to cover himself with. After Matthew now had a shirt on, he had a chance to explain himself to his fellow students about being quirkless. He told how he was deemed quirkless by doctors when he was little, how he had to grow up surrounded by people with quirks, how he wanted to be a hero, and how his father and mother decided to support him in his decision. He also told about the intense training he went through, how he applied for Justice High, how he became one of the top students, and how he eventually applied for U.A.

All of the students on the bus were inspired by his story; Iida started clapping and saying 'Bravo!' over and over, other students congratulated him, other went deep into their thoughts, and even Bakugo had to give a nod of respect (even though he was hating Matthew's guts for defeating him).

But Midoriya was inspired by Matthew's story the most, as knew how it felt to be quirkless. That was back before All Might had given him his power, back when he was helpless and being a hero was only a dream. However, while Midoriya was helpless back when he was quirkless, Matthew wasn't helpless; maybe if Midoriya didn't get 'One for All' and just trained hard and tried his best, he probably would've ended up like Matthew. Because he felt as if they were connected, Midoriya would tell him about when he was quirkless; he just needed to find the right time to do it.

The bus made it back to U.A, and the students hit the locker rooms. They got out of their hero costumes, back into their school uniforms, and went back to their classroom. After Aizawa reviewed how they did and gave out some announcements, class was dismissed. Class 1-A filed out of the room and were greeted by Monoma, who had more trash talk to give to them. He was then swiftly knocked out by Kendo, who apologized and proceeded to drag him back towards the Class 1-B group.

Afterwards, with school now over and the afternoon still young, Class 1-A walked back to Heights Alliance, chatting with each other about the days events. When they arrived at the gate for the dorms, there were six large crates waiting outside the gates.

"Hey, it looks like we've got mail." Ojiro spoke up.

"I wonder who it's for?" Hagakure asked.

Aizawa walked up to one of the crates, and leaned down to check the shipping label. He then turned around and said, "Looks like it's for our new arrivals."

"It's our personal belongings!" Sunshine said excitedly.

"And our hero costumes!" Matthew added, his tone also excited.

"Well, I guess we know how we're going to be spending our afternoon." said Milo.

"And that would be decorating, right?" asked Joshua, his tone dull.

"Yep!" Milo replied cheerfully.

"Decorating?" Ashido asked, as she was standing beside Milo. "Hey, I've got an idea! We did a contest to see who had the best decorated room in the dorms! But now that you guys are here, why don't we do one based on your rooms?"

"Sounds like fun!" Milo replied. "We'll do it!"

"Awesome!" Ashido cheered, a bright smile on her face.

Milo smiled too at her cheerfulness, while Joshua just rolled his eyes. Ashido then went to tell the other girls about what they were planning on doing, while Milo told the other American students about the contest. Pretty soon, everybody was fired up about the second room contest that they were going to be doing!

First thing they had to do before they could decorate their rooms was to move the boxes. They were really heavy, but with help from the quirks of Uraraka, Sato, Shoji, and Todoroki, they were able to get the boxes into the dorms, up the stairs, and to their rooms.

And thus, the decorating began…

After two hours decorating their rooms, the American students were done. They were now in the common area, all sitting on the couch. They were no longer wearing their school uniforms, but were wearing their common clothing. As they were all sitting on the couch, they were approached by Ashido, Uraraka, and Jiro, all who were now wearing common clothing.

"So, you guys ready?" Ashido asked, now wearing a pale yellow t-shirt and her gym uniform pants.

"Yep." Milo replied, getting up from the couch. "We're all set, Ashido!"

"You can call me 'Mina' if you want…" Ashido replied cheerfully.

"Okay, 'Mina'…" said Milo, who gently cupped her cheek, which caused Ashido to giggle. "So, who's room are we going to start with first?"

"I don't mind going first." Sunshine spoke up.

"We're going into an American girl's room!" Mineta whispered excitedly, his eyes having the 'EYE OF THE TIGER' look in them.

"Don't try anything, Mineta…" Jiro growled, snapping Mineta out of it.

Sunshine's Room

The first thing that Class 1-A noticed about Sunshine's room when they entered it, were all the lamps that were on the floor. Desk lamps, reading lamps, fancy lamps, lamps with no lampshades, all kinds of lamps littered the floor. They were all plugged into several power outlets that were hooked up to a generator. The curtains over the balcony doors were dark blue with stars all over them, and her bedding was also dark blue with stars over them. She also had a bookcase with several different books on it (including her romance novels), a fancy looking dresser, and a nightstand by her bed. They, of course, all had lamps on them.

The looks on Class 1-A's faces, along with the other American students, was one of confusion.

"Why all of the lamps?" asked Tokoyami, asking the question that was on everybody's mind.

"Everybody needs a hobby." Sunshine replied with a shrug. "And my family and I collect lamps. Besides, I like them; they remind me of home."

"She's not kidding." Murdock spoke up. "I visited her house one time; I had to wear sunglasses with all the lights in there!"

Matthew's Room

Thankfully for Class 1-A, Matthew's room was pretty normal. The curtains were colored black, and the bedding was colored white with grey designs on them. There was some weights in one part of the room, all varying of different sizes, a bookcase with several books of different genres on them, a large screen TV with a gaming console hooked up to it, several posters of different American heroes that were all autographed, and a picture of Matthew with his family on the bookcase.

"I know it's kind of normal in here, but that's how I roll." Matthew spoke up, when Class 1-A came into his room to examine it. "Nothing really anything out of the ordinary in here."

"It's still nice, though. The room has a comfortable, homely feel to it." said Uraraka, a small smile on her face.

"I know some of these heroes." Midoriya added, looking at the posters. "I saw a few of them on the news once."

"Yeah. I got to meet all of them; they took a special interest when they heard that there was a quirkless student at Justice High." Matthew replied.

Murdock's Room

Murdock's room was entirely decorated with a wild west theme; there was a buckskin rug, a bed with a native American style blanket on it, the walls were colored brown, the mounted head of a steer was on the wall (which caused Koji Koda to become freaked out), a hat rack was in one corner of the room, the curtains were colored brown, and there was a banjo in another corner.

"Welcome to my new, humble abode." Murdock spoke, doing a mock bow. "Come on in and take a look around."

"I see you went with all out with the western theme." said Joshua, looking around the room.

Kirishima saw the mounted steer head and said, "That's a little intimidating."

"It caused Koji to make a run for it." Asui replied, putting her finger to her chin.

Jiro saw the banjo in the corner and said, "That has to be the sorriest looking guitar I have ever seen."

"That, little missy, is a banjo." said Murdock, picking it up. "I'll demonstrate for you what it sounds like."

As soon as Murdock plucked a couple strings of the banjo, Jiro, Joshua, and some of the other students in the room made faces that looked like they had been shot.

"What?" Murdock asked, noticing their pained expressions. He then realized why they were making those faces and said, "Oh, I haven't tuned it yet, sorry."

"You mean that's what it sounds like when it's not tuned?" Joshua asked.

Annabelle's Room

The state of Annabelle's room was pretty much like Ojiro's and Uraraka's rooms; it was normal and rather low budget. It had the standard items in the room; a dresser, a desk, a rolling chair, a coffee table, a nightstand, and a bed. The only thing that was different in the room was that the bedding and curtains were colored purple, and there was a couple of kitten posters that were on the walls.

"Aww, the kitten posters are so cute!" Hagakure cooed.

"Uhh… thanks?" Annabelle replied, rubbing her neck sheepishly.

She then noticed that Mineta was reaching towards one of her clothing drawers, but Joshua also noticed and stopped him. He then grabbed Mineta by the back of the shirt, and began hauling the protesting grape-head out of the room.

"Like I told you before, your current way of thinking is going to get you nowhere." Joshua grumbled.

Milo's Room

Milo's room was rather artistic looking; the floor had a bright red, white, and black carpet. The walls were littered with several abstract paintings, the bedding was bright orange, and there was a drawing table set up in the middle of the room. Tacked onto a bulletin above it were several drawings of different heroes and people, including Milo and his friends.

"These are some drawings that I did in my spare time." Milo spoke. "Most of them are of our teachers from Justice High, while some are of us. However, I have yet to sketch the members of Class 1-A."

"The details are very perceptive, Milo." Yaoyaorozu spoke, looking over the sketches. "How do you draw them?"

"I have to memorize appearances and movements of a person I'm going to draw." Milo replied. "Either that, or I take a picture of whoever I want to draw and sketch off of that."

"Do you have any-" Mineta was about to ask, but Milo cut him off.

"No." Milo replied, his tone sounding dry. "I know what you're about to ask, and no, I do have any drawings like that."

Joshua's Room

Last but not least, Joshua's room was the last to be looked at. However, Joshua wasn't exactly keen on showing off his room to his classmates; he had decided to stand guard at his door and prevent them from getting in.

"No." Joshua said simply, when they tried to approach the door.

"Come on man, have a heart!" Matthew spoke up.

"Don't need one, and no." Joshua replied.

"Joshua, there's twenty five of us against one of you." said Sunshine. "If you don't want this to end badly, I suggest you move away."

With a defeated sigh, Joshua opened the door to his room and let them in. The walls of his room were decorated with posters of famous rock bands, such as U2, Goo Goo Dolls, and Creed. His CDs were stacked neatly on the floor, alongside his CD player. The curtains to his room were colored black, along with the bedding. He also had a TV, a boombox, and the various other things you would find in a normal dorm room.

While the students all look at the posters and asked questions, Jiro focused on the stack of CDs. She pulled off the top one, which was an album called How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which was by the band U2. The cover showed the four band members sitting together, and the album covered was colored red and black. She then turned it over to read the songs it had on it.

Joshua saw that she was looking at the album, and said, "That's a good one you've got there. It's one of their best albums in my opinion. Ever heard of U2?"

"Nope." Jiro replied, putting the album back down. "Never heard of any these bands."

"Then how come you know about Sum 41?"

"My father worked with them on tour once."

"Your father? He's a musician?" Joshua asked.

"Sort of. He used to be a rock star, but now works as a composer." Jiro replied. "He did a live show with Sum 41 as a guest guitarist, so that's how I know about them."

"And what's his name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Kyotoku Jiro." Jiro replied, her tone hinting that she was somewhat proud of that. "He did a rock album called A Time and Place."

"Let me see…" said Joshua, pulling out his phone so he could look the name up.

After typing the name in, pictures of Jiro's father came up. He had light gold hair and eyes that were similar to his daughter. Some pictures were of him with different bands, some were of him on stage performing with a guitar, some where he was with his wife (Jiro's mother), and one picture that was part of a news article about how his daughter was in U.A.

"Good looking guy." Joshua spoke, looking at the picture. "You're mom's pretty too; I can see you take after her." He chuckled, and then added, "Especially with the earphone jacks."

Jiro turned somewhat red when he said that, but only because it was a good compliment. Most of the time, whenever she received a compliment, it was from Kaminari and Mineta, who were being womanizers. And that would usually result in her jacking them with her earphone jacks. However, this comment from Joshua was genuine, so it made her feel a little bit awkward. But, at least it was a good kind of awkward.

Joshua did some more scrolling and found the cover of the album A Time and Place. It showed Kyotoku Jiro sitting in front of a black background, surrounded by several different types of clocks.

"Nice album cover." Joshua chuckled.

"Yeah, I teased him for that because I never really got the point of the clock theme." Jiro replied with a small smile.

"Well, I'll have to give the album a listen. It's pretty cool your father's a musician; I would like to meet him."

"How about on Sunday? I'm not doing anything big; I can introduce him to you."

"Cool…" said Joshua. "And after that, I'll try and educate you on my favorites types of music."

"I'll look forward to it…" Jiro replied, her tone somewhat snarky.

After all the rooms were looked at, Class 1-A and the American students ate dinner together. After dinner, Class 1-A began writing down their votes and putting them into Murdock's hat, which he graciously donated for them to hold the votes. As the American students were the ones getting judged, they were excluded from the voting. When all the votes were counted, everyone gathered on the couch while Ashido stood before them with the winner's name.

"And the winner of the second Room King contest, for most interesting room, is…" Ashido announced. "Murdock!"

"Yee-haw!" Murdock cheered, jumping up from where he was sitting.

"How did you win?" Matthew asked, tilting his head with a small grin.

"It was all thanks to the little people who supported me." Murdock replied with a wide grin. "And I would like to thank all those people, even those who don't like my sorry looking guitar, for voting for yours truly!"

"Well, now that this is over and all, I'm going to bed…" said Joshua, getting up from the couch he was sitting on.

"Hey, it's only eight o'clock, man!" said Milo. "Night's still young!"

"Yeah, and official lights out isn't until ten-thirty!" Kirishima added.

"You're not helping." Joshua growled, his tone sour.

"I'm down for a movie." Matthew spoke up. "So, who's picking?"

"How about we let our winner choose the movie?" Uraraka spoke up.

"Good idea, Uraraka!" Midoriya added. "Murdock, what movie do you want to choose?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Murdock said excitedly. "I got it! I have the perfect movie for this group! I'll be right back!"

Murdock ran up the stairs, using his stretching powers to get himself up quicker. Class 1-A and the American students talked with each other about what movie was going to be picked. Joshua, defeated, retreated to an armchair, which he sat in sideways with his legs up. As he watched his classmates talk with each other, a buzzing came on his phone, which was in his gym shorts pocket. He pulled out the phone and turned it on; it was a text from the unlisted number, which was probably from Haruki, and it said:

ANOTHER MEETING. MEET AT SAME PLACE.

Joshua texted back his reply:

UNDERSTOOD. WILL MEET AGAIN.

He then turned off his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. At least he could see the movie before he went to the meeting…