Chapter 7
Once the excitement from the villains' interference died down, I had to take a step back and introspect. The fact that the gory fight had me thrilled of all things, worried me. I didn't think I had been psychopathic (or anything of the sort really) in nature given that I wasn't prone to violence but if someone's death thrilled me, I had cause to be concerned. But how was I to figure myself out like this?
Before I could spend a long time introspecting myself, Aizawa came by, calling me. Curious, I went with him.
Only to find myself in presence of Nezu and All Might along with Aizawa.
There were two possibilities given the situation: either Nezu had already told them, or he planned to with my permission. I didn't want either but hey, things don't always go your way. So, pacifying myself, I stood there in their presence.
"What happened?" I asked, not letting my feelings slip into my voice.
Nezu stared at me while the other two stood by his side, waiting for him to begin. At length, Nezu sighed—like an actual sigh; I was surprised the rat bastard could actually sigh—and resumed his creepy staring. "I can't believe I'm saying this but there seems to be a real shred of truth to your words. The ones you told me this morning."
"What words?" Aizawa asked, somehow managing to not project his curiosity despite the raised eyebrow I could see under his messy bed hair.
"Should I?" Nezu glanced back at me after a momentary glance at our homeroom teacher.
I considered the situation for the moment. Would it be a good idea to tell the two other prominent characters in the main story the truth about myself? With Nezu verifying my identity, it would probably bring them over to my side. But that also meant I'd change my ability to predict to pretty much zero—this would be way too huge a change for me to be able to reliably predict anything major.
But there was a plus side to this. And that was that we could be proactive in dealing with the festering situations… legalities aside. Legal red tape would probably be a nightmare to handle.
Unless somehow we could have the detective—All Might's friend, Tsukauchi—on our side.
Would that help?
Honestly, I wasn't sure. But I had to make a decision.
I decided to be proactive.
"On one condition," I replied to Nezu's question. I turned towards All Might. "I believe you have a friend in the police force that can detect lies."
All Might looked surprised at being addressed. "I do," he replied rather carefully. "Do you want him here?"
"Ideally, yes. It'd help validate whatever I say."
All Might nodded and excused himself to call the person in question. In the meantime, I noted the curious and critical glance from Nezu. "I thought you told me not to reveal the secret so you could predict more accurately?"
"That I did," I nodded, recalling our chat that morning. "But I decided that being reactive like that put people's lives in danger. If we could be proactive—and of course, have the support of the police force—don't you think that would make it more effective?"
Nezu chuckled at my words while Aizawa continued watching stoically.
"When I first noticed you, I thought you'd be more… crazy about fame; I don't mean any offense. I didn't take you for an effective hero as much as a flamboyant one."
I stared at him questioningly. "Whatever made you think that? I don't recall ever being flashy in anything I did."
"You weren't," he agreed. "But the way you worked—leaving surprised audience behind you while smirking… that made me think you were going to be the type to not just let your work do the talking but also talk about said work."
I laughed. "Believe me, I would do that; but that'd bring undue attention to myself. No thank you—especially when that man is alive."
Before Aizawa could say anything about what I meant, All Might returned. He nodded while looking at me. "Tsukauchi said he and his sister would make time this weekend. He'll let me know when we can meet him. We are all welcome."
I nodded back. "Cool. Let's meet up then. I will tell everything all at once so I don't have to repeat anything. All Might, let Tsukauchi-san know we will want complete privacy. No one other than us must be there. That is an absolute must. I won't talk otherwise."
If they were surprised by the forceful tone in my voice, they didn't let it show. They simply said it will be done and that was that. I was plenty surprised that the meet-up was set up this quickly; I could only wonder what Nezu had told All Might for him to be this swift with his decision making. I had thought I'd be questioned why I knew All Might had a lie-detecting friend in the first place. But it all went extremely smoothly. Once again, I felt a bit unnerved but pushed the feeling away.
As I walked back, one last thing occurred to me. I turned back to them with a cheeky grin. "Aizawa-sensei, I hope you don't trust the gate barriers as much as you did the last time I asked. That villain with his creepy hands? That one has a decay quirk. He used it during the media commotion and broke down those barriers."
I burst out laughing at his expression and left before he could stop me, closing the door in the face of his scarf.
The next day was a break so that the police force could actually check the entire UA premises—which were, once again, huge. The day after that was the announcement of the sports festival.
Pretty much the usual schedule.
In the meantime, I spent time building rapport with Momo, Mina, Uraraka, Kirishima, Iida, Shoji, Ojiro and of course, our dear Baku-chan.
He wasn't pleased. At all.
So much so that Momo approached me privately after one of his usual blowups.
"Must you always include him?" She asked as she matched pace with me on our way to the UA gate. "He doesn't even appreciate it, let alone actually join us."
I laughed at her words. "I know. I do it on purpose. It's not my problem he's got anger issues." The statement made me pause for a moment in thought. I stopped and glanced at Momo. "Do you think his quirk affects him like that?"
Momo hummed as she mulled over my question. At length, she answered, "It could. There are quirks that permanently change you like Asui-san's. Therefore, there definitely could be quirks that affect you internally."
I hummed and hawed at her words before nodding. "The best way to know," I said, a grin making its way on my face, "is to ask the right person."
When she stared at me curiously, I shook my head and pointed at our main character, who was approaching us alongside his love interest and his best male friend other than me.
"Oi, Izu-ya!" I shouted, making Momo jump.
Izuku jumped too. He then waved back weakly at me while I chuckled.
"Don't shout so suddenly like that," Momo muttered under her breath.
I shrugged at her. "I did warn you. Didn't I point at Izuku before shouting?"
"That's not a warning!"
"It's the only warning you are likely to get if the villain is stupid," I said in what everyone had come to call the 'teacher tone'. "Most good villains are like ninja."
As I spoke, I wondered if she got the couple of references I made. I mean, it's not like other manga don't exist. The only one that doesn't exist in this world is the MHA manga—which is understandable. But other manga do exist.
"What is it?" Izuku asked as he approached us. "And did you have to shout like that?"
"You were far."
"Not that far."
At his retort, Momo looked at me pointedly as if to say 'I told you so'. I had to wonder for a moment why she looked at me like that but I didn't care enough to really ponder. I just shrugged to myself and forgot about it.
"I had a question- we had a question," I swiftly corrected myself, "Do you think Bakugo's shitty personality is because of his quirk?"
Izuku muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously close to 'Do you have to put it like that?' but decided not to say it out loud. Instead, he looked away, feeling rather… embarrassed?
'Whatever for?' I wondered.
"I don't think it's his quirk," Izuku replied eventually, "so much as it is his upbringing. Aunt… His mother was loud. Is loud. Always has been. I think he got it from her since his father is actually really nice and mellow."
"Ah, I see."
It was obvious that Izuku was uncomfortable talking about it. For once, I decided to let him be. Talking about Bakugo in anything but positive tone was pretty much impossible for him. I was yet to break him out of that habit. It would be better if he broke out of it sooner rather than later when Bakugo also learnt about All Might's secret. But that wasn't my priority for the time being.
I changed the topic.
"So, what are your plans for the festival?" I asked the group.
"I haven't yet thought about it but I plan to when I get home," Momo replied, much to my surprise. My surprise must have been evident, for she gave me a look. "What?"
I shook my head at her. "And here I thought, you had already planned something."
"I mean I know what I want to do, but I can't exactly plan anything without knowing what sort of opponent I would be against," she said sensibly. "My quirk uses my fat so I have to be very efficient with the way I use it; I can't use it infinitely the way you or Midoriya-san or Asui-san can."
"Still, seeing as you have never really lost any noticeable amount of weight when using your quirk, you must be pretty efficient with it to begin with," I observed aloud. "I doubt a cannon's worth of energy can be stored in a human body. You could be genuinely creative and could produce quite literally anything." I sent her a meaningful look. "Yours is a dangerous quirk, and I don't mean economically."
Uraraka shuddered at my ominous words while Momo looked embarrassed.
Izuku bumped me lightly on my arm. "You don't need to sound so ominous."
"I'm not trying to," I protested half-heartedly. "It's just an observation."
"Sure is an ominous one," Izuku replied with a chuckle.
"Hey!"
My exclamation only served to make others laugh. I gave up and joined them.
As we made our way out, I noticed the looks students from other classes were giving us. Nowhere near as curious or hostile as it was in the original manga. Perhaps, because the villain attack was successfully foiled by the heroes this time around. So, we were probably just a class of victims.
"And to think 1-A is considered the best…"
I heard the murmur and glanced in the direction. And who else would greet me other than Shinso?
Damn, I had forgotten just how snobby he was in the beginning until Aizawa took him under the wing. I could only chuckle ominously. Time to stoke the fire!
"Hey, you there!" I called him out, bringing everyone's attention to us.
"What is it?" Shinso asked quite boldly. Almost as if he was daring me to… do something stupid, I guess? I didn't care.
I simply cocked my head towards my friends. "Be wary when you judge a book by its cover. You never know what hides underneath."
I knew my message was cryptic at best which was why I said it the way I did. Because I knew that even when I had interfered with 1-A's development the way I did, I knew they had the balls to stick through it all—the ups and downs of being a hero. For now, though, they had no idea about the downs of being a hero.
Sunday came along way too fast. Aizawa-sensei had pulled me aside on Friday after school to tell me when and where to go. Which was Sunday morning and the interrogation room of the UA police station.
Oh yeah, UA had its own sponsored police station. That was a new discovery for me. The school was rich. Richie Rich rich.
And so there I was, standing in front of the cold, unwelcoming steel door of the interrogation room. 'Sheesh, they could have at least made this room a bit welcoming.'
I simply knocked and opened the door a bit to check who was in. Nezu, All Might and Tsukauchi were sitting inside. Nezu gestured for me to enter and sit in a chair in front of them. As I did, I noticed how 'interrogatey' the entire atmosphere was. Sheesh, did they think I was a spy or something?
I sat down with a quick, wordless greeting and we all waited in heavy, suffocating silence. Not long after, Aizawa-sensei and Tsukauchi Makoto entered and sat on both of my sides. There were no verbal greetings. Everyone sat tense, bracing themselves for something.
Nezu, always playing the unruffled character, stood up and addressed everyone. "Welcome everyone to this secret meeting. Before we start," he glanced at the detective, "I hope all the necessary precautions have been taken."
"Everything is ready. We are the only people here right now."
"Perfect! Well then, let me introduce you to one of my new students in UA. Korai Haru."
I smiled at everyone present. All of them returned a nod back. No smiles though. I was disappointed. I was also nervous so I couldn't really focus on such a minor thing either.
"You're nervous," Makoto observed without so much as a glance in my direction.
Surprised, I turned towards her, only to see one of her fingers very lightly touching my arm. She must have been really discreet and I, nervous, if I didn't notice that at all. I simply chuckled awkwardly. "Hard to not be with someone like you sitting beside me."
I cursed myself inwardly at the awkward attempt to flirt. Damn me, damn my personality, and definitely, damn my inexperience. Makoto was downright beautiful and I had been having a hard enough time not focusing on her ever since she had entered.
My response was greeted with Naomasa's raised eyebrow and a small chuckle from Makoto. "I must wonder what about me made you nervous."
"Your quirk. Secondly," I replied, intensely relieved that she took it as a joke. She could be just playing with me right now to get information out and I wouldn't know. I had never been close to a police officer enough to know the ins and outs of the business.
"Secondly?"
"Your beauty takes the first rank in making me nervous."
Makoto simply burst out laughing. Naomasa and All Might were having a hard time hiding their laughter.
"Hey!" I exclaimed, annoyed. "Give me a break! I've never done this before."
"Don't worry, kiddo," Makoto replied, an amused smile still playing on her face. "No one has ever flirted with me in an interrogation room. Well, before you anyway."
"I'm not a kid!"
"Alright, enough playing!" Nezu clapped his stubby, little arms and silenced the crowd. "We are here for a serious discussion. You two can flirt later."
I huffed and sat back, all the nervousness out of my system. I guess being embarrassed has its upsides. Nezu must hold a decent amount of authority since everyone immediately quieted down and focused at him.
"As I was saying," the principal continued, "this is Korai Haru. On the day of the attack, he approached me in the morning before class, asking to talk to me privately about something that he thought only I should know." He paused dramatically. "He asked me if I read manga."
I rolled my eyes at his dramatic speech. He was definitely trying to get a reaction out of these professionals. If he managed to, I'd be surprised. Quite in line with my expectations, the only thing he received were a few raised eyebrows.
"And?" All Might prompted.
"What he basically said can be summarized in a sentence," the mouse continued. "For him, this world is a manga from his world."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Is this the reason you had us make time for this discussion?" Makoto scoffed as she leaned back, and crossed her arms.
"And there seems to be a shred of truth to his words to me back then," Nezu continued as if she hadn't spoken at all. "He was the one who warned me upfront about the villains' attack a few days ago. I had stressed to All Might to conserve his energy on that day no matter how much he heard calls for help. Is that right, All Might?"
"Right."
"And you think that's enough to believe him," Makoto noted sarcastically.
"Makoto, you have a point but the fact remains that he did know. He could be a spy for all we know," Naomasa said thoughtfully, his detective-ness shining through.
"Did you forget I'm sitting right here?" I intoned as I listened to them speak.
"There's not much you can do with five of us here," Aizawa intoned in just as flat a voice as I had.
I gave him a flat look. "And you already forgot what I can do with my quirk. I don't have quirk-nullifying cuffs on me, y'know?"
"I could erase your quirk before you could activate it."
"And you wouldn't know that if I already had my quirk activated, would you?"
He had no comeback on that one. He just grunted and sat back, letting his scarf flutter threateningly. I simply smirked before turning back to the discussion at hand. Only to see them all sitting somewhat tensely.
I stared at them questioningly. "What happened?"
"Korai-shounen," All Might said tentatively. "You do realize that what you said could be misconstrued as threatening, don't you?"
"Ah."
I had completely forgotten about that.
"Anyway," Nezu said, effectively cutting off any possible discussion on that topic, "there is a good reason why we are having this meeting. It is to validate Haru's claims. We are going to be discussing what he knows in-depth. Makoto, here, will be ensuring he's not lying. Naomasa too. Aizawa is here to ensure he doesn't use his quirk needlessly."
Oh, so there was some thought behind the choice of people present. I had thought it was just a random coincidence that some of the major characters were present.
"Sheesh, could you stop treating me like a criminal?" I protested in annoyance. "If I wanted to be one, I'd have used my knowledge to destroy you already. Why do you think I approached you first, Nezu?"
"I know, but precautions and policies exist," the mouse replied, a glint in his eyes that sent shivers down my spine. It surprised me how scary the mouse could look despite his stubbiness.
This time, everyone meant business. Makoto grabbed my wrist and everyone else squared up as Nezu finally turned towards me fully. "Well then, Haru-kun, let's have a nice, long chat."
I could only shiver in nervousness as everyone looked me in the eye and Nezu sat down. This was going to be a really long discussion.
