The Reserve Course was exactly what Hinata expected it to be. They were the normal students that look dull compared to the Main Course. Talentless, they hold no real purpose to the world unlike the Ultimate students, the ones who become beacons of hope to the world. And yet, he, an average, talentless person, was offered a decision to be a part of a project that will make him into hope.

Can one person truly become Ultimate Hope?

All Hinata has to do is tell the committee yes but Nanami's advice made him reconsider the option to decline. Talentless people like him have more freedom, she had said. The Ultimates can only focus on their individual talents but normal people have less restriction to follow different paths of life. While the gamer's words do make sense, Hinata still felt insignificant and small to the world, that his life will not impact anyone or anything. The Izuru Kamukura Project is offering him a chance to impact the world and become something better than anything that Hajime Hinata could be.

"I will now introduce a new transfer student." Hinata stopped staring at his hand and looked at his teacher standing next to a blonde girl.

"Hello, I am Natsumi Kuzuryuu." Her malice smile was definitely recognizable, "I don't know why I've been put with trash like you but, well, nice to meet you." The rest of the class looked uneasy at each other but Hinata let out a little, awkward laugh. Unfortunately since it there was an uncomfortable silence, everyone heard him. Kuzuryuu made eye contact with him and perhaps it was the embarrassment that made her glare seems less menacing. "Expect you," she pointed at Hinata and approached the empty seat next to him, "You're trash that might get recycled."

"Like a bottle?" Hinata couldn't help but add.

It was Kuzuryuu's turn to have a deadpan look as she took her seat. "Your attempt to be funny is pitiful."

The rest if the day went by without any more strange shenanigans. Or at least, nothing compared to the daily ruckus coming from the main campus. Then again, Hinata thought, he and the rest of the Reserve Course are nothing compared to the Main Course. And so he expected a normal day to end the same way it would end like the past two months, normal. But recently, he and Nanami have been hanging out.

At first, Nanami would wait for Hinata at the Reserve campus gates, pulling him to the arcade but now, they both had a silent agreement to wait for each other at the fountain and play Gala Omega. Instead it was Kuzuryuu that was pulling him out the school gates when class was dismissed.

She pulled him until they rounded the Reserve dormitories and checked the surrounding area. "So far, it doesn't seem like we were followed but I think we're good, for now."

For that moment, Hinata thought he was looking at a different person. Before, Kuzuryuu was an annoyed student in class who purposely shouted the wrong answers at the teacher's lesson. Now her right arm backed Hinata to the wall while she peeked at the flow of students entering the dormitory. With a face so cold and calculating, Hinata knew that her introduction was not a random name. She really is the daughter of the Kuzuryuu Clan.

"Alright Hinata, tell me everything. Has Nero or his gangsters made direct contact with you?"

Hinata bit back a whimper. He was hoping to never hear that name again. "No, you told me to stop doubting you right? So I believed that everything has cooled over. But from what you just said, you don't believe that."

Kuzuryuu held a lot of tension in her shoulders, standing straight and tightly gripped a pocket knife that was probably hidden on her person. "His cronies cornered me again but before I escaped they mentioned you. They knew your name, address, and your enrollment here. Almost as if they have resources here and I betting they do."

It felt like time was frozen for an instant, with the world becoming darker. His first thoughts of his and his family's safety came and left his mind. Occupying his thoughts were blinking red lights and a loud siren surrounding all the things he knows about the Izuru Kamukura Project, which isn't a lot. The committee chose him to be the subject, he remembered, believing it was through a process of elimination, but now there was another possibility.

"What are you thinking about? You look more scared then the first time I threatened your life," the girl said, poking his forehead with the butt of her knife.

"Kuzuryuu, I've been picked by the Academy's committee for a ground breaking project."

The gangster leader's daughter sighed and glared at the ground, "That's awfully suspicious and a committee no less? Nero must have planted people in the Academy from the very start, that bastard." She looked up and saw Hinata's clouded expression. "The project must have promised you something good, like what money?"

"I can have a talent and become an Ultimate, the greatest the academy ever had." Kuzuryuu's baffled face mimicked his own initial reaction. She even had the same longing hope in her eyes. "They gave me until the end of the month to think about the offer since I'm their first student they've picked."

"In other words, you'll be the first one to be experimented," Kuzuryuu concluded. "If you decided to go with the project and it succeeds, you'll be with the talented people but if Nero was really behind the committee picking you and you say no, he might do something to you."

Compared to the Kurzuryuu Clan, Nero was a powerful rival. The man took the name of a Roman leader and built his own kingdom from murderers, guns, and blood money. For the longest time, there were no news or broadcast on the Nero gang until information leaked that some military equipment and blueprints were in the crime syndicate's hands. Police officials dismissed any rumors or questions regarding the gang but blog sites theorize that there's a turf war between Nero and the Kurzuyuu Clan.

From the way Kuzuryuu has reacted to the kidnapping, it seems like Nero is making a power play.

"But you're not completely sure that Nero has people here." Hinata started to reason, to her or to himself, he wasn't sure. "If I say yes, I'll be an Ultimate, but if I say no then I'll just be the same normal person."

He stared at his hand once again, a new habit of his. Lost in thought of the choices he has right now. Nanami told him that he has freedom but with the coincidence of him publicly helping Kuzuryuu run from Nero's gang and later getting picked for the project, Hinata felt like he never had any freedom at all.

"This is my entire fault, I should have never taken your orange juice," Kuzuryuu complained. "Nero's taking his sweet time on getting you. What the hell is he planning?"

"You feel guilty?" He asked. "Are you concerned for me?"

Her frustrated face quickly changed into one of embarrassment, "This is strictly business, Hinata. Don't start thinking that I care about you. The rivalry has been going on for years and we always knew that Nero was planning something big and it might involve this project of yours." Kuzuryuu leaned against the wall, twirling her pocket knife between her fingers, "But if I was given the chance to be in the Main Course, I would take it." Clutching the knife, she decided, "Listen, Hinata, I'll going to continue investigating Nero's resources here. If you want to go through the project, go ahead, I'm not stopping you."

The information that she has presented to him somewhat contradicts her final statement. As she left him, Hinata remembered someone who did advise him to say no. Kazou Tegan told him to not fear normalcy and then there's Nanami, envying his freedom as a normal person.

Even with their words, Hinata still felt emptiness inside him. Ever since he learned about the Izuru Kamukura Project, he thought that maybe the void would be filled by being Ultimate Hope. After all, the world needs Ulitmates not an average person like himself.

Thanks for reading!