"Where the heck is he?" Kerori asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Well we can't see him, but he can't teleport, just not be seen. And luckily for us our first step since last time was boarding up the wall." Jazz said, pointing to the multiple wooden boards provided by Clara.
"Yeah, he's definitely in this room … but maybe we can try a different play." Lied said. "In dokemon you first enclose the monster before you tame it. Kerori, Kamui, this is your call now. What do you do with a scared animal?"
"Hm, well normally a scared animal is something you don't want to drive into a corner, that's when they fight the most." Kaumi spoke up for them. "Although we tamed them through the promise of cuddles and snacks, not sure how well that works on demons though."
"Alright, I think I got something." Izuku spoke up. "Clara, can I get some chips?" A nod as the girl gave him a bag, which he gently placed on the center table. "Okay Purson, we're going to go to the wall, all twelve of us, you don't need to worry about us trying to grab you … we just want to have a conversation." The boy quickly began pushing them back.
"Do you honestly think this will work?" Lied asked.
"Our luck is weird, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Just expect something to happen at the very least." Asmodeus answered, and that was true. She still had a hard time realizing Izuku stopped a whole war from going to the brink.
They looked to the table, where the chips sat. They all blinked at once, and the chips were gone. "Okay, so we know he's listening at the very least. Now we just need to have a conversation."
Jazz took up the role, slowly walking up. "Hey, I get it, we all jumped at you yesterday and you're a bit frightened. Do you mind appearing so we can talk face to face? We'll keep our distance behind the desk if it helps." The man had some serious brother instincts.
The silence fell heavy for a good twenty seconds, before a demon with pink hair appeared, faceing to the side. Apparently this was Soi Purson. "..." The guy wasn't saying a thing. He apparently faded into the background better than her. Two months ago, she would've been jealous.
Izuku made sure to hold Clara and the impatient Lied back. "Okay, you're here, we can talk. So, what are your hobbies?" Lied decided to ask.
"..." More silence. He wasn't even looking at them, he was just silently staring off into space, the spot he was sitting at made them think he would be looking out of a window in a normal classroom. Right down the middle too, not too far for antisocial emos and not too close for teachers' pets. He had talent, she'd give him that.
"Presence Deletion seems like a cool bloodline, lots of ways to gain intel." Izuku thought to suggest. More silence. "That would've been a great one to have during the Harvest Festival." Izuku not sticking out? That's a laugh. She doubted even that bloodline could make it possible.
"Is he a statue?" Clara asked with a tilted head. "Is his voice broken or something?"
"I'd love to learn more about you." Apparently Elizabetta's voice managed to make him glance over at them, the man was a closet pervert. "What type of clothes are you into?"
"..." Not much for conversation was he?
"Are you even into music?" Kaumi asked him. "I mean, not everyone is inclined. We could just be barking up the wrong tree here."
"You fools, there's only one thing we can do! We must put on a Demon King Action Musical!" Sabro forgoed any subtly and shouted out loud. "We performed a normal play back at my Battler! I of course shall be the Demon King!"
"But you're a Gimel(3)." Schneider, one of the few demons with common sense, spoke up. "The Demon King and Queen would have to be Purson and Elizabetta." Purson actually gave a head tilt at that one.
"Well I wouldn't be opposed to being a queen to a king." Elizabetta smiled, as Lied bristled before looking down.
Sabro blinked as he tried to process that train of thought, before screaming. "No way, we're not letting that nobody be the Demon King!" His shout ended at the same moment the boy vanished.
"Idiot! You scared him off!" Asmodues punched Sabro in the gut. Great, now they needed to restart this whole dance of getting the boy's attention.
There was a rattling noise, sounding oddly metallic … "The vents!" Clara cried out. "Eistring and Dragon Lady are back!"
"No, Purson is escaping!" Jazz realized. "Quick, after him!" They quickly began the chase, Sabro and Azz breaking down the door as they ran down the halls, not noticing one person that wasn't following.
Soi watched the people run out after he kicked the vent. It was fine. They were so panicked and worried at the moment, so it wasn't hard to trick them. It was fine. He'd like to stay in the Royal One, anything was better that trashy old classroom, but he couldn't stand out. It was fine.
The only person that didn't run out was Midoriya. It was fine, he just needed to stay silent and wait for-"You're here aren't you?" Shit, this was fine though, he could still slip out silently against one man. It...it was fine. "I've done the same trick before back at my old school. It was hard getting some quiet time to myself. I actually could say the same thing about here, but it was fine."
Midoriya got alone time back at his old school? He seemed so dead set on hanging out with friends. "I mean, if I had friends back then, I wouldn't have tried so hard to be alone and unnoticed. It's funny, nowadays I can't be unnoticed even if I tried. I envy your bloodline quite a bit. I would've slipped in unnoticed the moment I was told to give that speech on the first day."
Didn't work on teachers, but the sentiment was fine. "So I get it, all this pressure on you from everyone, the need to rank up, how we're trying to get noticed without asking you. Heck, we haven't even had a real conversation before." That was true, and it was fine. "So how about we have one now. I'll sit down and hear your side of the story." He was going to do what?
"I've noticed you in class, but I've never really thought to approach you. Kalego hardly ever called out your name, and you've never gotten in any trouble with any of the other teachers like the rest of us, so I just assumed you were doing your best to keep away from the chaos as much as possible. Believe me, I wouldn't blame you."
Soi must've been slipping more than he thought. Midoriya shouldn't have been noticing him at all. Guess he needed to try harder. "Back at my old school, I was the guy that went unnoticed all the time, and I hated it. Everyone always commented on my plain face, how I didn't stick out in any way at all, how I was just this big sore compared to everyone else. Even the teachers more often than not chose to ignore whatever I did, good or bad otherwise. I wasn't just unnoticed, I was unwanted."
That...that didn't sound fine. Was it fine to be hearing this? Shouldn't he be saying that to a teacher, his parents, or a therapist. "B-but that's my situation. You shouldn't have to be thrown into the spotlight if you don't want to. There's a lot of expectations and standards being thrown all at once. We don't know a thing about you, and now we're asking you to take a lead in a festival we don't even know if you have an interest in. I'm sorry for dumping it all on you right now, but I'd like to know what's on your mind."
"..." Soi Purson, for the first time in Babyls, decided to speak. "You all are really a bunch of lunatics. You have no consideration for the fact that others just are down to planet. Like, seriously, you all jumped on me the first time I was super scared. And what was Kalego-sensei thinking calling me out, he's a Sadist, that's what he is. He loves the harm of his students barring that weird thing he has going on with your mother." He continued before Midoriya had a chance to speak, the bottle was opened. "Your class then decided to lock me in the classroom like a cage, it was super scary. Then you all treated me like an animal which was super demeaning, I only grabbed the bag of chips because I didn't know how to last till lunch and it calmed you guys down. Sabro screaming at me was super scary, he only ever screams at other people. How the hell would I be a Demon King, why would I be one, that's a lot of work. And that's not getting into my family's values of privacy and neutrality. Even if I wanted to help for some strange reason I'm bound to never be noticed, the whole reason I went to this school is to never be seen by other students or even teachers, but they're all so good at it. At most all I have is a single vent of frustration during the school day because all I can do is watch your class be stupid from the sidelines, and that's not even getting into my father issues which has me honor bound to support him no matter what, and i'm next to take up the mantle because my brother went missing."
Midoirya starred in shocked silence. Damn it, he rambled. It was fine, he could vanish. Besides, he had his first conversation today, so that's a plus. He quietly moved to the doors as the other misfits rushed in. "Midoriya, we lost him!"
"Ah...right. I'll check the halls again. Maybe he went to lunch." Midoriya headed out, not letting the class in on what just happened. At least Midoriya seemed to know how to keep others matter's private. He should probably work on keeping his own business to himself now.
Jazz sat with the other misfits, exhausted as they sat in silence. "Well that didn't work." Broken of course, by Asmodeus stating the obvious.
"Yeah, no shit. What next, you wanna say the sky is purple!?" Yelled Kerori, frustrated with all the running.
"Well it is, are you stupid Keorice?" Clara asked obliviously. She got frozen as a consequence.
"So we're actually going to say goodbye to the Royal One now!?" Lied cried. "No! Not now! Not when I actually started hoping we could do it! I haven't even played all the games that were left here!" He felt the same way. He never got the diamonds in the chandelier properly appraised yet!
"All the attention, all the ladies, gone like the wind." Kamui cried out.
"Our effort was valiant, let us fall with honor and dignity." Goemon nodded.
"Fuck dignity, I've been awake the whole Harvest Festival and we're not doing this for nothing." Picero complained.
"Fuck yeah!" Schieder indulged his newfound habit of cursing! "I didn't spend a fucking month in fucking slavery to go fucking back to that fucking garbage heap of a shitty classroom! I want what I'm duly owed, and no force on this planet is going to fucking take that away from me!" He agreed, that was truly hell.
"Alright then." Izuku put his foot down. "We can worry about Purson later, I've got something for that … maybe … hopefully?" That didn't feel like good odds. "Regardless, we should put it off for later and focus on a bigger issue … what are we doing for the Music Festival anyway?"
The students blinked in confusion and turned to each other for answers. They never really thought much beyond 'Elizabetta and Purson up front'. "Again, I say Demon King recital. It will be the best by far!" Sabro shouted out.
"Sabro, you're Gimel(3), no matter what you do we'll never cast you as the Demon King under any circumstance unless we make it a short role." Lied explained. "That's why you scared off Soi in the first place."
"Oh sure, go back to blaming me." Sabro rolled his eyes. "Well then, pipsqueak, what does thou have that's better than the Demon King recital?"
"I say a band. We can go full retro with some drums, a keytar, funky tunes and a nice jam." Lied grinned. Eh, a little cliche in his opinion.
"I'm afraid to ask what series you're thinking about." Izuku muttered. "Anyway my vote is on superheroes in live action, with special effects and stuff!"
"I don't know, not really feeling the whole play aspect at all, some of us are terrible actors." Jazz spoke, turning to Goemon. He once asked the guy to play a secret spy and the man did it so horribly it resulted in a broken toilet. "Not to mention all those colorful costumes would just look cringey on all of us, no offense, Izuku, you do you."
"It's cool, better one of us suffers from nicknames of animals than all of us." Izuku just nodded, accepting the path he's chosen to travel.
"What about a fashion show?" Elizabetta asked. "We could have so many pretty dresses, even get the boys in them." For some reason every Dalet(4) and Kerori just started choking on the air simultaneously. He could get the former but the latter made him raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"No, no, no way, no how, no FUCKING way in hell am I doing that in front of a live audience!" Asmodeus yelled. "Especially in front of my Mother and Gaako! That's not even mentioning Madame Midoriya, that women's cruelty knows no bounds!"
"Mamadoriya is awesome!" Clara cheared, now free from the ice. "Oh, let's play! We can play all fun games with everyone in the school! The judges will have lots of fun and give us a triple six!"
"Wait, the score goes from one to six? Not one to ten?" Izuku asked.
"Yeah, that's how it always is. Three sixes is the number of perfection, remember?" Jazz answered. "That's preschool knowledge you know, how are you not-right, bad Grandpa." He looked like he was going to say something, but was cut off.
"Alright, so right now our options are something musical with dresses, playing around, and having fun." Kerori spoke. "Does anyone here even know how to play an instrument?"
Not surprising anybody, most of the class had their hands down. "I can play! I can bang on this drum all day!" Clara pounded a bongo she summoned, somehow making it sound worse than it should've.
"Kerori, I think you'll have to take the lead on that, because of 'you know what.'" Izuku told her.
Kerori flinched, but sighed. "Right, I'll plan something later. Right now we have an even bigger problem. Our class has too many big names in it."
"Right, the problem is we need to keep people focused on everyone that's Gimel(3) and down." Jazz spoke. "That means Asmodeus and Izuku need to draw the least amount of attention."
"What about me?" Lied spoke up.
"What about you?" Kamui asked, confused.
"I'm a Dalet(4)." Everyone looked at Lied. "Did you all forget!?"
"Kind of. When we think of Dalet(4), we think of the strongest of the class." Schneider pointed to the two Calamity Cult members. "You don't belong in that category."
"Well fuck you all too." He complained. "So I guess the three of us are on unseen support."
"Right, I guess that covers that." Jazz said. "Any other ideas?"
"Well a … friend of mine." Schneider coughed. "Suggested a book I haven't gotten to yet, very popular so a reenactment might be able to work. It's called Dusk, it's about a wolf and a vampire fighting over the affections of-"
"NO!" Everyone looked at Izuku. "Sorry, it's just, where I'm from, stories involving Vampires and Werewolves in that particular scenario are banned and burned at the stake. We spent fifty years eliminating all traces, and officially made it a law to never make ones like it again. Plus, you don't want to deal with shipping. It never bodes well."
"Right, good point. We don't need yet another war." Jazz spoke, causing the group to nod.
Morax walked over to Kalego. Remember your lessons Morax, get him to notice you first, conversation will work its way from there. "I've gotten some documents done, would you mind double checking?"
"Of course." Score! Now she had about ten minutes or less of conversation time, she wouldn't waste it!
"So, is your class still motivated to reach Dalet(4), or have they decided to back down now?" Mentioning the Misfits might sour his mood, but they could discuss potential ways to punish them, a perfect segway to a happy Kalego!
"Motivated as hell, pointed out their one problem because apparently they had everything but that planned out." He shrugged. "What about your class?" He was asking about her! She could already die happy!
"Doing fine, they seem motivated as well to earn any form of rank up after losing so much to the Misfits in the Harvest Festival." It baffled her still that the Misfits were still the head of the school in terms of success. "Not sure if I can count on any of them to actually stand out significantly. You've taught your class far better in that regard."
"Honestly I've taught them very little other than basic rules." Kalego said. "The rest is just them following through on their Ambition." Huh, it actually sounded like he was praising them, even if she knew better. "I can at least keep my promise to Inko this time around. Even Izuku would find trouble making the Music Festival into something dangerous."
She held the burst of rage within … it was just him talking about protecting students … no reason to MURDER THE BITCH! "Well then, I wish you well." The sound of trumpets interrupted their conversation. "Oh, the Pixie strikes again."
"Oh, so that's the ridiculous name they gave Soi Purson. That also seems to be a theme in my class this year." Kalego mentioned.
"Wait, you haven't told your class that he's the Pixie?" Balam asked from behind, his hair now starting to grow out again.
"Didn't think there'd be a point." Kalego shrugged. "It's their job to utilize everything they've learned and have at the festival. If they can't see the obvious, then that's their fault." Such a wise man, now use that wisdom and notice her over that whale of a skank! "Anyway, your work is well done, one mistake on page three, after that send it in." He complimented her! Truly Raim worked wonders.
Izuku made his way to the roof. His end goal was to use Perfect Path to locate where Purson was, even with interference from Presence Deletion. At the very least it may give him a general area if he gets to a high enough place. He opened the door to the roof, noticing the music playing loudly. Wow, it was amazing, how has he never heard that before? The music stopped, and its owner, Purson, turned to him.
"... Azz was right, my luck is stupid." He saw Purson, looking like he was about to disappear again. "Wait! Stop! If you leave right now, I'll tell the other's what I just saw!" He wouldn't but he needed the bluff to work.
Purson stopped fading away and looked him in the eye. "Just so you know, this isn't me practicing for the Music Festival. This is just what I do in my downtime to relieve my stress. I have a lot that needs to be said that I can't say, and this is just the best way to do it. I'm not that good either, I'm an ametuer who's never performed in front of an audience before, so don't go thinking you've struck gold or anything."
"If that was you being an amature the universe just has a twisted sense of humor." Izuku deadpanned. "Kerori is already working on something to help music if you're afraid of playing … but that's not the case, is it?"
"... Like I said, my family wouldn't like it if I stood out, we pride ourselves on neutrality and silence. Family is the only group we're allowed to talk to unless business is involved, I already broke my oath twice by interacting with you." Good to know he could get others to break rules too.
"I'd ask why you follow neutrality, but there's literally a cult out there that worships the number two, so I'm not one to judge customs." The insanity has truly taken over him by this point. "But I can ask why you don't talk with your parents about stuff, I tell my mom … okay never mind I totally see why you bottle stuff up, bad example." He still didn't want her to know about the blood splatter at the Harvest Festival.
"You're terrible at keeping stuff inside. You have no filter over your mouth when it comes to private matters. You blabbered your personal history to a total stranger essentially, and frankly it's a bit selfish for you to just dump all that information on a guy you just met. Really, do you want people to instantly feel sorry for you? Imagine how uncomfortable I feel now. Don't go making others feel bad everytime you want to talk to someone. Not everyone wants to get to know you just because you're talking to them. The whole world doesn't revolve around you, you know." Okay wow, that hurt a lot. Gonna have to sleep on that and hope his soul fixes itself after.
"Just kinda a habit, people keep asking and i'm tired of keeping secrets." He said, sitting down. "So then, here's a hypothetical." Izuku started. "If there was no family involved, no codes, no pressure … Would you want to perform?"
The boy blinked, the neutral expression on his face faltered downward just ever so slightly. "If...if it's just to play music, and only to play music, yes…."
"Yes! Thank you, thank you!" He had to resist the urge to hug him and cry, but mostly cry.
"Hey, I never said I'm joining, you insensitive jerk. Don't jump to conclusions, that was a hypothetical based on a simple yes, you don't even realize the situation you're talking about. Why are you so dead set on this anyway? Yes, Royal One is nice, but you don't need a fancy Classroom to be a hero. I doubt any of the Misfit's Popularity would die down if you lost it. You guys are crazy, you'll probably do something next week that'll get you noticed. Seems like you put in a lot of effort for something you don't need."
"It's just what it is." Izuku smiled. "A great man once said 'meddling where you don't belong to help someone in a pinch, is the essence of being a hero'. I don't care if we win or lose, even though we should give it our all. What matters is what you want." Izuku smiled. "And your ambition is to play music … right?"
"I...I've been taught to not have any ambitions other than take my father's place as the head of the family. I'm not supposed to do anything at school. I was only permitted to join the rock-paper-scissors Battler because it was too easy to be forgotten in it."
"If you just do what your parents say you'll die on the inside. You need to do what you want, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life, like I thought I would."
"Again, why are you constantly bringing up your personal business? You're just like the rest of the class, you know?" Purson looked out on the open view the rooftop provided. "You….. just need me to provide music, right? I don't need to be in the spotlight, right? I can just play and go unnoticed? I can keep out of it entirely, perform without the whole school knowing my name?"
Izuku thought it over for a second. "We can talk with the rest of the group about making sure you go unnoticed, but I'm sure they'll agree." They loved a challenge after all.
