Welcome back dear readers! First off, I want to apologize for the last chapter. was down on computers, so I had to post using the app, which for some reason caused the spacing to be weird. I reuploaded chapter 19 from my computer, so it should be fixed now. With that out of the way, please enjoy!
CHAPTER TWENTY: FALSE ALARM
It was early in the morning before school. Part of Katsuo's deal with Principal Nezu stated that he still had to be on school grounds during the day, so Katsuo made sure to explore the city before school started. The purpose of these little "patrols" of his was to hopefully catch a few villain fights and learn something, as well as come up with new ideas for inventions. Speaking of, the GEAR glove was coming along nicely. MK II didn't blow up upon being used by a student, which was definitely a plus. However, Katsuo still needed to ensure that the glove could withstand a fully matured quirk, so he would have to find a hero to test it on.
As Katsuo was finishing up his morning breakfast while thinking about the GEAR glove, he suddenly felt a disturbance in his mana cloud. A couple blocks southwest of him was what felt like a large creature walking down the street, generally being a dangerous nuisance to society. Katsuo jammed the rest of his breakfast down his throat and jumped up, leaping off of the building and using mana thread like a grappling hook to speed up the journey. His response time wasn't on par with pro heroes yet, but he was certainly getting very close.
Finally, Katsuo arrived at the scene of the crime, just in time to see Mt. Lady getting her ass kicked by a pink mountain of muscle. The villain was so large that a small child could comfortably fit into his hand like a lighter. Mt. Lady was holding her left arm, most likely doing whatever she could to nurse a wound in the middle of her fight. Katsuo decided to only step in if absolutely necessary, instead taking out a notebook and pencil to take notes with.
The villain, just like all others, began monologuing about how he couldn't be defeated, making it a point to show off the three hostages he was cradling in his arms. Mt. Lady looked exhausted, being completely unable to grow. From Katsuo's perspective, it seemed she was trying as hard as she could just to keep standing. Katsuo began tracing the entire area with his eyes, making sure to cover everything in order to come back to this in his memories later. Just as he was about to step in and do something, another mountain of muscle appeared in the sky. "Do not fear, citizens! Why? Because I am here!"
All Might came down from the sky like a rocket, landing to the villain's left side and shooting past him, safely securing the civilians as he came by. The villain was both shocked and confused, completely unable to come up with a solution to his now disastrous problem. He began trembling, anticipating a "texas smash" to his jaw and/or stomach. As he began playing through every possible scenario of the next ten seconds, All Might turned to the injured Mt. Lady.
"I apologize for butting in, I hope you can forgive me for stealing your villain!"
"It doesn't matter, I wasn't going to stop him anyway."
Mt. Lady stumbled over to the curb and sat down, using a first aid kit hidden somewhere in her costume to nurse her wounds. After making sure she was okay, All Might turned back to the villain, winding up his punch, but stopped halfway through the wind up. The villain was now on his knees with his hands behind his back, begging for mercy from the NO. 1 hero. Seeing that his work was done, All Might stuck around until the police safely secured the villain before jumping off once again in the direction of UA. As he did so, steam began leaking out from his body slowly but surely.
'Dammit, I overdid it this morning. I don't think I'll be able to make it to the USJ today. What a shame.'
Katsuo watched as All Might blasted off into the air, leaving a trail of steam in his wake. Then, he turned back to the scene. Mt. Lady was now receiving actual medical help from qualified personnel, thanking them before quickly leaving the scene. He jotted down a few more notes before receiving a text message from Midoriya. Opening it up, Katsuo found a photo from his online fan club, showing a photo of him sitting on the roof watching the current fight. Looking in the direction that the photo was taken, Katsuo discovered a group of fans watching his every move while taking photos. Blushing, Katsuo simply waved to them before promptly disappearing on his way to school.
Katsuo still had most of the day until hero class began, so he decided to take a quick run around the school grounds before making his way into the workshop. Katsuo had begun using a "material synthesizer" that would print whatever type of tech he needed to improve the GEAR Glove. Currently, it was printing a computer chip that would help regulate the functions of the glove to the user, thus eliminating the possibility of explosion. It still had a few more hours left to go, so he decided to review the fight from earlier that morning.
Katsuo informed the rest of the people in the workshop of what he was doing before sitting down in the chair at his desk and closing his eyes. Then, he began projecting his memory onto the inside of his mind. Suddenly, he was no longer inside the workshop, instead being back on the roof. Because this was a memory however, there were huge changes. For one, only the area Katsuo had specifically looked at was there. Outside of a three block radius, there was just an empty void. Also, Katsuo had the ability to walk around freely, although the memory of his body was also a void since he couldn't see what he looked like.
Katsuo hopped down from the building and began examining the scene. There were two things in particular that he wanted to watch: how All Might safely grabbed those civilians so quickly, and the medical techniques that both Mt. Lady and the paramedics used. Despite studying multiple books on medicine, human biology, etc., Katsuo still had no idea how to actually heal someone in a scenario like this. He watched attentively as Mt. Lady carefully applied a medical cream to the wound on her left arm before carefully wrapping it in a bandage. She used a precision only taught to heroes at UA to ensure there was the least amount of pain possible.
The paramedics basically did the same thing for her, except they were faster and more precise with their movements, since it was basically their whole job. Afterwards, Katsuo found himself with a newfound appreciation for medical personnel. Next up was All Might. Despite being faster than most people could see, he was somehow able to grab the civilians, maneuver them out of the villain's grasp, and safely get them far away in the matter of seconds. It was a truly impressive feat. Fortunately for Katuso, his upgraded perception allowed him to see All Might's movement to a certain degree, which also allowed him to slow down his memory so he could examine All Might's movement.
After doing so, Katsuo made an interesting discovery. Despite his insane speed, All Might was able to ensure the civilians' heads were resting on his chest once he saved them, keeping them from experiencing whiplash. It was an amazing feat in and of itself, but Katsuo needed to make sure he could pull it off.
"Hmm… from what I've gathered, All Might's top speed these days is around 100 miles per hour. Judging from how much the muscles in his leg tensed before moving, I'd say he was using about 55-60% of his power, which means he was moving anywhere from 55-60 miles an hour, give or take. My top speed is around 45 miles an hour, so I'll need to work on that If I want to be as fast as All Might is right now. Although, I bet I could do this with my current speed as well."
After collecting all of the necessary data, Katsuo did a once over of the entire area before opening his eyes back up again. Immediately, he felt something off. Mei was right behind him, and judging from his mana cloud's reaction, she was placing objects on his head. Katsuo stood up and turned around to look at her, perfectly balancing the items.
"Hello Mei."
"Gulp!"
Seeing as he had nothing else to do in the workshop, Katsuo decided it would be a good idea to pop into his classroom early. Fortunately, his timing was just right for him to show up in the middle of an event. Katsuo slid the classroom door to the side and entered. Once the class realized it was him, they began crowding around and asking him various questions that all had to do with why he was there early. Once the questions had all been answered and his fellow students had been satisfied, Katsuo retired to this desk to talk with his friends. Finally, Aizawa stepped back into the room.
"Okay everyone, listen up. It's time to elect a class president. I don't care how you go about picking, just make sure you do it by the end of the period. I'm gonna take a nap." Just as what could be expected from him, Aizawa once again zipped up his sleeping/ body bag and went to sleep right on the classroom floor. With any semblance of authority in the room completely dissipated, everyone began talking over one another in an attempt to hype themselves up as "the next big politician". Katsuo personally didn't see the appeal in being class president.
Eventually, Iida threw his hat into the ring in an attempt to calm everyone down. He began waving his hand in the air frantically while calling for the class's attention, which somehow ended up working, as the group of rebellious teenagers finally stopped talking to listen to him.
"Everyone, I have an idea. We shall vote for who we want as class president. Once everyone has voted, I will stand at the front of the classroom to count the votes. Is everyone in agreement?"
"What happens if someone votes for themself?" Kaminari brought up a good point. Katsuo figured that this was basically just a trust system.
"Obviously you shouldn't do that, although there would be nothing to stop you. If someone does pull ahead in the votes, it will mean that they are clearly the most suited for the position. Any other questions?"
The class stayed silent, signaling to Iida that it was time to pass around the paper. Once all of the votes had been tallied, they were written on the board for the entire class to look at.
Katsuo = 16 votes
Midoriya = 5 votes
Yaoyorozu = 3 votes
The class turned to look at Katsuo, who kept looking at the numbers on the board. Aside from the top three, no one had received any votes. Except for Bakugou, who most likely voted for himself. After deciding that what he saw on the board wasn't a hallucination, he spoke his mind on the subject.
"Yeeeeaaaahhhh… that's gonna be a hell no from me."
"What the?! Why not?! You're definitely the one most suited for the position!" Kirishima's confusion was met with the same reaction from everyone else. Katsuo's denial of the position had been made crystal clear, even if no one understood his reasoning.
"There are multiple reasons. For one, I'm not even present in the classroom for most of the day, so it doesn't make sense for me to be the class president. Second, I'm way too busy doing other things to be able to perform adequately. And third? I just don't wanna do it."
"Well then, who do you suggest should be the president?" Iida asked.
Before Katsuo could speak, something else caught his attention. Using mana cloud, Katsuo had been observing a strange situation at the school's front gate. He had noticed a large mass of people gathering, but decided to just observe from afar once he realized the teachers were handling the situation. His cloud was already stretched pretty far, but he thought he could make out the outline of cameras in the crowd, so he figured it was just the news.
However, he soon felt something off. Almost as if the front gate of UA's barrier had been… disintegrated. All of a sudden, the mass of bodies flooded onto UA grounds as the emergency sirens in the building began blaring. The class was rightfully startled, as well as Aizawa, who was long out the door in an attempt to find out what was happening. Katsuo had a general idea of what was going on, so he didn't feel panicked when all of the chaos began. Instead, as his classmates began frantically running out of the room, he stayed quietly at his desk, waiting for the last person to leave. As soon as they did, he used mana thread to cut a door into the window and leave through the side.
With his eyes in the sky, he could clearly see the situation. The media were trying to force their way into the school while the teachers held them back. The students were practically running each other over in an attempt to escape the "dangerous" situation. It may have looked like a false alarm, but Katsuo felt that something was off. The UA barrier's gate was no longer there, instead being replaced by a pile of dust on the ground. It's possible that one of those news vultures had destroyed the gate themself, but Katsuo doubted it. Something was going on, and he most likely wasn't going to discover the situation at this point.
Instead, he resigned himself to keeping tabs on the wellbeing of the students. When he got to the main hallway, he found students lying on the floor, injured by the passing stampede from a few moments ago. He could still hear yelling and shouting from down the hall. After purchasing a couple bottles of recovery potion, Katsuo successfully nursed the students back to semi-perfect health before telling each of them to visit the nurse's office. In return, he received a few thanks and a couple pleas for an autograph. Such was the life of someone in the public domain. After returning back to the classroom, Katsuo sealed up the window and returned to his desk, waiting for his classmates to come back.
Over the next few minutes, the media had been pushed back outside of UA grounds, and the students had seemed to calm down, eventually returning to their classrooms. Class 1A did the same, being dumbfounded to see Katsuo still sitting in his seat.
"I suppose you knew this was a false alarm somehow, right?" Todoroki asked.
He was one of the only people who saw Katsuo's abilities in action during the Recommendation exam. Katsuo nodded, hinting to Todoroki that Aizawa was just outside the classroom.
"Okay everybody, false alarm. It was just the media. Now get this over quickly because I have an announcement to make."
Aizawa returned to his sleeping back, seemingly more alert than he was at the beginning of the period. Katsuo's name was quickly erased from the board, leaving only Midoriya and Yaoyorozu left. However, Midoriya looked conflicted. After standing next to Yaoyorozu behind the teacher's stand, Midoriya quickly made an announcement of his own.
"Um… I don't think I'm very well suited for the job."
Groans of annoyance sounded out across the classroom, likely due to this being the second time someone had said something like that.
"However, I do know someone who should be the class president. Iida, when everyone was freaking out during the false alarm earlier, you were the only one who was able to get everyone's attention."
"Yeah, you kind of looked like the guy on the exit sign!"
"Actually, Iida did handle that pretty well!"
The class became lively with conversations of agreement, all while Iida blushed from his seat. He then stood up, and in his usual stiff nature, thanked the class.
"Well then, if you all think I'm really that qualified, then I would be honored to be the president for Class 1A."
Everyone cheered and clapped for him, and Midoriya happily went to sit back down in his seat. When he did, he was met with a pat on the shoulder from Katsuo. Iida took his place behind the teacher's stand and erased the board before going to sit back down. Once again, Aizawa stood in front of the class to make his announcement.
"We were originally thinking of postponing this little excursion due to the event from earlier today, but Principal Nezu has decided against it. Which means, all of you are to report to the bus parking lot within the next 10 minutes. See you there."
With that, Aizawa walked out of the classroom and shut the door, leaving a mass of confused children in his wake. Midoriya turned around in his seat to face Katsuo.
"What do you think the trip is gonna be, Katsuo?"
"I'm not sure, but I can only assume it's some kind of training for hero work. Makes the most sense, considering Hero class starts in 10 minutes, the same time Aizawa gave us to be in the parking lot."
Seeing as they had a limited time, the class thought it would be best to get to the bus lot as soon as possible. As he walked down the hall with Kirishima, Bakugo, and Midoriya, Katsuo couldn't help but think back to the security gate. As he did, a strange feeling began to well up in his chest. Like this was all a part of a grand plan that he couldn't see yet for some reason.
Unfortunately, Katsuo could have never predicted the following set of events, and how they would change the arc of his life forever…
Sorry for once again being late everybody. Next chapter is the USJ, and then the following arc will be a Mr. Delsus original! I've decided to have a special arc occur after every season of the original anime, which means there will be one after the USJ, after the teacher combat exams, etc. I already have some good ideas for the next four seasons, so stick with me for a while! Have an amazing day!