I'm not even going to front, I forgot to work on this for a full day, but I did manage to get it done in time! Also, my stress has been pretty low this week, thanks to the fact the neighbors allowed me to play with their dogs, which despite being from the breeds most associated with biting people's faces off, are just adorable and just so fun to play with and I don't care that I'm in my early 20s, playing with cute animals will never NOT be fun and relaxing for the soul. Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Also, this chapter is being posted early because I have stuff to do later and knew if I waited, I'll end up posting this before midnight if not in the early morning tomorrow.
Chapter 13: Hello, Why don't you Introduce Yourself?
Opening the door, he finds that despite its size, it slid open with little effort from him, but his attention was taken by the other occupant in the room, already at their desk as they quietly read a book, their face as passive and serene as it had been the day of the exam.
Walking up to her desk, he thought it would be nice to greet her. "Morning, Kodai. It's nice to see that you made it."
"You as well." Her blue eyes remained as calm as a pond's surface but still bright. "Good job on placing second." He felt a little giddy about that, but as much as Shizune would say he should let her praise him more, that just made him uncomfortable.
"Have you been here long?" So, he moved the conversation along.
Kodai shook her head before returning her attention to her book, which he only now realized was a title in the Make-Out Paradise series. How she got her hands on it, or why she saw fit to read it during class on the first day was also a mystery. "Just a few minutes."
Deciding to head to his seat, from her at the back of the first row, he took out his guide and saw that he had been assigned a seat on the other end, slapped right in the middle of the 4th row. Setting his bag down and taking his seat, he rested his head on his arms and closed his eyes, to focus on the tenet around them while he did some light breathing exercises. Wondering what the first day will bring.
And that was where he sat as the rest of the class slowly filled in, either by themselves or in twos or threes, more people entered the class and went to their desks, or continued to talk. One boy seemed louder than most, but not so loud that it hurt his ears. Soon enough he felt someone approaching his table and raised his head to meet them, seeing that they were a fairly tall bow with black hair tied into a low braid and sharp dark eyes, though at present those eyes were welcoming.
"Apologies, I didn't mean to wake you, I just noticed that we're in the same row." The boy opened, as Midoriya returned his politeness with his own. This was his new school and new people and he made a promise to himself to take full advantage of that.
"No problem, but I wasn't sleeping, just gathering my thoughts. This is our first say after all." He replied as the bow nodded before reaching his hand towards him.
"Rin Hiryu and I know the feeling. It took me a while to absorb it when I got my acceptance letter." He introduced himself, laughing at the end as he recalled what must have been a stressful, but ultimately happy moment when he opened that letter.
"Midoriya Izuku," Midoriya did the same, shaking his hand and noting that he had a strong grip, better than just about all his old classmates. "Still feeling a little hyper, but hopefully they'll pass." Though he wasn't much in awe at being at U.A. when you spent months with a spiritual creature that made it their business to nearly kill on the daily, your bar for what can leave you in awe raises substantially.
"They'll have if we wish to train to become the best heroes we can," Rin replied, leaning against the adjacent table as Midoriya laid his head on his crossed arms, a cat-like smile on his face.
"I have a feeling that I've trained harder than you," He told the boy, who rather than get confused or upset, met his smile with a smirk of his own.
"Is that a fact?" As they talked, Midoriya spared the rest of the class a glance now and then, to see who was who and match their tenet to a face. A girl with hair similarly dark green like his own had an amused smirk on her face while she spoke with the loud boy from before, a tall fellow with white hair and shark-like teeth who seemed to be enthusiastic. There was an even taller furry student, who seemed to be engaged in conversation with a girl with vine-like green hair. Then there was the short blonde with large horns sticking out of her head who must have been a foreigner as her eyes were a bit wider and she spoke terrible Japanese.
All in all, it was quite a group of people, much livelier and more distinct than his old classmates which gave him hope that things would be better here after they must have been incredibly hard workers to have made it into the U.A and with the reveal of the rescue point system, he imagined that they were good people as well. The door opened once more, with him and the rest of the class moving their gaze towards it to see it was 3 classmates, most likely the last to arrive. At the front was a pale-skinned ash-blond boy with no lips, in the middle was a small girl with brown hair that covered her eyes, giving her a mushroom-like appearance while the last happened to be Kuroiro.
The two in front of him were in conversation about something when they stopped once they realized they had all their attention. Rubbing the back of his head, the boy spoke up, directing his words to the class as a whole. "Wow, we're the last ones here?"
"You are," Everyone sans Midoriya looked behind to see a tall muscular man with an overbite and cropped white hair. The man in question gazed at the three students at the doorway, making them sweat a bit at how authoritative he was being just with that gesture alone. "Lucky for you three, you just barely avoided being late, now head on in and take your seats." They didn't waste time as the three quickly moved to their desks, some as those standing till the class was fully assembled, ready for whatever he had for them.
Regardless, as the man walked to the front, there were still excited whispers as people recognised him as a hero. "Oh man, an actual pro?"
"All the staff at U.A. are pros, even if retired. It's part of the reason it's different to everyone else.'" The lipless teen added an eager energy to him.
"You mean superior to other schools?" A blonde with the air of a used car salesman asked back, getting a raised eyebrow from Midoriya but his attention shifted back to the man up front.
"Quiet down," He told them, which they followed as the man gripped the podium and leaned forward. "Welcome to your first day at U.A., I'll be your homeroom teacher, Kan Sekijirō otherwise known as Vlad King. You may address me as Kan-sensei, Vlad King or Vlad-sensei, whichever works for you." There was silence as the group looked at each other, wondering what to say but the man didn't give them time for it.
"Is that understood?" He repeated with more force.
"Yes, Vlad-sensei!" The class replied as one, which satisfied him as he nodded.
"Good, remember that while we're pros, we're also your teachers and this is a school, so try your jaws off the floor." He reminded them as he spared the clock behind him a glance.
"With that said, we have orientation to get to. We're leaving in a single file, starting with the first seat in row 1, that means you Awase." The boy in question, one with black hair and blue and white headband quickly got up, followed by the one behind him. As each row got up and left, Vlad remained in the class to keep an eye on them, which led to it being a rather quiet affair even when Rin, the last person in the class, left with Vlad behind. Outside, before Vlad could take point and lead them towards the auditorium, they noticed a door down the way, most likely for class A was open but there was no one there, Midoriya couldn't feel anyone in the room either, strange.
As they walked, they could pick up students from other courses thanks to their jacket designs, but what was strange was while they could make out at least 3 other designs, for support, general and business respectively, there was a distinct lack of another group with jackets like their own. It would seem that class A was missing as his classmates looked around, trying to spot them in the crowd or asking questions about it; had they merely left before them and were already there? Were they behind them? "Did they get lost?" A white-haired girl with hair covering one of her eyes asked.
"I doubt that their teacher would be so incompetent to get lost with his class on the first day, still they should try and be punctual." The blonde used car salesman replied, his eyes narrowing as he kept on trying to spot them in the crowd of first years.
One of his classmates, the girl with vine hair, asked Vlad about this. "Excuse me, Vlad-sensei, but will we find class A already there?"
"Doubt it, they like to skip this." Was his response, but what was normal about an entire class not attending? Why? Another classmate, a dark-haired boy right behind Awase, asked for a follow-up.
"Hold on, they're skipping orientation? The entire class? Is that even allowed?" He asked him if U.A. was the best of the best, rivaled only by Shiketsu. One would assume that meant that they would at least force students to attend such things but it seems that they were wrong about that.
"Teachers are given a lot of leeway in how they manage their classes, so while it's incredibly rude, it's within the rules," Vlad grunted back as they arrived at their destination, where they found that first years sat first, the closest to the stage which made the absence of class A all the more apparent as there were 20 seats very much empty but while they and the rest of the first years were nervous and confused, a look to the entering 2nd years showed that few of them cared, even when Midoriya focused on one of their teachers, she spared the empty seats a look and moved on, adding credit to Vlad's statement about how normal it was for class A to seemingly always miss this.
However, when he looked to the side towards class C presumably, he saw a familiar head of purple hair and tired-looking eyes but Shinso didn't see him and he didn't want to call out to him lest he get them both in trouble. Still, while not in the hero course, it was good to see that he had made it into U.A. anyway, so he made a note to look for him after school but there was the lingering question of whether he got rescue points too, he did try and help him save Uraraka, did he perhaps not earn enough or something?
That sounded sad as while incredibly out of shape, he had that fire in his eye, he wanted it and he wanted badly to be a hero but fate wasn't on his side, Midoriya wasn't one to believe in letting fate control you, and he could think of ways to help his sleep deprived and very skinny schoolmate make into the hero course.
When the last of the 3rd years sat down, the principal, a strange chimera in a fine suit and large yellow shoes walked towards the podium, tapping it to ensure that the sound was good, he didn't get the chance to say a word before an explosion was heard in the distance, which made the first years jump to their feet, their fight or flight instincts telling them there was an issue. But they were the only ones as not only were the staff calm as ever, but the second years were merely looking towards the source of the noise while the third years didn't so much as blink much like the staff.
Midoriya knew U.A. was crazy but this was getting to be a bit much, was that what class A was doing right now? Blowing off orientation to blow stuff up-Bakugo. He wasn't in his class, which meant that he must have been the source of that. Part of him hoped he had done something to get in trouble and was venting, but that wouldn't explain why the other 19-plus homeroom teacher was absent. Calming, he and the rest of the first returned to their seats, visibly shaken and uncomfortable about the lack of answers they had.
Nezu, in contrast to their confusion, only chuckled over the mic. "Well, we at least know where class 1-A is, same place as usual but let's start with orientation, shall we?" With that, the chimera started and it became clear after the first few minutes why Class A skipped as Nezu didn't so much act like a normal principal as he did an eccentric mentor figure, sprinkling his words with metaphors relating to proper grooming and animal training, most of which flew right over their heads as he wondered if all sentient animals did this, as Shizune also had the habit of talking in riddles to mess with him.
He shivered at that, praying that his new principal wasn't as sadistic and ruthless when it came to teaching, or else he might not survive their 3 years here. Thankfully, it wasn't complete confusion as Nezu's words did speak to the history of the school, how proud they were to have achieved what they have the students that have produced and what goals they had for the future. Eventually states how it's tradition for the teachers of each homeroom to come up and introduce themselves so that the entire school knows who was with what pro. Again, it was 1st years first but with class A absent, not a single person batted an eye when Vlad went on stage first, even if he could hear his blonde classmate muttering that class A was full of it for ignoring this, followed by Present Mic who home roomed class C and so forth.
After him, Midnight came next and aside from making some of the students look away, red in the face from her presence and rather provocative way of carrying herself with how she sashayed towards the podium. With a smile that led to a few nosebleeds, she explained that she was the one in charge of clubs and while hero and support students weren't encouraged to join then, the school had no rules against it if their youthful spirits wished to further express themselves. That being said, if their grades slipped past a certain point, she'd deal with them as he looked to pull on his collar there as the way she said fed into the dominatrix theme she had going.
Thankfully for their teenage minds, Hound Dog was far more appropriate in his words as he explained that he was the school guidance counselor and what that entailed making it clear that regardless of year or course, if they ever needed someone to talk to about any issues, that he was their guy and how anything they did speak about will be kept between them.
The aging veteran hero, Recovery Girl was next and much like the guidance counselor, she kept things short in how she was the school nurse but how she nor U.A. would tolerate reckless behavior so while she'll see anyone, she won't just let them get off Scot-free for stupid acts such as testing if you're bulletproof by having your friend shoot you with their gun quirk which was spoken with too much annoyance to by just a theoretical example.
Then came the time for words from the representatives of the student body, as 3rd years of every course gathered on stage to pass on some words of inspiration started with the hero course as a bright-faced blonde went up, with whispers from the 3rd years talking about how it made sense for the leader of the Big 3 to handle it for the hero students. The guy had spirit, almost as much as Present Mic as he welcomed them to U.A.'s hero course, stressed how challenging it would be, ways to handle the stress and keep up to date with studies and training and encouraged them to seek out their seniors if they ever have issues as heroes exist to help people and helping their juniors should come naturally to them.
As he walked off the stage, the students gave him a round of applause as he might have only been a student, but he gave speeches like he was a pro who had mastered their media craft. Even students in the other courses seemed to agree with this as he returned to his seat, and was replaced by someone from the general studies class who talked about how they might not be majoring in one field like the others, but how they gave them something the rest didn't-options. The girl highlighted not just careers they could study for in U.A. and its many facilities and resources for that, but clubs that could help them with that.
Support went next. The rather…flashy blonde talked about how they were the creators of U.A. the masters of the workshop and those that everyone else turned to when something needed to be built, maintained or upgraded. With her noting that if not for the support course, U.A. wouldn't have nearly as many bots as they do for things like the hero course, or the many smaller robots used around campus for other duties. With her saying that from 2nd year onwards, they can even form partnerships with those in hero and business and create their proto-hero agencies which serves as great experience and insight into the workings of one.
Lastly, it was Business which ended things before the event ended with Nezu reminding them to always do their best.
Once they returned to class, Vlad let them sit before he informed them that they'd be heading out shortly for a quirk assessment. One of his classmates, a tall slender boy with pale yellow-green skin and two hooked blades jutting out from either of his cheeks raised their hands.
"Yes, Kamakiri?"
"Did class A already do this, one seemed to care about that explosion earlier." The boy asked him, with the rest of the class realizing that it made the most sense as Vlad nodded.
"That is correct, their homeroom teacher likes to hit the ground running but more for the slow and steady approach, which is why before we head out, you'll introduce yourselves since if all goes well, the faces you see now will be the same for the next 3 years." He explained to them, getting them to look around again, as some must have known one another from before U.A. or met during the exam but as a whole, they were mysteries to the other.
A chubby boy with ice-blue hair and large, wide black eyes raised his hand next., "Vlad-sensei, how will that work?"
"You'll just come up to the front of the class, state your name, quirk and one other unique thing about yourselves." Hearing that quirks would be involved made Midoriya flinch, as he now found himself in an issue as while the staff knew he was quirkless, his classmates didn't. He had gone through the exam and pretended he had one, but that was less a straight deception and more him allowing others to assume that he had one, but he couldn't do that here as he needed to say he had a quirk.
He didn't think Vlad would let him lie about his quirk status, but at the same time, if revealed he was quirkless, would U.A. turn into a repeat of middle school? He had spoken with just one other classmate and while he seemed nice, so did others he met before they learned his quirk status. This was a new start, he didn't want to waste it with the baggage of a past he would rather leave buried back dammit, this wasn't going to be easy.
While he tried to figure out a game plan, Awase was the first to step up and take the stand. "What up, the name's Awase Yosetsu. My quirk is called Weld, which is pretty self-explanatory as I can fuse objects at the atomic level so long as I'm touching both objects." Awase explained. "For something unique, I'm a mobile games fan, so if you want to know something about one, I've probably played it." As he walked back to his desk, he stopped as he recalled something else.
"Oh, and I scored 9th on the general exam." Hearing that, some people gave him impressed looks as he returned to his seat, but Midoriya was confused by that, as with the name said, he had already figured that out because he got the letter.
But that would only apply if they got the same letter as him. Were the results of the exams not made known to the rest? Or was it just the top 10?' Seeing how being 9th meant he could make that statement, and most found it impressive, perhaps that was the case.
Next up was another boy, thin but not out of shape and pretty lazy-looking with dark shaggy hair and a slight tan. "My name is Kaibara Sen, my quirk is called Gyrate, which means I can rotate any part of my body like a drill. I have a hobby about photography and own a few high-end cameras for it." He kept it short and sweet before he returned to his seat.
Third in line was Kamakiri, the boy walking with innate confidence in his steps. Facing the group, he began. "Kamakiri Togaru, quirk is Razor Sharp. I can produce blades from any part of the body, the two coming out of the face are always there so no, it's not for intimidation. My blades are wicked sharp and strong as I can slice clean through stuff like wood and metals with ease. And intend to be the best of all of you, so don't think coming in 9th will mean you're better than me."
"Bring it!" Awase yelled back as the boy returned to his seat, but Midoriya ignored that as he focused on how Vlad didn't say anything when Kamakiri didn't say a thing about his hobbies, did that mean they were free to omit information? The students continued as Kuroirio went next with a pretty flexible quirk, especially for nighttime operations while Kodai Yui was just as non-descriptive with her quirk, not even explaining it and instead mentioning that she liked matryoshka dolls of all things.
After all, Komori Kinoko went next with a quirk which had him give her special attention, as she would be incredibly useful in the sanctuary, as there were plenty of herbs and other drugs that could produced via mushrooms, with the class smiling and encouraging her when they heard that she wished to be a idol hero, as she has the attitude for it, being incredibly bubbly, he envisioned that a few of the kids in Raxus would love her.
Shiozaki Ibara came next, and the girl seemed to be incredibly humble as while she gave her name, rank and the fact that she liked charity work, she didn't say what her rank was even though he knew it to have been 5th, which would have been the highest yet. The next two after her didn't have anything mind-boggling to say, but they didn't leave without an impression as Shishida Jurota was extremely eloquent while Shoda Nirengeki was more soft-spoken but passionate about boxing.
The next was the blonde girl from before, Tsunotori Pony. A foreigner who revealed that she was Florida through her broken Japanese with her hobby being anime which led to Awase joking that she was the dreaded weeb which she took in stride as she replied with a classic 'Don't mess with me, I have the power of God and Anime on my side.' After that, she returned to her seat and Tsuburaba Kosei, the boy was pretty upbeat with a subtle but exceptional quirk and a passion for baseball and tennis, an odd combination.
Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, was a confusing name but he made sure that they knew his first and last names merely sounded the same, but weren't spelt the same as he even brought up a little board where he spelt them out. Despite the odd name situation, 7th Place meant that he wasn't a joke as his quirk might have been simple but only an idiot thought simply meant weak, not when he could become a human wrecking ball with hammer fists.
Tokage Setsuna was the first of the recommended students to speak, which meant one of the remaining students was the other one. She didn't so much say what her quirk was as displayed it by splitting herself into 9 different pieces, which freaked some of them up when they felt her hand or foot touching them before they returned to form one laughing body. Despite that, she had the eyes of a perceptive and intelligent person as she left with a mention that she liked dinosaurs.
Fukidashi Manga and Honenuki Juzo went next and both seemed to be alright people, Fukidashi had a versatile quirk and a passion for making kids laugh while Honenuki came out as the second recommendation's student and both open but also competitive as he returned Kamakiri's challenge with one of his own, though his reveal of what he liked led to fun little exchange.
"My, I didn't know that you liked such a thing, you must like to go to massage parlors all the time, don't you?" She wiggled her eyebrows as she said that, with others getting red in the face at the implication.
"Not even, I don't need to pay for something like that," Honenuki got back into his seat, chill as a cucumber even as Tsunotori asked how he would be so sure of that. "But I tell you that my hands can work magic for relieving tension and stress." Okay, now they weren't sure if he meant one thing or the other!
Vlad clapped their hands to get their attention back on track. "Keep the innuendos for later. I know you're teenagers but remember the time and place you find yourself in."
"Yes sir." Both students replied as Bondo Kojiro went next. When it came time for his turn, Midoriya had figured out a game plan, took a deep breath, and got up to the front. Collecting himself once he got to the front, he started.
"My name is Midoriya Izuku, I enjoy gardening and overall spending time in nature away from the hustle, grime and noise of the city. As for the exam, sorry to say but I outplayed all of you and scored 2nd place." He took pride in how those that mentioned their rank froze once they heard his name and knew he was being honest, while the others looked at him in awe. Even if he didn't have anything against them or reason to suspect they were bad people, he couldn't lie as he felt good to see so many quirked individuals that made it into U.A. look like him like he was the bigger fish.
With that said, he bowed to them and went to return to his seat, but Fukidashi pointed out something he forgot. "Hold on, what's your quirk? You didn't even say its name." He didn't see it, but Vlad also had his attention on him, wondering what move the boy would make.
Midoriya turned to Fukidashi, with a confused look which turned into a Cheshire cat-like grin, the boy shifting his hair just a little via the use of his tenet to make it seem like those 'cat ears' he had going twitched. It wasn't him telling people he had a cat-like quirk, just him making it seem like it and letting them come to that conclusion.
"My quirk? I could say what my quirk status is, but where's the fun in that? I'll let you all figure that out. If you can before the end of the semester, you can give me a nickname that you can all use." With that little bet, Midoriya returned to his seat. As others wondered what his quirk was, asking if they had seen him during the exam and what they had heard, the boy behind him was smug for some reason as he got up, touching his hair as he went, close to where he thought he saw those cat ears of his but froze after doing so, his eyes wide as plates as he turned a confused look at Midoriya who met it with an expectant look of his own.
"Monoma, please keep going." Vlad brought him back to reality as he continued, a confused thoughtful look to him as he started his introduction.
With the class's eyes on him, he opened up his introduction. "Monoma Neito at your service. I rounded out the general exams with the 10th place spot." While not the best, he took pride in that and the rest seemed to acknowledge that he was worthy of that.
"My quirk is called Copy, which allows me as the name implies, to copy and use the quirks of others. Right now, my limit is just 3 quirks for 5 minutes, after that the quirks fade and I need to copy it again." He explained, though he kept something to himself, at least till got some answers. "One other thing is that I enjoy French food and Franco-Belgian comics, I got into the latter recently." Taking his seat once more, his eyes locked into the back of Midoriya's head as he tried to figure out what his deal was, and how he managed to score so high on the exam.
Monoma couldn't just copy but he could tell what a quirk was by touching its user, it was part of how he could plan how to use it, but the issue was what he touched Midoriya, he felt nothing so unless his hair was an extremely convincing wig, that would mean he was quirkless.
Midoriya felt his gaze on him but didn't act on it as he figured that he must have been upset or trying to gauge him after he revealed that he came in 2nd where Monoma only managed 10th. While this happened the next person went up to speak, a girl with chin-length pale gray hair that hung over her eye, obscuring most of the left side of her face. Her pale skin and dark bags under her eyes made her look ill but she still moved like normal so perhaps it was a stylistic choice?
"Greeting, my name is Yanagi Reiko, my quirk is called Poltergeist which grants me the ability to manipulate objects close to my body, however unlike many greater telekinetic powers, I can only use my powers on objects that have a total weight of the average person." She explained herself to them, shifting some pens off Vlad's desk into her hands before returning them without moving from her spot. "You could consider my hobbies to include surfing the internet and horror movies." She bowed and returned to her seat with the last of the group taking the proverbial mic.
"Morning everyone, my name is Rin Hiyru, if my name wasn't a giveaway, I just came clean and confirmed I am from China, and still have family there. Like Tsunotori, I have taken a liking to Japanese culture, more accurately, sushi." Rin started, lifting his arm and folding back his sleeve to show how his arm was nearly instantly covered in green scales, including changing his nails into claws.
"My quirk is called Scales, which allows me to form scales along my entire body. The scales produced are both durable and strong, so they can be used for both defense and offense quite well. I can also shoot them off my body like a bullet." With that displayed, his quirk faded away as he pulled his sleeve back to normal and retook his seat as Vlad got up again to address them.
"Now that we've handled introductions, we'll head out for our quirk assessment, you'll find your P.E. uniforms in your desks, sized to the measurements you sent but if you find there are issues with it, such as adjustments that need to be made, speak with me and we'll sort it out," Vlad explained as they opened their desks and found their uniforms, nearly folded and ready for them, having most likely been put there while they were busy with orientation.
"You have 10 minutes to get change and meet me on the P.E. field, get to it, people!" Chairs scraped against the floor as the students grabbed their gear and went for the door, needing to first find the closest locker room to the P.E. field.
And that is that, not as long as I would have thought, not even including any of the actual quirk assessment but seeing how my other chapter had that as the focus, I wanted to go a slightly different route with this. It'll still happen, but not in the same way for obvious reasons. Also, Midoriya is sticking with the deception that he has some kind of quirk, but what he doesn't know is that Monoma knows he's bullshitting, but he also didn't out him, so let's see where this goes. The next chapter will be out February 9th.
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