My Hero Academia: Lion of Courage
Chapter 48: Bridges and Barriers
Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia. All rights go to Kohei Horikoshi.
Uraraka's train for the Ehime Prefecture arrived and she was quick to get on after bidding farewell to her friends. For her internship, she had chosen the Battle Hero: Gunhead, who specialized in close quarters combat and martial arts. After going over why she lost to Bakugo, it made her choice very clear.
During her fight against Bakugo in the Sports Festival, Uraraka had a solid strategy and used his explosions against him. But in contrast to students like Bakugo, Furaya and Raionhato, her combat prowess was poor, despite the Hero Course students training with Open Palm. What if her combat prowess was better honed? Would she have won against the Explosion user? After considering those questions, she chose Gunhead for her internship, hoping that her time with him would be very well-spent in honing her combat prowess.
"Uraraka!" an unfamiliar female voice cried out. "Over here!" Uraraka was confused for a moment before seeing a hand waving at her and the face of a gorgeous blonde girl with brown eyes with a big smile on her face. After taking a closer look, Uraraka realized who it was.
"Hironaka!" Uraraka responded as she approached her. "Hi."
"Hey, Uraraka," Hironaka greeted happily and gestured for her to sit in the seat next to her. "Are you heading to the Ehime Prefecture too?"
"I am," Uraraka confirmed. "I'm doing a work study with Gunhead."
"You're doing a work study with Uncle Judan?" Hironaka spoke excitedly, much to Uraraka's surprise.
"Gunhead's your uncle?" she asked curiously. Kana nodded her head.
"He is. He taught me martial arts ever since I was little. He doesn't really care for publicity, but several Pros have gone to him for martial arts lessons. You must've really impressed him if he extended you an internship."
Uraraka was flattered by the comment, feeling that despite Hironaka's praise, she didn't do anything outstanding during the Sports Festival. But she wasn't about to argue with having been handed an internship by someone who Hironaka spoke of with great respect, especially stating that Pros came to Gunhead for martial arts lessons. It convinced her that she had made the right choice for the internships.
"Are you...nervous being around me?" Hironaka asked, her smile dropping a bit. "I know several of my classmates don't really like you guys from Class 1-A...but you seem nice to me. Only Bakugo looks like a real jerk."
Wasn't that the truth in everyone's eyes. Bakugo was undoubtedly Class 1-A's most disliked classmate, with only Deku, Yukine and Kirishima seeming to like him. He had unfortunately soured Class 1-A's image in the eyes of the other classes, making everyone believed that Class 1-A was nothing but a group of condescending egomaniacs. And the way he treated Deku...outright horrendous.
She could only hope that Bakugo had learned a major lesson in humility after his loss at the Sports Festival, especially losing twice at the hands of a Quirkless swordsman. Ever since that day, it was clear to Class 1-A that Bakugo's arrogance had taken a massive hit and was being forced to acknowledge the prowess of the Quirkless he had previously degraded. Perhaps now, Bakugo could reflect on how his arrogance and violent tendencies had alienated him from most of Class 1-A.
"Well...yeah, Bakugo's a jerk," Uraraka admitted. "But I can't really say Class 1-A isn't full of saints, either. But I'm not nervous around you."
"Great!" Kana spoke, her smile shining brightly again. "So why did you choose Uncle Judan for your internship?"
"I need to work on my combat prowess," Uraraka explained, despite being a bit surprised by Kana's sudden mood swing. "I think that if my fighting skills were better, I would've won against Bakugo in the Sports Festival."
"Then you definitely chose right," Hironaka assured. "Uncle Judan is an amazing martial artist; you'll love him! He may look big and intimidating, but he's a real teddy bear underneath!"
Uraraka smiled as she and Hironaka kept talking as the train began to depart for the Ehime Prefecture. Uraraka hadn't really gotten to know any of the Class 1-B students due to their general animosity towards her own class, so she didn't know what to expect. She was pleasantly surprised to be going to be going to the same internship as Kana Hironaka, someone she could easily start considering a friend.
Kaze Yonaka sat by himself on a bench, waiting for his own train to arrive. Out of his 281 internship offers, Kaze was surprised to see the name of Japan's #5 Hero on the list: the Ninja Hero: Edgeshot. Without hesitation, Kaze chose Edgeshot as his internship, though wondered how he had managed to win the #5 Hero's attention despite not making it to the Tournament. Whatever the reason, Kaze was excited about working with Japan's #5 Hero.
A small smile stretched across his face at the thought of working with Edgeshot, a hero he greatly admired. From what his father, Dakusuta said, he had worked with Edgeshot several times as Shadowfox before his crippling injury that ended his hero career. The Ninja Hero didn't reveal much of himself to his father and Kaze had never personally met him, but he was excited all the same, even though his face remained stone-clad as ever.
"Waiting for your train?" Awase asked Yonaka, sitting beside him as he too waited for his train.
"It's running late, unfortunately," Kaze answered. "The Ibaraki Express has been delayed due to a villain attack."
"Well, mine should hopefully be here in thirty minutes," Awase brought up. "I ultimately chose Death Arms in the Lurkers. Did you still choose Edgeshot?"
"I did," Kaze confirmed. "Though I wonder how I caught his attention since I didn't make it to the Tournament."
"Do you also wonder how you caught Tokage's attention?" Awase teased, much to Kaze's slight annoyance.
He had grown to respect Setsuna Tokage as a classmate and heroine-in-training, finding her dedicated, charming, intelligent and sociable...and annoying, cocky, vain. He truly did wonder what Tokage saw in him that attracted her; she didn't seem like the kind of girl who'd like a guy simply for his looks. But then again, he never really knew what went on that mind of hers, though she clearly held herself to a high standard that was evident after losing the Cavalry Battle.
"I don't know how I caught her attention," Kaze answered. "But I wish she'd stop treating me as though she's my girlfriend. I haven't asked her out."
"Well, she is hot," Yosetsu commented. "I mean, not as hot as Hironaka, of course..." Awase was suddenly quiet, an aura of jealousy fuming from him as he thought of Class 1-B's belle developing affections for Ojiro in Class 1-A. Kaze quietly sighed.
"Is every guy in our class fawning over Hironaka?"
"Can you blame them?" the voice of Shihai Kuroiro spoke ghostly, having just appeared beside the two. This startled Awase, but Kaze barely reacted.
"She is a light in the eternal darkness the rest of us walk through. She shines so brightly that it makes me wish to shun the darkness so I can bathe in her warm light. Wouldn't you agree, dark brother?"
"I said don't call me 'dark brother'," Kaze repeated with a hint of annoyance. "Except for our black color motifs, we have nothing in common."
"We both belong to the dark, Yonaka," Kuroiro stated with a big grin.
Kaze merely shook his head in annoyance at Kuroiro, hating that he constantly called him 'dark brother'. How in any way did Kaze belong to the dark as Kuroiro claimed other than him having a black color motif, a Quirk that allows him to teleport through puffs of black smoke, a name that had the word 'shadow' in it, had a ninja-based hero costume...he started to see where it came from, though it still annoyed him. At least he wasn't obnoxious like Hinote Onkyo.
"Yonaka!" Onkyo called out. Kaze sighed heavily in annoyance, showing no desire to spend time with the flirtatious Acoustic Control user.
"What do you want, Onkyo?" Yonaka asked, concealing his irritation.
"Perhaps another double date, my friend~?" Onkyo requested with a smirk. "I did beat you again at Open Palm's tournament-"
"No," Kaze outright refused. "And I'm not your friend." Before anyone could object, Kaze vanished in a black puff of smoke, having teleported to another area in the train station. The Shadow Flash user shook his head before finding another place to sit away from Onkyo and Kuroiro.
"Why can't they those two just leave me alone?" Yonaka groaned. "I'm not here to make friends. I'm here...I'm here to honor my father...and Anzu's memories."
That terrible day was burned into his mind, the image of the bully, Kyodai Tsuyo, pouncing Anzu into the wall and smashing her head in. All he could remember seeing was her body below her neck, her head out of sight for him to see, but from the teachers' reactions, it was a gruesome sight to behold. It happened...all because Kaze didn't warn her about Kyodai about to attack her. If he had done something...if he had said something...
"Anzu...I will honor our friendship," he quietly promised. "I will become a Pro Hero you can be proud of."
Ashido hummed quietly as she listened to music on her phone while she sat on a bench waiting for her train to arrive. She had taken up an internship in the Kanagawa Prefecture near the Kamino Ward, where she'd work with a Pro Hero named X-Lass. She didn't know much about him, but he sounded the coolest of the 50 internship offers all Class 1-A students received. She was broken out of her thoughts when she felt something put in her hair, which turned out to be a pink rose.
"Huh?" she asked, feeling the flower in her hair.
"A pink rose is quite fitting for one of your beauty, isn't it~?" Shin flirted, sitting on the bench next to Ashido, who blushed.
"Charmer," she complimented. "Man, I wonder why the girls of U.A. haven't swarmed you yet, pretty boy~" Shin smiled and brought his scorpion tail around Ashido's torso.
"Maybe I have my sights on one already~" Mina giggled before lightly hitting Shin's shoulder.
"So, which prefecture are you heading to?" Ashido asked the charming scorpion.
"Kanagawa," Shin answered. "It's near the Kamino Ward."
Ashido's eyes widened in surprise since that was where she was also going. Did Shin pick out X-Lass just as she did when choosing her internship?
"I chose the Pro Hero, Diamondhide," Zankoku informed. "Supposedly, he's a great Pro Hero, but I won't know until I see him."
The Acid user's smile died a bit at the reveal that they weren't going to the same agency, but at least they'd potentially run into each other. Who knows, maybe they'd work together to apprehend a villain or save innocent lives.
"What made you choose Diamondhead?" Ashido asked.
"Diamondhide," Zankoku corrected. "And I chose him because he seemed down to earth enough. I don't like hanging with Pros who are only in it for the glory, like the sycophants who offered internships to Prince Todoroki."
"Why do you hate them so much?" Ashido asked with hints of disappointment in her voice. "Him and Yaomomo...what did they do to you?"
Shin was quiet for several moments after Mina asked why he disliked the two wealthiest students in Class 1-A. If anyone didn't know him better, they'd probably accuse him of jealousy at their privileged lifestyle while he struggled to survive in the streets, but that wasn't the case. He knew perfectly well why he disdained them.
"Those two have silver spoons in their mouths," Shin answered. "Yet they act like they have it so rough compared to everyone else. Do you remember how Yaoyorozu's been since the Sports Festival or Todoroki before Midoriya made him use his flames? Those two have everything, yet they act as though their issues are worse than everyone else's."
Ashido could see Zankoku's point of view. Before the Sports Festival, Todoroki relied solely on his ice, which hindered his power and nearly got him killed at the USJ Attack. Midoriya and Zankoku called him out on this as an insult to all those who were giving it their all. Twenty-one of their classmates had to get in through the Entrance Exam and had to give it their all just to pass by. Todoroki, on the other hand, got in on recommendations due to him being the son of Endeavor and used only half his power, skating on by while the rest gave it 100%.
As for Yaoyorozu, ever since her defeat at Tokoyami's hands, she had been down and depressed. She had let that defeat weigh heavily on her, despite that she had made it to the Tournament, which was merit enough. Iida, Kirishima, and Tokoyami lost against opponents who they could've easily defeated, but they didn't sulk and fall into self-pity. Instead, they took their defeats in stride and accepted their losses as well as the strength of their opponents.
"It honestly pisses me off that those two have so much, yet act like they're so miserable," Zankoku groaned.
"You don't seem to hate Yukine and Iida, yet they're from rich families," Ashido brought up.
"Well, for one, Yukine doesn't act like her issues are worse than everyone else's and if she wanted to hide her surname, there's bound to be some issues," Zankoku brought up. "As for Iida, he actually proves he's worthy of respect and leadership. He follows the example he sets for our class and didn't act like he was entitled to the position like Princess Yaoyozoru did."
"Entitled?" Ashido questioned.
"When Midoriya offered Iida the position of Class Rep, almost all of us cheered for him," Shin brought up. "But Princess...she just looked like she deserved the position, even though she did nothing to prove herself worthy of it."
Ashido could understand where Zankoku was coming from concerning the two wealthiest students in Class 1-A, but felt he was being too hard on them. They weren't bad people; in fact, Yaoyorozu was mostly kind, polite and always offering advice to her fellow classmates. Todoroki had started warming up to the others in the class after the Sports Festival and was rather friendly despite his general aloofness. They couldn't really be the bad people Shin was painting them as; they definitely weren't as bad as Bakugo in her opinion.
"You almost sound like Raionhato when he hates on Bakugo," Ashido claimed.
"Except I don't go looking for fights like Raionhato does," Shin replied. "Besides, Bakugo may be a real arrogant asshole, but he backs up his ego. He's not all bark and no bite; if Raionhato had remembered that, he wouldn't have made a fool of himself."
"But he made up for it, didn't he?" Ashido brought up. "He did agree to a rematch with Bakugo; to be honest, I thought Raionhato would've still lost. I mean...Bakugo's just a monster in a fight."
"In front of us, sure," Shin answered. "But in the eyes of the world...he's going to live with that for the rest of his life."
Zankoku didn't want to think of how many internship offers Raionhato threw away when he basically handed victory to Bakugo on a silver platter and made a fool of himself during the Sports Festival. He was honestly surprised Aizawa didn't scold him for his stupidity, but maybe he did and he didn't know about it. Or maybe Aizawa thought Raionhato publicly humiliating himself was punishment enough for the son of Lioness.
The Scorpion found himself asking how his hatred for Prince Todoroki and Princess Yaoyorozu could ever compare to Raionhato's hatred for Bakugo, especially after the Sports Festival. Zankoku didn't deny his disdain for the two wealthiest students in their class, but he didn't actively seek fights with them like Raionhato did. Sure, he snarked at them every now and then, but never openly provoked them in a way that led to fighting like Raionhato did towards Bakugo.
"Well...I can see what you're saying," Ashido acknowledged. "But, speaking of Todoroki and Yaomomo...don't you think you're being a bit too hard on them?" Before she could even speak another word, Zankoku swiftly spoke first.
"No, I don't think I'm being too hard on them. We've all got issues, Pink Rose, but those two...those two have so much to be grateful for. Did they ever have to use newspapers for blankets because they didn't have a bed? Did they ever have to eat out of the garbage because they couldn't afford food? Did they ever have to wear dirty, filthy clothes because they couldn't get theirs washed? No, they always had food on the table, clothes on their backs and a proper bed to sleep in. The fact that they think their issues are worse than everyone else's just pisses me off."
Ashido was left with no argument prepared to counter that. Many of Zankoku's points were true: Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had so much money, were the children of prestigious and wealthy Pro Heroes, and had gotten in on recommendation mostly because of their familial connections. They had much more than what most of their classmates had, so much to be grateful for. Both of them were highly attractive, had amazing Quirks and their familial connections gave them much freedom to improve their Quirks growing up.
But on the other hand, neither Ashido nor Zankoku knew what issues Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had. Was Zankoku completely correct and that they were just being so self-centered due to their prestigious lineages? Or was perhaps there something they weren't seeing that neither of their classmates could see nor that the two students would open up about. She wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, to see that there was more to them than what Zankoku was saying.
"I'm...I'm sorry," Zankoku apologized, his annoyed expression softening up. "I don't really lose my cool like that."
"It's alright," Ashido assured. "But at the least, you could give them a chance. They look like good people, Zankoku."
"Friendliness can often be a facade to hide nastier things," Shin replied. "Trust me, I'd know."
Ashido quietly sighed. Zankoku's charm and wit were matched only by his cynicism towards others, especially Pro Heroes. He could barely see any good in the world, instead opting to see its filthy underbelly despite his legitimate points and criticisms. But Ashido couldn't deny that there were many people in the world who only acted kindly because they stood to gain something or Pro Heroes who looked good to the public, but only cared about looking good rather than actually being good. She did wish he'd see more of the good in the world rather than the bad.
Chikao arrived at U.A. High School, where his internship with Principal Nezu would take place as agreed. The school seemed much less lively now due to all of the Hero Course students being away for their own internships, leaving only the Business, Support and General Studies students at the high school. He entered the school guards, armed with his revolver and butterfly knife in his belt along with a cane was he carrying in his right hand.
The conversation among the students varied. Some spoke of the results of the Sports Festival, displaying disbelief, awe and jealousy at Hayata Furaya's victory over Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima and Iida and earning a place in the Hero Course. Facts were facts in Chikao's eyes: Furaya had won the Sports Festival.
Chikao Kato was curious about Hayata Furaya, a Quirkless student, managed to beat such odds set against him. Logically, Furaya should've lost against each of his opponents, but instead, he beat every last one of them though he did come close to losing against Bakugo in their second match. He wondered how the Quirkless swordsman would fare in U.A.'s Hero Course, the first ever Quirkless to train to become a Pro Hero. How would U.A. accommodate to his drawbacks of having no Quirk? Would he able to keep up with his classmates? He was curious of how these questions would be answered in time.
But that was not his concern at the moment; his only concern was approaching Principal Nezu and beginning his internship. Nezu had instructed him to come to his office on the first day of the internship, probably to inform him of what their activity would be for the day. This piqued Chikao's curiosity, thinking of what Nezu would do for the first day.
"Kato, you cannot spend your time here at U.A. simply doing enough to 'get by'. Our goal as teachers is to help students find their boundaries and then break them, to dare to go further. After all, that's what 'Plus Ultra' means and simply 'getting by' is not enough, Kato. But I don't wish to see your potential go to waste, so I wish to take you under my wing and help you learn to apply yourself in more constructive ways."
So how would Nezu's teachings help Chikao achieve that goal, the goal of helping the Hyper Analysis user apply himself more? Unlike many of his classmates, Chikao was not burdened by illusions of grandeur, honor and altruism. He came to U.A. to become a Pro Hero because he enjoyed solving mysteries and crimes as he did before he came to the prestigious High School. Becoming a Pro Hero itself wasn't his desire like many others; he merely saw it as a means to an end for his true desires. As long as he did enough to pass, he saw nothing wrong with his actions, despite the protests of his classmates.
After a good ten minutes, Chikao arrived at the Principal's office and knocked on the door. Instead of hearing a 'come in', the door opened, showing the mouse-principal of U.A.
"Ah, Kato," Nezu greeted.
"Please, it's Chikao, Principal Nezu," he insisted. "So what do you have prepared for us today?"
"Come inside," Nezu responded, leading Chikao to a nearby table where sat a simple chessboard with the pieces already set up.
"Chess," Chikao pointed out.
"Come, sit," Nezu gestured. Chikao sat down at the table across from the Principal, though with a raised eyebrow. This isn't at all what he expected; he expected something more dangerous and demanding. Instead, a mere game of chess.
"Is that a new support item?" Nezu asked, gesturing to the cane Chikao was holding.
"No, sir," Chikao answered. "I needed to make more flares for it before I could bring it to school."
"May I see it?" Nezu asked, to which Chikao handed him the cane.
It looked around three feet in length with a curved handle on one end and what appeared like a gun barrel on the other. Nezu noticed that the handle was much less curved than a cane's handle typically was, so he took a closer look to realize that it was also a sword hilt. He noticed the technical compartments near the hilt, which he guessed were for more than just simply drawing the blade from its scabbard.
"A fine piece of work," Nezu responded, handing the cane back to Chikao. "Is it a sword cane?"
"As well as a grappling hook and a flare gun," Chikao answered. "I didn't have it before because I ran out of flares for it. I prefer to create my own rather than rely on cheap store-bought flares."
"You're quite a tinkerer, aren't you?" Nezu questioned. "And I assume you're skilled in swordsmanship like Raionhato and Furaya?"
"Of course, Principal Nezu," Chikao confirmed. "I've been trained in multiple martial arts, marksmanship, fencing-"
"So despite your minimalism, you seem like a man of many talents," Nezu interrupted. "This is precisely why I took you for your internship. You won't become a great Pro Hero if you barely put in any effort."
Based on what he knew of Chikao, Nezu saw a gold mine of talent and experience. Chikao was already an experienced detective, skilled tinkerer and accomplished combatant, yet his classmates and his teacher would know none of that due to how he behaved in school. To allow Chikao's minimalism to slide simply because he was getting by would be utter hypocrisy on their part. What worth was Plus Ultra if they didn't push their students to go as far as they can, to break barriers that held them back before?
"So...you wish to teach me by playing chess?" Chikao asked, gesturing to the chess set on the table.
"Of course," Nezu replied. "Please, sit with me."
Nezu sat on one end while Chikao sat on the other, the Principal taking the white pawns and Chikao taking the black. Almost immediately, Chikao's Hyper Analysis figured out a number of ways to victory and immediately moved a black pawn. The two of them took turns, Nezu taking some of Chikao's pieces and vice versa, but Chikao believed victory was in his grasp after moving his queen.
"Checkmate," Chikao stated after winning the game.
"Well done," Nezu replied. "Now, let us try again."
They reset the pieces and started another game. Once again, Chikao let his Hyper Analysis do the work on several strategies before moving his pieces again, taking turns with Principal Nezu. However, Chikao noticed that the Principal's strategies were much more proficient than from the first game, taking each of Chikao's pawns with ease while the student only took a few. However, Chikao was still able to win and declared 'Checkmate'.
"Victory is yours once more," Nezu conceded.
"But your strategy is much better this time," Chikao brought up.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Nezu claimed as he set up for yet another game.
As soon as the game started, Chikao's Hyper Analysis yet again planned out several strategies for him to win, but much to his surprise, Nezu kept countering these strategies by either blocking his pieces or taking them. Like the last two games, Chikao managed to win, but barely and Principal Nezu came very close to winning.
"Your strategies are becoming harder," Chikao stated as they prepared for a fourth game.
"Whatever do you mean?" Nezu feigned innocence.
This game was the hardest. None of Chikao's strategies worked against Nezu as the Principal easily countered all of Chikao's moves. The Hyper Analysis user was completely taken by surprise at none of his strategies working against the U.A. Principal, watching as each of his chess pieces were taken one by one until finally...
"Checkmate," Nezu proclaimed.
"None of my strategies worked," Chikao spoke. Though his scowl showed no hint of emotion, he was actually a bit surprised by his loss.
"And I was actually going easy on you," Nezu stated, much to Chikao's surprise. "Kato, you have a brilliant mind and an arsenal of skills at your disposal that can make you a great Pro Hero. But I could tell that in these games, you weren't putting in the effort needed to win. You only won the first three games because I purposely left openings for you to win."
As Chikao thought on the past three matches, it hit him: every time he had won, Nezu had indeed provided an opening that Chikao took advantage of to win. He thought his strategies against the Principal gave him the opening he needed, but as Nezu said, he had allowed Chikao to win despite raising the difficulty in his tactics. This time, Nezu didn't provide an opening for Chikao, easily dominating him in the game and claiming victory.
"See what putting in the bare minimum can do to you?" Nezu brought up. "It left you completely unprepared for when an opponent went all in. You were unprepared to deal with my tactics when I didn't leave an opening for you because you took the easiest way to win. You only applied the minimal effort to get by and when you were faced with a true challenge, you were unprepared."
"This truly is interesting," Chikao spoke. "I've never played chess with someone on this level before. This game...you utterly defeated me."
"But you could've defeated me," Nezu claimed. "You could've won. Had you applied the effort needed, you would've seen through my ruses and realized that I had provided openings for you. Thus, that would've encouraged you to create your own openings. You can have all the training and talent in the world, but without effort, it's nothing. Nay, worse than nothing; it's worthless."
Chikao should've seen through the Principal's ruses, but he didn't. He only applied enough effort to win the games, not realizing that Nezu had allowed the student to win because of his purposefully left openings. Was this truly the Principal's way of telling Chikao to put in more effort?
"I believe I see your point, Principal Nezu," Chikao admitted. "I must admit that I didn't realize the openings you left me during the game."
"Then let us try once again," Nezu suggested. "Let us see if you can learn from your mistakes and put in the effort necessary to defeat me."
They set up their chess pieces once more and played a 5th game. This time, Chikao played with much more effort, his mind constantly coming up with new strategies with each move he and Nezu made. Halfway during the game unfortunately, Chikao started groaning, a headache setting in due to his Quirk.
"Chikao, are you well?" Nezu asked with concern.
"It's a drawback of my Quirk," Chikao informed. "Do you have a coffee machine?"
"In the teachers' lounge," Nezu answered. "I suppose we can take a quick break." The Principal of U.A. led Chikao to the teachers' lounge, keeping an eye on the young man as he used his hand to rub his forehead to ease the headache. As soon as Nezu brought Chikao to the lounge and showed him where the coffee machine was, the Hyper Analysis user prepared a medium sized cup of coffee, followed by him taking sugar packets out of his pocket and filling the coffee with blasphemous amounts.
"That's quite a lot of sugar," Nezu commented.
"It's necessary," Chikao answered as he slurped the sugar-filled coffee. "Sugar helps ease my headaches, which is why I often carry sugar packets around."
"I see," Nezu responded as he sat down on the couch. "So I hope our games today have helped you begin to understand why you shouldn't be a minimalist in U.A."
"It was interesting to realize that I didn't see through your ruse," Chikao admitted. "But was your intention for me to compare the games to real life Pro Hero situations?"
"In a manner of speaking," Nezu replied before proceeding to explain.
If this had been a life or death situation and Chikao only gave the bare minimum, it could've left him unprepared to deal with unforeseen factors just like he didn't see Nezu purposefully leaving openings for him to win. In the world of Pro Heroes, one had to often create their own openings rather than wait for one. In some occasions, waiting for an opening would be wiser, but in a large number of them, openings had to be created on their own. Minimal effort as a Pro Hero could cause a number of issues: not catching onto potential ruses, being unprepared for unforeseen factors, and not seeking openings on one's own.
"You say you want to be a Pro Hero and I believe you, so I trust you're beginning to understand why Plus Ultra is our motto: to go beyond, to find your barriers and break them. If you remain content-" Nezu stopped when he heard loud snoring, Chikao having sat down on the couch across from him and fallen asleep. The Principal shook his head and sighed before going to over wake Chikao up.
"Perhaps I could stand to learn to put in some more effort," Chikao spoke.
"Good, because iff you remain content-"
"Letting my barriers hold me back, I'll never grow as a Pro Hero."
At least Nezu got his point across. Now he could begin molding Chikao into a truly great student.