Chapter 16: Toru Hagakure
Today was the first day of school at U.A., and although it had been a while, Yoshikage Kira still felt a little anxious.
...Did All Might see me that day?
The moment he saw that man named Scorbo climb onto the makeshift raft, he had abandoned any thought of making a move. While he could have attacked them in the water, he wasn't confident he could handle the man in the black shorts.
Don't do anything dangerous. That was Kira's creed.
Survival always came first before considering the next step. Kira had originally planned to sneak away after they reached the shore, hiding in the water until they were gone. It was this caution that saved him. Who could have imagined that All Might would have already caught the thugs, brought the police back, and taken down the man Kira had found so troublesome with a single blow?
If he had been discovered, while it would have been difficult to explain, he could have probably bluffed his way through it. But he was afraid of losing his chance to enter U.A. Fortunately, while All Might might have noticed him, he hadn't said anything.
...I should be able to put that whole incident behind me now, right?
"First Year, Hero Course, Class 1-A... Found it." Kira used the student ID that came with his acceptance letter to pass through the robotic security at the entrance. Following the overhead map at the school gate, he found the first-year section.
"You're..." someone behind him said. "You're Yoshikage Kira, right?"
Kira turned around and saw a school uniform, identical to his own, floating in mid-air. The lower half was a short skirt, so it must be a girl's uniform.
...Is this a paranormal event? In some anime, the protagonist would encounter ghosts haunting the school on his first day, and through helping them resolve their issues, he would meet various girls, all part of a theme of youthful passion. But that was just anime.
Kira pressed his hands together and bowed his head in a pious prayer. "I don't know who harmed you, but I wish you an early passage into the afterlife."
"Eh, eh?" The sleeve of the uniform pointed at itself, and a girl's laughing voice came from the clothes. "Um, I'm also a student in Class 1-A. My name is Toru Hagakure."
A new classmate? Then this isn't some ghost haunting, but a manifestation of a Quirk.
"Is your Quirk invisibility, by any chance?" Kira asked the uniform in front of him. Although he couldn't see her face, judging by the slight protrusion of the uniform's upper body and her voice, she was probably a cute girl.
"Mm-hmm." She nodded vigorously. "Something like that. My Quirk is 'Transparency.' People haven't been able to see me since I was born."
Is that something you should just tell someone you've just met? This girl was incredibly forward. And... she couldn't be seen since birth? That meant it was a passive, mutant-type Quirk, like the first "glowing baby."
He smiled at Toru. "I'm Yoshikage Kira. My Quirk is Hamon." To be invisible since birth... growing up must have been difficult.
"Hee hee, I know you! You're our No. 1, after all."
Kira didn't know how to respond to that. He rubbed his nose and changed the subject. "Let's go in."
The first year of the Hero Course at U.A. was divided into only two classes. All the students who passed were evenly distributed between them using stratified sampling, so there was no superiority of one class over the other.
"What a huge door!" Toru exclaimed as she reached the door to Class 1-A, impressed by its massive size.
To be honest, anyone seeing it for the first time would think it was a small conference hall, not a classroom. It was so large it could easily accommodate a hundred people, yet U.A. was using it for a class of less than twenty.
Kira stepped forward and pushed the door open. The sound of what seemed like an argument immediately spilled out.
"Don't put your feet on the desk! Don't you think that's disrespectful to the U.A. upperclassmen and the people who made this desk?!"
"Don't think so at all! What junior high are you from, you side character?"
Most of the students in the class had already arrived and were sitting properly in their seats. Only two were arguing, oblivious to the stares of those around them.
The one in the impeccably worn uniform, the same person who had reprimanded Midoriya during the exam, was making strange hand gestures and said proudly, "I am from the private Somei Junior High School! My name is Tenya Iida!"
"Somei?" Bakugo, his clothes worn loosely and a fierce look on his face, laughed wildly. "That damn elite school? Worth killing, then!"
Iida was taken aback. "You're too violent! Are you really aiming to be a hero?!"
Screech. The door was pulled fully open by Toru. "Kira-san, why aren't you going in?" she asked strangely.
At the sound of "Yoshikage Kira," everyone's heads snapped toward him, their eyes filled with a mix of emotions as they stared at the top-ranked student from the entrance exam.
"So it's you!" Bakugo took his feet off the desk and stomped over. "You're the one who stole my first place? Looks like we have another score to settle!"
Is this guy trying to make enemies on the first day of school? Is he reckless or just fearless?
Kira frowned at him. "I don't believe I've done anything to provoke you."
"Ha?" he shouted. "I'll let it slide that you stopped me from teaching Deku a lesson before, but you stole my first place? Let's have a fight, see who's the boss of this class!"
Although Kira had stopped the spiky-haired boy to break up a fight, he had almost forgotten about it. He never expected the guy to hold such a grudge. He didn't know his specific Quirk, but to get second place without any rescue points, he could imagine his combat abilities were extremely powerful.
Kira had no intention of fighting him. He simply said, "I only got first place because of luck. I have no intention of competing with you."
"What did you say?!" Bakugo couldn't believe Kira would so casually give up the top spot. Wasn't that making a joke out of him? And those words—they were exactly the same as what that Quirkless Deku would say!
He was about to explode when the door, which Toru had pulled shut, opened again. A very familiar head of green hair peeked out.
"Deku!"
"Eh?! Kacchan!" Izuku Midoriya was flustered. He hadn't expected to see the two people he was slightly afraid of, Iida and Bakugo, the moment he walked in. Midoriya's memory wasn't bad, and he saw that the person who had helped him before seemed to be in a conflict with Bakugo. Seeing Bakugo's fierce expression directed at him, he felt even more lost.
Suddenly, Tenya Iida stepped between them and said eagerly, "Midoriya-kun! You realized there was another way to score points in the practical exam, didn't you?"
He closed his eyes in regret and said with frustration, "I'm sorry. I underestimated you. I didn't realize it at all!"
Huh? Midoriya was stunned. I didn't realize it either...
A very cute girl popped out from behind Midoriya and said with a smile, "Looks like we're late, Midoriya-kun."
"Huh?! No, I don't think so?" Midoriya's face turned beet red. It was because he had run into this girl on the way to class that he was a little late. "I haven't seen the teacher yet..."
"Is that so?" the girl said cheerfully. "Today must be the entrance ceremony or a school tour, right? I wonder what our teacher will be like."
"If you're here to play friends, then you can go somewhere else," a lazy voice came from behind the girl. "This is the Hero Course."
The students standing at the door all looked outside and were instantly petrified, unable to speak.
There was a strange thing there!