Chapter 33: Hitoshi Shinso
"H-Hey, Class Rep, we've got a problem! I don't know why, but a whole bunch of people just showed up at our door...!" After school, not long after Cementoss had left the classroom, Mineta dove under Yoshikage Kira's desk. "Did one of us get into trouble? Are they here for revenge? For the record, they're not here for me!" he said in a panic.
"Oh, is that so?" Kira pulled his bag out from his desk and glanced toward the door. "Those people are wearing U.A. uniforms. You don't have to think too hard to know they're not here for revenge."
"But isn't bullying usually between students from the same school?" Mineta said, covering his head with his school bag, still refusing to come out from under the desk.
"Alright, fine. I'll go take a look."
Kira walked to the classroom door. A crowd of twenty or thirty people was gathered outside, blocking the exit with an orderly formation that seemed premeditated. Since the classroom only had one door, there was no other way out.
"May we help you?" Iida, once again fulfilling his duty as the plot-pusher, stepped forward.
"Scouting the enemy, obviously," Bakugo replied to Iida, his eyes narrowed. He stood at the doorway, facing them down with a completely nonchalant expression. "Doing something like this is a total waste of time. Get lost, you mob characters."
Bakugo's utterly contemptuous attitude set the crowd off. One person from the front held back the others, pushed up his glasses, and said with a chuckle, "The Sports Festival is less than a week away. We just came to pay our respects to the 'stars of the show' who have been keeping us so busy. After all, you all just get to reap the rewards."
"What do you mean, 'mob characters'!? You really think you're the main characters here!?"
"Y-Yeah! Why are we the only ones doing all the work!? You think you're so great just because you're in the Hero Course!?"
The student's words were polite, but his intent was to stir up the anger of the crowd behind him. Just as a smug smile began to form on his face, as he prepared to use the mob to humiliate the Hero Course, a voice came from behind him.
"Class Rep, you really do love these kinds of underhanded tricks, don't you? Can't you just stand up front and say you're not happy with them?"
A purple-haired young man pushed his way through the crowd. The moment the previous speaker saw him, his face went pale, as if he were deeply afraid of this person.
"Hitoshi Shinso! What are you doing here? I thought—!"
"You thought I'd already left before you announced you were coming to cause trouble for Class 1-A, right?" Shinso cut him off rudely. "You're even afraid of a failure from the General Course like me, yet you gather a mob to pick a fight with the Hero Course. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with your head."
Seeing someone from the other side suddenly backstab their own leader, shutting him down completely, Bakugo looked at Shinso with some surprise and a scornful smile. "You mob characters really are interesting. Your name is Shinso, right? Not bad."
Shinso lifted his head, looking at Bakugo with dead-fish eyes. "I don't need your praise. I just came to see what the rumored Class 1-A was made of. Turns out you're just a bunch of arrogant pricks."
"Hey, you're the one who seems more arrogant, man..." someone behind Shinso muttered, only to immediately cover his mouth and shake his head frantically when Shinso shot him an indifferent glance.
"What a coward..." Shinso looked at the person in disgust, then turned back and ran a hand through his hair. "Did you know that there are a lot of people in this school who ended up in the General Course and the other two departments only because they failed to get into the Hero Course?"
"And the school has left an opportunity for people like us. Depending on our performance at the Sports Festival, they might reconsider and transfer us into the Hero Course. And if someone gets in, someone has to get out. Scouting the enemy? I'm not a coward like them. I came here today to declare war. Even if you're in the Hero Course, if you get too full of yourselves, you'd better watch out. We might just knock you off your pedestal in an instant."
He wasn't wrong. Aizawa had threatened to expel the last-place student during the Quirk assessment test. Although he had later passed it off as a "logical ruse," Kira had since learned that Aizawa had, in the past, expelled an entire class. Despite fierce opposition from the parents and students, the school had forcefully suppressed the matter, recruited a new batch of students from the other courses into the Hero Course, and kept Aizawa on as the homeroom teacher.
The school had given its teachers complete trust. If a homeroom teacher believed a student didn't have what it took to be a Pro Hero, the school would believe them unconditionally. In return, Aizawa had produced results. Every student from that particular year was scouted by a hero agency and became a Pro Hero after graduation.
And it was said that that year's class had first started attracting outside attention at the Sports Festival.
Kira walked forward and greeted the glasses-wearing class rep with a smile. "Well, if it isn't the class president from the General Course. Looks like your subordinate just usurped you."
The glasses-wearing boy's face turned green. He turned and left in a huff. "What do you know? You'll never understand."
Kira then turned his gaze to Hitoshi Shinso. "I think you might have some misunderstanding. The fact that we passed the exam to get into the Hero Course already proves that we are stronger than you. I don't believe your declaration of war will increase your chances of winning by much."
At that moment, Kira could feel the gazes of his classmates on his back. As their president, he had to take a stand. Showing weakness was not an option.
"Then what about me!?" A bald... no, a man made of steel pushed his way out of the crowd and roared, "I'm Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu from Class 1-B next door! If they're not qualified, then what about me!? I heard you guys fought some villains, so I came to check you out. I didn't expect you to be so damn cocky! And if I'm not mistaken, you're the guy who gave Shiozaki that money! I haven't settled the score with you for that yet! You'd better watch what you say, or you'll be eating your words during the match!"
"You're pretty cocky yourself," Bakugo snorted. He walked to the doorway and scanned the students gathered in front of him. "If I were you, I wouldn't be making such a pointless declaration of war. You'd be better off using that time to go home and train your muscles. Of course, for you all, that probably wouldn't help much either."
"Do you even know how to talk!?"
"Bakugo, saying things like that is just going to make us a target for everyone!"
The first line was shouted by Tetsutetsu, who was jumping up and down in the crowd. The second was from Kirishima, who was not happy with Bakugo's talent for attracting hatred.
Bakugo glanced at Kirishima. "So what? As long as we beat them, it doesn't matter."
Hearing those simple yet powerful words, the people blocking Bakugo's path involuntarily cleared a way for him.
"That guy... so simple, so direct... so manly!" Kirishima, who they had expected to get angry, was instead moved to tears, like a masochist.
But the other students of Class 1-A felt a surge of confidence as well. They were Hero Course students. They had faced terrifying villains and come out unscathed. Just as Mr. Aizawa had said, they were the best.
"That's right. As long as we win, nothing else matters."
Kira shrugged and smiled at the crowd. "Did you hear that? If that was your declaration of war, then this is our response."
"We will not lose," Kira repeated, his tone firm.
As everyone's fighting spirit was ignited, Mineta was still hiding under Kira's desk, clutching his head and trembling. "Why did it have to be like this? Even the usually reliable Class Rep is getting all hot-blooded..."
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