Location: Shiketsu High School – Class 1-A Homeroom
Time: Thursday | 03:00 PM (Three Days Later)
CHATTER.
The first-year students of Class 1-A were talking loudly.
"I can't wait to go home, the lunch here is nowhere near as good as Golden Bites."
A boy with green scales covering his arms sat on a desk, complaining about the cafeteria food to a girl with small horns.
Across the room, two other students were tossing a crumpled piece of paper back and forth.
SLIDE.
The heavy classroom door opened.
SKRRT. THUMP.
The students scrambled back to their assigned seats and sat up straight.
Shiketsu High demanded perfect discipline, and the teachers never tolerated messing around.
Mr. Brave walked to the front of the room.
THUD.
He dropped a massive stack of thick paper packets onto his desk.
He looked completely drained. Dark bags hung heavily under his eyes. His hero costume was wrinkled, and he rubbed his temples like he had a pounding headache.
"Listen up," Mr. Brave sighed, leaning heavily against the chalkboard. "The entire faculty is going back into a locked-door meeting for the rest of the afternoon. You guys are on independent study again."
"Again?"
"It's three days now."
A collective groan echoed through the classroom.
Mr. Brave looked at the tall boy sitting in the front row.
"Nagamasa, you are the class representative," Mr. Brave said. "Hand these worksheets out. I expect everyone to finish them before the final bell rings. Nobody leaves early. Nobody walks the halls."
"Understood, Sensei," Nagamasa nodded politely. He stood up from his desk.
Mr. Brave didn't waste another second. He turned around and walked straight out the door, clearly in a huge rush to get back to the boardroom.
CLICK.
The classroom door shut.
"Are you kidding me?" the boy with green scales complained, dropping his forehead onto his desk. "More worksheets? My hand is already cramping."
"We just did fifty pages of hero law yesterday," the girl with horns sighed, burying her face in her hands.
Nagamasa walked up to the front desk.
[Student Name: Nagamasa Mora]
[Quirk: Extend-o-Hair]
[He can control and manipulate the extremely thick hair covering his entire body!]
Nagamasa used his quirk.
A large amount of thick brown hair extended from his arms. The hair wrapped gently around the huge stack of papers and easily lifted it.
He carried the stack effortlessly and started walking down the rows, dropping a packet on everyone's desk.
POP.
Camie Utsushimi blew a pink bubblegum bubble. It popped loudly in the quiet room.
[Student Name: Camie Utsushimi]
[Quirk: Glamour]
[She can emit a smoke-like substance from her mouth that creates highly realistic illusions for a short amount of time!]
She leaned back in her chair and stared at the thick packet of paper sitting on her desk.
She wore the standard Shiketsu uniform and a very bored expression on her face.
"This is totally uncool," Camie complained, dragging out her words lazily. "Like, majorly draining. We have been doing independent study for three days straight. My brain is literally fried right now."
BAM.
Seiji Shishikura slammed his palm flat against his desk.
[Student Name: Seiji Shishikura]
[Quirk: Meatball]
[He can manipulate raw flesh, kneading his opponents into helpless balls of meat!]
He sat completely upright. His Shiketsu hat was perfectly straight. His eyes narrowed in pure annoyance as he glared at Camie.
"Stop whining, Utsushimi!" Seiji scolded her loudly. "A Shiketsu student must maintain dignity at all times! We are the elite. If the teachers give us a heavy workload, we accept it with absolute pride!"
"Give her a break, Shishikura," the boy with the scales grumbled from the back row. "You have to admit this is really weird. Mr. Brave looks like a total zombie."
"Yeah," another classmate agreed, flipping through the massive packet. "All the teachers do. They just dump homework on us and disappear."
"The faculty is handling highly classified school business!" Seiji argued, crossing his arms aggressively. "They are doing important work to secure our future as heroes. It is not our place to question them."
Camie just blinked slowly. She rested her chin on her hand.
"You are acting super sus right now, Seiji," Camie sighed.
Nagamasa stopped at the end of the row. He smiled gently, trying to keep the peace between the loud students.
"Camie does have a point, Seiji," Nagamasa said politely, walking back to his own desk. "The entire hero department faculty has been locked in the boardroom for almost three days straight. They even canceled the second-year outdoor combat training this afternoon. That never happens."
Seiji frowned. He didn't want to gossip, but he was actually very curious.
Shiketsu teachers were incredibly strict. They loved running practical training outside.
Canceling it meant something massive was happening behind those boardroom doors.
"I heard a rumor from the general education kids," a boy with four eyes chimed in from the corner of the room. "They said an outsider came to the school on Monday."
The whole class looked over at him.
"Who?" the scaled boy asked. "A famous hero?"
"I don't know," the four-eyed boy shrugged. "But the Gen-Ed kids said he is the one keeping the teachers in the boardroom. He is running some kind of seminar."
Seiji's eyes widened slightly.
Seiji muttered to himself. "Who has the authority to order our strict teachers around?"
"Probably someone totally lit," Camie smiled. She pulled a sparkly pink pen out of her bag and popped the cap off. "Anyway, I'm going to finish this worksheet so I can go home early."
The rest of the class groaned and grabbed their pencils, forced to start the massive assignment.
Seiji grabbed his own pen. He stared at the closed classroom door for a long moment.
He really wanted to know who was the guest.
*-*-*
Location: Shiketsu High School – Faculty Boardroom
SQUEAK.
SQUEAK.
Kaito dragged a blue dry-erase marker across the massive whiteboard.
He didn't draw small circles this time. He drew a huge, complicated grid covering the entire board. He stepped back and capped the marker.
The teachers sat at their long desks. They all looked incredibly tired, but their eyes were completely locked on the board.
Kaito picked up a stack of student files from the table.
"Erase the generic labels from your heads," Kaito told them plainly. "Those labels cause massive ego clashes. A teenager hates being told they are just the backup. We are going to categorize every single student by pure physics."
Kaito tapped the top of the grid on the whiteboard.
"Three columns," Kaito explained, pointing to the sections. "State of matter. Travel path. Environmental change. You will run every single quirk through these three questions."
Gensho crossed his scarred arms and frowned slightly. "State of matter?"
"Gas, solid, or energy," Kaito answered instantly. "Does the quirk create a physical wall? Does it shoot electricity? Does it release a cloud of mist? You figure that out first."
Kaito tapped the second column.
"Travel path," Kaito continued. "Does the attack shoot in a straight line? Does it expand in a wide circle? Does it orbit around the student?"
He moved to the third column.
"Environmental change," Kaito finished. "Does the quirk block light? Does it remove friction from the floor? Does it lower the temperature?"
The teachers wrote the three rules down in their notebooks. It was a very clinical, strict way to look at superpowers.
Kaito pulled a random file from the stack.
"Let's run a test," Kaito said. He looked directly at the combat instructor. "Gensho. You mentioned a student who generates thick smoke from his mouth. Map it on the grid right now."
Gensho sat up straight. He rubbed his chin and looked at the board.
"Okay," Gensho started, thinking out loud. "The smoke is a gas. The travel path... it expands outward in a huge circle from his body. The environmental change is that it completely blocks normal eyesight in the area."
Kaito nodded. "Good. Now, who do you normally pair him with?"
"I usually put him with our strongest close-quarters fighter," Gensho answered.
"No.." Kaito said flatly. "The smoke ruins his eyesight. He can't punch what he can't see. Look at the grid. What kind of quirk pierces a light-blocking gas?"
Rei raised her hand quickly. She tapped her pen on her desk.
"Thermal signatures," Rei answered, her eyes widening slightly. "Or a student who tracks vibrations through the ground with their feet."
"Yes," Kaito smiled, pointing at her. "You pair the kid with the smoke quirk with the vibration tracker. The smoke hides them from the enemy, but your vibration tracker can still locate everyone perfectly. You just built a flawless ambush squad. Nobody bumps into each other."
Gensho wrote the combination down rapidly. He finally understood the math behind the pairings.
Mr. Brave raised his hand next.
"I have a different problem," Mr. Brave said
.
Kaito gestured for him to speak.
"Speed differences," Mr. Brave explained. "We have kids who run incredibly fast. We also have kids with slow, defensive quirks. When I put them together, the fast kid just runs away and leaves the slow kid completely alone."
Kaito erased a small section of the grid. He drew a simple triangle on the board.
"Speed is just a moving path," Kaito said. "Make the slow, defensive student a stationary anchor."
TAP. TAP.
Kaito tapped the center of the triangle with his finger.
"The shield stays in the middle," Kaito told them. "The fast student uses them as a safe reload point. The fast kid runs out, hits the enemy, and runs right back behind the shield to catch their breath. You use the speed difference to your advantage."
Mr. Brave clicked his pen and wrote that down.
"That actually fixes the isolation problem completely," Mr. Brave muttered.
Rei looked up from her digital tablet.
"What about energy quirks?" Rei asked. "I have a girl who shoots raw electricity."
"Map it," Kaito challenged her immediately.
Rei looked at the board.
"State of matter is energy," Rei said confidently. "Travel path is a straight, erratic line. Environmental change... it conducts through liquids and metals."
"So who do you pair her with?" Kaito asked.
Rei thought about it for a few seconds.
"A student who secretes a highly conductive liquid," Rei answered. "Like sweat or saline. They flood the floor, and she shoots the puddle. It turns a single straight shot into a massive area attack."
"And who do you keep her away from?" Kaito pushed further.
"Concrete or asphalt manipulators," Rei realized instantly. "If someone raises a thick asphalt wall, it completely grounds out the electricity and ruins the attack."
Kaito nodded and set the blue marker down on the metal tray.
"You guys understand the rules," Kaito said.
Principal Kouzuki sat quietly at the head of the table. He looked at the huge stack of student files resting near Kaito's hands.
"Mr. Arisaka," Principal Kouzuki spoke up. "We have hundreds of students across the first and second years. Doing this strict physics calculation for every single possible combination will take days."
Kaito opened his black suitcase resting on a nearby chair. He pulled out a massive stack of blank grid papers.
SLIDE.
He pushed the heavy stack across the long wooden table.
"Hehe... Yes, it will," Kaito joked. "I am not going to do the pairings for you. I am just here to supervise while you guys map out every single student in your homeroom classes. It's your practice exercises for today."
"Ugh.." Gensho groaned good-naturedly and grabbed a handful of the blank papers.
"Let's do it.." Rei cracked her knuckles and grabbed a pen.
Mr. Brave picked his pen. "What could go wrong.."
And the rest of the teachers joined as well.
"Start with the second-year combat class," Kaito instructed, walking around the table to look over their shoulders. "Let's see what you come up with."
*-*-*
Location: Tokyo – David Shield's Laboratory
Time: Thursday | 07:00 PM
WHIRRR.
The laboratory was filled with tools, computer monitors, and heavy metal workbenches.
Melissa Shield sat on a tall metal stool. She wore a white lab coat and a huge smile on her face.
"This is absolutely amazing," Melissa whispered.
Kuro, the small black cat, stood on his hind legs right in the middle of the desk.
Without Izuku saying a single word, a small cloud of white smoke surrounded Kuro.
POOF.
The smoke cleared. Kuro was wearing a tiny, classic trench coat and a fedora hat.
He pulled a magnifying glass out of his pocket and inspected a loose screw on the table like a miniature detective.
"Woah.." Melissa gasped.
Before she could say anything, another cloud of smoke appeared.
POOF.
SWOOSH. SWOOSH. SWOOSH.
Now, Kuro was heavily muscled. He wore red boxing gloves and started throwing rapid punches at the air, acting like a heavyweight brawler.
POOF.
The final cloud cleared. Kuro settled into a tiny white lab coat. He wore small, thick glasses and held a tiny clipboard.
He pushed his glasses up his nose with a furry paw.
"Fascinating workspace you have here, Miss Shield nya.." Kuro said clearly.
"Oh my gosh!" Melissa laughed out loud. She clapped her hands together. "He can actually speak in this form! How does his quirk even do that?"
Izuku grinned and leaned against the workbench. He held his burned hero notebook.
"He can speak when in scholar forms," Izuku explained simply. "It all runs in my imagination. As long as I believe he can be a scientist, his body just biologically adapts to become one."
"That's correct nya..." Kuro cleared his throat, nodding in agreement.
POOF.
Kuro turned back into a normal black cat. He stretched his front legs, curled up near a warm soldering iron, and closed his eyes for a nap.
Melissa said, her blue eyes shining with pure excitement. "A quirk that runs entirely on pure thought for others to work. This is new."
Izuku stood back up and walked over to his own workspace.
"He is my partner," Izuku agreed.
Melissa rolled her stool over to his workbench.
She looked down at a small glass container resting near his tools.
Inside the container, thousands of tiny black metal pieces shifted and linked together. They looked like magnetic sand.
"Let's talk about your microbots, Izuku," Melissa said. "From your past tests. The magnetic linking system is great and you can form walls, bridges, and weapons."
Izuku grabbed a small metal remote control. He pushed a button.
CLICK.
The microbots inside the glass container suddenly shot upward.
They linked together in the air, forming a solid black pillar.
"Thanks," Izuku smiled. "I want to use them for rescue operations and villain capture."
Melissa asked.
"But you should know the downside of having countless of microbots right?" Melissa asked.
"Hmm?" Izuku.
"To build a bridge big enough to save a bus, you need millions of these microbots. You would have to carry huge industrial barrels with you on patrol. It is impossible to transport them on the street." She added.
"..."
"..."
"I didn't think about that." Izuku sighed. He set the remote down, and the black pillar collapsed back into sand. "I can't carry a warehouse on my back."
Melissa crossed her arms.
"We need to make them smaller," Melissa suggested. "A lot smaller. We push the manufacturing down to a microscopic level. If we make the individual bots microscopically small, you can fit millions of them inside a normal-sized backpack."
Izuku flipped his notebook to a blank page. He wrote down the idea.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Izuku said, tapping his pen against the paper. "But if we shrink the bots that much, the internal magnets get way weaker. To hold a solid shape at that tiny size, the bots need a massive, continuous wireless power charge. A normal battery will die in five seconds."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Izuku stopped tapping his pen. He looked across the room.
Resting on a reinforced metal desk in the corner was a thick glass case.
Inside the case was a glowing, circular metal cylinder. Bright blue light pulsed steadily from the center of the machine.
"Actually, Melissa," Izuku asked, pointing at the case. "I keep seeing the senior scientists testing that thing all week. What exactly is it?"
Melissa followed his finger. She smiled widely.
"It is a miniature arc reactor," Melissa explained proudly. "My father's team is studying it. It generates a massive, completely clean energy output. It can power this entire building for a month without overheating."
"..."
Izuku's eyes went wide. He walked over to the desk and stared at the glowing blue light.
He could feel the low, powerful energy vibrating through the glass.
"Who invented this?" Izuku asked. "I have never seen anything like it."
"You won't believe it. It's the Golden Manager." Melissa answered.
"..."
"Wow." Izuku.
*-*-*
Location: Shiketsu High School – Training Grounds
Time: 10:00 AM (Day 12 of the Contract)
CRASH.
A massive chunk of concrete shattered on the dirt field.
Kaito leaned against the metal railing of the observation deck. He looked down at the second-year combat class.
TWEET.
Gensho blew his whistle loudly. He walked right into the middle of the dust cloud.
"Stop!" Gensho yelled. He pointed directly at a female student. "You activated your quirk way too early! You pulled the glass shards before your partner moved out of the way. You completely ignored the distance!"
The girl bowed her head slightly.
"Sorry, Sensei," she apologized quickly.
"Reset the drill!" Gensho ordered, pointing at the starting line. "Stick to your point. Calculate the distance before you fire. Go again!"
Across the field, Rei was running the rescue drills.
A male student blasted a heavy rock across the dirt.
Rei immediately walked over with a yellow measuring tape. She checked the exact distance of the blast.
"Ten point two meters," Rei announced. "You went over the limit. You fail this round. Start over."
Up on the deck, Kaito nodded. Principal Kouzuki stood right next to him, watching the instructors.
"They dropped the old teaching habits completely," Kaito said casually.
Kouzuki adjusted his peaked hat.
"The students still have a long way to go before the exam," Kouzuki replied calmly. "But the faculty finally understands your system now."
*-*-*
Location: Shiketsu High School – Front Gates
Time: 04:00 PM (Day 14)
The late afternoon sun shined over the heavy stone walls of the campus.
Kaito stood near the front gates holding a small black suitcase. The two-week contract was officially done.
Principal Kouzuki, Gensho, Rei, Mr. Brave and the rest of the teaching personell stood together near the paved road to see him off.
"The final simulation scores this morning looked great," Principal Kouzuki said proudly. "These guys know exactly how to use the Apex Syllabus."
"I just did, what I had to do." Kaito told him, shaking the Principal's hand.
Gensho stepped forward and offered his hand. Kaito shook it firmly.
"I was definitely skeptical on the first day," Gensho admitted bluntly. "But you're really great Golden Manager."
Rei held her digital tablet against her chest and smiled.
"I really want to see how the other schools react when our students dominate this year.," Rei said.
Principal Kouzuki looked down the road.
He kept his strict, intimidating posture, but a small smirk appeared on his face. "Thank you Mr. Arisaka."
Kaito smiled and picked up his suitcase.
"Good luck," Kaito said warmly. "Your school is going to do great."
...
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(9 Advanced Chapters)