BONUS CHAPTER: 700PS
This is short chapter as I needed to highlight this part, but if i continued it to the mock battles, it would be too long. Hence the short chapter.
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One Day Later:
"EVERYBODY HANDS UP!!"
The classroom door exploded open as Present Mic struck disco pose in the doorway.
"LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!" he screamed in perfect and incredibly loud English.
"WHO IS READY TO LEARN ABOUT RELATIVE PRONOUNS AND SUBORDINATE CLAUSES?!"
The entire class stared at him.
Jiro looked like she might actually cry from the volume alone.
Akira, sitting in his preferred spot in the back corner near the window, sighed and slumped forward onto his desk. He buried his face in his crossed arms.
Nia was curled up inside his modified bag — he'd spent an evening adding cushions and ventilation to turn it into a comfortable cat carrier.
"Can't he speak like a normal human being?" Akira muttered into his sleeve. "It's 8:30 AM."
Momo, who was sitting next to him, turned. She poked Akira's arm with the end of her pen.
"Akira," she whispered, trying to sound stern but unable to completely hide her amusement. "Sit up properly. Shouldn't you be taking notes? This material is definitely going to appear on the exams."
Akira lifted his head just enough to look at the board where Present Mic was already writing example sentences in aggressively neat handwriting: 'The hero whom I respect is cool' and 'The villain whose quirk is scary got arrested.'
"I already know English," Akira said, his tone suggesting this should be obvious. "Fluently, actually."
"How?" she asked, genuinely impressed. "Did you have a private tutor? The Yaoyorozu family hired native speakers for my English education, but it took me a while to master it."
Akira thought back to his previous life. It was the only language he knew, along with a little Spanish.
"I used to watch a lot of English movies when I was younger. Action films, mostly. The classics. And I played a lot of online video games with international players."
He smirked.
"You learn vocabulary incredibly fast when you're trying to coordinate strategies with teammates. Nothing motivates learning like a 12-year-old from halfway across the world insulting your skills."
"Wow," Momo blinked. "I didn't know that about you. Gaming really is educational."
"Now you do," Akira settled back down onto his desk. "So feel free to wake me up when he stops treating education like a rave concert."
"Hehe," Momo laughed softly, a delicate sound that made a few nearby students glance over. "No promises on that."
She turned back to her notebook.
***
The morning dragged on. Present Mic yelled enthusiastically about grammar, treating prepositions like special moves. Ectoplasm materialized clones to help explain mathematical concepts from multiple angles simultaneously, terrifying Sero, who thought he was being surrounded.
Cementoss lectured about modern literature with surprising passion for someone made partially of concrete.
It was all surprisingly... normal. Almost disappointingly so.
Finally, the lunch bell rang.
DING-DONG-DANG-DONG.
"Food!" Kaminari cheered. "I'm starving!"
"Lunch Rush's cuisine is legendary," Iida stated, adjusting his glasses. "We must consume optimal nutrients!"
Momo stood up, gathering her color-coded notebooks and arranging them neatly. Akira stretched, his back making several concerning cracking sounds as he worked out the stiffness from slouching all morning.
"Hungry?" he asked the cat.
"Always," Nia mumbled sleepily from inside the bag, one golden eye opening briefly. "Did you bring the premium stuff?"
"I did," Akira confirmed.
"Hey! Yaoyorozu-san! Akira!"
A school uniform that appeared to be floating waved at them from near the door.
Toru bounced over to their desks, rushing to them.
"Hi, Toru," Akira nodded in greeting, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Hi, Nia!" Toru chirped enthusiastically, leaning down to peek into the bag.
Nia's head popped out, her ears perking up. "Hi, Toru!"
Toru reached into her uniform pocket and pulled out a wrapped strawberry hard candy. She unwrapped it carefully and offered it to the small cat.
"Tribute for the queen!" Toru declared proudly.
"Waaaa! Thank you!" Nia crunched the candy happily, the sound of sugar cracking between small teeth.
"You're very welcome," Toru laughed. She then turned her attention to Momo and Akira, gesturing toward a small group of girls waiting patiently by the classroom door.
Mina stood out immediately with her pink skin and small horns, practically bouncing in place. Kyoka Jiro leaned against the wall, her earphone jacks swaying slightly, looking cool and detached. Asui waited calmly, her large eyes blinking slowly in that distinctly frog-like way.
"Would you two like to join us for lunch?" Toru asked. "We're forming an official lunch table group. We're calling it the 'Cool Girls' table. Plus Akira, obviously."
Momo looked at the group of girls, then back at Toru.
She glanced at Akira uncertainly.
Akira shrugged, completely unbothered. "Free candy for the cat? I'm definitely in."
He gave Momo a small nod. Go on. This is good for you. Socialize with people your own age.
She stared back and gave him the look that said, Don't act like that, you also never made friends your age.
Akira then gave her the look that said, See! That's a bigger reason to go.
Momo laughed out, clapping her hands.
"Sure," Momo said, her voice carrying enthusiasm. "We would absolutely love to join you."
They walked out together, joining the small group of girls and merging into the larger stream of students flowing toward the cafeteria.
Conversations overlapped, laughter echoed off the hallway walls, and somewhere in the distance, they could already smell the legendary cooking of Lunch Rush drifting through the air.
***
The Cafeteria:
The cafeteria was massive, a glass-walled hall filled with long tables and the roar of hundreds of hungry teenagers.
Akira, Momo, and the girls claimed a table near the staircase. Akira sat at the end, giving himself a bit of space, while Nia sat on the table (on a napkin, per Momo's insistence on hygiene).
"So!" Mina started, leaning over her tray of curry. "I have to ask. Akira, right?"
"That's the name," Akira said, opening a container of high-grade sashimi for Nia.
"1,150 points," Mina said, her eyes wide. "Like... seriously? How? Did you nuke the city?"
"Basically," Akira shrugged, taking a bite of his rice. "I used constructs. Feathers. Lots of them."
"That's insane," Jiro commented, twirling her earphone jack. "I barely scraped by with my soundwaves. And you just... deleted the robots?"
"Efficiency," Akira said. "Why punch one robot when you can stab fifty at the same time?"
"Scary," Tsuyu said bluntly. "You're scary, ribbit."
"I get that a lot," Akira admitted.
"And the cat?" Mina pointed her spoon at Nia, who was happily munching on tuna. "She talks. Like, actually talks. Is that your quirk? Or hers?"
"Hers," Akira said. "It's called Evolution."
"I am Nia!" the cat announced, lifting her head. "I am the Boss of this table. You may pet me."
"Omigosh!" Mina squealed. "Can I?"
"One pet," Nia granted graciously. "Make it count."
As Mina fawned over the cat, Momo watched them with a soft smile. She looked at Akira.
"You're surprisingly good at this," she whispered.
"Good at what?"
"Being... normal."
Akira snorted. "I'm feeding raw fish to a talking cat in a superhero school cafeteria while wearing a yukata that costs more than my car. Nothing about this is normal."
"Fair point," Momo laughed.
This is not bad, Akira thought as Nia purred contentedly on the table, a surprisingly decent day. No villains. No trauma. Just curry and bad jokes.
He could get used to this.
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Yeah yeah, I know a short chapter, but it was for a reason. To highllight Akira and Momo both, coming out of there shells and trying to make friends.
Hope you liked it.
Plus if you want, you can read up to 9+(10 will be up soon) advanced chapters and support me you can alway join my P@treaon. (Just search up Joe_Mama p@treon on google.)