Himiko's gaze turned instantly cold at his attitude.
Still, perhaps I was the one being inconsiderate. After all, he had been a victim in that incident at Tatooin a year ago. It was my fault for bringing up something tied to a traumatic event so publicly.
"...Forgive me. That was thoughtless of me. Please accept my apologies for the rudeness."
"Shut up. I'll kill you, you damn midget."
My apology was met with a death threat.
Well now. He was certainly a rough one. Based on his reaction and what the Force was telling me, his hostility wasn't just a defense mechanism for trauma—it was his default state.
His presence, too, hovered dangerously close to the Dark Side. Arrogance and pride, perhaps?
I began to worry about the state of this school. I suppose the entrance exam can't fully vet a student's inner world, but still...
"If you think you can," I replied calmly.
If I backed down entirely here, I was worried Himiko would step in and do something drastic, so I felt it best to give him a firm answer.
He scowled at me with even more intensity, but before he could speak, Iida jumped in to intervene.
The two immediately spiraled into a heated argument. As I'd suspected, Iida was earnest to a fault—Anakin might have even called him "Jedi-like." To someone like him, the boy in front of me was likely an intolerable existence. They were oil and water.
Though, I felt Iida's lecture was a bit off the mark. I agreed that putting one's feet on the desk was poor form, but bringing up the "senior students who built the desks" felt like a reach...
"They're so friendly, aren't they?"
"I think it's actually the opposite..." I replied to Himiko, who was watching the scene with strange amusement. I truly wondered how she perceived the world sometimes.
During the chaos, more students arrived. I noticed a boy who had also been involved in that Tatooin incident a year ago—the one who had jumped in to help the blonde boy.
Midoriya. I'd keep that name in mind. Someone with his initiative was a natural fit for this place, though I hadn't expected us to be in the same class.
He was currently flustered, talking to a girl who had just arrived. He seemed painfully unaccustomed to talking to women, though the girl didn't seem to mind at all...
"If you're here to play at being friends, go somewhere else."
A low, masculine voice sliced through the chatter of the classroom. At the front of the room, a man with heavy stubble lay on the floor inside a sleeping bag.
He shuffled into the bewildered classroom, announced that he was our homeroom teacher, and told us to put on our gym uniforms and head to the grounds. Then, he vanished as quickly as he'd appeared. His dismissal of the class as "lacking rationality" made him look like anything but a hero.
However, the teachers at this school were all Pro Heroes. This man, Shota Aizawa, was no exception.
(So that is the Erasure Hero, Eraser Head.)
He wasn't a household name, but I had researched every faculty member the moment I passed the exam. Generally referred to as an "underground hero," he avoided the media and kept his activities private. I hadn't been able to find much on his personality, which had made me uneasy—but it seemed my worries were for naught.
"...Besides Riha-chan, I've never seen someone with a soul that sparkles like that. Except maybe my Dear Papa," Himiko whispered.
I ignored her strange phrasing.
The presence I felt from Eraser Head was situated deep within the Light Side. Someone that far into the Light could be trusted implicitly. In fact, he might be someone I could eventually talk to about the Force. Given his Quirk, he would likely be the first to notice my "abnormality" anyway.
Satisfied that he was a good man, I turned to my still-confused classmates.
"I understand the confusion, but we should follow his instructions. I doubt a teacher at this school would give a command without purpose."
Iida and a few others voiced their agreement, and we made our way to the locker rooms.
"Ribbit... Um, do you have a moment?"
"Of course. You are...?"
"Ribbit. Tsuyu Asui. But please, call me Tsu."
"I am Kotoha Masue. A pleasure."
In the locker room, as I was pulling off my uniform to change, a girl approached me. I turned to see a girl with a frog-like appearance looking at me with worried eyes.