MHA Chaos' Whims Chapter 34: Second Day (Patreon)

“You really think we’ll be doing something like that again?”

“You heard what that hobo looking guy we got for homeroom said and we got All Might for a teacher too. Wouldn’t it be a little weird if we didn’t do anything crazy?”

“You do have a point, but I don’t know. I was kind of hoping we’d have a break after a test like that.”

I’d been in a lot of, uncomfortable, embarrassing, questionable -take your pick really- situations in my life. Surprise surprise, the frequency of those kinds of situations shot up ever since I met and grew close to Himiko. Not a complaint really. Whatever my gripes about those situations, she kept things interesting and prevented me from falling completely into a monotonous routine of absolutely nothing but training and preparing.

No matter how much I came to enjoy all the hard work and what came out it, I was still just a man.

And Himiko, very intentionally, was going out of her way to use that fact to put me in yet another questionable situation, that was a complete first.

“What do you think?” Himiko asked, innocently looking back at me, Uraraka doing the same.

“U.A is the top hero school for a reason. They’ll probably throw challenging stuff at us all year, but it won’t be anything impossible to handle.” I said, Iron Mind doing a whole lot for me here. “I’m sure none of us thought we’d be going up against giant machines before the first day, but we still passed and got in. Just keep doing your best and you’ll be fine.”

That got Uraraka’s spirits up, her hair bobbing as she nodded and hummed along. “You’re right.”

Of course, she, and hopefully everyone else on the speeding train, was unaware of Himiko’s subtle antics.

With morning rush not quite in full effect but well on its way towards those peak hours, the car we were in was packed with students and people on their way to work. Unable to find any seats, the three of us ended up standing near up near one of the doors, facing it in anticipation of our stop.

Himiko, easily able to make friends as always, didn’t have much trouble getting Uraraka to forget about her earlier embarrassment once she stopped with her more perverted antics. With me standing just behind her, Himiko sure to leave as little space as possible without fully drawing attention, she poked at me.

Innocent at first but just as easily turning not so innocent whenever she felt like it.

Last night had opened up a whole other can of touchiness, hadn’t it?

XOXO

As a trait, Iron Mind was always active.

Putting the finishing touches on my notes, Midnight reiterating the more important points of her lecture, I found my eyes drifting as I fought off a yawn.

That aspect is why I favored traits and skills, but Iron Mind was a bit of interesting case. It didn’t just allow me better control over my reactions on the emotional side of things but things like exhaustion, sleepiness, and even pain could fall to the back of my mind. But, as I’ve come to notice, it was far easier to feel all those things when I didn’t have any particular goal in mind or something to focus on.

My eyes fell on Himiko at the front of class with Tsu. Their pair had upgraded to a small friend group, the two talking with a floating uniform at the table behind Tsu. The invisible girl: Hagakure I think her name was. And, far more concerning, Aoyama, the blonde doing more listening than talking.

Between the drawback of his quirk and how little screen time he got, he fell within the side character category in those other memories. But between why he was at this school and who he was reporting to? That made him far more important than most in that category.

I wasn’t actually too concerned at the moment. Himiko wouldn’t say anything and I wasn’t planning on showing off much beyond my quirk and martial arts up until the USJ stuff. How much of a role he played in getting any incident like that to happen was a bit up in the air, but he was at the very least funneling information on the rest of us.

That worked out for me; I shouldn’t stand out, those not in the know seeing me as nothing more than a high performing student with a decent quirk.

Still, by its very nature, it was off putting to see Himiko and Tsu talking with a spy.

Either way, just watching them was enough for the building weight of exhaustion, the burn at my eyes, and the beginnings of a yawn, to all stop, my mind completely clearing. Himiko was lucky. We’d both stayed up way longer than we should’ve but the healing she got from drinking my blood, something I’d finally told her about, came at no cost to her. With how much blood she’d drained from me, my quirk had been working overtime that whole night too.

Replenishing blood didn’t compare to healing damage to an organ but that was a lot of lost blood before Himiko finally decided she had her fill. No idea what her body did with all that blood.

Catching my eyes, she smiled at me, waving along with Tsu. I think that peaked Hagakure’s curiosity, her uniform facing my direction for a moment, but it was hard to be sure of anything about someone I couldn’t see.

Returning both, my eyes jumped over to the opposite side of the front row, specifically on Midoriya. After the Quirk Apprehension thing, Aizawa must’ve quickly caught on to the testy relationship between him and Bakugo, Midoriya moved up to the front row rather than left in the back next to Bakugo, now sitting with Iida beside him and Uraraka just behind them.

Probably for the best.

For, what must’ve been the 100th time today, I found my focus zeroing in on Iida.

It could be dangerous to change anything. I needed to focus on getting stronger. Prepare to get into U.A. I could and had fed myself a whole bunch of excuses, not even bothering with the news or the internet to try to keep track of what Stain would be up to. I should focus on schoolwork and the upcoming USJ thing; I could easily make that my newest excuse to keep avoiding the subject.

I held back a sigh. Maybe it was my talk with Himiko, but I was pretty sure without Iron Mind I wouldn’t have been able to focus on any of class today.

“Akaguro, do you mind if I compared our notes?” I turned to Yaoyorozu, nodding as I passed along the plain black binder I’d been writing in.

I think I was going to like U.A even setting aside the hero stuff. I was used to teachers doing everything they could to fill out class time even if that meant busy work but with Midnight doing nothing other than reiterating stuff at the moment, she didn’t mind us talking or do things like this so long as we weren’t actively being a distraction or full on slacking off with nothing to show for it.

“It looks like we focused on a few different points at times.” Yaoyorozu said idly, in the middle of adding to the pages of the journal she’d been writing in. “But this is really thorough.”

“Same to you.” The pages of her journal that I got a glimpse into were all kept neat and organized but packed with stuff. After she was done, I might do a bit of comparison myself.

Focused on her writing, Yaoyorozu’s pen jumped over to my paper, adding in a few bullet points from her own.

Or maybe not.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She said, stopping once she realized once she was doing, an apologetic smile forming. “Since I was using your notes, I thought I’d transfer over what I thought were important to them.”

Early on, according to those other memories, confident know it all might’ve been a title that could be loosely attached to her. I could see why that might’ve been. Whether it be assuming the both of us would make it into U.A, pointing out things that she herself thought were obvious, and now this.

“You’re fine.” I assured her. I wasn’t about to complain about her handling something I was planning to do in the first place.

Brrrring!

And that was the bell for lunch. There hadn’t been any need for it with yesterday being a short day, so it should be interesting to see how the class broke up for it.

XOXO

Bakugo, the one who used Dark Shadow, Todoroki and a few select others from class were keeping to themselves, scattered throughout the nosily packed cafeteria. On the first floor and massive compared to one at my previous school, the place had plenty of separated fancy tables that were more like restaurant booths, some vending machines, and just about any food someone could want provided by and made cheap by the quirk of the pro hero known as Lunch Rush.

I wasn’t sure whether or not I should be questioning the logistics there but I’m sure U.A did everything to be sure any quirk prepared food met typical health standards.

Overall, groups were still coming along, Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka one of the few consistent trios despite it only being the second day. I wasn’t surprised to see that Kirishima had a table with a few of the guys in class.

I wasn’t able to pick out everyone else among all the other students but it’s not it would’ve mattered that much, my seat already decided. Or rather, our seats, Yaoyorozu beside me, both of us having followed the rest of the class after finishing up with the last minute addition to our notes.

“Finally came down to eat, nerds?” Himiko asked as the two of us approached, dropping the hand she had been waving us over with. She on the same side of a booth as Tsu, the invisible girl across from them.

“Can’t be one on an empty stomach.” I said while placing down my tray of food and sliding in beside Himiko. “Hagakure, right? I’m Akaguro Katsuya, it’s nice to meet you.” I added in, throwing in a nod towards their new friend. Yaoyorozu introduced herself too, Hagakure returning the introductions cheerfully.

It looked like Aoyama didn’t join them for lunch.

“Our next class is with All Might. Ribbit.” Tsu pointed out as we were all eating. “Do you guys think we’ll getting another lecture and bookwork?”

“I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to imagine the number one hero doing something ordinary after what our bummy looking homeroom teacher did.” Himiko said, drawing a faint snort from me. Was she ever going to call Aizawa by name or was that now his permanent title as far as she was concerned?

“It’s not appropriate to refer to one of our teachers that way.” Yaoyorozu said. “But as far as I’m aware this is All Might’s first year teaching. He could just as likely keep to a more standardized curriculum as he is to break it. The number one hero is bound to have his own way of doing things.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.” I added my own two cents, reaching around Himiko and bringing in another spoonful from my bowl only to have it stolen by her. We only met him very briefly during the half day and expectations were through the roof, anxiety not far behind.

The expected effect of being the students of the Symbol of Peace.

“Forget that.” Hagakure cut in, a sleeve shooting out across the table, a finger likely pointed straight at me. “You guys are dating right? You have to be.”

Himiko, in the middle of trying to steal another spoonful of my food despite her own food right in front of her, was somewhat leaning over me. Rather than answering with words, Himiko straight up moved over into my lap, hands wrapping around my neck as she pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“Yeah.” I answered for us, not bothering to really focus up to keep my embarrassment at bay. I wasn’t complaining about it or anything, but I was definitely going to have to get used to this whole new level of public affection.

A cough that turned into something of a croak came from our side. Himiko instantly abandoned my lap to pat Tsu’s back.

…ah shit. She had that crush on me, didn’t she? Oh well. I felt a little bad about it, but it was just something she’d have to get over.

XOXO

“I AM HERE.” Far from a yell, yet loud enough to carry across the entire classroom, a distinct voice silenced the class instantly, Yaoyorozu and I turning to look towards the front. “Entering through the door like a hero.”

Nearly justifying the size of U.A’s doors all on his own, his giant form towering over each and every person present, All Might hung off the sides of the classroom door, cape somehow fluttering along with a breeze that didn’t exist. Big grin in place, his blonde hair in the shape of those spikes that added to his stature, and his classic costume showing off muscle that most could only dream of building up, All Might began a slow exaggerated march up to the podium in front of the board.

If anyone else entered the way he did, it would’ve come off as odd but nothing other than awe and excitement swept across the classroom.

And, as his gaze picked through us, I found myself sitting a little straighter. I thought it’d be no different than impossibly crossing paths with a celebrity you’d only seen on TV or merchandise sold of, but there really was no denying it when face to face with the man himself.

All Might had an aura about him no other teacher could manage, be they strict or friendly.

“Welcome to the most important class at U.A High. You can think of it as heroing 101.” He declared. “Here you’ll learn the basics of being a hero and what it means to be a pro. Today’s training will pull no punches.” He managed to stand even taller, fists at his sides. “We’ll be starting with battle training!”

Just like I thought; we were jumping straight into battle trials.

XOXO

(A/N: And back to business as usual. For those looking forward to it, don't worry, Toga will get her time to see more of what Katsu can do alongside us getting her P.O.V. on things. For now its time to finish up tackling the busy first week of U.A.

On a side note, I can't recall a single MHA gacha story that bothered trying to do much with Aoyama. Not to say I'm going to be that guy or anything but I don't see him going 100% ignored here. Aoyama's kind of the odd guy out early on for obvious reasons but friendly old Toga might not let things stay that way completely.

Nothing I hate more in the writing process than editing but I need to get back to it if I want to post again. See you all in the next one!)