Chapter 22: Lessons
"That must've been awful!" Inko cried, face locked in horror as she listened to Izuku trail off, a brittle smile floating over his face.
"It's fine. Happened a long time ago." Izuku sighed as he leaned on the backrest, chest heaving up and down in a rhythmic pattern as his eyes bored holes into the ceiling. "Got over it and got my revenge. Damned dragon and his sick experiments."
He would never forget Seath. From what little he gained from observing the Duke's Archives, the dragon was a madman hellbent on experimenting on things that would leave the majority of people on the world horrified and slack-jawed.
Shaking his head from the depressing and enraging thoughts, Izuku looked over at his mother and gave the woman a genuine smile. One that wouldn't be dared called plastic for how much love he put into the simple expression.
However, the look on his face only gave rise to a single thought within the mother's worried mind.
'My poor baby.'
Inko approached the teen and gave the suffering boy a hug, eyes threatening to drip a few tears at the heart-wrenching moment the two had.
They stayed like that for a few moments, savoring the warmth the two gave each other. One, a broken man who's seen too much shit in his long, long life, and another a heartbroken mother who lost everything dear to her in just a single moment without her ever being there.
But at least with this, the mother had peace knowing the one she lost came back. As for Izuku, he just wanted peace until the end of his life.
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Izuku yawned as he slowly walked towards the school.
The day started like any other, he woke up, had breakfast cooked for him by his mother, and immediately got ready for school. It was routine at this point, save for the fact that this was the second day of school.
The school grounds were void of students, except for those hurrying for their classrooms. The huge walls surrounding the school were tall enough to reduce any thought of invasion to naught, the imposing sight making the school look like a well-defended fortress.
"Anor Londo still wins." No matter how much Izuku wanted to hate the place, he still had to give credit where credit was due. Anor Londo was way bigger than U.A. and their defenses were top notch.
Just ask those Greatbow Silver Knights. He didn't know how many times he died to them, but he was sure that just remembering them was enough to give him a migraine.
He wished them a happy life in the deepest pits of hell. Fuck them.
Entering the school, Izuku notices the halls were still full of students. Not as much during lunch time, but still enough to somewhat crowd the pathways.
Weaving through the flowing river of students, Izuku ignored the various stares and glances he got, determined to get to his classroom by the time classes start.
Two sets of stairs later, Izuku found himself standing in front of the door that led to his classroom, the giant slab of metal barring him from seeing the inside. Not wasting any time, Izuku stepped forward and the door automatically slid open, the doorknob proving useless as of now.
Probably tweaked to be automated for the students for accessibility.
"Midoriya, bro. Hurry up, can't let Aizawa catch you out of your seat." Eijiro was the first to greet him, already seated on his desk. Not being disagreeable, Izuku nodded and quickly made his way to the desk just behind Bakugo who kept on staring at him with a pensive look.
He also noticed that he was the last student to enter the room, seeing that the rest of his classmates were already seated in their own designated seats. Probably got traumatized by the black-themed teacher yesterday.
Aizawa be grinding for logic in an illogical world. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
A brief moment later and Izuku slowly, but surely, soundlessly plopped his ass on his designated desk's chair. At that exact point, the door opened and in came Aizawa with bags so large under his eyes, a person would think his eyelids went hiking through a monster infested forest without rest.
"Good morning, class, and I see you're all seated. Good." Aizawa gave the class an appreciative nod. It was at this moment that Izuku noticed the folders of paper Aizawa was bringing along with his exhausted bum. "Alright, before we start our homeroom, a brief announcement. Friday is when we'll be conducting the homeroom elections. We'll be conducting at the same time as 1-B. More details will be given after election. Anyway, let's start."
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"My brain… It hurts…" Denki groaned as his face met the desk with a loud thud. On his left, Kyoka grinned smugly while her ear jacks floated around her like slithering snakes.
"Heh, math too hard for you, spark plug?" Denki turned his head to face Kyoka and gave her the deadest of all deadpans in the entire world.
"Dudette, why you gotta be like this?" Jirou's response was a grin and poked Denki's forehead with a single jack.
Meanwhile, to Denki's right, Mina's romance senses were tingling, a bright but teasing grin plastered on her face as she stared at the two. Eijiro looked at the pink-themed girl for a single moment, before sending his condolences to the two who were about to suffer from the acid girl's teasing in the near future.
"Alright, you will all be receiving the results of your first quiz on our next meeting. Enjoy your lunch, class." Their math teacher, a pro hero going by the alias of Ectoplasm, bid them adieu and left the class in stride with his giant grin in view, his cream-colored trench coat billowing as he moved.
All at once, the class got up as if it was rehearsed and made their way for the door.
"Wait! Form a single line, everybody!" Tenya roared as he swiftly raced for the door and stood just beside it. "We cannot insult our school with such a mess of students' bodies roaming the hall! It is inexcusable with as high a profile such as ours!"
"Bruh, chillax." The midget known as Mineta to the class, nearly palmed his face before deciding that ogling some of his female classmates was better. This got him some disgusted looks, but overall, the victims of his lecherous stare did nothing to combat the perverted intentions of the tiny teen.
"Yeah, what he said." Denki agreed with the midget and pointed at the blue-haired teen. "It's lunch time. We only have an hour to eat and relax before hero studies."
"You mean prepare." Eijiro chimed up from behind him, causing the electric blond to scratch the back of his head.
"Yeah, what he said." Tenya's only action was to glare at him, but when he saw the rest of his classmates agreeing with the two, he sighed then nodded.
"Fine." Tenya grumbled, not happy at the result, but at least his classmates knew when to put their foot down.
"Anyway, let's hurry." Mina grimaced when she heard her belly rumble. "Math makes me hungry."
"Ooh! Didn't UA have Lunch Rush as the cook in the cafeteria?" The floating set of clothes, Toru Hagakure as she introduced herself earlier, giggled as her sleeve waved around the air.
The room went silent, so quiet that if a pin dropped from the other end of the room, a person could hear it clearly. Nobody moved for a few moments, but a single cough was enough to shake them out of their stupor and all hell broke loose.
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"Not gonna lie, that was some good shit." Denki was the one who said that as he burped loudly, not caring about how disgusting it was to hear for his other classmates, while he patted his belly.
"You said it, bro." Eijiro agreed with him, his hand also patting his belly like an unborn son was lurking within its far corners, not like he could have one being an XY chromosome type of guy.
"Dude, you're gross." Kyoka pinched her nose while swiping the smell away with her free hand.
"Eijiro, horn buddy. Back away from the blond before he contaminates you with burp-itis." Mina protectively shielded Eijiro, who was chuckling to himself at the ridiculous scene.
"Come on, horn buddy. Lighten up." Eijiro laughed as he patted the head of the acid-theme teen, only to burp a moment later. Mina twisted her head and stare at horror at Eijiro's face, before quickly retreating and hiding behind Izuku.
"Midori! Help! They're infecting everybody!" Mina mock-cried, fake crocodile tears dripping down her eyes. Izuku was fully aware they were just a product of her quirk in action, as evidenced by the color.
"Hm.. I dunno…" Izuku hummed, and smirked at the pinkette, before letting out the mother of all burps. Right directly at her face.
"Oof… That's gotta stink." Kyoka cringed as she stared at the imaginary toxic loud wafting around the pinkette's head. Said pinkette stood in shock and horror, before it turned into immediate disgust.
"DUDE!" Mina shrieked and bolted for the door to their classroom, all the while Izuku cackled like a madman.
"Bro, not gonna lie, that was kinda harsh." Eijiro winced and followed Mina, face sculpted into one of determination. Denki also favored Eijiro in this and followed suit, along with Kyoka and Toru.
"Bruh, a lecher I may be, but damn, was that disgusting." Even Mineta was cringing at the display as he walked over to the classroom.
The rest of the class then followed suit, all the while sometimes glaring or side-eyeing Izuku for what he did. Meanwhile, Izuku was just confused.
"What'd I do? That was practically harmless." Izuku frowned, his cackles already dead the moment Mina rushed for the classroom. Not a single person talked to him about that stunt. Even Ochako, the brunette that he saved in the Entrance Exam, passed him by with a torn expression on her face.
"No, seriously, what'd I do?"
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The class was quiet as they awaited the teacher for their hero studies subject, Mina and the gang already forgiving Izuku for the stunt he pulled earlier.
With how forthcoming and honest the white-haired teen was, there was no chance in hell that they wouldn't forgive the teen. It was a harmless mistake, and as future heroes, they can't let it cloud the rest of their interactions because one was sore about a slight incident of mischief.
As the clock ticked by, each second passing causing them unrest, sweat poured down some of the students' faces as their heart rate sped up.
Their encounter with Aizawa was enough to paint a picture on what to expect with the rest of their years in this school. Would they all be like hard asses like Aizawa? The general studies teachers didn't seem that harsh.
Sure, there was that one incident where most of the male students nearly fainted at just how… provocative Midnight was, with some of them questioning as to whether or not she really fits in a school setting, but that was a one-off thing.
Unlike Aizawa who made if not most, all of the students, to walk on eggshells when he's in the room.
As time continued to pass, some were already relying on their gained habits, with some bouncing their legs in place, or even biting their nails.
Even Tenya, the stone-faced, stickler to the rules that he was, couldn't help but try to shake off the feeling of dread that sunk deep into his heart.
Tick tock, the clock continued. Tick tock, the room portrayed silence.
Tick tock, the door burst open.
"I AM HERE! COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"