Chapter 31: An Impostor Among Heroes
|A month later…|
…
-Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep-
As the sound of a rather irritating alarm began filling the room, Suzaku's eyes snapped open while a pissed-off expression found its way to his face.
"Curse you, creator of alarms…"
As he muttered that, he sat on his bed and began massaging his face, letting out a long groan as he did so.
He felt like shit.
But that was a thing of every morning. So, he didn't mind it too much.
"... So today is the day, huh?" He asked under his breath. Finally realizing after waking up that today the classes started.
In other words, today was his first day of school at UA.
'Can't say I feel like going'' He thought, not wanting to leave the comfort and warmth of his beautiful king-sized bed.
Nevertheless, after staring at the air for several minutes while contemplating what to do, he stood up and went to prepare himself for his first day of school. Ignoring the voices in his head that said 'skip it' again and again.
After putting on his uniform, and splashing his face with some water to clean it, Suzaku went to the kitchen to prepare himself a good breakfast to face the long day of school that awaited him.
A good cup of coffee and an omelet were what he felt like having… Or rather, those were the only things he could think of at the moment.
Truthfully, Suzaku was never much of a cook.
-Yawn…-
As he waited for the water to finish boiling while turning the omelet whenever it was necessary, Suzaku observed his new home, getting lost in his thoughts as he did so.
'To think that I would become independent at such an early age… I admit it has its downsides, but it's still a relief to have a house to call my own…' He thought, glancing at his living room, and the several pieces of furniture that now adorned what used to be a faintly empty room a month ago.
Why was he living alone all of a sudden, you ask?
The reason came from his enrollment at UA.
He and his family had lived in a city too far away from Musutafu, which was where UA was located. As such, if Suzaku wanted to study there, having a residency in the aforementioned city became a necessity.
However, since his parents couldn't leave their original house abandoned, initially they thought of having only one of them move with Suzaku to accompany him while the other stayed to take care of their house.
Other options like taking turns between each other to visit Suzaku every week were also considered. However, it was when the old man Tatsuo intervened, vouching for Suzaku's capacity to take care of himself, that his parents actually ended up agreeing with the idea of him becoming independent.
That, and the fact that both wanted Suzaku to learn to live alone since it was only a matter of time before he would become independent for one or another reason. He wasn't going to live with them forever, after all.
Thus, it was better for him to learn the difficulties of living alone now, when he was still a kid and they were still able to support him in case of any difficulties so that he could prepare for when he grew up.
Of course, the fact that Suzaku also had a lot of money saved up to pay for rent helped greatly with cementing their decision.
As for where that money came from?
Well, like many illegal businesses, underground fighting was pretty profitable for those involved, and since Suzaku was fighting there constantly for an entire year, winning every single fight while having his money withheld by Tastuo to avoid having Suzaku waste too much of it, he ended up saving up quite a lot by the time the moment to find a new residency came.
Of course, not enough to live like a waste for the rest of his life. Otherwise, he wouldn't even consider going to UA in the first place.
Still, it had allowed him to pay the rent quite a lot of months in advance, along with buying furniture for the place, and to buy his precious king-sized bed.
Since then, he began living alone in his new apartment. This one's proximity to UA was one of the reasons he had chosen it among the rest.
And while he admitted that being independent was slightly lonely, the constant calls from his parents every day along with the periodical visits of his master helped ease that feeling quite a lot.
Too much, if he was honest.
"Alright, looks good enough" Once his omelet was ready, and his cup of coffee filled, Suzaku nodded his head before he walked to the sofa to begin digging in.
Because, like the degenerate that he was, of course he couldn't eat on a table like a normal person.
-Burp-
A few minutes later, he was finally done. Letting out a burp, and going to the bathroom to clean his teeth after eating, as it should be done and not the other way around.
After he was done with that, he picked up his backpack and opened his door to leave the apartment. Ready to face his first day at school like a champion.
"I'm off!"
On the way out, however, he noticed that one of his neighbors was also leaving their apartment at the moment. A young teenager who seemed to be around the same age with green messy hair, and some freckles on his face. Causing Suzaku to look at him for a second, before realizing he had been spotted as well.
"Eh, a new neighbor?" When the teen noticed him, he asked confusedly upon realizing that Suzaku was coming from the apartment next to them.
And why wouldn't he? Suzaku hadn't been exactly one to leave his apartment very much during his month living there. Thus, he barely interacted with his neighbors during all that time.
And with the apartment where the teenager was living even less. So, it wasn't a surprise that his young neighbor didn't even know he had moved in.
It could be more surprising that he knew.
"Yo, I'm Suzaku" Our dear protagonist said as he closed the door behind him. Waving at his neighbor with a friendly smile.
To which the young man responded with a nervous wave of his own.
However, his expression quickly changed when he noticed Suzaku's uniform.
"Eh?! You're an UA student too?!" The teenager asked with widened eyes, seemingly baffled by the coincidence of meeting another student right on his first day, and immediately after leaving his house.
Suzaku was quite surprised too. However, he wasn't one to stay shocked for much time, and as such he simply nodded, before saying "Yeah, I'm on the hero course. You?"
The answer visibly startled the youth, who after a few seconds of visibly stuttering, offered a handshake with a rather stiff posture.
"I–I'm Midoriya. I'm on the hero course as well!"
Suzaku simply nodded as he approached the kid to respond to his handshake.
However, his steps visibly slowed when the name of the kid began repeating in his mind.
Midoriya, Midoriya, Midoriya, Midoriya, Midoriya…
'Well, I'll be damned… The fucking protagonist is my neighbor' Suzaku thought, feeling a headache come all of a sudden.
…
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|Minutes later, gate of UA|
…
'I suspected that I was in his same school since that granny and All Might were staff here…. However, I still can't believe I was actually right' Suzaku scratched the back of his head as he looked at the endless sky with a troubled expression.
After seeing the one who was supposed to be the protagonist of this world, and realizing that he was his fucking neighbor, Suzaku's mind got sucked into a big turmoil.
His plan in the case both of them had been in the same school was to stay away from him as much as he could, so in that way, he wouldn't get dragged into the trouble that the protagonist's aura would attract.
However, now that he knew he was neighbors with him, his plan had gone to shit.
He had been dragged into the plot in such a stupid way!
-Sigh…-
Of course, he doubted that being his neighbor would automatically attract him trouble. That sounded too anime-like for it to happen now that this was real life.
However, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Fortunately for his troubled mind, though, the kid had been in a hurry to get to the school since he was seemingly late, so after a small talk full of awkwardness between two people who met for the first time, Midoriya bid him farewell and left Suzaku behind. Much to the latter's relief.
Eh? If Suzaku was late as well?
Of course he was.
That didn't make him go any faster, though. He wasn't exactly the kind of person who liked to hurry his walk just because he was a little late to someplace.
Of course, if he was super late—like, half an hour kind of late—he would maybe start to run or something. However, according to his phone, he was simply 10 minutes late, which meant that there was nothing to worry about.
At most, he would miss the introductions between students. Which he didn't really mind missing, to be honest.
"Huh?"
Just as Suzaku was about to enter the school while still lost in his own world, his eyes caught sight of a certain teenager changing his shoes at the entrance, as it was custom in Japan, and widened faintly upon recognizing him.
It was Arata.
"Hey!" He quickly waved at him, trying to get his attention.
And he got it.
However, instead of the usual excited kid that he was used to seeing, the one who responded was but a depressed and empty shell of what used to be a human being.
-Nod-
Instead of an answer, all he got was a nod of acknowledgment, before Arata began walking away with a slightly hurried step. Probably because he was also late to his class.
"Poor guy. He hasn't been himself ever since the results got announced" Suzaku muttered under his breath, shaking his head as he let out a sigh.
A month ago, after a small talk over chat, Suzaku had discovered that Arata hadn't managed to get into the Hero Department.
Of course, being the genius that he was, Arata had other options prepared in case such an event were to happen. After the practical exam, he also applied for the Support department, where students learned to develop hero tech like gadgets, equipment, and such, which he was good at.
However, that still hadn't changed the fact that failing to get into the Hero Department had left him completely depressed for the entire month they had before classes began.
He even offered Arata to visit his apartment and play with him on his Quirkstation a bit to cheer him up. However, Arata had simply refused, saying that he was not feeling like it.
And, after seeing him today, with a face that resembled more a zombie than the kid who used to be his friend, Suzaku had confirmed his fairly evident suspicions that failing the exam had left the kid devastated.
Still, as his friend, he would try to cheer him up during the months to come, and hopefully, the kid would eventually grow to find his actual department entertaining enough to forget about his failed attempt.
'Should I let him win on Jumping Heroes Kart…? Yeah no, that's too much—Hmm?'
As Suzaku was musing over what to do to cheer his friend up—Completely forgetting how distressed he was after his fiasco with the protagonist a minute or so ago—he noticed that he had actually arrived at his classroom before even knowing.
Class 1-B.
As he read the sign, and sweatdropped a bit at how huge the entrance door to the classroom was, he shook his head to dispel his random thoughts and opened the door.
-Stares…-
Once he entered, though, he was barraged with dozens of stares at the same time from his new classmates.
He was not one to panic at crowds though.
So, he simply said "Sup" as he gave them a small nod before he began walking towards his seat.
…
Where was his seat again?
"Ahem!"
As Suzaku was staring bewildered around the classroom looking for the empty seat he had thought would be there waiting for his ass to sit on it, he heard someone let out a fake cough from behind him.
"...?"
When he turned around, he saw who he supposed was his teacher—judging from how old he seemed in comparison to the rest of the individuals inside the classroom—staring at him impassively while having his arms crossed.
A burly silver-haired man wearing a red suit.
"You're late." The man said, staring at him with squinted eyes.
"That I am" Suzaku nodded. Not finding any fault in his logic.
That response seemed to annoy his teacher. However, the man simply let out a sigh before he pointed at a locker located at the back of the classroom.
"Since the amount of students for this class ended up being bigger than what was scheduled, we did not manage to get an extra desk on time. However, there should still be a chair in that locker so you can use it until your new desk arrives tomorrow"
Nodding, Suzaku walked to the locker and took out the chair before putting it on an empty spot, which coincidentally ended up being right behind a familiar-looking orange-haired girl, who, like most of the classroom, was looking at him with curiosity.
After all, none of them had missed the fact that their teacher said that the number of students had been bigger than what was scheduled.
Normally, each class consisted of 20 students. However, suddenly there were 21.
This of course picked their curiosity.
Unfortunately, their teacher didn't give a damn about their questions.
"Very well, now that everyone's here, we will begin with the Quirk assessment test!"
…
-To be Continued…-
(A/N: I'm out of wise sus phrases
Also, here's another illustration of Suzaku that I made a while ago when I was bored ->
And of course, the tradition continues)
->