Chapter 13 - DENSITY

A week later.

"Good morning!" The door slammed wide open and the simple greeting seemed to have immediately uplifted the mood in the room by a few notches. It was akin to the morning sun bathing the world's presence with its light, bringing an indescribable warmth to the students inside the room.

In tandem, everyone else turned their eyes to the entrance of their classroom, and there they saw him.

He wore the same uniform as them; the same shirt, pants, and blazer, yet it was as if he wore clothes belonging to royalty instead. He has long black hair covering his entire forehead with bangs and a pair of vertical golden eyes that captures the essence of mighty dragons.

Like an invisible hand that commands awe and respect, everyone immediately felt the urge to smile and even listen to his every word by pure instinct, an instinct born from a simple difference in their level.

Everyone smiled, and nearly in the same beat, they responded in unison, "Good morning, Dolian!"

Amidst all that, a certain young boy no older than 12, with dark blue hair and ocean blue eyes, stared in a daze as he himself greeted the boy named Dolian out of habit. He first closed his mouth, and licked his lips to ease the sudden awkward feeling he felt, 'What did I do just now…'

'I could still remember when I was nearly knocked unconscious by him last week, and now…' Alastor almost bit his lips and burrowed his head between his crossed arms placed on his desk.

'And now… He's the one single person in this school that I can call a friend-' Alastor paused as he opened his eyes wide and turned to stare at Dolian, 'No! We're not friends, he's my rival! Yes! My rival!'

He reaffirmed his beliefs when all of a sudden, Dolian turned to look at him and their eyes locked. Alastor felt the instinctual urge to look away, but as if captivated by Dolian's eyes, he lost that urge and was seemingly hypnotized by the pair of illustrious golden spheres that sucked him in deeper and deeper.

"Good morning, Alastor!" Dolian appeared right in front of Alastor like a ghost, sat on his table, and wore a smile so bright it felt like it could reflect the rays of light coming through the window and blind him in an instant. No, it was as if he was a star that outshone the ball of light hanging from the sky!

Alastor almost bit his tongue but managed to regain his composure. He blinked his eyes and felt his mind turn calm, and his voice resounded with a hint of frigidity to it, "Good morning…"

Dolian leaned forward with squinted eyes and stared at Alastor with a grin. He then focused on Alastor's eyes that were looking out of the window and wondered, "Hey, why are you looking out of the window right now?"

He traced Alastor's gaze and also looked out the window and was greeted by the vast green plains of grass. Dolian's eyes then pinpointed on a certain girl walking on asphalt roads and his grin turned curious, "That's Ms. Gwen Sanders from Class 2-C."

"Wait!" Dolian showed an obviously fake gasp and stared at Alastor in shock, "I didn't know you were interested in people older than you!"

Alastor immediately stared Dolian in the eye with anger and slammed his table with a clenched fist, "It's not like that!"

But as if realizing he fell into a trap, Alastor gritted his teeth and pointed at Dolian, "You!"

"Sorry, sorry. But you're just way too bad at hiding your true thoughts that it's urging me to take action…" Dolian paused as if a lightbulb lit up above his head and winked, "My dear rival."

Within an instant, Alastor's face turned a deep shade of red as he felt the blood rush through his face. He felt his mind turn cloudy and his emotions ran rampant; humiliation, embarrassment, and helplessness.

"I-" Alastor was about to say something when Dolian went ahead and spoke.

"Hehehe, I'm sorry again. But it's as clear as daylight to me so why bother hiding it, right?" Dolian rubbed the back of his head, and without waiting for Alastor to calm down, grabbed his hand.

Dolian's eyes then turned more magnetic, like a pair of black holes amplifying its gravitational pull to another level that grabs hold of anything that stares at it into a deeper abyss, "Come on, won't you be my friend already?"

Like a whisper from his own devils, Alastor heard voices in his head mutter in his own voice.

'Why do I even hate to admit that he's my friend?'

'It's not like I hate him or anything.'

'Why do I even try and avoid him? He's just been friendly and nice to me all this week, minus the occasional teasing… or just blunt approach to things.'

'Maybe…' Alastor paused as he felt his heart constrict, and a thought emerged from the shadows, 'Maybe I should accept reality as it is.'

'Maybe…' Alastor opened his mouth and his eyes stared deeply into Dolian's eyes, and he felt as if all of his emotions usher into shattered stars.

"Sigh, I guess you're right…" Alastor wore a helpless grin as he said, "Friend."

Without him even noticing it, an invisible force grabbed his heart tightly and bound it in chains. An imprint has been embedded directly on his essence, like selling his soul to the devil itself.

And as the origin of all that corruption, Dolian wore a wide grin that showcased his pearly white teeth in full view. He chuckled and his eyes returned to normal like everything that seemed suspicious was just a figment of one's imagination.

"You said it! We're officially friends now!" Dolian cheered and rubbed his nose, perfectly showing the horrifying abilities of his quirk.

'After a week, everyone in this classroom is now my "friend."' Dolian appeared once more in his mental space, donning the appearance of a young man with dark brown eyes and neat black hair.

He wore a simple white shirt and black pants, sitting on a golden throne as he stared into the air in front of him where a floating screen can be seen. Through it, he can see what his body sees while calmly assessing everything like a show, distancing himself from reality itself as if it were an interactive show.

Dolian's face remained passive even after attaining greater success, and carefully analyzed the situation as usual, 'His trust and openness have definitely turned deeper. With another week or even less, I'll finally be able to move on to the next stage.'

The floating screen in front of him flickered as it flashed another person on screen; a girl with a flowing river of golden hair and jewel-like blue eyes. She glanced at him with a slight twitch in her eyes before then promptly turning her gaze to her chair and sitting down.

'She's surprised to see me with Alastor again, especially so with her bad first impression of him. But I need you two to be friends if I want to establish myself as the greatest in this batch and give myself a smoother road to becoming the number one hero, and in turn, gain more political power in the nation..'

Dolian willed his body, and he appeared beside Aleksandra in an instant.

He beamed her a smile and pulled back his chair, and sat down. As she eyed him from the side, Aleksandra snorted and asked, "What were you discussing with Alastor back there?"

"Oh, that? Hehehe, we're friends now!" Dolian's smile bloomed.

"…" Aleksandra rigidly turned her head and stared at Dolian with a blank gaze, "F-Friend?"

Ignoring her obvious confusion, Dolian acted as if he didn't notice anything and explained, "As you know, I have tremendously high EQ because of my quirk, so I can easily sniff out a lie by pure intuition. Because of that, I easily noticed Alastor's true thoughts, which I didn't intend to do by the way, that's just how my quirk works. Then, I confronted him with it and now we're here."

'Alastor's true thoughts? You mean Alastor was a…' Aleksandra looked at Alastor with a weirded-out gaze and almost blurted out what was in her mind, 'A tsundere?!'

'But wait!' Aleksandra's thoughts whirled as she realized a point of suspicion, 'Even though he doesn't show it all that much, he does have a terrifying EQ! That means… THAT MEANS!'

'THAT MEANS THERE'S NO WAY HE HASN'T NOTICED MY FEELINGS YET!' Aleksandra's face flushed as she struggled to look back at Dolian.

"Hmm? Why are you suddenly anxious, Aleks?" Dolian tilted his head to the side and leaned forward to inspect her face.

'He knows, right?' Aleksandra screamed inside her mind as she felt her heart palpitate like it was about to explode. 'There's no way he's a dense romance anime protagonist!'

Then, she paused as she realized something else, 'But he told me that his dad was as dense as a rock and didn't realize Aunt Hope's true feelings until they were at college. Is Dolian the same?'

'How are they even so oblivious to it in the first place? Aren't their quirks suppose to be suited for things such as realizing other's emotions?' Aleksandra started to calm down as she realized more and more problems with the father and son duo's situation.

"Hey…" She spoke, pulling Dolian out of his worry, "You said that your dad didn't realize Aunt's feelings for him until they were in college, right?"

"Yes?" Dolian responded as he raised his eyebrow.

"But there's no way your dad wouldn't have been unable to realize her feelings, right? I mean, there's his quirk and his knowledge in psychology, so-"

"Oh!" Dolian's eyes lit up as he seemed to have realized what she was confused about, "You're wondering why dad was oblivious, right?"

Dolian rubbed his nose with pride and said, "Just like they say, great minds do think alike! I also wondered the same thing back then and his answer was…"

Flashback…

"Oh? You're curious about that?" Ayumu turned his head away from his computer and chuckled at his son's question.

A young Dolian no older than five years old nodded his head, "Yeah! Even I would be able to tell if someone had a crush on me!"

Ayumu almost choked at Dolian's claim as memories between Dolian and Aleksandra flashed through his mind. Holding back his cough, Ayumu diverted his thoughts away from that topic and instead went to explain, "It's actually really simple."

"Back when I was around the same age as you, I realized that some people had a crush on me, and that made things awkward. Because of that, I just hypnotized myself to ignore what should have been obvious and diluted my intuition with love and crushes to what it should have been if I didn't have my quirk."

"But I guess your dad is a bit oblivious to things and delayed my progress with your mother for a few years…" Ayumu wryly laughed and scratched the back of his head, coughing along the way as if he remembered a lot of things in a single second.

"Ohhhh!" Dolian's eyes lit up as if he have realized something, "Then I'll do it too!"

Flashback end…

"So yeah, that's the reason. After that, Dad taught me how to do it and I mastered it before summer break ended back then." Dolian flaunted his mastery over his quirk like a proud kid, before then noticing Aleksandra's strange gaze at him, alongside the many enlightened gazes of his classmates.

'So that's why…' They all collectively thought as they held back the urge to smack their faces. 'Density really is hereditary.'

'Like father, like son…' Aleksandra did her hardest to try and not cry as she inwardly cursed Dolian's father, 'If not for you, then perhaps, then perhaps!'

'AHHHHHHHHH!'

And so, a few days of grief and depression passed as the final class for the week soon came to a pass.

"Hmm?" The class turned their gaze towards Dolian who clapped his hands in front of the entire class.

"Everyone!" Dolian flared his hands out to the side as he announced with a booming voice, "I formally invite you to Class 1-A's first-ever sleepover in the Tatori Family Manor!"

"I hereby beg thee that thy accept thou invitation!" Dolian's gaze turned piercing as if his every word tugged at the heart of everyone in the class.

As the entire world turned into a floating screen, the man with black hair and brown eyes sitting on a golden throne muttered, "Go on, accept the invitation of your puppy-like classmate who has been nice to your for two weeks straight and one of the person you can confidently say is your friend."

"Accept it and bestow me with your graceful presence, my dear geniuses. After all, who would reject my proposal?"

AN: This chapter has 2185 words.

Ohohoho. While this may not be important (for now), we'll get to see some of Dolian's arrangements play a crucial role later on (or maybe I'm just straight up capping so I can bamboozle you guys more when nothing does happen).

But yeah, I'm trying to implement more realism to my storytelling because not all shit would prove useful later on or things like that.

(March 31, 2023 - 491st day of writing)