Chapter 51 - Class Representative

The next day.

Yuga Aoyama was inside his car, with the chauffeur driving him to UA High. He couldn't help but feel an ominous sensation, like a gut feeling or a sixth sense. Then, with his already unstable mental state, he couldn't help but close his eyes and felt his stomach churn.

"I should have drank some medicine…" Yuga sighed and rubbed his stomach helplessly. As he thought so, he recalled his experience these past few days after he started to attend UA High.

His thoughts shifted, he vividly remembered the strange man covered in purple gas and his strange presence. Although Yuga was surprised to find that the man was quite gentlemanly, unlike his preconceived notion of what a villain would act like.

'But.' Yuga shifted uncomfortably in his seat, the pain in his stomach rising and receding like the tides of a wave. 'Even if he's nice, All for One is still a villain that would bring chaos to society!'

'Yet, I'm trapped here, unable to escape and forced to help that bastard.' Yuga sighed once more. His days were both happy and tragic, he hid behind a mask to cover his insecurities and guilt, while being ridiculed by his peers behind his back because of the mask he wore.

For the price of attaining the unique gift he longed for, that one single thing he desperately wanted, no, needed, he's now forced to live a double-sided life that leads him to a downward spiral of tragedy. There was no escape, and there was no way for him to reveal the truth unless he wants to put his family in danger.

Just as he shook his head and opened his eyes, he was greeted by a surprising sight in front of UA High's school gates. A crowd of reporters flocked in front of the school, with Aizawa-sensei and a few other teachers dealing with the crowd.

"What is this?" He mumbled and raised his eyebrow.

"You don't have to worry, young master," His chauffeur said. "I'll drive in the car so you don't have to deal with those reporters."

Yuga silently nodded his head and watched as the car drive through the school gate, but they did have to get Aizawa's permission to enter since a student ID or pass is needed to enter UA.

Successfully going past the reporters, Yuga takes a look at UA High's awe-inspiring visage and shook his head. His face morphed and formed a flamboyant smile, his lifeless eyes sparkled with pride and arrogance, and his slumped shoulders straightened.

He was now Yuga Aoyama, the aspiring hero, and student of UA High.

…

Ryuji stared out of the window with a glint in his eyes.

'Soon…' He thought with a smile. 'Once the opportunity arises, All for One would be trapped inside my inescapable palms, and I'll finally have both One for All and All for One within arm's reach.'

He looked away from Yuga Aoyama and shifted his eyes further away, past the tall walls and unbreachable gate of UA, and looked straight at a young man in the distance with messy blue hair. His grin widened, he subconsciously licked his lips and a menacing flash of brilliance appeared in his eyes in a split second.

Ryuji's days were complex and tiresome, with each second spent furthering his own goals. Even with Hidden Order to aid him in increasing his strength, there were still many things that he'd rather do on his own than let a Hidden Order member deal with it, one of which was constantly spying on this future pawn of his.

He already knew of the man known as Kurogiri, and as someone who's proficient at browsing through the memories of others unnoticed, he easily managed to gather more information while still remaining in the shadows.

So, he knew who that boy in the far distance was.

'Shigaraki, you're the biggest thorn in Yuga's future.' Ryuji laughed confidently. 'Still, you're nothing but an ant against the tides of fate.'

'There's nothing in this world that can stop my path to controlling the myriad illusions of life.' He smirked and looked away from the glass windows.

"Good work on yesterday's combat training," Aizawa said with an emotionless voice. He raised his arm that held a paper and glanced at it. "I saw the video and results."

"Mineta." Aizawa glanced at the young boy with purple balls for hair. He subconsciously tensed up, prepared to hear some harsh berating.

"You did fine, but you should have taken a more initiative approach. Ryuji provided enough assistance to the point you could have easily subdued the villains before he destroyed the entire building to forcefully locate the bomb."

"On the other hand, Anwir, you were too brutish in how you handled that matter. Buildings are expensive, and it's a hero's duty to make sure that infrastructural damage would be put to the bare minimum."

Aizawa gave his words of wisdom and advice, before he finally went down to business, "Now, let's get down to homeroom business."

"Sorry about the late notice, but today, I'll have you…" Aizawa paused as the students felt tense, but he soon broke their anxious expectations as he said, "… decide on a class representative."

Rather than another special test, it's actually something normal!

"I want to be a class rep, pick me!" Kirishima raised his arms to the sky.

"Me too!" Kaminari also raised his arm.

"I want to do it, too!" Jiro did the same.

Ryuji remained silent amidst the chaos, he was indifferent to what result the may be and kept quiet.

…

Tenya Ida took the lead in the ruckus and suggested doing an election system to pick who the class rep would be. The others agreed with his idea and the election soon started.

Then, they went to write on a piece of paper and, one by one walked up to the makeshift cardboard box placed on the table in front of the entire class.

As they did so, Ryuji wore a grin on his face as he wrote on his paper. "Who did you vote for, Izuku-kun?"

Izuku heard his question and rubbed his cheeks. "I voted for Ida-san…"

"Really?" Ryuji yawned and folded his paper. "I voted for Ida-san too, he seemed pretty cool."

"He gives off that natural orderly leader, you know? I bet he'll be a great hero once he graduates." Ryuji chuckled and rubbed his eyes.

"Heh, you fools." Katsuki chided. "The only one winning here is me!"

"Win?" Ryuji shook his head and dropped his paper into the box. "I think whoever becomes class rep would be the loser instead."

"I'd rather have less responsibility than some needless authority." Ryuji closed his eyes and leaned back on his chair.

Soon, the votes were counted.

"Huh?!?!" Ryuji stood up from his chair as soon as he saw who won first place. "Four votes?! Who the hell voted for me?!"

"Language…" Aizawa weakly reminded from the side. He couldn't be bothered to deal with foul language when he needed to deal with his sleep, but he still needed to act as a teacher, so he gave a simple warning to uphold the bare minimum of his responsibility.

A flash of inspiration appeared in Ryuji's eyes. He immediately lifted his hands up to the sky and laughed loudly, "I admit it, I cheated! I used my Quirk to win this unscrupulously."

"After realizing my mistakes, I think that I shouldn't be the class rep anymore, instead, I'll give this heavy burden to the person I think should be the class rep, Ida-san!" Ryuji swiftly gave an excuse he made up on the spot and acted as if his big secret has been revealed.

Everyone of course didn't believe him. It was obvious that it was a lie, even Ida could tell that it was a lie, although he did feel surprised to hear that Ryuji was willing to give the position of class representative to him. Still, he was a stickler to the rules and didn't want to win this way.

"Anwir-san, I think-"

"No, no, no, you clearly won, Ida-san! Look at the votes, you have two votes! If you had voted for yourself, you would have gotten three votes already and be in second place!"

"But if you also voted for yourself, you would have five votes already!" Ida tried to dissuade Ryuji, but it was no use.

"Ida-san, everyone, you might not know this, but I'm simply unfit to be a leader! I genuinely believe that if Ida-san were to be class rep, it would be the most beneficial for this class!" Ryuji wildly flared out his arms and used his emotional words to convince them.

"Isn't that right, Izuku-kun, Sensei, everyone?! Don't I annoy you guys too much by being an arrogant asshole? Don't you want to knock me down a peg or two and remove this astronomical W on me and instead give it to someone who genuinely deserves it?"

As his voice reached a sonorous peak, voices started to cheer loudly from the crowd.

"Yeah!"

"Preach!"

"Kya, so true!"

"Common Ryuji W!"

"Please have my baby Ryuji-sama!"

The voices rang in the ears of everyone else from nowhere, like the wailing of ghosts. Immediately, their moved hearts were further moved, because who in their right minds would want to have this narcissistic asshole as the one to lead them.

"That's right!"

"On second thought, I actually vote for Ida-san instead!"

"Yeah, I was stupid to vote for myself."

In a rapid shift of events, Ida became the class representative, while Momo Yaoyorozu became the deputy class representative. It was a satisfactory outcome for everyone, well… almost everyone.

…

"Fuck, I should have been the winner!" Katsuki angrily stuffed a spoonful of rice and meat into his mouth. He munched loudly and slammed his hand on the table.

"Sounds like a massive skill issue." Ryuji laughed and nibbled on some bread dunked in some soup.

"Fuck off, you lazy coward." Katsuki didn't want to be insulted by someone who avoided responsibility like the plague.

"At least I don't have to worry about that no more." Ryuji rolled his eyes and continued to nibble on his meal.

"What do you think, Ida-san?" Ryuji looked to his side and asked Ida out of the blue.

Ida was surprised to hear his question, coughed, and answered with a straight face, "I'm thankful that you gave me this opportunity to become class rep, Anwir-san."

"No need to thank me." Ryuji laughed.

"I think you deserve it, Ida-san," Izuku added from the side with a grin.

"R-Really?" Ida rubbed the back of his head and fixed his glasses.

"Anyways, there's a question I want to ask if you don't mind," Ryuji asked with a polite smile.

"Sure," Ida said as he gobbled on some rice and slurped some soup.

"Are you from the Ida hero family?" Ryuji asked, surprising both Katsuki and Izuku.

The two inevitably got well-versed in things related to famous individuals like influencers and heroes, a result of Ryuji's forceful training to ingrain general knowledge of the hero world into their brains for future social networking.

"Oh?" Ida was surprised. "I didn't know you knew of my family."

"But yes, I'm the second son of the Ida family!" Ida answered with pride. "And my elder brother is the Turbo Hero: Ingenium!"

"Gasp!" Izuku gasped loudly. Ingenium is a popular hero with 65 sidekicks and works at his Tokyo agency. He's a hero that many respects, and someone Izuku knew and also respected.

"Does that mean…" Ryuji's eyes flashed with an ominous light, "You're rich?"

"R-Rich?" Ida almost choked on his water and coughed loudly. He patted his chest and fixed his glasses into place once more before answering with a wry grin, "Well, yes."

Izuku and Katsuki paused what they were doing as soon as they realized what Ryuji planned to do. Yet, it was too late for them to do anything as Ryuji already held a strange rolled piece of paper in his hand.

"Do you perhaps want to become part of Dragon Paradigm Sect, my dear friend, Tenya Ida?" He wore an amicable grin, hiding the cruel brilliance of a businessman within.

AN: This chapter has 2042 words.

FUCK, THIS PUBLISH TIMER IS SO ANNOYING. I keep forgetting to put the right time, so fuck this shit. Webnovel is trash as fuck ngl.

(June 4, 2023 - 556th day of writing)