Chapter 4: Kindergarten Suprise
[] Speaking English
{} Speaking German
Everything else is Japanese unless otherwise specified. (I won't be doing honorifics)
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Walking towards the classroom I had made my decision. I would use 'Assassins Alibi' it's advanced presence concealment would be best for avoiding attention entirely.
Reaching the door to the classroom I prepared for the few minutes of torture I was going to have to endure before I could enact my plan. And so with dread in my heart and a ring on my finger that turned loud noises quieter, still my best decision today, I stepped into the room.
Entering the room I watched as all the loud screaming children went quiet and turned to look at me and the dean. The teacher, a kind looking young man, turned to look at the door.
"Ah hello miss dean, is this our new student?"
"Yes it is Mr. Suda, why don't you introduce yourself dear."
Looking down at me the dean lightly pushed me out in front of the class.
"Hello, my name is Ayah Krieger, please just forget I'm here."
And so, with my introduction finished, I walked to a seat in the back and sat down. Looking back at the dean and teacher Suda I saw the semi-shocked, semi-concerned looks upon their faces at my rousing introduction.
They conversed a little in hushed tones before the dean headed out of the room. Teacher Suda went over to the interactive board and opened up a slide with all the numbers up to 20 listed out.
As teacher Suda began his lesson on basic counting, I started to think about the 'Assassins Alibi' mask. I was just about to summon it, along with some earbuds, and go to sleep when a voice spoke from in front of me.
"Hi there Ayah, I can call you Ayah right? My name is Hagakure Toru, but you can call me Toru."
Looking up from my desk I was greeted by… floating clothes? Wait I remember her, she was the invisible girl from the main cast. She was super popular on the internet during that whole- shit I completely forgot about the traitor. It was such a big event that even me, who didn't actively watch MHA, had heard about it. I'd have to deal with that once I get to UA.
"Um.. Ayah? Hello?"
Breaking out of my thoughts I came back to see… nothing. Well I saw the long sleeve shirt with nothing at the end waving in my general direction but that doesn't count… right?
"Sorry, I got distracted. What can I help you with?"
"Nothing.. I just wanted to know if you want to be friends?"
Friends? I did promise mom I would try, and she seems far more polite then the the rest of these gremlins. I guess I could just agree and then continue with my original plan. That way I don't have to deal with it but can fulfill moms request so she'll leave me alone.
"Sure."
"Really! That's great! I've always wanted a friend. Most people just avoid me since they can't actually see me."
Oh someone who suffered from quirk discrimination. Strange, I remember her being pretty happy go lucky in the show…
"Ok well I'm going to go to sleep now. You can enjoy your class."
I put my head back down on my desk and started to summons my mask-
"You go to sleep in class too! That's great, I already know all the stuff they teach here so I just sleep. They can't tell thanks to my quirk so I do my own thing."
"Oh? So you know everything they teach here?"
"Yeah! I already learned up to around ELMN 3 (A/N 3rd grade American, Year 4 UK, primary 3 Euro equivalent.). Unfortunately my parents don't believe me and had me come here to make friends."
Ahh! A fellow sufferer under parental tyranny! Well I suppose a genius of this caliber who is a comrade under parental oppression is a worthy friend.
"Well… how about we truly do our own thing?"
"What do you mean Ayah?"
"Simple I'll give you an item that will make the teacher and all the kids ignore us. Then I'll bring extra material and we can learn on our own."
I couldn't see her expression but judging from the body language I was reading off her clothes. Is it still body language? She seemed very happy with the idea. It was pretty annoying to not be able to see her…
"That sounds great! I'd like that a lot!"
"Say.. Toru, how does your quirk work exactly?"
"Um… I'm pretty sure my whole body 'refracts light' I'm not really sure what that means but that's what they said."
"Interesting…"
I could work around that. I would either need to make a set of glasses to negate it on my end or since I was gonna give her an item to hide her presence anyway I could just add an enchantment to negate it on her end. I'd figure that out tonight.
And so without even realizing it I had begun to consider her a friend, even setting aside free time to fix an issue that was hindering our friendship. Maybe mom was right, maybe I needed this.
(POV Change)
"What if this was a mistake?"
Turning to my husband, who was finishing up the paperwork, I couldn't help but ask the question that had been on my mind since he dean came back and mentioned Ayah's introduction.
The moment I'd heard how she introduced herself all the confidence I'd been building up about how this was a positive thing for her had faded away. Left in its place was only worry and small amounts of regret.
"I mean she clearly doesn't want to be here, and she actually complained. The first time she complains about anything in her whole life and we don't even listen to her."
Looking up from the paperwork he turned to me and held my hands.
"It'll be fine, you know how mature she is for her age. I'm sure that in time she will come to realize why we did this."
"But that's what I'm worried about. She's so mature for her age not to mention that her personality is the opposite of most children. She likes a quiet, peaceful environment and prefers to study over playing."
I gripped his hand tightly and looked into his eyes to let him see how worried I am.
"She has next to nothing in common with children and her differences may cause her to be bullied. You know how hurtful kids can be."
He returned my grip and said in the most confidence he could muster in regards to his little angel.
"We just have to trust in her, that she won't let that happen. She is your daughter at the end of the day and no daughter of the 'Tomb Raider' is going to let herself be bullied."
He was right, she was mature enough to not let a child bully her… or at least I hope she was. She was always a quiet child, to the point we often thought something was wrong when she was younger.
We had gone into raising a child with an image given to us by old friends about the first few years being a minefield of no sleep and constant worry about if you were doing everything right.
Yet, with little Ayah none of that ever happened. She never cried unless she needed something and never caused any trouble at all. She never rejected food or threw a fit cause she didn't get her way.
After the initial stages of her life finished she still didn't act the way we were told to expect. As a toddler she wasn't hyperactive and excited, she didn't enjoy playing with toys for hours on end, no none of that. Instead she like to have books read to her, she enjoyed learning and was good at it. She absorbed knowledge like a sponge, very rarely did we teach her something twice and she remembered all of it.
However all of this didn't matter. She was extremely intelligent, we knew that, but she was extremely adverse to interacting with kids her age. It made sense to us, she liked peace and quiet something kids didn't have an abundance of. We were afraid this would result in her being emotionally stunted so we planned to send her here to kindergarten.
And as we walked out to our car to head back home, I couldn't help but pray that our decision was correct.
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Congrats to those who voted last chapter. Assassins Alibi won, obviously, and I realize I may have undersold the votes importance to the story.
For future reference, unless specified otherwise, votes are key deciding factors for the stories progression. For example this mask vote also decided her fighting style, weapons and even the person she met and befriended.
If the MSC had won then the person she met would have been Himiko Toga.
The weapons and fighting style decided from Assassins Alibi winning was lighter close range weapons and heavier long range weapons (MSC would have been reversed). With a faster paced combat style more focused on precision and technique.