Chapter 31: Yakuza Crash Course
With the classes back on route, everyone is back on their daily school life. Meanwhile, Shinso was watching everyone enter the first-year classroom buildings, making others curious about him. He became quite famous after the school festival after all.
Minutes later, his face lit up as he saw a familiar face. It was Araki, who was eating some candies with wired earphones in his ears. He runs into him and was about to bow when he stops himself. He invites him to a more secluded place which Araki followed.
"THANK YOU!" "For what?" Araki asks, confused.
"Si- No. Teacher Aizawa told me that you recommended me to him after the school festival. So he reached out to me and after some tests, he told me that he'll try to appeal it to the Principal. He also told me to not tell you this, but I feel like you should know. Because of this, he also took me under his wing and we started a week ago, during you guy's internship." Shinso said as he bowed, exactly 90 degrees.
Araki just looks at him with a faint smile before shrugging. "I didn't do much. Anyways, thank your teacher more as you'll be learning from him more. But it's still up to your efforts on what the result would be. I'm about to be scolded by Iida, so imma take my time now." He said as he leaves.
Shinso simply stood back up as he held his tears back. For the past few days, his body has been aching from training, but his heart and mind are as happy as they can be.
…
Inside, Araki sees Denki and the others panicking over the finals exam happening a few days later.
"Hey, Araki! Have you studied for-" Denki was about to finish when he stopped. "Oh right, you're Araki. You don't even need to study to get in second ranking just behind Momo!" Denki wails as he remembers.
"How do you do it man? How are you so smart and strong at the same time? You and Bakugo?" Bakugo hears this and throws an eraser his way. "Don't lump me in with him!" They all just laugh at this as Araki sit down.
"Genetics, I told you before. Also, why are you assuming that I don't study? I don't need to sleep, so I could use all that time to study, you know?"
"That's the neat part. You don't! Don't fool me. I may be an idiot, but I'm not dumb… Wait? Is it the other way around?" Denki was caught in a thought. However, Momo broke this as she propose to him and the others about group studying.
Seeing that all three, Momo, Jirou, and Denki are participating, Araki invited himself saying he's only doing so for fun.
…
"What are we going to do with him?" Ectoplasm asks the other teachers?
"What about him?" Midnight replies. He points to Araki's name as he shows the documents. "We have the possible match-up for the student's practical exam except for him." Realizing this, all of them look at Aizawa and Principal Nezu, who was silent, deep in thought.
"Principal Nezu?" "…" There was a silence for even more which made the teachers worry as that's never happened before.
"Toshinori-san. Do you think Araki's stronger than you or not?" His seriousness made everyone gulp including All Might, the strongest hero.
"I- I don't think so. No, I'm pretty sure he's not." He answers. "That's the thing that is bugging me off. We all know that Araki can't be stronger than All Might. But that's all we know. Anything else, a blank slate. Even if that means that he's more advanced than the others, we can't let him have an easy time."
By then, everyone understood. Every single one of the teachers doesn't know how strong Araki truly is. His 'simple' quirk, according to him, enhances his body in almost everything – but they don't know up to what extent. They saw their training through the facilities' cameras and watch them carefully.
Even his defeat against Denki was a fluke the teachers saw as the loser, Araki, didn't even suffer any damage seen with x-rays and different tests. Meanwhile, the winner won with a full-on broken arm that was only healed because of Recovery Girl.
"Then, why don't you fight him, sir?" Snipe suggests to Nezu. "After all, wits can out beat our brawn if given the correct setting and condition, something we can set."
Everyone thought about it for a while as they collectively agreed. But this time, Aizawa spoke out. "But the one issue there… is he also has great wits. And just like his strength, Principal and I know that he held back on that too. Pair anyone with him, especially with a great support hero student and he'll win no matter what." Aizawa said in a lazy tone.
"Aren't you guys praising him too much? To me, he sounds like a jack-of-all-trades." Vlad said with a slightly loud voice. Aizawa calls out to one of the assistant personnel who got a secured flash drive with a 'Confidential' label.
He sticks it in on the laptop and shows a bunch of files and information. "These are the businesses legitimately owned eleven years ago by Old Man Yamamoto, which we are all familiar with. It's the most impressive one in Yakuza's history which led to them being called the no.1 Yakuza in the country." Aizawa showed numerous amount of business files, ownership documents, shares distribution, and many more business stuff.
"But suddenly, he starts to pass the ownership of some of them to his older adoptive grandson, which was said to be part of their organization, unlike our student here who was the younger one. Eventually, the old man fell sick. Some said it was a natural sickness but some rumors said that it was an injury caused by infighting." Some of the information Aizawa is providing was new to them, while some were common knowledge.
"When did this meeting turn into a Yakuza Crash Course?" Vlad said, jokingly. Being attentive to Aizawa's presentation, the teachers didn't notice Nezu smile and get his normal demeanor back.
"By this time you would expect his career to end and his riches to turn rags, right? No. Quite the contrary. The number of businesses and assets in the old man's name rise greater than before - albeit secretly, only known to those with great networks like us. Now, how does this tie to Araki? Well, the Principal and I assumed that he was the cause of this." As he said this, no one was speaking anymore, fully focusing on the story. Some even have their jaw open seeing as if they all calculate it to liquid assets, he'll probably be among the top richest in Japan, being nearly a billionaire if not already one.
"His older brother that was now the gang's leader, has gone AWOL. His grandfather is confined in a hospital, which mind you, he fully owns. With both men out of the question, who took on the old man's name and recover his great riches? Since there was absolutely no one else popping up as a candidate, the Principal deduced that it was Araki. From a young age, his intelligence is enough to return his grandfather's life work of an empire in just a few years."
Still stun locked, no one spoke except Nezu. "I think I have a solution now."