11 Training and school

6 years have passed since I was reborn, and I still can't get used to the fact that I have powers, and they're not all.

Just think - I really have superpowers! The impossible dream of a teenager from my world became truly real! I was fantasizing about something like this.

And who wouldn't have dreamed of something like this in my past world? It's like, well, if I dreamed about magic all my life, and then were reborn in another world where it exists and I have a talent for it! Only not magic, but a whim...

And the next morning after moving to the new orphanage, my favorite - developing, fruitful, time-consuming - routine began!

For the next two years, when my body was not yet mature enough and no schoolwork was in the way, I focused entirely on developing my "quirk" and learning all of its strengths and weaknesses.

There were many strengths - I could really create several dark copies of myself, hide in the shadows for a while, create a weapon (an ideal means for killing, since it could immediately disappear). But there was a very big and serious "But". Perhaps if I use only my quirk, I will be strong enough, but my body is weak.

At the age of 12, the system will awaken, and until that time I need to pump myself up physically, since I will need to perform a special set of exercises, when now I don't even do half of them.

When this thought came into my head, I would just bite my lip and silently go to training, even if I had just returned from it. It's unhealthy, of course... but now this is, first of all, so it's not so scary - there's no chance of harming yourself, just burning out. I need to fit in, so to speak... Among the "peers" and educators with whom I could intersect, I gained a reputation as an aloof young genius.

I just shook my head and asked not to be distracted, remembering what and, especially, who I would have to face in less than a dozen years. No, seriously, although the original Song Jin-woo was quite strong, but I don't know what will happen in the system, so we need to prepare for everything. Because remembering all the students, villains and heroes, there will be those who will cause problems.

But you need to focus on monsters who can wipe out an entire city from the face of the Earth - all the Todoroki who can burn this city, all the Nomu who can destroy it with exceptional physical strength, Tomura, who splits, damn it, any matter into atoms - at a distance! - and Gigantomakia, or whatever this Godzilla is called... And even so, All Might, All for One and, potentially, the main character of the anime Midoriya significantly exceed even this inhuman level... And there is me. And now I have a nosebleed and need to become no less strong, having only the opportunity to influence the events known to me in the future. And the unknown too.

So time passed... quietly, calmly, but... hard. Most of the time I was wildly busy and studied until I was blue in the face, and my brain was the most tired.

I was glad that because of the concentration training, my overall attentiveness, ability to notice details, performance increased... however, nothing special.

Sometimes the doctor called me for a more detailed examination, but after 3 times it was over, and he wrote off the fact that sometimes there are exceptions to the rules, unique ones

The only thing is that I, originally brought up in the realities of a completely different world, still could not always look at passers-by without shuddering - some quirks disfigured people so much that it was difficult to recognize them, not just as people, but even as a living organism. And this is an amazing moment.

The society of this country, no, even most of the planet, was... tolerant. Really civilized. People stopped looking at appearances and, first of all, began to appreciate the inner world of other people, their minds, their personal qualities... 

Of course, in reality everything was not so rosy. Radicals and racists met here too, but remained a very rare phenomenon, or, more precisely, they were very carefully monitored and promptly neutralized by government services, which allowed a minimum of publicity.

And, of course, there was an invisible, but significant division of society into "castes". Guided primarily by my own observations and feelings, I divided it into four conditional groups. The first group included losers who did not receive a quirk at all.

Many children, like Midoriya in the anime, became outcasts. Despite a generally civilized and cultured society, bullying flourished. Kids without quirks were ridiculed and abused by more fortunate kids, and that attitude never went away as they grew older.

Alienation, a constant invisible reminder that you are worse, that you lost in the evolutionary lottery - and this is not to mention the completely legitimate advantage of the gifted when searching for a job. A thin invisible line separated the first group from the second, which included my parents.

Subtle but indestructible. Even though these people, for the most part, only knew how to create a rainbow, elongate fingers or draw frost patterns on glass, they could - and that was enough.

Moreover, such, in general, simple people, in fact, were the absolute majority - and without losing in quirk, they also won in appearance, maintaining a human appearance. Yes. Human appearance... 

Having looked through statistics over the past twenty years, I came to the conclusion that the policy of tolerance towards the appearance of "people" who have picked up a seriously disfiguring quirk arose primarily due to the fact that significant changes in appearance most often associated with increased combat potential.

I don't know whose bright head came up with this idea first, but it is to him that all humanity should now be grateful for the humanity of their civilization.

Otherwise, there would be a war of extermination, and the victims would, for the most part, be the bearers of dominant human traits.

So yes: the third caste in society was occupied by relatively few, but mostly dangerous "people" with pronounced anatomical quirks. They tried not to touch them, not to offend them, and generally, as it were, to stay away, but under no circumstances should they be excluded from the team or otherwise offended in any way. It's fraught. The law of force in action, in general. In some places it is covered with airbags out of tolerance, and in others it is completely exposed with unsightly crimes.

Hence it follows that ridicule of the appearance of those with an anatomical quirk is an absolute, monolithic taboo. Japanese culture as a whole has always been built on the principles of caste stratification and numerous restrictions on behavior, so this rule has taken root with a bang. What is bitingly ironic - and would be familiar to people in my former world - is that this taboo does not work in reverse. For ordinary people.

And, of course, rules are rules, and excesses happen. Even in itself, the extremely high density among all the villains of those with inhuman appearance - and here there are official government websites with profiles of wanted villains and heroes, go figure - already seems to hint at how well they live among more ordinary people. And, nevertheless, such characters, albeit much less frequently, were also found among the fourth category. 

Well, you understood it yourself, right? Pro-Heroes. The caste of Olympian demigods, which almost completely replaced actors, athletes, and even, partly, politicians. Their lives are being watched.

They place bets on them. They have fan clubs. They make films about them... in which many of them star as themselves.

They have their own lines of clothing, perfume and shampoo. And merch... The anime has stated more than once or twice that the extremely low crime rate is entirely the merit of the Almighty. I found this statement highly controversial. 

You see, this level is low all over the planet, not just in Japan. Yes, he is able to overcome enormous distances, and he has visited other countries more than once, and he has lived in America for a third of his life, however, in my opinion, it is not so much about him. I'm still talking about merch.

Seriously.

This is the country that created and became addicted to manga and anime, which also closely collaborates with America, the paradise of consumption. Comics are drawn about supers, prints are made with them on T-shirts, fan fiction is written about them, selfies are taken in front of them, figurines are made from them, they are invited to appear on TV shows, documentaries are made about them - and all this is sold, and for all this they gain popularity and money, money, connections and opportunities...

Do you understand how many people want to become heroes and fight crime? Anyone who "can" and is included in the Top 100 Heroes of the country receives almost everything that one can imagine and want. In exchange for the publicity of life, hellish training and the risk of dying young and at work, of course. But these are details.

At least that's what all those who skimp on these "details" think. But there are so many of these "everyone" that in every damn city there is a patrol of young idiots with a fanatical fire in their eyes.

They don't get into UA - they go to other academies. Do they lack the strength to become a pro?

They become sidekicks; one Prospector has about twenty of them. They can't even get in? They become street avengers, vigilantes... and naturally get rid of the police and real heroes. But, nevertheless, all this hype really drives the real criminals deep underground. Crime does not like noise - after all, if you make too much noise, then the big fish will actually swim in.

Meanwhile, as I said, I turned six years old. We were allowed to leave the walls of the orphanage for a short time, and were also transferred to study in regular classes at school so that we could socialize. What can I say about the school... A menagerie, in one word.

In Japan, as I knew from the past world, in raising children they adhere to a very, one might say, "contrasting" upbringing strategy - the first years of children are practically not limited, not punished or scolded, which, it seems, lays the foundations of an integral and strong personality . 

And only then, from the moment the child fully enters society, he is subject to dozens of strict and even cruel restrictions: how to behave in public, how to speak correctly, how to demonstrate the right emotions, how to show respect to elders, and so on. In addition, in the Japanese society I know, squeezed by a high population density on a small area of islands, the concept of "not noticing" something that does not concern you is literally elevated to the absolute level. This is where numerous harassments come from. In this Japan, fortunately, this was much easier for everyone, in particular, because of the heroes and their quirks.

Be that as it may, it worked out - and even in the classroom, at school, and during lessons, there was a fairly relaxed atmosphere in which children freely used their quirks (this despite the public ban on their use), flooding the audience with water, setting fire to curtains, sticking classmates to each other, rising into the air, stretching their limbs, growing hair and God knows what else.

I tried to sit in the corner, away from everyone else, and pretend that I was not with them and, in general, that I was an adult and purposeful guy. I'm becoming a real Japanese before my eyes, yes...

During the first week, I was approached once or twice by novice hooligans with conventionally combative quirks, but the only public demonstration of strength - a shadow that increased 2 meters in the height - was enough to keep me almost untouched by all six classes of primary education.

The years flew by even faster... In general, despite the distracting and annoying at times duties like cleaning the room, I liked school. It was fun and, to some extent, cozy here, and the colorful bustle of small classmates amused and brought a smile.

No one bothered me, and being a loner suited me. Of course, none of my school assignments caused any difficulties for me.

But who said that studying at a school whose windows overlook a large park where children run during recess will prevent me from training?

As a result, while we sat and "gnawed on the granite of science", from time to time some shadows began to move, and some children lost control of their bodies. Teachers and educators tried to find the culprit, but I, like a true professional Hero, even a beginner, stubbornly remained silent and did not admit my guilt. I have no time to waste time on your school nonsense, I need to cultivate! Hmm... I mean, train...