28 Chapter 27 – Interview

Raiko's POV

Real Time – Six months before cannon

I ended my morning training session with Kyotaka and thought about what I would do today. To be precise, about my interview with Nezu for a teacher post in UA, I would teach Quirk Analysis to the hero classes of all three years if I was hired.

I bid farewell to my student and one of my only friends, before opening a portal leading to my room. Yeah, I had been growing closer to her these last few weeks, since I had begun training her, and she was the only person, I think, that I could qualify as a friend.

That was a bit sad, I know, but I was really bad a socializing, as I was more mature and had completely different interests than my classmates when I was still in school. The fact that I skipped grades every few months certainly didn't help.

Sure, I had a couple of acquaintances or people who were friendly to me, but I don't think they qualified as friends, most of the time, they were people I worked with.

Still, it was nice to spend time with Kyotaka, even if I was only teaching her, the fact that she was more mature than the majority of teens her age helped and that, after she had gotten off her initial "fangirlism", she was less overbearing, we found out that we got quite well along, which certainly helped her training and was probably the reason I had continued to teach her after she had learned the basics and everything she needed to know not to get caught or killed easily.

While I was thinking about my near non-existent social life, I showered and put a nice suit on after. In short, I was getting ready for my interview.

After changing into something appropriate, as going to the interview in Knockout's Vigilante costume would be kinda risky, I took a look in the mirror and I must admit that I had grown up nicely.

I stood at a good 6'3", which is quite tall in Japan, even with all the quirks out there. I had wild, but not too long jet black hair and blue eyes and all my years of physical exercises had paid of. I wouldn't say I was bulky, but it was clear that I had muscles, I was well built. I was wearing a custom-made black suit that I often used during police of hero meetings, it made me look professional and serious.

Once I was done admiring myself, I took the bus to U.A., since I was still too young to have a driver's licence, thought I was trying to receive a special permit.

After an hour or so, I finally arrived and I must say that the building was impressive, it even had a security barrier. It was the first time I saw the prestigious hero school because I had not placed any finger-spies inside it. Why? First, because I had no need for it, it's a hero school and second, because if there was one person in the world who could figure out my quirks, it was U.A.'s principal, Nezu, who was probably the most intelligent being in Japan.

I used an identification key to get past the security and entered the main building. Not long after, a secretary came and told me Nezu was expecting me. She led the way to his office and left me in front of the door.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous to meet Nezu, but it wasn't, because I was worried I wouldn't be hired, I was sure I would be hired, but because I was fearing he would discover my secret identity as Knockout. After all, I, the most wanted criminal in Japan, would be hiding in plain sight, in front of Japan's most intelligent being.

A quick use of Emotionnal Manipulation later, I wasn't nervous anymore and I finally entered the Nexu's office.

The office was…Well bland except everything was child-sized, or more exactly, Nezu sized, which was quite inconvenient given the fact that I was twice his height. Nexu himself was seated, not behind his desk as I had expected, but on a couch, with a chess game in front of him.

It seemed that this interview would be more interesting that I had originally thought it would be, it was no secret that Nexu himself was a master at chess, it being one of his favourite pastimes. Fortunately, I was also extremely talented at it, and my enhanced intelligence and the fact that I could hold up to three simultaneous trains of thought at the same time made playing against me extremely hard.

I sat down in front of him, in another couch, and the mouse-bear-dog chimera in front of me, Nezu, spoke first.

"M. Shuzenjii, pleased to meet you. Would you like some tea?"

"No, thanks for the offer. Although if you have some coffee, I would not decline." I declined his offer, as I truly wasn't a tea lover, but coffee, though…It was another story.

"That could be possible as well", he replied, standing up and walking toward his teapot.

While he was preparing the tea and coffee, he truly started the interview and started to ask me questions.

"M. Shuzenjii, you are here to be hired as Quirk Analysis teacher in this school, we both know that, but tell me about yourself. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, everything!

"Well, I'm sure you know this already, but I am a Quirk Analyst working with the police for several cases and got my Quirk Analysis degree a few years ago. As for my likes and dislikes, well, I like coffee, quirks, especially analyzing them, and to imprison villains. My dislikes, wasting my time, not serious people and mango. Finally, as for my hobbies, I sadly don't have a lot, as I have been focused heavily on my studies, and then on my work, but I am very proficient in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, I'm sure a couple of teachers here can confirm it to you. I also like to play chess and Go, but there isn't really more than this."

For a couple of minutes, the interview continued with the standard questions like "Why do you want to be a teacher" and "Do you think you are the most suited for this job? Why?", to which I replied that I didn't want to see future heroes die and that I, well, the papers I wrote, were literally the reason why the Quirk Analysis course was created.

After a while, we started playing chess while he continued to interview me, and I'm pretty sure he did it because he wanted to see get me distracted when I answered his questions. Unfortunately for him, I could have up to three trains of thoughts, and two of them were on the chess game while the final one was answering his questions.

At a certain point, our game of chess got more and more intense, so Nezu stopped the interview to focus on playing properly. It didn't matter because he wasn't asking important questions anymore, though.

After a couple of minutes, my child-sized opponent was frowning, hard, while thinking of ways to salvage the game, as I was going to win pretty soon. Yes, he was smarter than me, but because of my simultaneous train of thoughts and the fact that I was very intelligent myself, I could analyze nearly every single move possible before making a move, it was like playing against a computer, but worse.

As I predicted, it didn't take long before I won and I could see it in Nezu's face, it was the first time in a long time that he had been beaten at this game. Maybe the outcome would've been different if he had played seriously since the beginning, but ironically, it was he who had been distracted by the interview.

Following a couple of seconds of silence, Nezu spoke once again.

"Congratulations, you're hired. You'll receive your schedule by mail soon. Welcome to U.A!"