Episode 11. Part III.

I expected my first day at U.A. to be tough, but I didn't think it would be awful.

I was late for my summons to the principal.

By the time I remembered it; by the time I shook off the blonde clinging to me, her eyes rolled back in something suspiciously resembling an orgasm; by the time I cursed my way through disinfecting the bite wound and stopped the bleeding with hemostatic gel—and again shooed away Toga, who was afraid I'd back out of the "deal" and was trying desperately to help with something, like a big dog that keeps climbing onto your chair and getting in the way, getting in the way, getting in the way...

Her bite hurt. Really hurt. Not wanting to risk the faint chance that I could gain control of this... bloodthirsty guinea pig, I gritted my teeth and endured. But I decided that next time, I'd find a simpler and less painful way. Maybe just ask the nurse for medical syringes and needles? Then I could collect the blood and let her drink it from a bottle or something…

God, am I really making future plans about this?

Only a minute later did I connect the dots and see the symbolism—she bit me not just because she lost her mind to her bloodlust and didn't want to waste time. No.

Himiko also did it because I told her half an hour ago to drink blood from my hand. Honestly, I didn't expect her to actually do it, "she's not an animal"... so, what was she showing me by doing it? Was she acknowledging my... my what? I wasn't sure. My authority? My leadership?

Her deep amber-yellow eyes, with which I had locked gazes for several minutes, filled with pain and awkwardness, stayed in my memory for a long time.

Remembering the meeting I was now ridiculously late for, I shoved the girl wearing my t-shirt on her bare body out of the room and bolted out myself—right into the bewildered gazes of Shoto Todoroki and Hanta Sero, who clearly didn't expect someone to bring a girl into their room on the first day of school.

A girl who would leave bite marks on your body, no less.

Oh...

Too bad I couldn't cover my face while running.

Shoving a few more items into Toga's hands to make her look at least a little more decent, I rushed to U.A., slapping a bandage onto my hand crookedly on the go. It didn't occur to me, for some reason, to stop by the nurse's office first, which would have been a perfectly legitimate course of action. Maybe.

I reached the building. Using my Quirk would have been excessive, so I just hurried through the corridors, going from one room to the next. I had already studied the U.A. map and downloaded it onto my phone, but there was no principal's office listed.

Probably near the teacher's lounge... nope. Not there. Where is it...

Found it. Third floor.

I knocked.

"Shoda-kun, come in, come in," a cheerful voice immediately called out.

I entered. Bright room, office desk, large window, cabinets lining the walls. Nothing unusual—except for the owner, whom I didn't notice at first.

"Um… Principal?" I cautiously asked. I had no idea what to expect from this meeting, and it made me uncomfortable. I don't like losing control over a situation.

There was some rustling from the direction of the desk, and then a nose appeared.

Then its owner. Furry.

A creature resembling a plump white mouse, about half of a meter tall by estimation, sat behind the desk. In a suit. And not just any suit—a fancy one, the kind I had never worn in my life. Not in the past one, nor in this one.

"That's right! It's me, Nezu, who might be a dog, or a rat, or a bear, but most importantly… I'm the principal!" the mouse in a suit cheerfully announced.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say. Apologies for being late, I… uh… was helping a classmate with... an emergency caused by her Quirk?" I asked the room, trying not to stare at the mouse in a suit.

Seriously? A mouse in a suit.

"It's! All! Right! Take a seat, Shoda-kun. Aizawa-kun has already informed me about the situation. And about his own oversight too! Unfortunately, neither he nor our testing committee were aware of that effect of the girl's Quirk. It's lucky you were there, thank you! I trust Toga-chan is all right?"

I nodded. That turned out well.

"Good, good!" the mouse exhaled with relief and genuine joy. "Now, to business. I called you in to discuss a few interesting topics that concern you. But don't rush to get nervous, it's all good things!"

Well… okay?

"First of all, thanks again for stepping in when your classmate enlarged the robot during the entrance exam! We didn't immediately realize that it was no longer responding to the control module's commands. A Quirk affecting electronics, huh? Very interesting!"

I nodded again and smiled a little. So far, everything was indeed going smoothly.

"And today, I thought—once, you knew something important and figured it out faster than others, then, quite soon, a second time… hmm, if it happened a third time, I'd definitely think you knew something the others didn't! Something very important!" the mouse in a suit said with a playful tone, and I felt a cold wave wash over me.

Damn it.

"But, maybe it's just my imagination," Nezu waved a hand and leaned forward conspiratorially, "And here's something else: it's not the first time we've had students who studied together before! Even this year, there are others, like Midoriya-kun and Bakugo-kun."

I began to relax a little, trying to figure out where he was going with this.

"But this is the first time in my entire career that four students specifically requested to be placed in the same class with you, Niren-kun! That makes you a very special student! I see you want to ask something?"

Whoa. Not one of them told me...

I cautiously asked who the fourth one was. It's not that I minded hearing all four names, but while it was obvious for both me and Nezu that the first three were Yuui, Setsuna, and Toga, the fourth... Kyotaka? Mashirao? Midoriya? Someone I didn't know yet?

No point wasting extra time conversing with a smart person. I figured he'd consider my question about the fourth one logical, and…

"Oh, I see you've already guessed the identities of the other three, huh? I bet you thought, 'no need to waste time,' right? Haha, fine, I'll help you a little," the mouse winked, lowered his voice, and said, "Yui Kodai."

Wait, what?

I stared at him, and he clapped his hands:

"What a wonderful girl and what a wonderful gesture, who would've thought, right?"

I… don't understand his logic. How did Yui end up being the last one? He knows she's my classmate, he just said so. Hmm. Maybe I'm just being slow.

… could it be about the order in which they approached the school administration?

"Um… okay, but can you tell me the rest, please?"

"I can!"

I waited for a moment, but the mouse just kept smiling pleasantly.

Is he… trolling me?

The behavior of the fluffy principal threw me completely off balance. I had no idea what to expect or what he was trying to achieve. Does he not like me, and is he showing me my place? Not funny—he's the principal, and I'm a powerless student; if he wants, he can expel me. Is he trying to get something out of me...

Nezu didn't let me finish my train of thought and calmly continued:

"Well, now that we've covered that and you don't have any more questions..."—I choked on air at this point—"let's continue! I won't hide it: not all members of the entrance exam committee viewed your actions favorably. Some didn't like your independent initiative and violation of the exam rules, even though they weren't written ones, and some found it suspicious how well you navigated the Center's grounds…"

The mouse-principal paused meaningfully, twitching his whiskers on one side of his face—what I figured was his version of raising an eyebrow—but I remained silent, like a fish.

"Hmm… you're not much of a talker, are you?" Nezu smiled. "Then let's play a game. I understand you're not a gambler, but you're curious, right?"

I had no intention of replying to this either, but Tail left me no choice:

"Come on, Niren-kun, it's simple. Just repeat after me: 'Principal Nezu, what game?' Come on!"

He stared at me expectantly, like I was a glass of milk that hadn't yet turned into cheese, and I, giving in, muttered:

"What game? Principal. Nezu."

The said fluffy principal clapped his hands joyfully, like a child, and began pacing excitedly across his desk:

"Wonderful, Niren-kun! And the game is very simple, look: you ask one question, I answer, then I ask—and you answer! How's that for a brilliant idea, huh? Let's go!"

The crazy mouse placed his hands on his hips and proudly puffed out his chest, further emphasizing his belly.

I blinked. The principal of the best superhero school in the country called me in to play a game?

Well, what choice do I have...

I thought for a second or two. I clarified.

"Can I answer a question with another question?"

"Of course!"

I opened my mouth, ready to ask my first question, but Nezu stopped me with an uplifted finger:

"Wait, wait, Niren-kun, you miscalculated! You've already asked your question, now it's my turn! Let's play fair!" the mouse nodded importantly.

When did I… ask…

His beady black eyes showed no emotion, yet I could feel in my gut that he was laughing at me.

"Can I answer a question with a question?"—the question I had asked, right?

I silently and calmly nodded, suppressing the urge to yank someone's whiskers off.

"And now, for the second round, yippee! Have you ever thought," Nezu suddenly turned sharply and pointed a finger at me, "that you're not alone? Maybe there are others, people like you, who share your burden... hmm?"

I broke into a cold sweat.

What is he talking about? Who is he talking about, damn it?! Heroes? Geniuses? Other reincarnated people? Amplifiers? That I'm taking on too much? That…

"Thought so," I blurted out thoughtlessly in response, because that Jerry was still waiting for an answer.

"Excellent!" he replied cheerfully. "Wonderful. Now—your turn!"

Is he serious?

The few questions I had prepared vanished from my mind, so I just gestured around the office, meaning the whole of U.A., and asked where they get the money for all this.

"I play the stock market. And now," he clapped again, "my turn! Niren-chan"—I cringed at the overly familiar nickname—"tell me, why are you hiding the nature of your Quirk?"

I gripped the armrests of my chair tightly.

"You see, observing you from a certain point of view, it's quite obvious that you don't have a typical 'amplification' Quirk. Of course, I could lay it out in detail, but it must be obvious to you as well, so I won't waste our precious time. So... why?"

Okay… stay calm, everything is under control. I knew this moment would come sooner or later.

I had a backup plan for what to say, in case I got caught.

Though, I never imagined in my worst nightmares that I'd be exposed on the very first day...

Fine. Plan B.

I nodded slowly, consciously forcing myself to stay calm.

"Yes, I don't have a typical amplification Quirk. I... was saving the details for the sports festival. After all, they highlight promising students there, so I... I just didn't want to fall behind those lucky ones, which is why I wrote it in my resume, since I'm not inferior to them in abilities," I stared at the mouse with honest, naive eyes. "I can release… something like energy pulses from my hands and feet, or even my whole body. It's like waves of energy, I guess. I can push myself, I can push objects."

To demonstrate, I used a weak marker above my palm, causing a pop and a gust of air. I finished speaking and sat quietly, waiting…

Nezu smiled again and shook his head.

"You don't trust anyone, do you?"

Goddamn it.

I squinted and twitched the corner of my mouth, giving no other sign of how much this portable Sherlock Holmes was getting on my nerves.

"It's my turn now. Principal."

"That was a rhetorical question, Niren-chan! As I understand it, unlike Midoriya-kun and most of your classmates, you don't need to learn the basics. I'll direct you later to someone with a similar Quirk, who might help you unlock its potential even more!"

I nodded again, feeling slightly skeptical.

The next ten minutes were an emotional-intellectual rollercoaster, courtesy of Nezu, keeping me in constant tension. Just when I started to relax, thinking the tense moment had passed, Nezu would instantly, as if stabbing with a rapier, hit me with an unexpected question, and I'd grit my teeth and manage to answer somehow. Forget about counterattacks—I was barely keeping up with catching my breath.

It was a total defeat. It felt like I was conversing with a monolithic wall, as if he already knew in advance what I was going to say or ask. One might think he was a telepath, reading my thoughts—but no, I knew what Quirk Nezu had. A genius intellect.

At one point, it was again my turn to answer, and the rodent, probably for the third time, asked:

"Tell me, Niren-chan, why don't you trust me?"

Throughout the conversation, I had been holding my own and keeping my mouth shut, but here I let slip a bit too much:

"Can you really be trusted one hundred percent? You're…"—I realized who I was talking to—"well..."

"An animal!" the animal prompted.

"... not a human," I managed to finish awkwardly.

At my slip of xenophobia, the principal outright burst out laughing. A laughing rat.

A rat laughing at me.

"I regularly engage in discussions with a number of scholars about the modern definition of a human, so I could argue either way," the mouse cheerfully explained. "But what makes you think I'm not human?"

This time, I realized where he was going and felt like an idiot. But I couldn't get out of the trap I had set for myself.

"The internet says you're an extremely rare case of an animal gaining a Quirk," I said resignedly.

"Niren-chan, you seem like a smart guy, you could've figured it out on your own!" the furry collar "lamented," and I mentally added yet another little jab to my black list. "My appearance is due to my father's Quirk, whose Quirk factor I inherited. It's just genetic 'junk' that Quirks accumulate, phenotypic manifestations of the body's adaptations, that's all."

He scratched his belly with a paw.

"And as for what they write online…"

"Yes, I started those rumors myself and continue to support them," the rat smiled sweetly.

Against my will, I leaned forward and asked:

"Why?"

"I don't want to leave the wrong first impression... but, heh-heh, I'll tell you. You see, Niren-chan, it's better that people fear a revolt of small animals... than what someone with a super-genius intellect might do to them."

At that moment, I genuinely felt a chill. Those absolutely inhuman, expressionless, cold black eyes were terrifying; it was all too easy, looking into them, to forget the comical exterior and believe that an overwhelming mind, unbound by morality or ethics, was gazing at the world through them…

I shuddered.

Nezu was delighted, clapped his hands—and the eerie spell was broken:

"Now it's my turn again! Niren-chan, tell me, how did you achieve such a level of control over your Quirk? Even Aizawa-kun noted that your control is exceptional! Although wait, wait, don't answer… you, um… trained, right?" he speculated, putting a paw to his face, mimicking deep thought.

I bit my tongue because "trained" was exactly the word I had intended to use in my reply.

"That doesn't count as a question, I was just theorizing out loud!" he declared.

"Of course," I nodded, feeling irritated. Why does he break the rules he himself set? Is he just trying to drive me crazy? Testing if I'll snap and tell him exactly what I think? Will I refuse to continue the dialogue entirely?

Of course, I wouldn't refuse… not now. There's too much at stake.

The oversized mouse mused:

"By the way, you've raised quite a lot of suspicion with Aizawa-kun…"

Nezu leaned over the desk and asked conspiratorially in a lowered voice:

"You're not a spy, are you, Niren-chan?"

These intellectual games were getting on my nerves. And on top of that, he was cheating.

So I did what I always do when I can't find an elegant way out or around a conflict—I butted back like a ram:

"I'm definitely not. What about you?"

Nezu laughed.

"Let's stop playing, I'm tired; it's hard to think, so hard, so hard... you don't mind, do you?" he asked, pulling a massive cigar out of his desk drawer and apparently preparing to smoke.

I dislike cigarettes and cigars. Never understood the desire to harm one's body for momentary pleasure, and even more so, to harm and inconvenience others around, for whom passive smoking is just as bad, if not worse.

So, being tired and quite irritated, I took the bait:

"Actually, I do obj…"

Nezu, not letting me finish, lowered the end of the cigar into a hole in the desk, chopped off the tip with some built-in device, the name of which I don't know, then waited for a flame to ignite in the hole, and began "roasting" the cut end as if it were a kebab.

All the while, I had to sit there and stare at this… this…

Finally, the principal puffed with satisfaction, exhaled, and the room was instantly filled with a suffocating, thick, acrid smoke.

My eye twitched.

Damn it, he's playing my nerves like a guitar. I tried to calm myself.

The plush jerk pointed the glowing end of the cigar at me:

"When you want to talk again, come by, we'll definitely chat! Do you play chess or Go?"

After a pause, I shook my head:

"I play both, but not with you."

"Afraid to lose?" He puffed again, and I tensed again. His squint with those beady eyes looked very peculiar.

"Afraid… no. I'm certain I'll lose, which is why I don't want to waste my time."

"Well, well… you're too hard on the boy who was called a genius at four years old, whose parents were convinced he had an intelligence-boosting Quirk. And who turned down a recommendation to our Academy."

Just… f*ck.

At this point, I was completely speechless and couldn't find a response.

Good job staying under the radar, huh, Niren? Hid your intelligence well, didn't you? Who'd be surprised by high intellect in an anime world, right? Played the f**king spy games, huh… in the sandbox while the grown-ups assessed your usefulness. Played and lost. Just fantastic.

"Well then, I won't keep you. But I do hope for a game or two of chess, with your composure you'd make a very interesting opponent! For a few minutes," the principal chuckled softly, and I mentally wished for him to shut up and silently suck on his brown smoldering dick.

"Don't forget, Niren-kun, that playing against a much stronger opponent is the best way to grow and become stronger yourself!" he raised a finger in a lecturing manner. He's mocking me, the rat in pants! Go gnaw on some cheese in the kitchen, rodent!

I tried to stand without doing so too abruptly. Then, as respectfully as I could manage, I nodded and finally moved away from the desk.

My nose itched from the smoke, but my fists itched for other reasons.

From behind me came a calm and barely—just barely—slightly mischievous voice:

"I'll be waiting, Niren-kun, when you come back for a rematch… in our verbal duel! Do come by!"

He reads me like a children's book.

Damn xenos.

***

By the time I pulled myself together and made it to our classroom, it was empty. The end of the first day, after all, and everyone had already left long ago: some went home by bus, others—headed to their dorms. Even Yui and Setsuna, they still had to unpack their clothes and suitcases.

Some overly energetic classmate, probably Mina, had left a note on the board with a goofy horned face: "Whoever's last has to clean!"

I sighed.

There wasn't much to clean. None of the students, not even the blond variety, had yet had the audacity to make a mess on the first day at U.A. Nevertheless, I swept, straightened the chairs, erased the board, and gathered up the leftover pamphlets.

I glanced through them with little interest and learned nothing new—I already knew the schedule and teachers.

And just when I was about to leave the classroom, I felt my marker in the hallway. Hmm… someone… not moving, waiting. Yui? No, too short. Setsuna? No, markers never stick to her for long. No, it's…

I closed the door behind me—and turned to the blonde girl I had decided to save.

Who now stood by the wall, wearing the brand-new hero school uniform—a short skirt, one knee forward, eyes closed.

Waiting for me.

The yellow eyes snapped open, and her lips curved into a smile…

"Hi, tast... Niren-kun. I'm so happy to see you! So happy!"

She sweetly pressed her hands to her cheeks, blushing deeply, and exclaimed:

"I think I really, really like you!"

Well, I kind of expected something like this.

"Hi, Himiko. I… hate honorifics, so let's drop them. Just Niren, just Himiko," I said, starting my usual speech, habitually trying to buy myself some time to think.

I'd need to find out if her head had been treated somehow before. Toga-sensei mentioned something about it… I should call her father soon. Maybe I can learn something useful.

We headed for the exit of the building.

"Okay, Niren! Whatever you say!" she chirped, bouncing alongside me on my left. Then, blushing furiously, even more than Midoriya, she asked, "So… are we dating now?"

I stumbled.

Author's Note 1:

The well-known publicist Eliezer Yudkowsky—the author of "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" and a writer I look up to in my own work—formulated, or rather rephrased, Vinge's Rule for writing smart characters: "A writer's hero cannot be significantly smarter than the writer."

You can read more about it here: https://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/level2intelligent

Nezu, the principal of U.A., has super-intelligence. This is not something I or anyone else can fully portray. You can only use tricks and strategies outlined in the article.

However, the general idea behind their dialogue was that Nezu lower Niren's guard at first, and then chose a tactic that infuriated and unbalanced the usually calm MC—who isn't a genius but a well-prepared pedant who tries to plan his every move and who expects, above all, logic from Nezu's super-intelligence. When there is no logic and only chaos, pedantic rationalists usually get flabbergasted, lose control and reveal themselves.

And yes, you can be sure that the principal calculated everything that could be calculated and even more. You might think he's a mouse, but he's not a mouse. He's a troll.

Author's Note 2:

Major update: I found a job that's pretty much a dream for me. However, I've been working a lot these days, and it's getting harder and harder to find proper time for fic uploads—and I'm not even talking about the actual writing.

This means there's a high chance my pace will drop much sooner than I expected. Kind of already happening. I don't like the idea of missing upload days, so I'm giving you a heads-up. I'll try to stick to the chapter-per-day pace at least until the end of Vol. 2, but delays here and there are probably inevitable at this point.

Thank you for understanding.