9 A rivalry that saves those around them

"Once, twice, thrice... How many times would one have to count to get things done?" The man punched the white wall making it crack. "You see, how many of them have we killed till now? And yet those bastards keep coming back again and again."

A woman wearing metallic armor covering her from head to toe kneeled down and spoke. "Milord, I believe there must be a way to intervene in this matter, if you give me permission, I assure you I can track down the ones responsible for interfering with our work."

Blinking the man calmed down and sat on his throne made with human bones, he slowly massaged his chin as thoughts ran across his mind. While he thought an old butler entered the room carrying a plate with a cup with a cold orange liquid inside.

"Milord, here you are."

The man who had most of his face covered by a white mask based on a woman's face took the cup and drank its content in a single gulp. "Ah... That's why I like this country, look at this fresh orange juice, in japan, this thing tastes like shit." He gave the cup to the butler who nodded at him and left.

"You know, this shit is taking too long, I don't care if they aren't that afraid of me, if it's a war that they want it's a war that they'll receive. Lynx, take your subordinates with you I don't care how much you have to spend, find them all and make sure they won't see the sun again, also, make this a message, no family members must be left alive as well, we have been playing this game long enough, now it's time to show true dominance, this country will be mine."

"Yes, milord!" Lynx bowed and turned away, as she walked forward, the space around her started to contort as if it couldn't support itself on her presence, in the next second she disappeared inside an anomaly that disappeared just a second later.

...

Feeling the fresh air of the morning Minoru smiled slightly and kept walking, the grey sky covered by clouds wasn't that bad, it's very unusual for it to happen in April, but it makes the travel to school more comfortable.

As he walked towards the school gate, he could hear the other students speaking about some matters but one specifically caught his attention.

"Hey did you read the newspaper? There has been a series of murders recently, they are speaking about dozens of dead in the course of a week, the police says it's something related to gang fight but I don't believe it, I talked to a friend of mine who reported one of the murders, he said that they literally destroyed the person, cutting them in countless pieces, and used their blood to write messages in some weird language in the walls."

"What!? How did a common conversation end up on this topic? Is there something wrong with you?"

"C'mon, don't be like that, what I mean is that the police isn't telling everything, there's definitely something bigger happening."

Minoru stopped for a moment as Blake appeared in front of him for the first time in weeks.

"Blake, it has been a while, why did you suddenly dissape-"

Before Minoru could finish, Blake interrupted him and quickly said. "Minoru, I want you to find a club activity to do, training and researching are good to become stronger, but you mustn't forget about another aspect of life, power in and on itself isn't a bad thing, but when you seek power for the sake of power you risk falling into a black hole from which you'll never escape. It doesn't matter if it's for your friends or those you love, make sure to have something in your heart that you want to protect, that's the only way to make sure you'll succeed.

"Remember, power as a mean, and not as an end." As soon as he finished saying that his body vanished completely, leaving Minoru alone once again.

Contemplating on what he just heard, for the first time, he had to admit that he couldn't understand what he meant. But even then he decided to remember those words from the first to the last word.

Blake's methods are difficult to understand and he always seems to have an underlying meaning in his words, if he's saying those things, it's because there's something important about it, something that he needed to know.

But this came with a problem he never thought he would have to deal with, club activities? Just what should he do? Not once in his life had he participated in such things, they were like a mystery for him.

Coincidently today he was hearing quite some people talking about clubs at the school gate.

"Hey everyone! Don't you want to learn how to use the sword? Como to our kendo club!"

"Don't listen to those cowards that fight with wooden swords and protection! Our Kenjutsu club is much cooler and has pretty girls!"

"You're good with numbers and want to be rich someday? Come to our software club!"

All in all, he probably heard more than fifteen people talking about clubs but they didn't seem attractive in any way...

As he entered the school he went past Awase and Yui, they were sitting together in the corridor, after greeting them he kept walking and went inside his classroom, there weren't many people yet, there was still thirty minutes until the class started.

In the end, all that he could think of was about becoming the class representative or vice representative, no matter how much he worked his mind around this matter, he simply couldn't think of a club to be part of... 'Honestly, what was Blake thinking? I should probably turn him down this time.'

"Oi! Mineta, good morning." Denki and Jiro entered the classroom and sat down around him.

"Good morning Mineta, what are you doing here so soon?" Jiro asked as she took out some sweet from her bag and started eating, it was a small cake.

"Good morning... I always come this time to study and reflect a little, this time I was thinking about entering one of the clubs here at U.A." Minoru leaned his back to the chair, raised his head, and closed his eyes.

"A club huh... That sure is interesting, I still remember the last one I was part of." Denki smiled and thought about his days back in junior high school. "At that time I was part of the tennis club, we would stay there until 8 pm and the girls were always watching us."

"Pfft, 'us'? All I remember are the girls staying to watch Kaminari-San, he was the most popular guy in the school, you're just so so."

Denki coughed and looked at her with a frown. "Weren't you there as well?"

"Yeah, to look him playing, what about it?"

This time he coughed blood and almost fainted. Denki couldn't believe how easy it was to lose an argument with Jiro, she must be one of those internet warriors who spend the whole day practicing argument contests...

Minoru smiled slightly but didn't answer, he couldn't make a decision now so there was no reason to waste his time thinking about it non-stop, at least that way he could save some brain-power for later.

After some time, the other students and arrived as well as their first teacher for today's ordinary subjects, Ectoplasm would be teaching them mathematics.

"Good morning everyone, I hope you guys are ready for some action because I won't stop at anything to squeeze your potential to the fullest! When I finish with you this year, you'll become the students with the best grades when it comes to mathematics!" Ectoplasm was a great hero that has been teaching at U.A. for quite some time. He was tall, slender, with white eyes tilted inward, and was using his usual hero uniform, a big beige overcoat with a black skin-tight bodysuit with a golden striped neck area with a matching helmet that covered his entire head.

"To make things better, we'll skip the self-assessment part which you guys will do as homework to give me next class, and today will be an oral test/challenge, there is no need to do well in it, but whoever manages to answer correctly will be awarded one point which can be used to increase your grade at the end of the year."

Hearing this everyone gulped and prepared mentally for the task, they were thinking this would be a normal class, but it seems that they knew too little about the teachers at U.A. not even here they had some time to breathe.

"I'll ask the question and whoever feels that can answer may stand up and say it out loud for everyone in the class." He took the chalk pen and smiled. "The first question: A nursing assistant must work 30 hours a week. Due to an accumulation of service last week, he needed to do 12 overtime hours. The fraction that corresponds to how much he worked more than expected is..."

Before anyone could move, Momo and Minoru stood up at the same time, noticing this situation they looked at each other and blinked, Minoru was about to seat down and let her speak, but Ectoplasm noticed this and stopped him.

"Good! Such fierce competition! Alright, the two must answer at the same time as well then, if one of you fails to answer correctly, none will receive the point!"

"EH?!" Everyone gasped, wasn't that a little too much?

Tenya hearing this nodded, he, and a few other students figured out his intentions, as future heroes, they must always think not only of themselves but of their companions as wells, their actions have real consequences in the real-life and this now is an example of one such thing, if one of the two answers incorrectly both will be affected negatively.

Gulping Minoru looked at Momo, and after a moment, he nodded at her, he was confident he knew the answer, she nodded as well and they looked at Ectoplasm and answered in unison. "Two fifths."

"Hahaha! You two are correct, congratulations, you both received a point, now to the second question!"

He kept asking questions non-stop, with each one he would increase the difficulty, at the beginning, everyone tried to participate, but as things got more and more difficult everyone became increasingly dumbfounded and watched Minoru and Momo fighting.

"Rays of sunlight are reaching the surface of a lake forming an x-angle with its surface, as shown in the figure. Under certain conditions, it can be assumed that the luminous intensity of these rays, on the surface of the lake, is given approximately by I (x) = k. sin (x), k is a constant and assuming that x is between 0º and 90º.

"When x = 30º, the luminous intensity is reduced to what percentage of its maximum value?!!!" Ectoplasm asked with a voice full of energy as he supported himself using both hands and the table, behind was a drawing representing the question.

"Fifty percent!" Momo and Minoru looked at each other with a frown, she couldn't believe someone here could face her like that, she wouldn't accept this! No matter how many questions Ectoplasm made, she would answer them all!

Hearing this everyone looked at the two as if they were freaks, whenever Momo and Minoru were competing, the answer would come usually in just a few seconds, they couldn't believe those two skills.

"You know what, I think I was mistaken, look at how fierce Mineta is right now, I think I can see the two's auras colliding." Denki who was seating at the seat behind that of Mineta turned and whispered to Jiro.

"Um, I agree, those two aren't that suited as I thought..."

"HAHAHAHA! YES! THIS IS THE SPIRIT! PLUS ULTRA!" Ectoplasm started laughing and lifted his hands upwards before clenching them in a fist and saying. "You two, tell me your names!"

"My name is Yaoyorozu Momo, sensei."

"My name is Mineta Minoru, sensei."

"Good, I like your spirit, at the end of the year I want you to participate in the local mathematics competition representing the school, don't even worry about your grades in this subject anymore, I'll prepare a personalized curriculum for you two, and then-"

Before he could finish the school bell rang and he blinked his eyes for a moment before recomposing himself. "Well, that's it for today, I see you all in two days, don't forget your homework, farewell."

Seeing the teacher leaving everyone breathed in relief, finally... their brains wouldn't hold on for long, with Mineta and Momo around at least, they had a lot of pressure removed from their backs...