Chapter 51 - A against E

It was only my second day in Yuei, and I was sure of two things:

1. Bakugo would worship me by the end of the semester.

2. Neito Monoma was some kind of wobbly sociopath.

When I said that Bakugo would come to worship me, I meant that he would worship me after hating me with all his soul. My favorite activity was to irritate him - I estimated that after shouting as much as he currently was, he wouldn't be able to speak for three and a half weeks - and since he didn't intimidate me and was also very sensitive, he was nothing but a ball of nerves that exploded as soon as someone breathed too close to him.

"Yo, Todoroki, right ?"

I turned reluctantly to Kirishima. I nodded briefly and he seemed relieved that I hadn't ignored him. My attention was drawn back to a Bakugo who was attacking a gang of students from another class in the corridors.

"Don't you think you should stop him? Since you're buddies and all" he tried to justify himself.

A mocking smile briefly crossed my face.

Who put such nonsense into his head ?

"I'm doing this for the good of the class" I explained in my most neutral voice.

"You see, Bakugo is the kind of person who yells to express himself. I estimate that if we exhaust him on a more or less regular basis, we should be able to get at least three days off a month while his vocal chords recover"

Kirishima looked at me as if I were the most brilliant being he'd ever met. I studied him for a bit, then turned my attention back to the blonde.

Such a fool.

The truth was, I found Bakugo entertaining: watching him scream and get excited over nothing was the only thing that kept me from gutting every A student with my bare hands. I thought the anime was exaggerating, but apparently not: each of them seemed to be the personification of a good and pure being, filled with kindness and benevolence, and simply trying to make friends with their fellow people. Every time they opened their mouths, I saw nothing but metaphorically vomited rainbows.

Despite his objectively insufferable personality - except when he kept his mouth shut - Bakugo was the most down-to-earth and least naive of them all.

I wondered how the other students would handle the coming events - how would they react if someone died ?

It would be an interesting sight to see.

"Here, keep this for me"

I shoved my helmet into Kirishima's hands and, before he could say a word, I walked over to Bakugo, hands in my pockets.

"Oï Bakugo"

He looked up at me - as did two of the other three senior students, in heroic for sure. The last one was bent like a square, face down, the Bakugo's hand gripping his neck.

"What do you want ?" he spat angrily.

"If you want to antagonize someone..."

I placed my index and middle fingers on the boy's neck, pushing a pressure point.

He squealed and his face turned red with pain.

"Make sure you do it right"

Bakugo stared at me in surprise before returning to his usual expression of controlled rage. He placed his two fingers where mine had been, and the boy winced again in pain.

The blonde seemed to think, then looked at me again and finally decided to speak:

"Why don't you stop me ?"

"Why should I stop you ?" I retorted, my hands back in my pockets.

My eyes darted to the other two students and they shrank nervously.

"Because it's not very 'heroic' and 'plus-ultra'," he replied, mimicking quotation marks with his fingers.

"Who cares" I said.

My answer didn't seem to satisfy him, so I added:

"I arrived at the same time as you, on the other side of the corridor, and I saw those buffoons" The three boys shuddered "trying to intimidate you into doing their bidding. If it had been me, I don't know if I would have done any better than you"

In fact, I would have done a lot worse, but he didn't need to know that.

I sighed dramatically and added:

"Look, Bakugo, I don't know how you're going to handle this, but almost everyone in our class thinks you're a total bully"

I pointed briefly at Kirishima behind me, which he noticed, his red eyes narrowing.

"Personally, I don't care, but if you're going to take the risk of doing things so openly, make sure it doesn't come back to bite you"

I'd be really disappointed if the only semi-normal person here got fired.

He seemed to be about to ask me something when a third person appeared:

"Todoroki, Bakugo !"

Both of our heads turned towards the new individual. Neito Monoma seemed to be beaming with joy, a huge smile on his lips. There was something strange about him, as if he was straddling the line between 'weird but socially acceptable' and 'downright crazy and unapproachable'.

The way he smiled reminded me of Touya when he was alone with me and seemed to be thinking about smothering me with a pillow.

"Harassing students without me ?," he laughed, his eyes sparkling.

Bakugo had gone on the defensive and was about to retort, but I cut him off first:

"Yes, I showed Bakugo how to take a man down with just two fingers" I said.

Bakugo gave me an incredulous look. Monoma lit up.

"Can you show me ?"

I shrugged and without warning, grabbed the lanky glasses wearer on my left. He struggled a little, but two fingers on his neck brought him to his knees.

"Oh, like that ?"

Monoma imitated me and brought the third boy to his knees.

"A little more like this," I said

"Push harder like that, I see" he said aloud.

"And then it's just a matter of holding him down"

"Hmm, I see, I see"

Bakugo blinked in disbelief, his eyes darting between Monoma and I.

"Oh, Bakugo used a different technique," Monoma noticed.

"A little cruder, but it works, too" I admitted.

My comment woke the teen from his semi-lethargic state.

"Nothing rude about it," he grumbled.

I let myself be pushed as he took my place, holding both boys down with a firm hand.

"See? Better than your fake stuff"

He was still muttering, his ears red and his eyes not meeting ours.

"Yeah, but when you – ouch !"

Aizawa brought his hands down on Bakugo and Monoma's neck like a divine judgement, striking the back of their skulls.

I easily dodged the folded newspaper he threw at me. His bored gaze followed me as I straightened up.

"It's only the second day and you're already harassing a bunch of students" he grumbled.

Neito and Bakugo froze when they recognized our teacher's voice.

The teacher's force them to bend, putting them parallel to the floor. His bored black eyes took in the silhouettes of the three boys who had straightened up and stepped back.

"Which class are you ?"

"We- we're in-third Bs," stuttered one, fidgeting with his fingers.

Their heads were bowed, embarrassed and uncomfortable in front of the authority the dark haired man represented. Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

It didn't take a mind reader to know what he was thinking: it was really ridiculous for a bunch of seniors to be picked on by new students, especially when they were three years younger.

"Just go back to your classes," he sighed.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and Monoma and Bakugo stood up, putting some distance between themselves and Aizawa to avoid getting hit again.

The three 'stalkers' slipped away without another word, fingerprints shamefully staining the skin of their reddened necks.

The professor took a deep breath and continued.

"Bakugo, the next time a gang of students attacks you, seek a teacher instead of dealing with it yourself"

The camera I'd noticed overlooking the corridor and Aizawa's earpiece - which all the other Yuei staff members I'd met also had - explained how he was aware of the whole situation without witnessing it.

"Shoto, don't help your comrades antagonize others. Next time, try to prevent things from getting out of hand"

Even he didn't believe what he was saying: he was just doing it to clear his conscience.

And also to clear his name in the future, should a similar situation arise.

He turned to a smiling Monoma.

He seemed at a loss for words. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with mixed feelings about the boy.

"Try to find other ways to bond with your classmates instead of humiliating others"

Monoma tilted his head to the side in confusion.

Then the bell rang.

"Everybody in class" Aizawa grumbled.

He sighed (again) and pushed us into the open room.

The students were already seated and looked at us with varying degrees of concern and apprehension.

It seemed that Kirishima wasn't the only one who had witnessed the little scene...

It was really entertaining to see how Bakugo and Monoma made everyone feel uncomfortable in different ways.

Maybe I should stick with those two ? They seemed to be natural repellents to extroverts.

There were three empty seats in the middle of the room.

I wasn't surprised that no one wanted to sit next to Bakugo, but it was more surprising to see that someone had given up their seat to... oh no, Inasa had actually sat right in front of me, taking someone else's seat, who in turn had taken

Neito's original seat.

We sat down, me in the middle, Bakugo to my right and Monoma to my left.

I crossed my fingers that Inasa wouldn't bombard me with questions.

I didn't trust myself enough to hope that if he did, I wouldn't bang his head against the desk to shut him up.

*

Author's note :

Look at our carefree Shoto enjoying his nice, happy life, devoid of problems.

Would be one hell of a boring story if it stayed like that.

Power stones objective of the week : 185

P@treon : Nar_cisseENG, where you can read up to 50 chapters ahead. 

See you in the next update everyone !