Arthur POV
However once Tsuyu and I crossed the door to class, we stopped. I hadn't realized, maybe because my mind has been elsewhere, but all of class 1A was being blocked at the other side of the door by students.
The hallway was packed. Students from different classes had gathered, creating a wall of bodies that stretched from one end of the corridor to the other. Some were whispering among themselves, others were openly staring at us with expressions ranging from curiosity to barely concealed hostility.
I could hear the heartbeats of each and everyone once I came to my senses, and my senses were pretty good.
"They're checking us out, before the battle, fucking extras," Bakugo said at the front of 1A. "It's pointless for you guys to even try so why don't you all just fuck off."
I sighed.
Of all the ways this could have gone, Bakugo had to choose the most inflammatory approach possible.
I could see the tension rising in the crowd, faces darkening at his words. Some students were already clenching their fists, I heard more than a few muttered curses directed our way and worse than that I could literally hear their heartbeats quicken as their rage built up.
Bakugo, was a headache sometimes.
I guess I was class president, so I'd have to take charge, right? That's what presidents do, isn't it? Handle diplomatic crises caused by their explosive classmates?
I moved to the front, to be alongside Bakugo, careful not to jostle anyone as I navigated through my clustered classmates. Kirishima gave me an encouraging nod, while Kaminari whispered good luck, man, as I passed.
"I came to see what the famous class A was like, but you guys seem pretty arrogant," a purple spikey haired kid moved to the front of the crowd. His eyes were in one way... tired.
Dark circles underneath them suggested he hadn't been sleeping well, and there was something almost hollow about his gaze.
He kind of reminded me of Aizawa-sensei, if Aizawa-sensei was a student and had even less patience for nonsense. "Are all the students in the hero course like this?"
The crowd murmured in agreement.
May I repeat.
This was a headache, maybe even a headache and a half.
Bakugo and the kid stared at each other intently, and I could see that familiar look in Bakugo's eyes, the one that usually preceded explosions and property damage. His hands were already starting to smoke slightly, small wisps curling up from his palms.
Again I wanted to sigh. This was exactly what we didn't need right now.
Oh and speaking about headaches, more specifically the head part...
My hand reached towards Bakugo's head, my palm made contact with his spiky blonde hair, and then I pulled it downward making him bow towards the student. I could feel his muscles tense under my grip, like a coiled spring ready to explode, but I maintained the pressure.
"I'm sorry, you see Bakugo is rather intense, as you can see, he has no ill will towards you," I said, keeping my voice like I did whenever I went out as a vigilante, reassuring, firm. "Don't you Bakugo?"
Bakugo's hands began to sparkle, small bursts of ignition coming from his sweat. The acrid smell of nitroglycerin filled the air, and several students in the crowd took a step back. His red eyes met my blue ones, and for a moment I thought my actions had been counterintuitive and he was going to explode, literally and figuratively.
He... in God's good graces... actually stayed quiet.
His hands fell to his sides as the sparks never got anything more than that. I could hear him grinding his teeth, but he didn't say a word or make any aggressive moves.
I lifted his head from the bow, and let go, but kept myself positioned between him and the purple-haired student, just in case.
"Tsk," I heard Bakugo click his tongue but didn't mind it. At least he wasn't screaming death threats or telling them that they were extras, or some other thing like that.
"Hello I'm Arthur Pendragon, class president of 1A, nice to meet you," I said, extending my hand for a handshake towards the purple-haired student.
He looked at my hand with those tired eyes, may I repeat they looked almost exactly the same as Aizawa, it made me feel bad, that he wasn't sleeping well. His own hand started to rise, stretched out toward mine, however just as he was about to grab my own, his hand went to the back of his neck, then he began to scratch.
The gesture was weird, making me tilt my head to the side.
Why had he done that?
"Hmm, at least some of you have some manners," he said, his voice carrying that same tired quality as his eyes. "Still, seeing something like this makes me disillusioned. There are quite a few people who enrolled in general studies or other courses because they didn't make it into the hero courses. Did you know that?"
I nodded. "I figured as much. The practical exam isn't exactly designed to showcase every type of quirk effectively. Kind of sorry about that."
"The school has left those of us a chance," he continued, his gaze sweeping over not just me but the entire class behind me. "Depending on the results of the sports festival, they'll consider our transfer to the hero course."
"Sounds like something Nezu would do," I interrupted, unable to help myself. "He loves competition. He'll probably be watching while he sips tea. No, not probably, it's definitely while he's drinking tea. Probably Earl Grey, knowing him."
People began to look at me weirdly, students from both the crowd and my own class. Even the purple-haired guy looked at me strangely for a moment, his tired expression shifting to something more confused, before his eyes returned to that weary look.
Behind me, I heard Mina whisper to Kaminari, "Does he just...know the principal personally or something?"
Wait hadn't I told them about my relationship with Nezu? I was sure I... oh wait, no, I was misremembering weirdly enough the only person who knew about how close Nezu and I were was probably Nejire, she had asked me, and I hadn't seen a reason not to answer.
"And it seems they may also transfer people out," the student continued, ignoring my tangent. "If nothing else, a general ed kid like me is thinking. Hey, why don't I try pulling the rug out from under those heroic kids while they're on their high horses." His voice grew more intense, both of his hands falling to his pockets, his tired eyes looked into mine. "Consider it a declaration of war."
Some students were nodding enthusiastically, while others were cracking their knuckles or stretching, as if preparing for a fight right here in the hallway.
I looked at him for a bit, processing his words, then I smiled.
"Look, I get it," I began, again my voice exactly the same as I had when I had been a vigilante. "The practical entrance exam doesn't exactly give everyone a fair advantage, since some quirks aren't meant to be used against robots."
I saw his eyes narrow slightly at my words, and I wondered if I'd hit closer to home than I'd intended.
"But it is what it is," I continued. "You were given a chance to change into the hero course, and that's great. That's more than fair, actually. But you guys don't need to come to our class, block the door, and create bad blood, especially since if you do transfer to the hero course, we'll be classmates."
The crowd was listening intently now, their earlier hostility tempered a bit, after all I was being quite reasonable, and it was true, why create conflict, I get it, this was a competition, but actually getting mad at each other helped no one, least of all ourselves.
"So, please let us through, as I'm getting quite hungry and I'd like to get lunch, along with my compatriots," I said, gesturing to my classmates behind me. I could hear Kaminari's stomach growling in agreement, which drew a few snickers from the crowd. "As for the U.A. Sports Festival, I wish you the best of luck."
I struck my hand out once more, making it clear that this was a genuine offer of respect.
Again the purple-haired kid looked down at my hand with that tired gaze, was he Aizawa's secret child or something, because it was uncanny.
"It's rude not to shake a person's hand and introduce themselves," I said gently. "I mean, you've already said your monologue, so what do you say?"
After a moment's hesitation, he grabbed my hand. His grip was firm.
"Name's Hitoshi Shinso."
"Nice to meet you, Hitoshi Shinso," I said, giving his hand a solid shake.
"Nice to meet you too, Arthur Pendragon."
With that, he began to walk away, and the crowd gathering around 1A parted around him like water. The tension in the hallway decreased noticeably, though it didn't disappear entirely.
"As for the rest of you," I said, addressing the remaining students, "it was nice meeting you and I wish you the best of luck for the U.A. sports festival, but I think it's time for you ladies and gentleman to go." I paused, letting my gaze sweep across the crowd. "Now."
The effect thankfully was immediate and they began to shuffle away from our class. The hallway slowly returned to normal foot traffic levels.
I was about to turn to look at my classmates, feeling pretty good about how I'd handled the situation, but before I could do so, I heard a person yell from somewhere behind the dispersing crowd.
God, what now? We were gonna miss lunch at this rate!
"HEY! HEY! HEY! I'm from class B, I heard you knocked around with villains or whatever so I came to hear it directly from you!"
The voice was loud, enthusiastic, and completely oblivious to the fact that I had just spent several minutes trying to de-escalate a tense situation. Several students who had been walking away stopped and turned back, drawn by the commotion.
Please. Lunch. I couldn't restrain myself anymore.
"Stop yelling for the love of god, we get it!" I called back, my diplomatic patience finally reaching its limit. "Now please be quiet or I'll go talk to Kendo about you, whoever you are! Yaoyorozu, please tell me who he is!"
Yaoyorozu walked over to my side with that efficient stride of hers, already pulling out her phone. She opened it up and quickly scrolled through what looked like a chat group, then whispered in my ear.
"He looks like Tetsutetsu from what Kendo and Shoda sent us in the class president group chat."
"Thank you, Yaoyorozu," I said, then raised my voice again. "Now you, Tetsutetsu! Head back to your own class or to lunch, but stop holding up the crowd! Or I'll snitch to Kendo or to your teacher! You hear me? I'll snitch!"
The threat of involving Kendo, who was apparently well-regarded as a responsible class president, had an immediate effect. Tetsutetsu suddenly reddened, and he bolted without another word.
"Yeah, that's what I thought!" I called after his retreating form, then turned to the rest of class 1A, who were all just staring at me with various expressions.
Mina and Kaminari were wearing particularly weird smiles on their faces, the kind that suggested they were either impressed or plotting something. Probably both.
"As for us," I announced, throwing my arms wide in a gesture of triumph, "we go to LUNCH!"
A/N: Ngl kind of disappointed with the power stones, we didn't crack the top 10 unfortunately, I understand it's probably because I don't have any power stone goals like I used to, but honestly I probably couldn't keep up that rate as I'm starting college soon, like in a week's time.
Also that Leo the lion king story, just absorbs powerstones. 1.6k that's insane lol! It's also probably cause we lost a lot of readers, like a LOT, but not much I can do there since at the end of the day this is my story, and I want Arthur to develop from the perfect naive hero archetype to something more like Proto Arthur.
Still I will do one thing, I will put two powerstone goals. Top 5 and Top 3. I think that's fair and an actual rate I can keep up with (I hope this doesn't sound like I'm whining, I still thank everyone for the comments and support).
Thankfully I could rant about this since I don't have much to say about this chapter aside from the fact that Arthur while not great at school, or planning stuff or socially is pretty fucking good at de-escalating conflicts since he mostly did that when he worked as a vigilante.
That's pretty much it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thx for reading. Author out.