Chapter 14 : Hey, wait! I know you!

Hello there!

And here it is! The start of the school life. Koto's going to be going into the first grade.

But Koto is going to have more than his school life to worry about. What will happen? Who will he meet? Who will he choose to be his friend?

Or will he even have a choice in the first place?

Have fun reading! And don't forget to comment!

________________________________________________________________________________

[0900 Hours - Akari Elementary School - Class #3]

It was early morning at Akari Elementary School and students had just gotten in their seats. The teacher hadn't come in yet, so the students were a bit more rambunctious than normal. It was three minutes before the bell before the smarter ones noticed something was off.

Where was the teacher? Doesn't she always come early? She normally had everyone quieted down by now.

The bell rang and everyone quieted for a few moments. They all looked around at each other.

Where was the teacher?!

Some were about to speak when the teacher calmly walked into the room, holding a thin packet in her hands as she made her way to her desk. She set it down and straitened a pen that was crooked on her desk. She didn't sit down yet but cleared her throat and addressed the class.

Teacher : "Good morning, class. Now I know some of you have been wondering what was it that kept me so late. Well. It turns out..."

She put on a cheery smile.

Teacher : "We have a new student that will be joining us today!"

The children looked at each other with excitement on their faces. It was the middle of the school year. It was rare that someone would come in this late. They wondered what type of kid it was.

Teacher : "Now, I want you all to be nice to him. It's his very first day. He never went to school before. Now..."

She gestured towards the door, which she didn't close behind her.

Teacher : "...why don't you introduce yourself? Don't worry. It's ok to be a little bit scared."

The door way was empty, and silence filled the classroom as everybody craned their neck to get a closer look. Some even leaned on two chair legs. Finally, the new student entered the room.

It was Koto, wearing a blue long sleave turtle neck, baggy brown cargo pants, a green cap, and black flip flops. As soon as they saw him, the whole class had one collective thought.

This new student had terrible fashion sense.

Koto centered himself in front of the chalkboard and faced his new classmates. They all stared at him and he suddenly felt all the memories of his past school life flashed before his eyes. All the anxiety, love for learning, friendships and bonds, bullying and harassment, academic and social stress refreshed. He didn't want to have regrets in this life. Not even in school. But he had a mission, and he couldn't afford to prematurely stand out.

It was then he noticed everyone else was wearing uniforms. Everyone except him.

Frick.

The teacher bent down towards Koto with her hands clasped. She still wore a warm smile.

Teacher : "You can just say your name and age, and something interesting about you if you want."

Koto nodded silently. He had to be as uninteresting as possible. Which was hard enough already since he was out of uniform and had a collection of scars over one eye. Luckily, it looked like a good number of the students had already awakened some early form of their quirks. So hopefully that would give him some sort of allowance. When he spoke, it was close to a whisper.

Koto : "Hi. My name is Koto Kaneko. But you can call me Koto if you want. It's shorter. I'm six years old. And this is the first time..."

As he was speaking, his eyes scanned the room. His combat training mode was still lingering in his subconscious from his Lucid session the night before, spotting classroom camera's, evaluating student's quirks, spotting possible escape and entry points, windows that left him exposed to possible snipers from distant buildings, air quality, etc. Then he spotted her.

She was sitting by the window looking at something that had caught her attention for a moment, before facing back to Koto.

It was Himiko freaking Toga!

Himiko Toga. One of the major antagonists and member of the League of Villains in the world of My Hero Academia. She was a crazy serial killer with a literal thirst for blood. Her quirk made her view blood as something akin to delicious food. Due to her parents lack of knowledge of how her quirk worked, they viewed her as a disturbing child. Even a demon. They tried to get her to suppress her urge to taste, look at, or have anything to do with the ingesting of blood. They sent her to a therapist who helped her suppress these cravings. It worked for the most part. But in the end it was not enough. After witnessing a classmate get covered in blood from a fight her mental blocks suppressing the dam of cravings finally broke. She assaulted her classmate to drink his blood and then fled. On the run from the police and heroes, she evaded capture. All the while she gave into more of her untamed craving for blood, letting her urges run wild as she stabbed and cut various people in order to drain them of their blood. She eventually joined the League of Villains, becoming a main antagonist in the main story of My Hero Academia. Towards the end of the series, she dies in order to save a hero she was fighting. Himiko was one of the few characters that Koto wished they made a redemption arc for. Yet the authors killed her off as well as many other favored characters towards the end of the series. It was painful to watch.

But Koto was not going to let that happen. Somehow he needed to find a way to get her to learn to control her urges to drink blood and avoid becoming a villain, instead of mindlessly burying them in an effort to remain normal and then losing control as a result and dying after a long series of misfortunate events. And in order to do that, he needed to get closer to her. He needed to be her friend.

Maybe if he could just bleed a little. That could be a good start.

Koto : "...I'll be in your care!"

Koto finished off with a bow.

Nailed it! Operation Make Friend with Toga is a go!

The teacher instructed him to take a seat. He chose the one close to where Toga was sitting. One row behind and two seats over. Everyone stared at him as he passed and whispered a few things to the people next to them.

Student #1 : "Did you see his face? He looks like he got attacked by a bear!"

Student #2 : "The scar on his eye? I think he fought a bear."

Student #3 : "Maybe he fought a villain?"

Student #6 : "What if he is a villain!"

Student #4 : "He does look like one."

Student #5 : "He probably had an accident with a cat."

Student #6 : "What if he's secretly a supervillain! Like a super spy!"

Student #3 : "That is something only a spy would say."

Student #6 : "I'll never talk!"

Student #17 : "Good!"

Koto ignored them. It was gonna be worse when he got to middle school. He's been there and done that. If they tried to mess with him...

Koto tried to hide his smile with his hand. He looked down and buried his face in his arms. He didn't want to scare his classmates. At least not yet...

Because he was going to terrify these little twerps so hard that they wouldn't want to mess with him ever again.

________________________________________________________________________________

The day went on as usual. The teacher went over some math problems and then they did an activity. Arts and crafts. With numerical stickers.

Koto occasionally glanced at Toga. She looked pretty normal. If you told anybody that she would grow up to be a serial killer, they would think you're insane. She seemed to get along well with others, even going out of her way to help her pears with their crafts. She made sure that they were using scissors properly and told the teacher if someone was being careless. She looked so happy to be helping others.

During the activity some students got up and went to greet Koto. They seemed nice enough, with the occasional question about his scar. He confirmed what some of them had already been theorizing.

A very bad cat scratch.

Koto didn't engage in too much of the activities. He was too focused on how kids his age were acting. They were immature, but they weren't exactly stupid. Some were surprisingly sharp and had a greater grasp of social dynamics than most of their peers. These kids were viewed as the social and the popular. Role models, you could say. They assisted the teacher by helping to motivate their classmates in conducting whatever activities they were doing. Some competition here and there, comparison, encouragement, and even ridicule. Expected.

Koto was using the scissors to cut some coloring paper when he heard someone behind him.

??? : "Careful! It's very sharp. Don't get cut or you will have a booby."

Koto looked over to see Toga looking over his shoulder.

AHH!

Koto : "...Hi."

Toga : "Hi! My name is Himiko Toga. Wanna be friends?"

Well...that was...easy.

______________________________________________________________________________

[To be continued]