Chapter 32: First Contact (Patreon)

The room lay silent as students one and all stared at the exit door where their principal and homeroom teachers just exited not a moment ago. Kendo Itsuka, the class mom or so they called her, cleared her throat and looked her classmates.

“So, what do you all propose we do?” Itsuka’s voice garnered the attention of her classmates who now started looking at her for guidance. “Guys, stop it. We’re all in this together. Kan-sensei would’ve wanted us to work together to see who has the best potential to be our class rep.”

“I say we put it to a vote!” A smug looking blond stood up from his chair and smirked. “What other way is it to be than a democratic vote? That way we know who holds more sway over our own class. That’ll show 1-A who the superior class is.”

“To be honest, what Sir Monoma has said is what I agree on most.” A beastly looking student with glasses raised his hand. “Although his last statement left a lot to be desired.”

“Monoma, please, not now.” Itsuka sighed when she sighted class 1-A looking over their direction when Neito’s voice echoed through the room. “Apologies, class 1-A, he has a bit of an… issue…”

“No problem.” A white-haired freckled teen was the one who responded. Giving the teen a smile, she then regarded her own class, not before throwing a glare at Neito who looked unapologetic.

“So, I guess we all agree on a vote?” None of the class voiced their displeasure at the thought, and Itsuka smiled once more. “All right, to make sure this goes smoothly, I’ll be presiding over.”

Itsuka grabbed pieces of paper from within her bag and tore them into 20 equal pieces. She then gave each student a piece while reserving one for herself. Once that was all done, she headed to the front desk - there were two desks in front, one for each class - and sat on the chair provided.

“Kan-sensei said that we only had to choose the class rep and the vice rep, so write the names of those who think suit the role the most and the follow up will be the vice rep. After that, give me the papers and we’ll count the tallies.”

The instructions clear and concise, the students then began jotting down the names that would lead their class to greater heights. Silence overtook the room once more, their sister class also staying silent as they did the same as them, although the process to even get to democracy a bit noisy due to others wanting to be class reps themselves.

God, the purple midget, she wanted to punt him so badly. What kind of order was shortening the female uniforms’ skirt? That was grounds for suspension via sexual harassment.

At least he got tongue-slapped by their frog-looking classmate. And if she squinted, she could see various other female students nodding approvingly at the action, not that it bothered the purple lech.

Good thing their class was organized and, unlike their sister-class, managed by their caring professor, Vlad King. Eraserhead was a different kind of hard ass, if the stories from the upperclassmen were anything to go by.

It took only the good half of ten minutes for everybody to be finished writing their choice. Coincidentally, their sister-class finished at the same time as well, something that didn’t fly over well with Neito.

Itsuka could already feel the headache with her blond classmate.

One by one, her classmates deposited their piece of folded paper in front of her and went back to their seats. This repeated until all of their pieces of paper were sitting snugly atop the desk.

“Okay, I’ll tally them up. Tokage, could you kindly double-check?” Itsuka gestured for her dark green-haired classmate to come right next to her. Just to make sure that there weren’t any biases. Not that she was one.

“’Kay!” Her head promptly separated from her body and floated right next to Itsuka, leaving her body sitting comfortably at her seat. It made the ginger’s eyelid twitch.

“Tokage…” All she got was a tongue sticking out of her classmate’s lips and a mischievous smirk.

“I can see the results quite fine from here.” Her toothy smirk was all it took for Itsuka to sigh in defeat. Plus, she wasn’t wrong.

“Fine.” Itsuka grabbed the papers and put them in a neat stack. It only took a few seconds of silence and speaking with Setsuna to make sure that there weren’t any mistakes.

And boy oh boy was she surprised.

Kendo - 12

Shoda - 5

Tokage - 4

Monoma - 1

Not surprised at the fact she won the tally, nor the fact that Neito would be egotistic enough to vote for himself - there was no way one of her classmates voted for the egomaniac - but surprised at the fact Nirengeki managed to come right next to her.

He was quiet, humble, and most of the time just kept to himself. But during their own battle trials, he managed to come up with a plan to win their own exercise, as well as give a few encouraging talks with those down in the slumps after their defeat.

Needless to say, the teen would make a great vice rep. Maybe that's why they chose him, she voted for Tokage herself. She could use some help with reigning in Neito’s… eccentricities…

“Well, anybody have a problem with the results?” Itsuka nearly had a vein pop when Neito nearly raised his hand, but fortunately, the blond didn’t and brooded instead. Other than that, nobody had any objections. “So with this, I am your new class representative and Shoda is the vice representative.”

The class gave their applause, and with her overseeing the class, she was determined to not make a mockery of herself, nor her classmates.

She was, after all, their class mom officially now.

Now, who were their sister class’ class and vice rep?

[][][]

Izuku couldn’t help but moan. Ever since the voting was done for their class, he felt like a man on an impossible mission. Lordran could attest to that feeling.

As for why?

“Why am I the class rep?” Izuku groaned once more, with Momo chuckling lightly at his predicament. He glared at the ravenette for that.

“Maybe because our classmates look up to you?” Momo looked at their classmates with a smile. “The battle trials showed us that you know what you’re doing. Days after that, you even helped coach some of us in terms of combat.”

“But that’s combat, and this is this. I have no idea how to lead.” Izuku was truthful when he said that. There wasn’t a time in Lordran where he took the reins when it came to summoning other undead. Whenever that happened, it usually boiled down to them doing whatever they wanted as long as it accomplishes their goal.

“Well, we all have to start somewhere.” Momo chided with a tone mature for her age. “They chose you, we chose you, because we trust in you. It is why we decided on voting in the first place.”

At that, Izuku couldn’t respond. He was unfamiliar with this feeling. The feeling of being relied on. Most of the time in Lordran, it was just him versus the world. Whenever he made a mistake, the only one affected was him. This? Him being the head of a class and responsible for them during their stay here at UA?

It was terrifying.

Izuky usually wasn’t terrified of anything. He wasn’t afraid for himself, nor what might happen to him. But if his actions affected those he cared around him? Now that was something he didn’t dare think of.

Case in point, Siegmeyer, his onion bro. Never did he think that helping him during his journey would lead him to hollowing because he felt inadequate. Drained of resolve and pride for himself, what else was left of the man but nothing?

When he saw Sieglinde crying of her father’s corpse, something within him snapped. But there was no outlet to vent on. He couldn’t take it all out on the grieving daughter, nor the even the mindless hollows roaming about Lordran.

It wasn’t their fault he hollowed. Sure, his logical side said that Gwyn was to blame because of what he did, but most of what happened was a direct consequence of his actions.

He helped Siegmeyer a little too much. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but when hollowing was a factor when you lost the will to continue?

Izuku shook his head.

It was all in the past. He changed. It was why he never got hands-on anymore when he helped people unless they really needed it. Those pieces of advice he gave to his classmates? They were just basic things needed to know when fighting.

No techniques - not that he had any - no secrets, no nothing. Just basic sense. It was up to them to find their own path.

Lest they follow the way of Siegmeyer and lose pride in oneself.

“-ya? Midoriya?” Izuku tensed when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright? You’ve been spacing out for few moments.”

“I’m fine.” Izuku waved her off. This was his own problem to deal with, and him alone. No matter how long time passed, he could never forget that moment… That moments where his heart nearly shattered to pieces. “Just reminiscing… Of a sort. Anyway, what were we doing again?”

“… We were going to meet with our sister class’ class and vice rep.” Momo look of concern didn’t go away. “Are you sure you’re really fine?”

“Yes. You know how memories are.” Izuku waved her off again. He already moved on from that and learned his lesson. He would never coddle a person again, even if it meant serious injury. Better injured than a husk of their former selves. “So, where are they?”

“Right here.” Izuku’s ears perked up and turned to see a ginger student greeting him, along with a chubby, short one. “Aren’t we in the same room? How’d you not notice us?”

“Busy moaning about my new position.” Izuku sighed again but followed it with a smile. “Name’s Izuku. Midoriya Izuku. Class representative of 1-A.”

“My name is Yaoyorozu Momo, vice representative of class 1-A. A pleasure to meet you.” Momo bowed gracefully towards the two students, who responded with a bow as well.

“Kendo Itsuka. Class representative of 1-B. A pleasure to meet you as well, Yaoyorozu.” Itsuka gave the ravenette a slight smile.

“Shoda Nirengeki, vice representative of class 1-B. Nice to meet you.” Nirengeki didn’t give much expression, but the respect was there. Izuku could feel it.

“So, what now?” Izuku questioned with a tilt of his head. “Talk? Sing kumbaya while we wait for our teachers to return? Fight?”

The three other students gave Izuku a look that made him seem like he grew a second, or even third head. Not that it bothered him that much, seeing that he was used to being the one who was barely understood when in terms of his actions.

He was still adjusting, Gwyn damnit. It’s been a few… millennia? Millennia, give or take, since he’s been exposed to Japanese culture again. Or maybe just Earth common sense in general…

Maybe that’s why they stared at him funny when he took his clothes off… Nah, must’ve been something else.

“My apologies for our class representative. He is a bit… eccentric, so to speak.” Momo looked bashful at Izuku’s behest.

“No problem. At least he isn’t… egotistic like a certain someone I know…” Itsuka wasn’t subtle at the way she glared at another blond in their class that was glaring at him and Momo as well.

What was with blonde’s and their temperaments? Katsuki had a temper. His mother had a temper - at least, he remembers slightly that she had a temper - and now this random student that was blond also had a temper.

Izuku could sense the loathing from miles away.

While they were grasping for straws on how to interact with one another, the door to the room opened, revealing Nezu and their two homeroom teachers.

Who were trembling like newborn fawns.

What in Gwyn’s name did Nezu do to them?