BNHA || white lie

05

The weather is nice today.

You walk along the sidewalk, alone. Usually the path was crowded with students clad in the same uniform as yours, the benches occupied by couples flirting and hugging or friends talking and giggling. You were among them, once, smiling and chatting up a storm.

Now, the sight of them always made you a bit jealous.

When you reach the main school building, you scan your student ID and unlock the glass doors. You slip in quietly and make your way up the stairs. Your first class is math. The familiar door comes into view, chestnut-colored wood with a singular rectangular window, giving you a peek inside. You are an hour and a half late, but your teacher is kind and accommodating.

You walk past it anyways.

Trudging up three flights of stairs, you finally reach your destination. Your eyes light up triumphantly, but sadly the feeling is fleeting and dies down fast. You pull your ID out again and bring it up to the scanner. It beeps twice, before displaying the routine error message.

Access denied. You click your tongue at the familiar text and stuff your card back in your bag. Whatever. Not like it's stopped me before.

Closing your eyes, you can see the area beyond the door: the roof. You reach for it and pull yourself through the expanse, past the door and onto the concrete flooring on the top of the school. The space around you warps and shifts to accommodate your sudden transfer. When you open your eyes, you find yourself taking in the view of the roof, surrounded by a flimsy chain link fence, and sigh in disappointment. Your Quirk has worked perfectly--again.

How boring.

---------

"Every period you will change classes. Your schedules are all the same, so help each other out."

Akiko leads the foreign students through the halls. She approaches a door and pushes it open, revealing an empty room. In the front are three large screens and a single desk and podium, dwarfed by the sheer size of the room. They face rows and rows of long tables, with seats lined up nicely behind them. Each row is raised higher than the one before it, like stairs.

"All first-floor classes are subjects that are lecture-based, like history and ethics. Instead of classrooms, we use lecture halls."

She shows them a class on the second floor. It is a normal classroom, with individual desks facing a larger one and a whiteboard at the front. "Second-floor and third-floor classes are the same, and are more hands-on work. Mathematics and certain hero studies, for example."

As she finishes speaking, a bell rings through the building. Muffled voices suddenly sound from the other classrooms before their doors burst open and students in gray uniforms fill the halls. Some glance at class 1-A curiously, but all of them choose not to approach the new faces and make their way down the stairs. Some stay, whispering and giggling; they steal quick glances at the young heroes-in-training, then turn back to each other, chattering in rapid-fire English.

"The bell. . .what is it for?" Iida asks their guide.

"It's our lunch break. We get 45 minutes to eat, longer if you don't have a class after. You all do, though," the tan-skinned girl replies. "Perfect timing, too. That just about wraps everything up. The cafeteria is in an extension of the bottom floor. There are tables inside, but you could eat anywhere. I have duties as the student president, so if you'll excuse me."

Akiko leaves quickly, leaving behind a class of bewildered students in her wake. They stare after her until she disappears from sight, then turn to each other nervously.