Previously on Latibule:
"I'm not pitying you, Bakugou — you truly are strong."
He scoffed, indicating that I should leave him alone. But I couldn't leave without making a point. "I'm gonna be honest, Bakugou. You're not the strongest. But that's okay." He gave me no reaction whatsoever. "You're stronger than most and sometimes that's enough, is it not? Think about it."
I walked ahead of him, respecting both him and my safety.
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Latibule — Chapter 9///The Media
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I got off the bus and walked up the hill, my brows furrowed at the commotion that was in front of the school. It seemed like a bunch of reporters were trying to get students' attention for whatever reason.
I was also pulled in front of the microphone by my shoulder. "Hey," I exclaimed softly, shrugging the hand off. I liked my personal space, thank you very much.
"What's it like to have All Might as a teacher?" a microphone was shoved in my face and cameras were filming me from every angle.
What's it like invading people's lives? I wanted to counter but instead gave a polite smile. "He's got his own way of teaching, like everybody else here."
"What's his way of doing things?" The microphone came even closer.
"Miss," I started a bit uncomfortably, staring at the reporter, "I don't know, I've had only one lesson with him."
"Is he a good teacher?"
I staggered back, away from the crowd and the microphone. "I don't have enough information to give an adequate answer to that."
"But what do you think?" The reporter seemed desperate.
A rough hand landed on my shoulder, pulling me away. "I think that if you keep pestering us, we'll be late," Bakugou huffed, pushing me towards the school.
"Oh wait, aren't you that sludge villain kid?" the reporter realized, starting to follow us.
Bakugou let go of my shoulder to stuff his hands into his pockets. "Walk away," he huffed.
I gave a somewhat apologetic smile to the reporter before speeding up my step, feeling bad for the next victim of the press. "Thanks," I told Bakugou, stabbing his side with my elbow.
He took a step to his right, away from my touch. "Don't mention it."
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"Decent work on yesterday's combat training, you guys," Mr Aizawa said, basically making us feel as if we had been complimented. "I saw the video feeds and went over each student's results."
I scrunched my nose a little at the mention of results. Mine had been pretty bad, after all.
"Bakugou." Mr Aizawa looked at the boy. "You're talented so don't sulk like a child about your loss, okay."
Bakugou looked away from our teacher's gaze. "Yeah, whatever."
"Midoriya." Midoriya stiffened with embarrassment. "I see the only way you won the match was by messing up your arm again. Work harder and don't give me the excuse that you don't have control over your quirk — that line's already getting old. You can't keep breaking your body while training here." Mr Aizawa looked down before the next sentence. "But your quirk will be really useful if you get a handle on it, so show a little urgency, huh?
Midoriya looked up gratefully with a new hope in his eyes. "Right!"
I smiled at the expression before turning my gaze back to the front of the classroom.
Mr Aizawa sighed before turning to me. "And L/n. You should at least try to give it your all."
I looked at him, baffled. "Sir, I did give it my all."
Our teacher, however, ignored my objection to his statement and turned to the whole class. "Let's get down to business. Our first task will decide your future."
I froze in place, my previous worries forgotten.
"You all need to pick a class representative."
I started breathing again, leaning back into my chair as my mind went to what Mr Aizawa had said once again while everyone else started yelling, trying to get picked for the job. I leaned my cheek into my hand, staring at the desk. I did do my best... I repeated although I wasn't sure of it anymore. Did I?
I played over the fight in my head — I had almost managed to take Todoroki down, hadn't I? I just wasn't quick enough.
Quick...
I remembered the first day, how I channeled the energy into different body parts to help me. Realization hit me like a truck. I probably could've used that! I sighed, knowing that Mr Aizawa had been right. I had only used a fraction of what I knew I could do, not to mention completely ignoring the possibility of improving further.
I'll do better, I promised myself, looking up with determination.
"We'll vote," Iida declared, making me look behind me so I could assess the real situation.
"Hm," I let out before leaning back into my chair once again, waiting for further instructions.
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I had given my vote to Kirishima, not knowing what else I could do. Bakugou seemed too hot-headed and Iida's entire existence just clashed with something inside me so they were out of the question. Midoriya was a nervous wreck and Kirishima was the last of the four people I really knew anything about so that's how I decided.
The results were shown. I had gotten a single vote. Surprising, but thankfully not enough to give the big role to me. I wasn't really sure I could do it if I had to.
"How did I get three votes?!" Midoriya exclaimed, terrified.
I glanced at the top of the chart. Momo Yaoyorozu was the second person on the list with Midoriya being the first. The latter was more surprising, really.
"Okay, you idiots," Bakugou yelled, standing up, "who voted for him!?"
Bakugou's yells of anger didn't change the result and Midoriya was soon standing in front of the classroom, shaking more than a leaf in the autumn wind. Yaoyorozu beside him wore a deadpan expression, honorably accepting her role as deputy.
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As I arrived in the caféteria, I was struck with the problem of not knowing where to sit. The first few days, I had just sat wherever there was an empty table, so as to not disturb anybody, but today I couldn't see one.
I almost started contemplating going to eat in the hallway when I heard a voice. "Hey, L/n!" I turned to see Kirishima waving at me with a bright smile. "Come over here!"
I quickly sped up my pace as I weaved through the crowd, managing to get to the table without any mishaps.
Kirishima scooted over and I took a seat, giving him a smile. "Thanks."
"Hi!" a pink-skinned girl gushed, leaning a bit above the table to talk to me as she was sitting across from where I was sitting. "I don't think we've been properly introduced, I'm Mina Ashido!"
"Y/n L/n," I smiled, shaking her hand, "pleased to meet you."
"Denki Kaminari," a yellow-haired boy spoke up from next to Mina, gesturing to himself, "we have somewhat similar quirks. It's almost funny, really."
"And I'm Hanta Sero," a boy said, his triangular smile ever-present as he took over the talking from Kaminari who was sitting next to him. "You must already know Bakugou," he added, gesturing to the boy sitting across from him and next to Kirishima.
"Yeah," I smiled before taking a bite of my lunch while browsing my mind for a conversation topic. "Did you also get stopped by the reporters this morning?"
"Yeah, it was kind of crazy," Kirishima nodded, apparently getting my idea of avoiding awkwardness.
"I dunno," Mina drawled, "I kinda liked the attention. It felt like I was a celebrity."
"I don't know how pro heroes do it," Sero shrugged, making my eyes turn to him, "it seems pretty exhausting."
"I agree with Mina," Kaminari piped in, jabbing a thumb towards the girl to his left to punctuate his sentence. "It could still get tiring after a while, though."
I felt Kirishima shift his body to look at Bakugou. "What about you, Bakugou?"
"I think they're just wasting everyone's time."
Kirishima sweat-dropped. "Optimistic as ever, aren't you?"
An alarm started ringing, making me flinch with surprise as the talking died down in a matter of seconds and everyone listened to the intercom. "Warning. Level three security breach. All students, please evacuate the building in an orderly fashion."
In a few seconds, the cafeteria was far from orderly. Everyone was pushed around, many were yelling. Kirishima took my arm. "C'mon, L/n, we should go."
I shook my head, denying any logic. "I don't want to get pushed around, I'll wait for the crowd to go before me."
Kirishima frowned. "Are you sure?"
I nodded, going back to eating. If this was the last meal of my life, I wanted to make the most of it.
"We'll see you outside," Mina cried out, voice an octave higher with panic, before she was carried away by the crowd.
Barely half a minute later, the cafeteria was empty and I stood up, taking my dishes away. I found it odd to be so irrationally calm but then again, I didn't feel any panic. I made my way out of the cafeteria, my steps' echo seeming like the only sound in the world.
The halls were eerily quiet, I couldn't even hear the distant shouts of students. My stomach was churning, my gut telling me that something was up.
When I passed the teachers' lounge, the door was slightly open and I heard muffled talking inside. Curiosity got the best of me and I pushed the door slightly so I could look inside. The talking came to a stop. I peeked my head around the edge of the door and saw purple wisps of someone's quirk disappearing into thin air. Otherwise, there was no one.
It occurred to me that I was looking into the teachers' lounge without permission so I quickly took a few steps back and jogged to catch up with everyone. However, something inside me made it known that I shouldn't keep what I had seen to myself so I formed a plan to find Mr Aizawa after the day was over.
Shortly, I arrived in the corridor full of students but everyone seemed pretty calm and they were walking away from the exit, not towards it. A hand landed on my shoulder. "There you are," Kirishima exclaimed before noticing my puzzled expression. "It was just the media, don't worry."
I nodded wordlessly, looking around. Something didn't sit right with me. If the media had quirks great enough to break through U.A.'s security, then why weren't they heroes? And who was it that I had seen? Or rather — who I had heard?
"You alright?" Kirishima frowned, steering me to walk back towards our classroom. "You're a little pale."
"Yeah, I'm fine," I breathed, shaking my head to clear it. "Let's get to class."
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"It's time, class rep," Yaoyorozu reminded as her and Midoriya stood in front of the classroom, "let's begin."
The boy was shaking, his head between his shoulders as his voice shook with nerves. "Okay, so, um, we need to figure out who the other class officers will be," he stammered, "but first," he stopped shaking and straightened himself up, "there's something that I want to say. I thought a lot about this and I think that Tenya Iida should be our class rep!"
Everyone seemed just as confused as I was as we waited for Midoriya to explain his decision.
"He was able to capture everyone's attention and get us in line." At Midoriya's words, my mind flashed back to what Kirishima had told me I missed. "So I believe he should be the one leading our class from now on."
"Y'know, what?" Kirishima spoke up. "If that's Midoriya's decision, I'm good. Plus, he was a big help — he totally manned up and took charge, right?"
"Yup. Oh and did you notice how he looked like the dude on the emergency exit sign when he was on the wall earlier?"
"This is a waste of time," Mr Aizawa deadpanned, not letting anyone answer Kaminari's question. "I don't care who the rep is, just hurry up." Mr Aizawa went back to the ground to continue his nap.
Iida stood up. "If Midoriya is nominating me for this job, then I humbly accept. I pledge to carry off the duties of class rep to the best of my abilities!"
"Sounds good, emergency exit," Kirishima grinned.
Kaminari was right there to back him up. "Emergency-Exit Iida. Don't let us down, man!"
Yaoyorozu looked disappointed. "But I got two more votes than him!"
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As the day ended, I quickly packed my stuff so I could catch Mr Aizawa before he rolled away... or however he moved with that sleeping bag of his.
"Mr Aizawa," I called, picking up my pace after he stopped to wait for me.
"Yes? What is it, L/n?"
"During the security breach," I started, noticing him tense up a bit although his expression remained neutral, "I heard someone talking in the teachers' lounge."
"Couldn't have been, everybody was outside, dealing with the media."
I nodded in agreement. "That's the weird part. The door was open so I looked in and saw nobody. There was just this purple... mist." My teacher's eyes narrowed. "But only for a few seconds," I added, observing his troubled expression. "Is something wrong?"
He put a hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to worry about it," he assured and I could almost see the ghost of a smile. "But thank you for telling me."
I nodded before taking a step back. "That's all I wanted to say. Have a good day, Mr Aizawa."