"Nurses, please carry out the students safely from the impact site. Thank you" A message sent through the voice system by All Might broke the silence that had stifled the hall. Defeating 2 of the most promising students without even a single quirk used by me and with the help of commonly weak quirk like sticky balls sent the student's jaws on a downward descent, hitting the ground.
I didn't feel any need to interrupt their moment of awe as I walked inside the viewing hall leaving behind my injured classmates helplessly stuck in the mess. However, it wasn't any of my concern to begin with, as I had completed my objective with accuracy and efficiency.
My arrival had finally struck everyone's senses after I tapped All might on his back notifying him of my presence.
"Y-Young.....Ayanokouji! Ahh, there you are. That was quite something...HAH....please take your place and wait for your teammates. Ahem I suppose that was the last one."All Might visibly recoiled at my touch as if worried about an unknown phenomena.
"Excuse me Ayanokouji-kun why didn't you use your quirk?"Midoriya finally asked the question everyone had in their mind as I felt this was the right moment to reveal it,
"It's because I have none."
"O-oh that makes sen-WAIT WHAT?" Midoriya's shrill scream was accompanied with various shocked reactions as if the ground below them had been peeled off.
"Holy hell man, I thought at least you had something similar to super intelligence.But no quirk? Heck, that's manly as hell!" Kirishima's voice was quite excited screaming manly in happiness. I suppose someone is quite delighted at my characteristic.
"But..isn't it unsafe? Like surely as we saw, he is not at all weak but when every one of us has reached our maximum potential, how will Ayanokouji catch up? His limits are his own physical capabilities.There is way more than what meets the eye here. Especially after that badass display Ayanokouji just did."Jiro seemed to be having some grave thoughts about this situation which did hold substance but I had my plans for such an incident as well, but I wasn't going to reveal that.
"That glare of his, still sends shivers ribbit. Honestly, you suit being a villain equally well and I am sorry for being rude ribbit." An unfiltered Tsuyu voiced her thoughts after the commotion was over.
"I understand your concerns but I have no intention of falling behind and speaking of my glare, movies taught me that."I answered their queries but it didn't satisfy Tsuyu at the very least.
"Ayanokouji, call me Tsu." She requested me as I nodded
"Fair enough Tsu. You can call me whatever you please."
"Alright, Kiyotaka ribbit." She agreed as the rest came inside the hall.
"I must say, smart use of Mineta-san's quirk.Well played indeed." A light clap by Yayaourozu had broken the line of thought everyone had focused on me. She seemed alright and that was most probably because of those gummies. After all, broken bones don't heal as fast normally.
"N-not just well played, that's cruel as hell. Hoh I am quite impressed! Once I become the coolest hero out there, you can be a worthy sidekick Ayanokouji!" A pat was given on my back by this slimy violet mess of a boy. I need to remember to wipe his stain off later.
But in the midst of this ruckus, a silent echo of revenge was being reverberated across the room with it's epicentre being Todoroki. His steps towards me hastened every second as his eyes shot up to my level and glared at me with utmost determination, "Ayanokouji, this is your first and last victory."
Saying so, he took his position and looked straight at the screen boring holes into it as if trying to avoid the reality of the situation. He lost to a quirkless, when facing such defeat, everyone reacts differently. Yayourozu has maintained composure but her wet eyes signified another situation. She chose camaraderie over competing while Todoroki chose the opposite. Even if they seem to be from dignified upbringings, their reaction to the situation varied differently.
"All this nonsense and for that, you are just another Deku, fucking quirkless bastard."
Bakugou's explosive growl even after being injured, was commendable
"Hmm, indeed, so how does it feel after losing to another of my kind?" I shot a look at him as I pointed at Midoriya. I pushed this boy's buttons, merely out of curiosity of the various reactions he could portray in anger.His overwhelming amount of antics in anger are quite entertaining in my monotone life.
"Bakugou please stop, this is unbecoming of a UA High student.We are here to be upstanding and honorable her-" Lida tried to calm the situation down but a couple of explosions interrupted him
"Shut up four eyes fuck face. Go teach this shit to someone else. All I know is that this fucking dude got lucky like the shitty Deku and just fucking took us by suprise. Slimy bastards did nothing but trick us, truly they deserve to be villains. Especially Ayanokouji, it suits him well." A guffaw of angry laughs emanated Bakugou's mouth.
"H-He didn't m-mean that right....right?"Midoriya seemed to be sweating bullets of salt and guilt combined. I didn't heed his plea as All Might clapped his hands signalling us to quiet down. Midoriya's reaction earlier to my quirklessness was the most interesting out of all. The moment I said the word quirkless, his eyes trembled and iris dilated to a certain degree only associated with fear.
Fear of being quirkless, which was termed Quirkophrenia in 2098 had such symptoms named after it. Usually, this was rooted either in having a close associate suffer due to being quirkless or being quirkless yourself. Given Midoriya's high empathy, it could honestly be either. There was another condition as well, Astheniaquirkophobia termed in 2191 as the fear of having weaker quirks.
Earlier, Quirkophrenia was a more common condition especially after the Quirk War since almost 40% of the population was quirkless and then Astheniaquirkophobia became a more dominant condition as fewer and fewer people were actually quirkless and more simply didn't have strong quirks. Perhaps Midoriya didn't know the full application of his quirk until recently and felt it was weak. But these are simply theories. He visibly seemed to be shaking with quite a bit of admiration and guilt as well, perhaps by guilt but without knowing his history it's hard to say the root cause of it.
Bakugou however seemed to have a quirkist mentality and quite visibly showed quirkism towards everyone. This isn't a particular crime, but it's looked down upon by about 40% of society. After the actions of revolutionaries in the late 2200s discrimination against weaker quirks or the quirkless has been reduced but the general idea of society is still stringent upon the fact, being quirkless is being useless.
This world has come a long way from the days of outright discrimination against those without quirks or with weaker ones. However, the remnants of that hateful mentality still lingered, like a shadow that refused to dissipate. Bakugou's quirkiest beliefs and behaviour were a painful reminder of this fact to many of the students given their sullen reactions.
Despite the progress that had been made, society still held onto the belief that being quirkless was equivalent to being useless. This mindset led to scrunched eyebrows and judgemental eyes when encountering those without quirks or weaker ones. The idea that some individuals were deemed untouchable or diseased simply for the genetic lottery they had no control over was heart-wrenching. If this was only 50 years back, all that would come out would be insults and degrading comments ranging from, "Freaks and mistakes of god" to "Untouchable" to "Filth and diseased."
Insults and degrading comments were the norm, making life for those without quirks or with weaker ones a constant battle against society's cruelty. The fact that society had made progress was a small comfort, but it was impossible to forget the pain and suffering that had been endured giving rise to social distrust and stigma between the quirkless and quirks.
"Bakugou-shounen, don't cross the line. Treat your classmate with respect, he has been admitted in the same procedure as the rest of you. Any form of visible discrimination may lead to consequences. I hope all of you understand that and be righteous and law-abiding citizens first, heroes second." All Might put a stop to Bakugou's fits of anger as he simply gruffed, but it seems All Might wanted to nail in the fact.
"I want a reply Young Bakugou." All Might's smile dwindled a bit
Bakugou spoke up quite strenuously, "Fucking snowflakes, fine whatever I won't do it again and shit."
"That's much better"All Might's smile returned as everyone was now quiet and in their places. It seems All Might was a different case, he didn't necessarily dislike the quirkless or think they were to be shunned for being weak. Rather he had this innate overprotectiveness that made him hesitant of having me as a student in this department.
Whether that was a sign of a good or a bad teacher, I wouldn't know.
"Now everyone, who do you think carried out this task the best? You all have watched the scenarios, so I am sure all of you have your own thoughts. Now is your chance, young heroes in the making." All Might finally gave us a task to think about.
A thin silken wrist raised itself from the mass as Yayourozu explained, "Sir without a doubt I believe Ayanokouji-san did the best. He carried out his role with utmost diligence, everything from his actions to this strategy was similar to a high-class villain. If I had to guess, he took reference from the late 2030's case of the Silent Zodiac where he had assassinated over 40 heroes, with just a camouflage quirk. Ayanokouji's mannerisms were a one-on-one copy, in fact, a better picturization of him."
It seemed she realised that I had read up on the book written on him, quite throughly. She was right to an extent but I had read a few other books and created an amalgamation rather than a copy.
She continued after taking a breath,"Acting aside, his planning was different from plans usually made by us. We generally make a plan and hope it works,if it doesn't we create a backup. But for him, our actions itself formulated a plan, it's as if every action simply was simply a variable to add into his equation, where the result always will be his victory.
If Todoroki-san hadn't barged in and waited then as far as I noticed, Ayanokouji-san would cover the gate with the sticky balls and given their adhesion the only option Todoroki-san would find would be to freeze them and that would be the formation of his second plan. The adhesion added to the freezing cold would simply break the door into pieces but it would cause enormous backlash to Todoroki-san giving him hypothermia from the amount of ice he would need to generate. After that too, Ayanokouji-san would win. So at the end, it wouldn't matter, what Todoroki-san did, stay or not the result was inevitable."
If I felt emotions, I would be scared of her intuition. She was quite right up to a certain degree, but she didn't mention my plans if she had come along first. If Todoroki had let his ego rest and allowed Yayorozu to enter the room first, then such a causality wouldn't happen, and they would have a 2% chance of winning. Unfortunately, Todoroki's nature was apparent from the start and was taken into account.
"T-That seems to be quite through. You are bound to have a bright future young Yayorouzu. A hero should always have a keen and observant eye. Many battles are fought only on observation my young heroes. I have always used my strength as I have enough of it, to not think through every situation. However, everyone has a different threshold. Harness that threshold and keep your eyes open, that's how a proper hero is formed." It seems the book All Might was desperately trying to hide behind him did come in handy 'Teaching for Dummies'
I would argue back on some of the points that she made, but given that this will boost my social standing to average, I wasn't going to complain. Right now my quirklessness, put me in a below-average category, which wasn't the most optimal so this definitely helped.
The bell rang and finally, it signalled an end to this eventful day. However, I had a premonition things would get messier as the days pass.