"And how do we prove that X is not a real number?"
The math teacher's voice remained firm and steady as he moved across the blackboard with the confidence of soone who had explained the sa thing too many tis to ever doubt himself. The chalk squeaked slightly as it traced symbols, formulas, and interdiate steps that, for most students, were nothing more than a sequence difficult to follow.
Reiji, on the other hand, barely paid attention to what was happening at the front of the classroom.
Not because he didn't understand it. But because he had seen it before.
In his previous life, he hadn't had a formal education as such, but the Commission had taken care of that. Any field agent had to be capable of handling logical, mathematical, and analytical reasoning with no margin for error. Age didn't matter. Context didn't matter. It was part of the standard.
If he was in the classroom right now, it was more of a minimum requirent to maintain the facade of a "student on a scholarship for heroic rits."
He let out a slight sigh as he settled in and kept his gaze on the blackboard without really focusing on it. His mind was elsewhere.
Two weeks had passed since the mission in Musutafu.
Two weeks of continuous training, both physical and ntal, with a lingering feeling that wouldn't quite go away.
The image of the child he'd left behind kept coming back intermittently; he didn't know what kind of joke his mind was playing on him, but it definitely wasn't funny.
She exhaled softly through her nose, without making a sound. She refocused her gaze on the blackboard.
Beside her, a girl had been watching her for several minutes.
Dark hair, a neatly pressed uniform, a slightly stiff posture. She held a small letter in her hands, folded carefully, as if she'd repeated that gesture several tis before making up her mind.
She'd tried to speak to him.
Twice.
Both tis unsuccessfully.
Reiji had noticed it from the start.
And he did nothing about it; his mind was too preoccupied to help him reject her.
The girl took a breath, this ti with more resolve. She clasped the letter with both hands, leaning slightly toward him.
"Rei…"
"Reiji Toga, the principal requests your presence."
The classroom door opened and the secretary's voice burst into the room with absolute clarity, cutting off both the teacher's explanation and the girl's attempt at the exact sa mont.
So students looked up. Others turned directly toward him.
The teacher left the chalk suspended in the air for a second before slowly lowering his hand.
Reiji frowned slightly.
In all the years he'd been there, he'd never been called like that. Not in the middle of class, and certainly not in public.
It wasn't a coincidence.
He stood up calmly, adjusting his uniform slightly before bowing his upper body in a brief but proper gesture toward the teacher.
"Excuse the interruption, sensei."
The teacher nodded, returning the gesture with a slight tilt of his head.
"Go ahead."
Without further exchange, Reiji casually picked up his backpack and began walking toward the door, where the secretary was waiting for him. Several eyes followed him until he left the classroom.
The door closed behind him. The murmur returned little by little.
And in her seat, the girl let her forehead drop against the table with a small, sharp thud, still holding the letter between her fingers.
"It's not fair..."
***
Reiji activated the chanism for the maintenance room as naturally as he breathed.
The secretary had been clear: go alone, without companions, without questions, directly to the training room.
It wasn't the first ti they'd used that kind of protocol, but the way it had been communicated to him this ti left an uncomfortable margin for interpretation.
He didn't like it.
As the hidden stairs began to unfold with a crisp chanical sound, he descended without haste. The white lighting of the underground room began to reveal itself as he went down, showing the spaciousness of the area, the reinforced walls, and the complete absence of anyone else there.
That was when a powerful sound pierced the entire space.
Reiji barely managed to lean back instinctively, just enough for the bullet to graze his cheek by sheer luck. The heat of the projectile left a gash in his skin, and blood began to flow imdiately, tracing the path with brutal clarity.
The impact against the wall behind Reiji ca a split second later, hard enough to snap him out of his initial mont of disorientation.
"What the hell?!"
There was no ti to process it.
The second shot ca from the sa angle.
He didn't have ti to fully process it. The second shot ca from the sa angle, with the sa precision. This ti he reacted sooner. The blood flowing down his cheek responded to his will, spreading across his face like an improvised barrier.
But it wasn't enough; this ti the bullet struck his right leg directly.
The pain was imdiate.
His leg gave way, and he fell to the ground with a thud. The hole in his leg was clean, deep, the size of a thumb from side to side.
He clenched his teeth to hold back the pain when a third shot rang out.
Blood spurted from multiple points on his skin, spreading more densely, covering his front to prevent another hit.
He missed.
The bullet didn't co from where he expected.
The impact ca from his side, close enough to inflict another wound on his left shoulder.
'Can it deflect the trajectories?'
Reiji clenched his teeth, ignoring the pain coursing through his leg as he forced the blood to reorganize, forming an irregular do around him. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't sturdy.
But it gave him ti to think about what was happening; he shifted his body to avoid another shot and tried to relax.
He could feel his fangs tensing, an instinctive response to the blood, the pressure, the constant stimulation.
Fourth shot.
The do was pierced without any real resistance, the projectile barely losing speed before hitting the ground inches from his body.
'Good… He can't see inside.'
He reinforced the structure imdiately, redistributing the blood as his leg began to regenerate slowly. Not at the usual rate. Using his Quirk that way compromised his ability to heal deep wounds.
It didn't matter.
'What do I do now…?'
"Four shots. Slow for what I expected from you."
The voice ca from the darkness with a clarity that contrasted with the previous chaos. There was no haste in it. No tension. Only assessnt.
"But I suppose, being a child, you have room for improvent."
Reiji turned his head slightly, without deactivating the do, searching for the source.
A figure erged from the back of the room.
Tall.
Slender.
Upright posture.
Long hair, pulled back into a ponytail that blended dark and pink tones, framing a serious face with violet eyes that reflected neither doubt nor superficial interest.
Reiji didn't relax his posture.
He didn't let his guard down.
The pain in his leg was still there, constant, throbbing. He clenched his jaw to maintain control.
"You can deactivate your Quirk. The test is over."
There was no threat in her words.
Reiji watched her for another second.
If she had wanted to kill him, she wouldn't be speaking.
That was obvious.
The blood began to recede slowly, returning to his body in a controlled flow, though not completely. He kept a margin active, enough to react if necessary.
His gaze didn't leave the woman.
"Who are you?" he finally asked, using the remaining blood to form a rigid support that would allow him to sit up without fully bearing his weight on his injured leg. Regeneration was beginning to take effect, but it would still take ti to heal a wound of that magnitude.
The woman didn't answer imdiately. Her eyes dropped for a second toward the wound.
Then she looked back at him.
"You can call Nagant."
Reiji frowned slightly.
She continued, walking with asured steps toward the center of the room, as if the space belonged entirely to her.
"I've been reviewing your report from Musutafu," she continued, crossing her arms slightly. "The information you gathered is useful. But incomplete."
Reiji held her gaze.
"That's why I'm here," she added. "The mission isn't over. It just changed in scale, and this will also be your first real field assignnt—I've basically been assigned as your babysitter."
Reiji didn't respond imdiately. His posture remained tense. His Quirk, partially active.
The news had shocked him, but he simply couldn't stay focused when the woman in front of him had shot at him without a second thought.
"And this?" he finally asked, barely pointing at his leg with the cane. "Is that part of the protocol too?"
Nagant didn't flinch.
"I needed to see how you'd react under real pressure." Her words ca out naturally. "And if you were capable of thinking straight after a surprise attack. Your initial reaction was a bit slow, as I said, but you can improve."
"I didn't expect to get shot with a gun out of nowhere right here," Reiji tried to justify himself, sounding more like a teenager than a cool-headed adult.
"And when do you think is a good ti to get shot?" Nagant teased with a wry smile. "I still need to gather a little more information; until then, I'll help you train those reflexes."
Upon hearing this, Reiji couldn't help but agree with her and relax a little more, finally deactivating his Quirk. She had clearly held back on purpose; otherwise, he might be dead. It was good to be reminded of just how fragile he was.
Better now than when Himiko was in danger.
"Do you always introduce yourself like this?"
"I don't usually get to the part where I talk to my victim."
Reiji just looked at his leg and decided to stay silent; he just had to work twice as hard, and besides, he'd finally be able to get that thorn out of his side that had been bothering him for several days.
"When will the operation be?"
"In three days, so I hope your regenerative factor lets you be back to full strength after the training session," she said, turning around and typing a few things into the console a little further ahead. "I could do this on my own, but the commission insists on your progress, so I'll take the trouble to correct you a little."
"I understand..."
The statent that the commission considered him important worried him a little, but he still didn't have the strength to say anything else.
***
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