The bell rang as it did every morning, dry and monotonous, announcing the start of classes in Musutafu. For most students, ti had continued its normal course. The seasons changed, howork piled up, and the school routine continued to swallow the days without much consequence. But for Reiji, the calendar seed to have frozen in a single mont.
That day.
That cursed day he stopped being invisible.
And although more than a month had passed since the sludge villain incident, the rumors simply refused to die down.
"Did you see how he moved? Not even the heroes dared to go near him..."
"It was weeks ago, but I still see him in my head. That look..."
"He gets cuter every day. Or is it just ?"
The voices barely lowered when he passed by, but never enough.
It was inevitable. An event that had been broadcast nationally and internationally for days couldn't be forgotten overnight when you saw the protagonist of that news story every day.
So students feigned indifference as soon as they caught his eye, others stared at him openly, and several more reacted with that awkward mix of fascination and nervousness that seed to haunt him since the incident.
Reiji had already partially grown accustod to it.
Or at least that's what he tried to convince himself of.
His jacket was open, his shirt perfectly tucked in, though the slightly loose collar barely broke the formality. His hair was completely blond, sowhat longer than months before, and naturally tousled. His orange eyes still held that subdued, calm expression that gave the constant impression of analyzing everything around him.
He had changed.
When he finally arrived at the classroom, he wasn't the first to enter, but he was the first to command attention as soon as he crossed the threshold. Several conversations were instinctively cut short. So glances imdiately averted themselves nervously; others remained fixed on him with utter shalessness.
Because in barely a month, Reiji had gone from being "the quiet, handso senior" to practically becoming a huge school celebrity.
The girls stared at him too much.
The boys talked about him too much.
And the rumors grew faster every week.
That he fought like a pro hero.
That he secretly trained with agencies.
That he had connections with heroes.
That he was actually a future U.A. student.
There were even those who claid that seeing him up close was frightening.
A classmate, who had practically never spoken to him before the incident, approached him as soon as she saw him put his backpack down next to his seat.
"Reiji… are you coming with us for lunch today?"
Her voice ca out slightly nervous despite her obvious attempt to sound casual.
Reiji barely glanced up at her; he wasn't the least bit interested in the suggestion.
"I'd rather eat alone. Sorry, Hirioka."
The girl blinked, slightly surprised that he rembered her na. They'd never really spoken before.
Even so, she ended up smiling.
A little nervous.
A little embarrassed.
"Oh… right. Don't worry."
And she quickly returned to her friends as several of them imdiately started whispering again.
Reiji simply sat down by the window.
Shinso arrived a few minutes later, his headphones dangling from his neck, his classic perpetual exhaustion expression plastered on his face. Several people also started staring at him as soon as he approached Reiji, as if that automatically made him soone important by association.
The purple-haired boy clearly noticed.
And it clearly annoyed him a little.
Without saying anything, he put his backpack down and plopped down in the chair next to him.
Several seconds passed before he finally spoke.
"It's incredible how a month can go by so fast."
Reiji exhaled slowly, still staring out the window.
"Fast?"
"Yeah, maybe you were exhausted after the incident and it seed like a long ti." Shinso rested an arm on the table, glancing around the classroom. "But for them, it was yesterday. And until you do sothing bigger, that'll be your legacy."
Reiji let out a short, tired laugh.
"I don't want to leave a legacy."
"Then you should have let that kid die."
The sentence ca out curtly, though the tone made it pretty clear that Shinso didn't really approve of that idea either.
Reiji finally glanced at him.
"I can't do that."
"And that's why you're stuck between two worlds," Shinso murmured, adjusting his headphones on the table. "A student, and the public face of this entire institution."
Reiji barely raised an eyebrow.
"And why are you being so philosophical?"
Shinso kept his gaze fixed straight ahead as if he were reading sothing invisible on the still-blank blackboard.
"I don't know, I just saw on the news again what happened that day and the thoughts started flowing."
The conversation died down naturally when the teacher entered the classroom.
But the stares didn't.
They kept appearing constantly on Reiji even as class began. So students continued watching him as if they expected him to do sothing impossible at any mont. As if it were only a matter of ti before a wall exploded, blood sprang from nowhere, or he simply revealed another absurd secret in front of everyone.
A ridiculous expectation.
But constant.
Shinso spoke again as soon as the teacher started writing on the board.
"Are you going to the festival?"
"Yes. I'll be there this year."
"For your sister?"
Reiji was silent for a few seconds before finally looking down at his notebook.
"Yes, I promised her this ti. She seems to be trying hard, she even asked to help her train..."
Shinso slowly leaned back in his seat. He didn't know the nature of their relationship clearly, but he understood that this request was strange for Reiji.
He could only pity Himiko, given how brutal Reiji could be when training soone. Little did he know that Reiji wasn't half as harsh with her as he was with Shinso, due, of course, to their different training approaches.
"Then we'll have soone to support, I suppose," Shinso finally remarked, as the teacher coughed a couple of tis, signaling the pair to be quiet. They both understood instantly and fixed their gaze ahead; the conversation was over for now.
***
The afternoon had stretched out peacefully over Musutafu.
The heat still clung to the asphalt even though the sun was beginning to slowly descend behind the buildings, painting the streets in soft orange hues as the city's activity began to slow slightly. Reiji walked along one of the less busy avenues in the residential area, his backpack slung over one shoulder and his shirt collar slightly unbuttoned from the day's accumulated heat.
Reiji exhaled slowly as he absentmindedly considered what to cook that night. Probably sothing simple. Himiko would be late again because of pre-Sports Festival training, and her parents would likely still be stuck working late.
He glanced up for a mont, almost reflexively, but instantly, soone caught his attention.
Across the street.
A tall woman walking among the people with an uncanny composure that seed out of place.
Elegant.
Too elegant for this area.
Her long, light-colored hair fell neatly over her shoulders, though the left side looked slightly more worn, almost as if it had been burned or damaged long ago. She wore formal attire, but not stiff. Everything about her exuded a sense of freedom. Relaxation.
Like soone completely self-assured.
Although that wasn't exactly what caught his attention; rather, it was that she was staring at him intently from a distance.
The woman stopped a few steps from Reiji and smiled.
"Are you Reiji Toga?"
The voice ca out softly.
Reiji barely slowed his pace.
His expression didn't change much; many people had asked him that in the past month.
"Who's asking?" he replied in a neutral tone.
She seed to slightly enjoy the answer.
"Chitose Kizuki," she replied, inclining her head slightly with an elegant naturalness. "Executive director of Shoowaysha Publishing, though today, just a reporter. Perhaps you don't know her; we're not exactly part of the mainstream circuit... for now."
She carried a small notebook under her arm. Reiji looked around and saw that she was completely alone.
There was no photographer.
No hidden microphones.
Sothing unusual for a reporter, or at least, for the ones he'd encountered lately.
"So, what do you want from ?" Reiji asked directly.
Chitose smiled slightly again.
"An interview."
No beating around the bush.
Reiji sighed inwardly, but outwardly, he wore a completely serious expression.
"I don't give interviews."
The answer ca out curtly.
But Chitose didn't seem disappointed in the slightest.
"And yet…" she murmured, observing him with clinical attention. "You never cease to attract attention."
Her eyes were strange.
The black sclera made the irises shine too brightly in the afternoon light, almost like tiny artificial reflections constantly watching him.
"Even now," she continued calmly. "There are people looking this way, wondering if you really are the boy from the incident."
Reiji didn't reply.
Because she was right.
Several people around were already beginning to recognize him.
"A student with no relevant record," Chitose continued, slowly taking another step closer. "With two Quirks registered in an absurdly vague way, involved in a large-scale public event... and then disappearing imdiately afterward without trying to capitalize on any of the attention."
Her smile widened slightly.
"That's far more interesting than any smiling TV hero."
Reiji frowned slightly.
"Like I said, I'm not interested."
"That's precisely what's interesting," she replied imdiately. "Most people involved in these kinds of events usually receive so kind of recognition, but you... You seem completely unconventional."
Her voice still sounded relaxed, with a great deal of restrained interest.
"Sotis the most important stories are the ones that try to hide," she continued, studying him without looking away. "The ones that don't quite fit within what society considers acceptable."
Reiji genuinely wanted to leave, but he decided to be polite and stayed put for a mont longer.
"The current system loves to categorize people," she comnted gently. "Hero. Villain. Civilian. Good. Bad. All perfectly labeled so no one thinks too much."
She took another step closer.
"But so people just... don't fit into the normal categories."
"..."
The silence between them lasted only a few seconds.
"Sotis the system leaves out those who could most change it," she murmured as she extended the card toward him. "And personally, I like talking to people who don't quite fit where they're supposed to."
Reiji didn't make the slightest move to take it, he just looked at it with a raised eyebrow, showing his complete lack of interest.
She didn't insist either.
She simply smiled again before carefully slipping it into the outer pocket of her backpack with an almost offensive nonchalance.
"I don't expect you to call ," she admitted calmly. "But if one day you decide your story deserves to be heard... you'll know where to find ."
Then she turned away.
But before walking completely away, she glanced back over her shoulder.
And this ti... the smile on her lips sent a small shiver down Reiji's spine, sothing unusual for him.
"After all..." She spoke softly. "Extraordinary people are rarely born to live obeying diocre structures."
The sentence hung suspended for a few seconds amidst the distant noise of the city.
Then Chitose simply continued walking through the crowd as if she had never been there.
Without hurry.
Without looking back again.
Gradually disappearing into the people.
Reiji remained motionless, observing the place where she had vanished, analyzing how the conversation had taken a different turn than what a conventional reporter would have anticipated.
'What just happened...?'
***
Well, a promise is a promise. We've reached 119 Power Stones, so we have another double chapter! Thank you so much for your support!
This week the goal is the sa: 100 Power Stones. Rember, it's for every 100 Power Stones, so if we reach 200, we can have three chapters.
I'll upload the next chapter in about an hour, so stay tuned!
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