The Villain attack that had painted the main road in blood was neatly swept under the rug, thanks to my aunt’s swift media control and the Hero Association’s consideration. Instead of the troublesome label of a student using his Quirk without a license, it was wrapped up under the clean headline: “Swift and flawless joint suppression by the Heroes of the local agency.” It also helped that every camera at the time had been focused on my aunt.
And there were only four days left until the U.A. entrance exam after that tumultuous incident.
"Just as expected of our Yujin! The way you blew that Villain away with one little flick of your finger—you seriously put Pro Heroes to shame!"
"Exactly! Once you get into U.A.’s Hero Course, you absolutely have to intern at our agency. Got it?"
As I sprawled across the sofa in the Ryukyu Hero Agency’s reception room, luxuriating in the warmth of the heater, the senior Sidekicks showered me with passionate praise and snacks.
Making the matte-black 3x3 Cube silently orbiting fifteen centimeters above my left shoulder spin with a tick, tick, I nudged my rimless glasses up the bridge of my nose with my index finger.
"Your discerning eyes are truly excellent. The moment I join, this agency’s stock value and public profile will soar straight upward. I’ll take you on under the Director with a high salary, so make sure you pick the right side."
The instant I took a swig of canned coffee and tossed out that glib remark, the director’s office door flew open with a bang, and my aunt’s sharp roar shook the lobby.
"Absolutely nooo—!! I’d rather retire first than install this walking time bomb as a full-time employee at my agency!!"
My aunt stood there with the veins in her forehead bulging, clutching a file folder like a club, while the Sidekicks laughed and tried to calm their director down. It was an exceptionally noisy yet peaceful scene, no different from usual.
But.
There was one variable that had become horribly awkward and strangely warped...
Creeeak.
The agency lobby door opened, and a girl with wavy blue hair entered. It was Nejire, who ordinarily would have burst through the door shouting, "Yujin—!" before rushing over to hug me or mess up my hair.
"Oh, you’re here—"
The moment I rose from the sofa and casually lifted a hand—
"...Ah."
The instant Nejire’s eyes met mine, her pale face flushed bright red all the way to the tips of her ears in just 0.1 seconds.
She recoiled as though she had seen a ghost in broad daylight, then hastily whipped her head away to avoid my gaze. Without saying a word, she let golden waves crackle from her toes and fled like an arrow toward the far corner of the corridor opposite the director’s office, as if stepping through thin air.
Whoosh—!
The blue-haired fairy vanished with the wind.
Slowly lowering the hand that had frozen in midair, I absentmindedly rubbed the black inverted-cross piercing on my left earlobe.
...Is she acting like that because she’s embarrassed, now that it’s hit her that she bawled her eyes out in my arms that day?
Even the computational circuits of my genius frontal lobe, capable of tearing through all manner of calculus and tensor equations in three seconds, had no way of calculating the bizarre evasive-maneuver algorithm of that uncontrollable upperclassman. I could only stare blankly at the fading image of the blue-haired fairy as she released waves into the air and disappeared down the hall.
No matter how many high-dimensional tensor equations I ran in my head by drawing upon Tokyo’s computational network, the margin of error for that bizarre flight response diverged toward infinity.
I dropped back onto the sofa and sipped my canned coffee, then turned my gaze toward the senior Sidekicks beside me, who were propping their chins on their hands and snickering. The 3x3 Cube floating over my left shoulder spun with a tick and tipped slightly, as if expressing its own confusion.
"Seniors, what’s with her these past few days? Is she acting that way because she’s embarrassed that she cried her eyes out in my arms during the last Villain fight? Or is she sulking because I never bought her a meal to celebrate her runner-up finish in U.A.’s beauty pageant?"
It was a sincere question intended to determine the cause, but the reactions of the senior Sidekicks seated on the opposite sofa were extremely suspicious.
"Pfft! Embarrassed? Sulking?"
"Oh my, Yujin. You’re supposed to be a genius, but your calculations in this department are completely full of errors!"
The seniors covered their mouths as they grinned and watched me with the expressions of people enjoying the next episode of the most thrillingly trashy drama in the world.
"Seniors, stop laughing yourselves sick and give me some clear data values."
When I reproached them while pushing my rimless glasses up with my index finger, one of the senior Sidekicks curled her lips into a meaningful smile and tipped her chin toward me.
"Who knows? But Yujin, the way you call Nejire ‘upperclassman’..."
"What about it?"
"I just think it might change very naturally before long, you know? Heehee!"
"Oh, that’s right! I don’t think it’ll be long before ‘upperclassman’ gets upgraded into another, sweeter word!"
Amid the seniors’ giggles, my aunt seemed to sense something ominous from beyond the director’s office door and bellowed, "Hey!! Don’t you lot go putting stupid ideas in his head!!"
I flicked the black inverted-cross piercing on my left earlobe with my fingertips.
The way I address her is going to change? It’s not like she’ll start calling me Director...
Unable to solve the mystery even with my usual easygoing cunning, I shoved it into a corner of the storage room in my brain and lightly tapped the cube over my shoulder.
In any case, there were only four days left until the U.A. entrance exam.
Once the exam was over and I was officially wearing a U.A. uniform, I would have no choice but to grab that fleeing blue-haired fairy by the collar and ask her myself.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register