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Leaving Ren aside for the moment, the ranking for the practical exam soon appeared on the monitoring room’s screen.
The results were close to what Ren remembered.
Izuku Midoriya placed seventh thanks to sixty rescue points.
He was the only applicant in the top ranks with zero villain points.
Ochaco Uraraka, who had helped him when he nearly fell, received forty-five rescue points and placed third.
However, Katsuki Bakugo was different from Ren’s expectations.
Ren had believed his weak butterfly wings had changed nothing, but how could there truly be no change at all?
In his memories, Bakugo had taken first place with seventy-seven villain points.
This time, after Ren learned his Explosion and gave him a thorough beating, Bakugo had trained brutally for ten months.
The result was obvious.
He still took first, and he left Eijiro Kirishima in second place by a full forty-six points.
Of course, even if Ren had known that, he probably would have laughed it off.
The next day was U.A.’s entrance day.
With his schoolbag over one shoulder and a piece of toast in his mouth, Ren put on his shoes and prepared to greet his new beginning.
“Wait.”
“Hmm?
Mom, did you need something?”
Ren did not turn around.
His voice was muffled by the toast.
“No…
nothing.”
Mika Mikage, usually quick-tempered, wore a rare soft expression as she watched Ren bend down to put on his shoes.
Sunlight came through the glass and fell across his back.
His short black hair caught a faint glint.
She could not understand the obsession that had gripped Ren since childhood, but she was his mother.
She knew what to say now.
“Ren.”
“Hmm?”
He turned back, puzzled.
“You look very handsome today.”
Ren froze.
Then, to hide the sudden tightness in his chest, he grinned proudly.
“Hahaha, of course I do.
With a mom as excellent as mine, how could I not be handsome?”
His arrogant laugh earned him Mika’s familiar eye roll and an equally familiar knuckle to the head.
Ren opened the front door.
High School.
Ren Mikage was coming.
Soon enough, Ren stood inside U.A.
again.
“Now…
where is Class 1-A?
Oh, there it is.”
Because he had already navigated U.A.
once before, Ren found the classroom quickly.
Holding back his excitement, he crossed the hall in a few long strides and pushed open the door marked with a huge red 1-A.
‘My adorable Quirks, here I come.’
“Do not put your feet on the desk!”
The stern shout that reached Ren’s ears was serious to the point of being boring.
The first person he saw was a young man with square glasses and an equally rigid expression.
“Hah?”
That provocative, deeply punchable voice belonged to Ren’s old friend, Katsuki Bakugo.
“Do you not think your behavior disrespects U.A.’s upperclassmen and the people who made those desks?”
“Nope.
What middle school are you from?”
Bakugo lifted his chin, every inch of him radiating delinquent arrogance.
“Well, well.
A famous scene.” Ren’s light tone instantly drew every eye in the classroom.
“Looks like my timing was decent.”
A boy in a black coat stood near the front of the room.
He had short, thick black hair and pale eyes that made people instinctively uneasy.
The scrape of a chair against the floor cut through the room.
Bakugo shot to his feet.
The smile on his face vanished.
His fists clenched, and he ground out, “Ren Mikage.
You damn thief.
I have been waiting for you for a long time.”
After asking around and finding that Ren had not appeared at any exam site, Bakugo had already guessed it.
This bastard had to be one of the four special admission students.
“Die!”
Bakugo stepped onto the desk and launched himself into the air.
The fist aimed at Ren was filled with the sharp smell of gunpowder.
Bang.
Before anyone could react, Bakugo flew backward faster than he had come.
“Who is this guy?
He took out Bakugo, the top practical-exam scorer, that easily?”
“He’s strong.
I did not even see him use a Quirk.”
“Wait, is that what you are focused on?
This new guy clearly has a grudge with the practical exam’s first place.”
Ren lightly clapped away dust that was not there and smiled at Bakugo as the blond struggled to stand.
“Do not think you were the only one who got stronger in those ten months.
I was training too.
Also, how many times do I have to say this?
It is learning, not stealing.
If my adorable classmates misunderstand, that would be terrible.”
Then he turned to the class.
“Hello, everyone.
I am Ren Mikage, and I will be working hard alongside you at U.A.
High School to become a hero.”
The class remained stunned.
Ren ignored that and introduced himself on his own, smiling with obvious exaggeration.
After all, these were living, walking Quirks.
What if he scared them too badly?
“Oh, right.”
Just as he was about to step down from the front, Ren seemed to remember something.
His smile brightened.
“I forgot to mention one flaw of mine.
I really, really love learning.
So please take good care of me.”
“Loving learning is a flaw?”
“How does studying become a flaw?”
That unusual introduction set the class buzzing.
“Tch.
Idiots.”
Bakugo swept the room with a look that said everyone there was a moron, then silently returned to his seat.
One day, they would all regret this.
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Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.