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Ren ignored the murmurs behind him and walked into the classroom.
Words like loser had been ringing in his ears since he was four years old.
In the beginning, he had thrown them back with his fists.
After hearing them enough times, even anger had started to go numb.
These days, most insults passed by like wind.
If his guess about Insight was right, if those eyes of his truly held that kind of power, then even One For All, the Quirk carried by the world’s No.
1 Hero, might not remain beyond his reach forever.
Ren raised a hand and touched the corner of his eye without thinking.
What he remembered about Insight surfaced again.
Observation mastery.
An eye that could understand the logic of almost anything it saw.
Writing.
Weapons.
Martial arts.
Strange physical talents.
Even the hereditary powers of this world, the abilities people called Quirks.
If it truly worked the way he imagined, one look would be enough to understand the principle and reproduce it through practice.
It was the kind of ability that crossed the line between genius and monster.
Too bad a guess was still only a guess.
Ren let out a breath.
Then his expression steadied again.
‘Who decided someone without a Quirk can never become strong?’
He had been born frail.
His body had once been thin and weak.
And yet here he was now, with muscle built through more than a decade of training.
That body had not been handed to him.
He had carved it out himself.
“Well, look who it is.
One of Aldera’s famous Two Losers.
Ren Mikage.”
The moment he stepped into the classroom, a voice full of contempt and malice hit his ears.
Ren did not even bother looking over.
That kind of punchable line could only belong to one person.
“Explosion-head, I’m not in the mood,” Ren said, eyelids barely lifting.
“If you want a fight, after school.
Same place.”
He dropped the sentence lightly and took his seat, leaving Bakugo Katsuki standing there with rage tightening his face.
“Bastard.”
Ren had barely set down his bag when a shadow fell over his desk.
He looked up.
Bakugo stood in front of him, furious.
“What?” Ren asked flatly.
“People are lumping you in with that damn Deku, and this is your attitude?”
Bakugo slammed his fist down on the desk.
The crack of wood against wood dropped the entire classroom into a strange silence.
Ren swept his gaze around the room.
Everyone was staring at him now.
Irritation flickered across his face.
Beneath the desk, his hands clenched until his pale knuckles looked bloodless.
Did people really think he was calm about being called a loser?
About being placed beside Midoriya Izuku as one of Aldera’s two failures?
Of course not.
Even with two lives in his head, his previous self had only been a fresh college graduate.
He had once had childish fantasies too.
Then he arrived in the world of My Hero Academia, and reality told him the same thing all over again.
You are still powerless.
You are still at the bottom.
Worse…
Ren glanced toward the classroom door, where Midoriya had just stumbled in, breathless and nervous.
“They’re not wrong,” Ren said, his eyelids lowering.
“It’s all true.”
Aldera’s Two Losers.
Was that nickname funny?
It was ridiculous.
What was even more ridiculous was Ren himself.
He knew perfectly well who the true Quirkless one was.
He knew who the real loser in everyone else’s mouth should have been.
And somehow, the furious idiot standing in front of him was getting angry on his behalf.
“Hey, Deku!” Bakugo snapped, finding no outlet in Ren and turning on Midoriya instead.
“You know you’re late, right?”
“B-but there was an incident on the way to school, and I…”
The timid voice made Ren sigh.
If he could, he really did want to seize Midoriya’s chance.
All Might’s inheritance.
The legendary Quirk known as One For All.
Rather than betting everything on Insight, a power that had never shown even a flicker of awakening, reaching for the opportunity in front of him made far more sense.
It was the only path Ren could see that might give him a Quirk.
Before the coming chaos swallowed the world, he needed power.
Without it, how was he supposed to keep his promise?
How was he supposed to protect his mother?
The bell rang, cutting through his thoughts.
A chair scraped against the floor beside him.
Midoriya, having finally escaped Bakugo’s harassment, sat down at the neighboring desk.
The two of them were seatmates.
Midoriya leaned toward Ren with excitement written all over his face.
“Re…
Ren, did you hear?
I ran into an incident this morning.
You’ll never guess which Pro Heroes I saw.”
“Mt.
Lady and Kamui Woods,” Ren said without interest.
“Popular new-generation Pro Heroes.”
He gave the answer without looking at Midoriya’s shocked face.
Instead, Ren watched the man who had just entered through the front door and frowned.
‘Of course it’s still this guy.’
Their homeroom teacher, a man so thin he looked like a bamboo pole, walked up to the lectern with an exaggerated smile.
He held a stack of forms high in one hand.
“I’ll be taking over this period,” he announced.
“The main purpose is for all of you to fill out your career aspiration forms.
Although…”
His gaze swept over the students, and his smile turned strange.
Then he tossed the forms into the air.
“I know all of you are aiming for the Hero Course!”
The class exploded into cheers.
Some students popped their eyeballs out.
Others stretched their arms around wildly.
For a moment, the classroom looked less like a school and more like a parade of monsters.
In the middle of the noise, one particularly grating voice cut through.
“Sir, don’t lump me in with everybody else.” Bakugo leaned back with a sharp, arrogant grin.
“I’m not holding hands with a bunch of weaklings on my way to the bottom of society.”
“Hey, Bakugo, that’s way too far!”
Mocking the entire class was enough to set everyone off.
Voices rose from every direction.
“I knew it.”
Ren raised a hand to his forehead and sighed.
Even with an intruder like him in the story, were events still moving along the same track after all?
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