Zeroth

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

K E N I C H I

Cafeteria Veranda > 2-A Table

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@Feyblue"Ha! Yeah, I suppose that makes sense, doesn't it?" Kenichi chuckled as Motome proclaimed that good curry was good. "By the way, ya got a bit," he touched his cheek to indicate where she had a bit of curry on her face, "right here." When he brought his own hand away, however, he found a few grains of rice on himself. With a shrug he licked them off his fingers and went back to his meal. By this point he had almost demolished his raw-egg-on-rice and his udon, and was making a dent in the chankonabe. He started to attempt some kind of small talk--but then snapped his head around at the sound of someone's table falling.

Kenichi's eyes narrowed. He started to eat faster, but kept watching the scene unfold. Roy, Ezra, Donny, Mina, and some other girl all seemed to have issues with some group from another class--that same group that had been buddied up in the halls before, the one with one student that Kenichi could have sworn he'd seen before. Ah...now he realized it. That kid had been in their class for some reason, in the back. What was going on here, besides the typical primary school bullshit they should have all gotten over by this point?

"Can't believe we're dealin' with this shit on the first day." he said to Fumika off-hand, before turning the bowl up and draining the broth in one more massive gulp. He stood up, wiping his mouth with a napkin that he then crumpled into a ball and shoved into his pocket. "'Scuse me for a sec, Motome-chan."

@Lucius Cypher@Artymis@Conscripts@Aerandir@Silver Carrot
Just as Asahi stepped protectively in front of 2-A's President, a short bundle of muscle and blue hair suddenly shouldered his way to the front past Ezra, and reached up to grab Jett's pants-leg in a firm grip--not actually enough to stop him if the blonde really wanted to go, but enough to, just maybe, bring him to his senses.

"How about we all take a deep breath--" Kenichi did so himself, causing a sudden vacuum of whirling wind that pulled at clothing and hair and a noise like a revving turbine for just a few seconds--"and NOT do anythin' ELSE we're all gonna regret one way or another?" He gestured towards the boy cradling a bleeding shin, then looked at Ezra and Jett. "Remember what the teachers were sayin' before, after Echo? Not getting dragged into fights for our own satisfaction?" Then he looked at class 2-A.

"Yo, Yoshida Kenichi, nice to meetcha. I got the main character seat of 1-A, so forgive me for buttin' into my nakama's business." He let go of Jett's leg and crossed his arms as he met their stares with one of equal intensity. "I ain't got the best memory, but there was definitely one thing in the handbook I remember. I believe, at times like this, Komei has some sort of Challenge system, correct?" None of them actually had Rankings yet, because they were fresh students. So the only way to get one was to wait their turn...or take it from someone else. And if 2-A really was bitter about being, well, 2-A, then this would probably play right into their hands...but it would also keep 1-A from getting themselves in even more trouble.

"Ezra-kun might already be in a bit of a bind, but what about the rest of ya? You guys do this here, and I'm willin' to bet everybody gets slapped with a punishment. Maybe even expulsion. So why don't you go by the books? Get a teacher to sign off on it...and whoever is being challenged, they even get to pick the nature of it." He glanced over at Jett and Ezra. "Of course, if 2-A wants to make it, I think we all know what 1-A is gonna choose."

An all-out, knock down, drag out brawl with a class that just got done being lectured about how they'd nearly all killed each other in a training exercise? If 2-A wanted any part of that, they'd be stupid. So maybe that would keep them from making the challenge. And maybe the knowledge that if 1-A made it, 2-A would get to choose the event--and would no doubt pick something to their own advantage--would keep Jett and Ezra or anyone else from making it on their side. So maybe, just maybe, both sides would walk away.

Or maybe not. Kenichi didn't actually mind, he just didn't want anyone to get in trouble. He cracked his knuckles, and exhaled steam from his nostrils as he waited to hear what this bunch of groupies would say next.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

@HeartfilliaI've actually gotten enough notice for not joining it at this point that I kinda feel like I'd be ruining a running gag if I went in now XD

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

K E N I C H I

Cafeteria Veranda

---

@FeyblueKenichi lowered the bowl of rice he'd been shoveling down his gullet like a character out of Dragon Ball, and turned his head as a soft voice spoke up next to him. With a stray white grain sticking to one cheek, he gulped and gave her a smile--without showing teeth, of course.

"Sure, Motome-chan! Grab a seat!" As she assumedly did so, he started in on his udon, picking up one of the boiled eggs with his chopsticks and popping it into his mouth whole. He chewed for some time, one side of his jaw bulging like a squirrel's, before he swallowed and spoke again. "Is the curry here good? Seems popular." He had seen Mamoru and Donny grab some too--in the bigger boy's case, a couple of bowls. Kenichi hoped for his classmate's sake it wouldn't give him the...well, the afterburn, so to speak. The question wasn't much of a conversation starter--he half expected her to just say "Yes" or "No"--but when they had talked before in the nurse's office it had seemed like he had been going too fast for her at some points. If he even knew enough about her to judge her personality, he would hazard a guess that she was an introverted sort, so maybe it would help if he didn't do as much talking as usual. While he waited for her to reply he went back to his own meal, dipping a pork cutlet from the udon into his sauce and scarfing it down before bringing a whole curtain of noodles out of the broth and slurping them heartily.

Now that he thought about it, did he seem a little stand-offish himself? So far Fumika and Sen were the only classmates he had really spoken to at length. It looked like Mina, Jett, and Donny had sort of grouped up, and Roy, Ezra (was it him or did a surprising number of people in their class not have Japanese names?) and some girl he didn't recognize were at another table. Mamoru and that girl with the six arms had taken to the trees out in the schoolyard. And they didn't seem to be part of 1-A, but there was another large group of students all hanging together...wait a minute, why did Kenichi feel like he had seen one of them before?

He shook it off. Maybe Fumika was just shy, or maybe she had asked like that because for some reason he seemed unsociable? He hadn't really been paying much attention until now...maybe another opportunity to get to know everyone would come up. He mentally shrugged and kept eating while he listened to his friend.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

K E N I C H I

Classroom 1-A > Cafeteria Veranda

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The General Education classes weren't as bad as Kenichi feared, at least compared to his middle school. He still felt like he wasn't quite up to par for some of the material, but Isshin-sensei's use of his quirk to help each student one on one made it much less embarrassing to ask for help (he always hated feeling stupid when he had to ask for clarification or a repeat of something) and much easier to focus on what Kenichi was having trouble with instead of trying to scramble and keep up with everyone else. Even with those advantages though, he had given himself a wrist cramp trying to take notes on everything in as much detail as possible, and his eyes felt dry from staring so hard at the books as if he could intimidate them into giving him information.

When the bell rang for lunchtime he practically collapsed on top of his desk in relief. Unlike some of the others he took his time getting there--he skimmed back over his notes to make sure he hadn't missed anything, and checked his schedule so that he could sort out the books in his desk for whatever classes they had next and start trying to think ahead of the lesson plan. But the rumbling in his stomach sounded like a tiger trying to claw its way out of his guts at some point, so off he went with the rest. There were a lot more students he didn't recognize in the halls, but most of them were probably from other classes.

He thanked his lucky stars when he saw how varied the menu was in Komei's cafeteria--after the exhausting training exercise and Nurse Kiwi's intense healing session, his body probably need as much fuel to recover as it did to just get him through class. When "pumping up," so to speak, his blood produced far more red cells, and his heart would beat much faster. Using his strength, especially the way he had against Fumika, meant putting a lot of strain on his muscles and bones. And of course, he had his workouts to think about--he wanted to get bigger (especially taller, but he doubted he could force that) and make better gains. For the cardiovascular system, carbs that burned longer and more efficiently, and calories to make up for energy consumption. For muscles, bones, and blood richness, lots of calcium, iron, and the most important of all: protein.

He picked one of the outdoor tables on the veranda, because he was going to need some room for the extra-large tray he had ordered. As it came down with a heavy thump on the table, Kenichi sat and began to unwrap his chopsticks with a grin.

First up, a big--huge, even--bowl of rice with an egg cracked over top. A big serving, but not that unusual. But then there was Sutamina--or Stamina--Udon: pork cutlets, boiled cabbage and onions, three boiled eggs, and the titular thick wheat noodles, all in a warm broth and with Tsuyu sauce for dipping. Next to that, an even bigger bowl of Chankonabe; a chicken broth soup with added mirin, quartered pieces of chicken with the skin left on, fried balls made of kneaded fish, diced beef, hearty vegetables like daikon and bok choy, and another helping of noodles. Chankonabe was known as a dish making up the bulk of a sumo-wrestler's diet to increase their weight and muscle mass, and one meal of it contained as many as 10,000 calories.

"Itadakimasu!" Kenichi said as he broke apart the chopsticks, and then set to it with gusto.

|| Monster Hunter; A Terrible New World ||

Gaki

Gaki loped along in a low crouch, using his hands to push against the walls and floor as he bounded through the cave. The echoes of the last roar died away, but he knew now where it came from. He avoided a few side paths and made his way to a seemingly dead end; a look up above, however, revealed the light from the glowing mushrooms at the edge of a steep rock face. Its top was tinged with frost and ice. Gaki slipped his hands out of his makeshift weapons and hung them from either side of a vine serving as his belt, then jumped and reached out as far as he could. His fingers barely found purchase on the wall, but find it they did and with a seemingly inhuman strength of grip he began pulling himself upwards. His toes too found tiny holds, little more than cracks in the wall that offered the barest of leverage. But then he was up and away, scurrying like some sort of bug up the smooth face and over the top in a matter of moments. He shook his hands and feet as they made contact with the icy floor, but as long as he had the Anteka-pelt cloak the worst of the cold was kept at bay.

Up through the tunnels he went now, his reflection racing alongside him in the layers of ice. He kept close to the wall on his left, and began to smell the air. He could smell a fresh breeze, though it was bitter cold, and now the sound of the beast within the Labyrinth could be heard without issue. Its giant body made the walls rumble...but there was something else. The cry of some other monster? No, it didn't sound quite right...The clash of something that sounded like the shiny rocks he sometimes found hitting flesh and scales. Then there was the sharp smell left after a lightning strike in a rain storm, only it didn't fade away, and it was followed by a "ding, ding, ding" that certainly wasn't the sound of a living creature.

The boy rounded one last turn and set off into a new tunnel--then stopped short, limbs scrabbling on the ice. Up ahead he could see the Jak Jak, its elderly but still powerful body charging at something in the snow, using its wings to plow the thick white powder. And the somethings in the snow, they were...

His eyes widened.

They...they had fur, or scales, didn't they? Except it wasn't right, the fur didn't come out of their skin, it was just...there, hanging off of them. Kind of like his own pelts...And they had big tools, something that looked like a much much bigger version of a stone club Gaki had made once (it had broken a long time ago), and something that also looked like that club but also made noise somehow when the creature blew into it. And another creature had another club, but it was sharp, and it...it folded and moved somehow, almost like a Gargwa wing if you pulled a certain strip of meat on it to make it go back and forth.

And they were fighting the Jak Jak, even though they were so small, and somehow they were hurting it and it hadn't yet killed them even when it hit them. The one with the club that made noise stood near the thing that smelled like lightning, and Gaki could tell it was dangerous just by looking at it. What was it? Was it another tool that these creatures had made? And why...why did they look so familiar to him?

He crept closer, hiding behind a chunk of rock sticking out of the ice. The rock had various blue crystals sticking out of it--Gaki had found in times past that sometimes he could pry shiny rocks out of these that would make sparks for his fire or just looked pretty in the sunlight. But now it provided him a place to watch the battle unfold with wide, curious eyes...

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

Apologies to [PsychoPanda28], I felt like Kenichi was falling too far behind so I went ahead even though Sen hadn't responded.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

K E N I C H I

Classroom 1-A

---

Sen didn't answer immediately, as the sound of someone hitting the ground presumably distracted him, as it did Kenichi. He turned to see Jett in a somewhat compromised position with a new girl, and despite his confusion he was sorely tempted to call the guy out for hypocrisy after that whole fiasco with Fumika earlier.

He heard his name mentioned, and cut his eyes towards the source. Mamoru and the twintails were talking about another fight at Point A...so she had been the one who captured it after he and Fumika had been picked up? And she'd beaten Roy to do it. He wondered what her Quirk was, since she certainly seemed to skinny to have done any real damage...

The presence of someone really big in his peripheral caused the blue-hair to turn his attention once again, especially because whoever they were, they were looming over Fumika and cracking their knuckles. Kenichi started to narrow his eyes, but it turned out that tall guy was just asking about their fight and the ahoge girl didn't seem at all intimidated by him.

The class seemed like it had gotten a lot noisier in general by this point; they apparently had more new students besides Roy, and everyone was trying to get to know each other or just talking about the training exercise. Kenichi started to continue his conversation with Sen, but then the teachers entered--not just L Guardian, but another guy that Kenichi recognized as the principle from the exam panel, and some older dude who seemed...familiar for some reason? Ah, Kenichi softly snapped his fingers, it was because he shared some features with Jett. So were they related?

Once Yoshida-sensei had the class under control, the three teachers brought up footage of the exercise and began breaking things down. Kenichi sat up straight and watched intensely, but could only nod with a dejected "Yes sir..." when they told him what he already knew. He was dumb--all he was good at was being strong and fast. He wasn't really sure how to use his brain in combat, and none of the teachers bothered offering any constructive comments on the matter. He settled back into his seat with a sigh and crossed his arms, but kept his eyes on the footage.

As the battle at Point C played out, Kenichi suddenly gripped one of his biceps hard enough that his fingers were leaving a red mark. He had thought his damage control was bad, but ho-lee-SHIT what had those teams been thinking!? Acion's feathers were what had cut Sen so badly, and Mamoru had intentionally wrecked the truck with her classmates still in it and tried to run them over with a crane. And she was going to lecture him about losing to Fumika in a fair fight?

Other fights played out with less destruction--though Kenichi highly disagreed with the teachers about Jett and Ezra's fight because real men talk it out with their fists--up until they covered Donny's collapse of Point B. Kenichi did agree with them there; just like Mamoru's plan, that had been completely out of line. But that was the general theme with this class, it seemed. Everyone had this feel of desparation to them. They had to show off their Quirks, they had to fight it out at their hardest, they had to take whatever measures were necessary to win. To pass. They had all tried so hard to get approval, and whether it was their natural competitive nature or the pressure L Guardian put on them, either way it didn't seem like a good start to the school year. At this rate they'd all kill each other before midterms.

As the handbooks were handed out and the teachers left the room, the pockets of conversation started up again. Kenichi, in what might seem an uncharacteristic display, immediately cracked open the handbook and started skimming the contents. If they had fifteen minutes until the bell rang...no, there was no way he could read all this in fifteen minutes. But one of the study strategies he had learned about was to scan the information as a whole, and then break it down into the most important parts. He already knew he would have to study as much as he could to raise his grades, but now that even the teachers had acknowledged his lack of brainpower he desperately wanted to do better. He looked up every once in a while when he couldn't help but overhear something interesting. Fumika seemed to be making more friends, which made him smile. The twintail girl was called Kasuke Mina, and despite seeming so frail it turned out she did karate, which explained how she'd beaten Roy and taken A. He made a mental note to talk to her later. Maybe learning something about martial arts would help him--fighting like that took smarts and technique and stuff, right? He might be able to ask Jett and Ezra too. From watching them on the projector, it seemed like Ezra had a lot of similarities to Kenichi, a brawling style based on schoolyard and back alley experience; Jett, on the other hand, had this way of kicking that didn't seem like Karate or those other popular martial arts, Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai, but still had that kind of sharpness and precision to it that actual training provided.

Everyone seemed like they were getting along well. Kenichi wanted to jump in on some of the conversations too...but...

He looked down at the handbook.

"Besides, your Quirk has tons of potential. Me, I'm just a poor man's All Might--I can run fast, hit stuff, and jump around. I'm only good for fighting or lifting things."

"Just like anything else, Heroes with brains like you will win out over dumb brawny types like me."

Funny that the words he had used to help someone else hurt himself. Hero schools were still schools--he had failed the exam for UA and only made middle-rankings here. It didn't matter if he could fight, or if his Quirk was considered strong no matter how many people told him that it was. He had to make the grade, or none of it mattered.

He set the open handbook on the desk--the main character desk, he thought with a bitter smirk--and started trying to memorize it in silence.

|| Monster Hunter; A Terrible New World ||

@GodOfWarLike I said earlier I intended to have Gaki wait until the Jak Jak was weakened a bit. Unless the players are supposed to assume their tactics were successful and they've mounted it (Lyra), tripped it (Kaze), and stunned it (Serra), I didn't know what the Jak Jak's reaction to the different attacks was going to be, so I was waiting for you to post for it. Sorry, I should have made that more clear.

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

@AerandirIt would have been so much worse if she'd gone with my suggestion from our PMs.

"He pumped himself up until he was red and veiny and then just kept pounding me over and over until I couldn't stand up so I made a duplicate of my best friend but she couldn't handle him either and he broke her and then he kept going until I passed out and--"

*L Guardian pokes his head in the door*

"It's all true, when I got there she was laying on top of him and he'd used his fist on her so much it was covered in blood."

♦ A New Era ♦ - A My Hero Academia RP

K E N I C H I

Classroom 1-A

---

@Feyblue@Aerandir@Lucius CypherThe guy answered his question, but the twintails girl didn't. Still, Kenichi nodded as Jett explained that not everyone was done yet, and wondered how long it would take the exercise to finish completely. Jett--Kenichi heard him called him by name--started talking to Fumika, and Kenichi had to split his attention between that conversation and Mamoru scolding him...

“He took it gently at first, but then it got more difficult to keep up. He’s really strong and fast, and I couldn’t really handle it very well, so after we were done I passed out.”

The glass-like shattering of Kenichi's concentration was almost audible. Slowly, one eye twitching, he started to interject.

"Um..."

“But he said just now that he couldn’t move afterward, so does that mean I beat him? I just felt really sleepy and took a nap, and I think there was a comfy pillow for some reason - why was that even there, anyway? -But he was still awake and couldn’t move. That means I won, right?”

Jett's reaction was on the same line as Kenichi's, but she just kept going. The blue haired boy was starting to sweat buckets and his imagination conjured the sound of police sirens blaring in the distance. Jett was glaring at him now. Kenichi put up his hands in the "I didn't do it" gesture, pleading desperately with his eyes. But as the other boy left the room he did the "I'm watching you," gesture. Kenichi sighed, the rush of air leaving his lungs like a deflating blimp. Mamoru had given him an earful too, but now went off to talk to a new girl Kenichi had never seen before. Somehow her presence failed to register much, though, given his current mood.

"I wanted to be a battle shonen protag, not a romcom..." he muttered.

Sen spoke up from behind him, sounding enthusiastic behind that mask of his, but Kenichi looked at him with a droopy expression.

@PsychoPanda28"Yo, Kimoto-kun." he said, then as he registered who he was actually talking to he sobered up a bit. "Dude, those cuts you had looked pretty gnarly, and Mamoru-chan said she got hit by a truck. What the hell happened out on C?" His eyes cut around the room, taking note of who was there with a furrowed brow. "Whoever used a weapon or a Quirk like that better be damn sorry, if they'd hit an artery you coulda died."