While flying through the city, Allen couldn't help but smile.
"I was expecting a worried goodbye from Nemuri, but she wasn't there when I woke up. I guess she wanted to head out early."
[Host, you seem relaxed. I suppose this kind of world suits you better.]
Allen increased his flying speed and rose above the clouds, where he stopped and floated lazily on his back.
"I won't lie, apocalyptic worlds have their charm, but they're stressful… especially when I have to worry about someone else."
[I'm glad to hear that, but don't let your guard down. You know who won't leave you alone for long.]
"That's also true."
Allen resumed his course toward U.A. While doing so, he checked his phone and noticed several new messages.
"These girls are really excited… well, it makes sense."
It was the first day at U.A. High School, something that made accepted students extremely happy. After all, it was said that on average only one out of every three hundred applicants was accepted, which was why there were only two classes.
Thinking about the UA, Allen remembered something important. A few days ago, he was surprised to discover that class divisions were not what he thought they were.
He thought that students would be divided based on their ranking in the mock battle, but that was not the case. Classes divide their students so that there is a balance between the best and worst students in the ranking.
This made Allen feel conflicted, thinking that if he helped his friends get better results, they might end up in the same class — but that hadn't been the case. Still, the outcome wasn't tragic.
At one point, when Allen was considering using a template to put everyone into the same class — whether through magic, hypnotizing the principal, or hacking U.A.'s system — he received the news that both Toru, Momo, and Itsuka had been placed in Class 1-A along with him.
Allen laughed, because the messages they sent him right after made it clear he wasn't the only one who had been worried.
Itsuka: Hey! I'm in Class 1-A! Yay!
Momo: Hmph! I thought I'd finally be rid of you, but oh well. See you there.
Toru: Ah! We're in the same class! ;3
And that wasn't the end of it. From that moment on, he received almost a hundred messages from Momo, Itsuka, and Toru.
Each girl expressed her excitement differently.
Momo kept reminding Allen of the school rules over and over, warning him not to be late and even asking him to send her a photo of himself wearing the uniform to ensure everything was in order. She seemed even more worried than Nemuri that Allen would get into trouble on his first day.
That offended him a little, because although Allen could be a shameless troll, that was only in his free time. When it came to important matters, he usually took things seriously. So, as revenge, Allen sent Momo a photo of himself with his shirt half open, showing his defined chest and abs. After that, Momo didn't send any more messages.
On the other hand, there was Toru. The hyperactive girl wouldn't stop talking about how happy she was and how she hoped to make lots of friends.
Allen had to joke that if she didn't go to sleep soon, she might fall asleep in the morning. That scared Toru enough that she obediently went to bed.
Lastly, there was Itsuka. She was more considerate and asked many questions about his tastes and favorite foods. Apparently, Allen was going to receive a very high-quality bento.
For some time now, Allen had already noticed that Itsuka had some feelings for him. As usual, Allen simply let things flow and allowed whatever had to happen to happen.
Coming out of his thoughts, Allen suddenly stopped in midair.
"Now that I think about it… It's still early."
U.A. High School wasn't close to Nemuri's apartment, which was why he had left in advance, but even flying slowly, it would only take him a few minutes to get there.
"Let's change our method of transportation." Allen smiled mysteriously.
[Whatever you say, but don't be late].
....
Allen fired a web at a building and used it to gain momentum.
It was much slower than flying, yes, but Allen felt a relaxing and liberating sensation while doing it.
Just as he reached the highest point and released the web, he remained suspended in the air for an instant before gravity pulled him down.
"I don't know why I didn't enjoy this more in my own world..."
Gwen – I get it~ swinging through the city is one of the best parts of our powers...
MJ – Sure? After a while, it just becomes like breathing and loses the novelty...
Natasha – I guess everyone enjoys it differently.
Allen chuckled softly as he read the comments.
"Well, I should take advantage of my weakness in this world."
In these worlds, his power was restricted due to his wager with Lucifer. So, this feeling of weakness makes it more enjoyable to simply swing through the buildings.
"...!"
Allen's spider-sense went off, and when he looked toward the source, he saw a chase in progress.
Three villains were escaping in a black van, pursued by the police. Just when it looked like they were about to be caught, the rear door opened and one of the men spat out a kind of oil-like substance. The police vehicles lost control, and one of them was about to crash into a café.
People inside screamed in fear, but at the last moment, webs shot out and caught the patrol car, suspending it in midair.
"Look, Mom, it's Spider-Man!" a child pointed at Allen, who was holding the patrol car.
Allen was only wearing the Spider-Man mask, not the full suit — he still didn't like spandex.
"Huh? Isn't he a villain?"
The child's mother had seen on the news how both the government and professional heroes condemned vigilantes and their actions, so it was easy to paint them as villains.
"He's not! He's an unlicensed hero!" the child pouted.
"You heard your kid, ma'am, it's all slander," Allen said as he shot a web and swung after the criminals.
He didn't take long to catch up to them.
The van's door opened again.
"It's Spider-Man!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill me? Isn't that a bit excessive? I was just passing by and noticed you didn't have brakes, so I wanted to help."
The villains insulted Allen with all kinds of profanities, but this only made Allen enjoy himself more.
They knew that Allen/Spider-Man was famous for annoying villains with his sharp words and taunts.
"Damn it!"
One of them raised his hand, forming a sphere of water that he hurled at Allen. In response, Allen created a web that caught the water ball, then fired two more webs to the sides of the van.
Allen smiled and landed, then pulled hard on the webs, stopping the van abruptly. The villains were launched through the windshield before being caught by another web that left them hanging from a lamppost.
Allen walked over.
"And that's why seatbelts are important~" he mocked, firing more webbing until the men looked like cocoons.
"Ah!"
"Let me go!"
"You'll pay for this!"
Allen sighed. "Looks like you didn't learn your lesson..."
Hearing their threats, he covered their mouths with webbing before taking a selfie and uploading it to the internet.
#From criminals to butterflies.
"Well, now you're not just famous — you're the laughingstock of the criminal world~"
"Hey, you should be grateful I'm not Batman. That guy would break all your bones before throwing you into a psychiatric hospital."
The villains turned pale. Being caught by Spider-Man was honestly much better than being caught by Batman.
"I'm kind; I only publicly humiliate you after beating you up."
Allen moved away when he heard the sirens approaching, though many people had already recorded him stopping the criminals.
Before continuing on his way, he stopped in the shadow of an alley and replaced his clothes with the U.A. uniform. As for the mask, it vanished into fragments of light.
....
When he arrived at UA High School he went straight to Class 1-A.
Voices could be heard inside, and when Allen opened the large door, he saw several familiar faces. Bakugo immediately glared at him with hostility, Iida looked at him with a serious expression, and the boy named Todoroki also observed him silently.
None of his friends had arrived yet, so Allen simply greeted them before taking a seat.
"Good morning..."
There were no answers, as everyone looked at Allen as if they were seeing a ghost. He didn't bother, he just shrugged and walked over to his seat.
Just as Allen was about to check his phone, a girl approached him. She had dark green hair and big eyes.
[Tsuyu Asui
Quirk: Frog Form
Type: Mutant]
"Can I help you with something?"
"Good morning, I'm Tsuyu Asui. You might not remember me, but you helped me during the exam."
Allen smiled. "Of course, I remember. You were trapped under a wall, and an expressionless silver-haired girl was helping you."
"Mm, thank you, Allen-chan."
"Don't mention it, Tsuyu-chan."
Tsuyu smiled, then turned around and went back to her seat, where she was immediately surrounded by two girls who wanted to know what they had talked about.
One of them was a short-haired girl with black hair and elongated earlobes that looked like headphone jacks. She gave off the impression of being cool, but unexpectedly also had the curiosity of a normal high school girl.
[Kyoka Jiro
Quirk: Earphone Jack
Type: Mutant]
The other girl had a more exotic appearance. Her skin was pink, as was her hair, and she had two cute yellow horns that gave her a certain charm.
[Mina Ashido
Quirk: Acid
Type: Emitter]
Allen chuckled slightly, which for some reason annoyed Bakugo.
"Let's go outside!"
"Stop it, Bakugo!" Kirishima immediately stepped in to stop him from picking a fight. Surprisingly, the explosive guy and the tough guy got along well.
"Better forget it, you wouldn't like being humiliated on the first day of class," Allen mocked mercilessly.
"Die!" Bakugo lunged forward, unable to hold back any longer, but he froze in midair, surrounded by a green layer that restrained him.
"W-what did you do, bastard?!"
Allen didn't answer, but a green lantern ring glowed on his index finger. Bakugo tried to explode to free himself, but the blast was trapped, and when Allen finally released him, Bakugo was blackened like charcoal and unconscious from carbon dioxide inhalation.
No one felt any sympathy for Bakugo because of his bad attitude.
A few minutes later, Momo arrived. She glanced at Allen but pretended to ignore him and walked to the seat on his right, sitting down in silence.
Allen shrugged.
Shortly after, Toru arrived. The girl scanned the room with her eyes and spotted Allen.
"Allen! I'm so happy to see you!" Toru ran up to him and gave him a high five.
"I'm happy to see you too..." Allen smiled.
"Haha!"
Momo pressed her lips together, clearly wanting to join the conversation, but her pride wouldn't allow it. Officially, she still "hated" Allen, despite all the times they had gone out together, and even though she had called him in the middle of the night because she got scared by a spider in her room.
Allen winked at Momo, making her blush and turn away.
When Itsuka arrived, she walked up to Allen and, with a warm and gentle smile, placed a large four-tier bento on his desk.
"Allen, it has all your favorite food," she said, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. "I think it's a good way to start the school year."
"Thanks," Allen said, accepting the gift without hesitation.
Toru tensed up and fell silent, while Momo secretly clenched her fists.
There was a brown-haired girl who had been watching all of this with curiosity and nervousness. She wanted to thank Allen as Tsuyu had, but she felt too embarrassed to do so.
Allen stored the bento in his Inventory. Naturally, since no one knew about that ability, they were shocked when the food disappeared, but Allen wasn't about to explain.
Toru sat in front of Allen, with Itsuka to his left.
The last one to arrive was Deku, who looked nervous at first, but when he saw Allen, he calmed down and walked over.
"Ready to be a hero?" Allen asked.
"Of course!" Deku replied confidently.
Bakugo, who had just woken up, growled, "Deku, you bastard! Don't think that just because you have a Quirk now, anything's changed! You'll always be trash!"
Deku clenched his fists in frustration, which made Allen sigh and stand up.
"You're not doing this right. Against people like this, you need to be firm," Allen scolded Deku before turning to Bakugo and mocking him arrogantly. "You angry little honey badger, you talk big, but didn't you rank tenth? You were even below Midoriya."
Bakugo choked, grinding his teeth. "It was all your fault!"
"Oh? You're going to use that as an excuse?" Allen gave him a nasty smile. "If you were really as strong as you pretend to be, you could've beaten me and kept earning points. But the truth is, you're weak..."
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Without learning his lesson, Bakugo lunged at Allen again, but this time Allen didn't defend himself and simply stood still.
"Allen?" Itsuka looked confused, then alarmed.
"Be careful!" Toru exclaimed.
"What are you doing?!" Momo stood up in shock.
Everyone expected an explosion and for Allen to go flying, but that didn't happen. When Bakugo's hand struck Allen's chest, nothing detonated.
"What?!" Bakugo couldn't understand what had happened. "What did you do, bastard?!"
"Nothing," Allen mocked, then looked toward the entrance.
Standing there was Aizawa — long black hair, tired eyes, unkempt beard — his eyes glowing red as he stared at Bakugo.
"Brats, don't you know fighting is forbidden? Do you want to get expelled?"
"As expected of Eraser Head..." Allen said before sitting back down, leaving Bakugo standing there like an idiot.
Many students were confused, since this hero wasn't very well known to them. It made sense — Eraser Head's activities as a pro hero were usually discreet, since his Quirk neutralized enemies without flashy battles.
Aizawa walked to the center of the classroom and stared at Bakugo with bloodshot eyes.
"Are you not sitting down yet, Katsuki Bakugo?"
"Tch..."
Bakugo reluctantly took his seat.
"Good. You're all probably excited to have been accepted into U.A., but you still don't understand anything. You could all be expelled today."
Aizawa's words frightened them, but he wasn't bluffing. Allen could tell — if he truly thought someone didn't belong here, he would expel them without hesitation.
"For now, let's go outside. It's time for a quick evaluation."
A brown-haired girl with rosy cheeks stood up.
"But what about the entrance ceremony and the introductions?"
Aizawa tilted his head in boredom. "This is the hero course. It works differently from the general studies. You don't have time for things like that with the rise in villain activity. Listen carefully — if you want to be heroes, prepare to suffer..."
"Oh..." Allen smiled with interest. This teacher actually took his job seriously, and that was something to appreciate. Pretending that being a hero was easy and that everything would work out through ideals and justice alone was foolish — and dangerous for young people who weren't prepared for reality.
====