Aizawa stared at the students at the end of the day, holding the results of the Rescue Race.
"Midoriya," he said, shifting his gaze toward the boy. "Good work."
A cheery smile surfaced on Midoriya's lips.
Then, one by one, Erasure Head began praising and reprimanding students.
"Other than your normal Hero Course work," Aizawa told them after a while, "there will be two highlights in this semester. As you know, UA follows a two-semester system, with the second Semester longer than the first."
Everyone nodded at that.
Most of the schools, especially those that didn't offer a dedicated Hero Course, employed a three-semester system.
However, UA had its own way of doing things, almost forcing all Schools like itself to use this curriculum as well.
UA's first Term started in April and lasted till the first week of July, followed by a Summer Break.
Then, the second Term started in the 2nd or 3rd week of August and lasted till the end of January.
Final Exams took place in the first week of February, then, leaving the rest of the month and the entire March as the Term Break.
Of course, the Term Break wasn't a break for most of the UA's students.
"First," Erasure Head said, "there will be a School Festival in October…"
Almost everyone's faces gained a bright smile.
Like UA's Sports Festival, its School Festival was also quite popular, filled with dozens of different kinds of activities. It attracted almost the same number of people, if not more.
"… Enough!" Aizawa slammed the documents in his hand on the table. "There's still one month to start wasting your time on this. Second, there will be a Hero Site Visit, probably in December or January, for the Hero Course students."
This time, they all looked at Aizawa in shock.
Tsuyu raised her hand. "Sir, how will this be different from Summer Internship?"
All nodded at her question. They had practically visited the Hero Agencies during the Summer Internships as well.
And not all of them had a good experience with their chosen Hero.
Momo raised her hand with a snap. "Sir, can we apply for the change of Hero Agency?"
Luke raised his hand as well. "I would like to change my mentor, too. Can I choose you, Sir?"
Aizawa's mouth twitched, but he held back a smile in front of the students. "Put your hands down!" he said, seeing many hands rising. "I was not finished. The Hero Site Visit will be outside Japan and will be sponsored by UA."
Shaking his head, Aizawa just walked out of the class, roars of joy washing over the students behind him.
…
Midnight,
Luke and Nyx arrived at the underground lab situated in a spacious network of empty lava tubes under a distant island having an active volcano.
Within the laboratory, Luke eyed all the ingredients. Miss Justice…
[
Sequence 7: Magician
Ingredients: 1 True Root of a Mist Treant, All the spinal fluid of a Dark Patterned Black Panther, 60 milliliters of Purified Water, 30 milliliters of Mist Treant Juice, 4 drops of Fantasy Grass Essential Oil
…
OK. You have all the ingredients. Your state is optimal.
You can advance to Sequence 7, I guess.
]
You guess? Luke's lips twitched.
Despite her being a System, Luke found Miss Justice's uncertain attitude delightful.
"It's because she's half an idiot!" Nyx hissed, eying the ingredients of Clown Potion in front of her. "Wouldn't be surprised if she never read the amazing books, unlike yours truly! Humph!"
After constantly remaining on the sidelines whenever Luke talked with Miss Justice, Nyx had had enough.
So, this time, she had forced Luke to give her a Telepathy Quirk.
Miss Justice had told Luke that the way she conversed with him, even someone with Telepathy Quirk would not pick up on it. Unless she and Luke wanted someone to listen.
Of course, Nyx wasn't someone to whom Luke needed to hide anything.
After confirming the ingredients' status of both Sequences through the System, Luke brewed both Potions one by one with meticulous care.
After a while, Luke and Nyx were staring at the Magician and Clown Potions.
[Why Magician? I thought you were going for Marauder's Pathway's Sequence 7, Cryptologist, this time.]
Luke was a genius when it came to the field of Quirks and Biology.
However, ever since he had dared to step into society after his regression, he had found himself lacking intelligence when it came to social interactions. Interactions that were the foundation of good detective work.
"I was going for Cryptologist because of Toru," Luke explained. "She made me realize that despite having these powers, I am still prone to making silly mistakes. Also, after what happened with Stain and Nomu, I wanted something that could help me investigate the matter fast without depending on others."
[That makes sense. Cryptologist would have easily let you do all that. Why the change of heart?]
"Is it just me," Luke answered with a question, "or does the Magician feel quite similar to Trickmaster to you as well?"
[
That's why they are neighboring Pathways, Luke.
If you think about it, both the Magician and Trickmaster have almost a similar nature, despite having different sets of abilities.
However, as I have already told you, don't mistake one for the other, especially when it comes to Acting.
Trickmaster's core lies in tricking.
Magician is more about the performance than mere tricks.
]
Luke nodded. "Still… Now that I have already digested Trickmaster, it should give me an edge in digesting Magician Potion, no?"
[
Oh, yeah… Reasonable.
In Mr. Fool's world, no Trickmaster is known to change Pathways to Magician at Sequence 7. So, I don't have any data on it.
But, from a logical point of view, what you are saying should work.
]
"Also…" Luke said, lifting the potion, thinking about Knuckleduster and Pop*Step, "… what's the point of Followers if I can't depend upon them for trivial matters…"
Then, sharing a smile, Luke and Nyx downed the potion.
Muscles twitched with Luke. A distinct sense of millions of worms wriggling inside him made his bones itch. Slowly, but surely, incomprehensible murmurs were banging in his head.
However, after pushing himself to the brink of losing control many times, Luke found them lacking.
With the help of Cogitation, he soon took control over his changing body, taking in a deep breath and letting it out.
And when he opened his eyes, Luke knew he was a Magician.
"Hmmm?!" a puzzled voice came from his right.
Luke looked at Nyx and found her frowning at the empty vial of potion. "What happened?"
"Nothing…" Nyx let out a wry smile. "Haha… Haha… Need to Cogitate more…"
Luke frowned as she flew away, closing her eyes.
He didn't know why, but he was having a feeling that Nyx was hiding something from him.
******************
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