The New Transfer Student Is... Who Is This?

The sound of the bell signaling the end of class made Uraraka Shige stop the physical training he was doing on the rooftop.

"Phew... class is over again...?"

Uraraka Shige drew a heavy breath, then slowly adjusted to the pain coming from his muscles there on the rooftop, so that his movements wouldn't look noticeably awkward.

"I was just saying I should balance work and rest... but aren't I training even more than before now...?"

After several deep breaths, Uraraka Shige forced himself to look composed again. He then left the rooftop, went down the stairs, and returned to his seat in the classroom. The classmates still there were already used to seeing this.

Whenever they had math, foreign language, or Japanese, Uraraka Shige would, for one reason or another, push the teacher at the front of the room beyond their limits and end up being thrown out of the classroom.

"Gulp..."

Uraraka Shige took his water bottle out of his desk and sipped from it. He could clearly feel a gentle, warm stream of water flowing down his throat and into his stomach, then spreading through his limbs and bones, leaving even his lungs feeling much fresher.

But he didn't drink much. Once he had more or less quenched his thirst, he stopped, then rested his head on his desk and closed his eyes, planning to take a short break during what remained of the time between classes.

When people were tired, whether they could rest their heads on a desk or lie down, or even just sit and lean against something, or stand, they could accidentally fall asleep as soon as they closed their eyes.

That was exactly what happened to Uraraka Shige. When he suddenly heard the bell for the next class, he jolted awake, feeling as though time had abruptly skipped forward a little.

"Ah... mm."

He stretched and muttered casually.

"Is it time for class?"

His expression was a little tired, prompting Ochaco, who sat beside him, to call out to him with concern.

"Shige..."

But she only called his name before trailing off, wanting to say more but stopping herself... She was his family, after all. How could the changes in him over the past two weeks have escaped the notice of the family closest to him?

She simply refrained from asking out of respect for her family.

But even without her saying it, Uraraka Shige knew. Just as his family hadn't questioned him much and had instead supported his training, this was the unspoken understanding between family members.

So, seeing Ochaco's worried expression, Uraraka Shige naturally smiled back at her, setting the young girl's mind considerably at ease.

The teacher soon arrived at the front of the room. As it happened, this class was math, so Uraraka Shige planned to find an opportunity to return to the rooftop and continue training. The teacher, however, didn't give him the chance.

Clap, clap~

The math teacher, whose hairline had shyly retreated quite far back and whose shiny, oily forehead looked rather full, stood at the front of the room and clapped his hands, drawing the attention of the students sitting behind their desks.

Then he wore a mysteriously greasy smile, making the elementary school students present involuntarily shudder and feel a chill run down their spines.

"All right, everyone seems to be behaving!"

In a deep, mellow middle-aged man's voice, he spoke words that might or might not have been praise.

"It seems you all know already. We have a transfer student joining our class today."

Uraraka Shige looked at the teacher at the front of the room, feeling a little puzzled. He hadn't paid any attention to what his classmates were saying or doing today, and he had no idea a student from another school was actually transferring into their class.

"A transfer student... It's not even the start of the semester, and a transfer student is joining this class now..."

A bold thought suddenly occurred to him...

Could it be... a character who appeared in the original work? Going by their age...

Several characters from the original work who should have been about the same age as his current body came to Uraraka Shige's mind, but he immediately shook his head and dismissed the idea.

No, I'm not the protagonist. How could it be such a coincidence...

He thought of losing his arm again, and the illusion of a faint ache crept into his left arm. Once more, he confirmed that he couldn't be the protagonist.

Still, he couldn't help feeling a little anticipation... anticipation for the unknown.

"Come in."

The teacher spoke again, and at the math teacher's words, the door he had casually closed behind him when he entered the classroom was pulled open from outside once more.

A petite, adorable figure in a girl's school uniform then stepped in from the doorway with small strides, not forgetting to turn around and close the classroom door behind them.

"Hmm... they look a little familiar..."

Looking at the transfer student, Uraraka Shige felt as though he had seen them somewhere before. He frowned slightly, thinking there was more to this than met the eye.

"Come over here and introduce yourself."

The teacher at the front of the room nodded to the transfer student, continuing to give instructions on what to do next in his deep, mellow middle-aged man's voice.

The transfer student nodded, then continued taking small steps toward the front of the room. The little face beneath the short blond hair looked quite delicate and was flushed red, as though from shyness. Both hands kept rubbing the pleats of the skirt.

"I... I'm..."

The transfer student, who looked even younger than Ochaco, stumbled over the words and seemed too shy to speak freely. They appeared to be an introverted child.

"...My name is Terumi Genga... I'm seven years old... and... and... um... my Quirk is Illusion Manifestation... I hope we can all get along."

Having spoken in a clear, childish voice, the transfer student gave a small bow to the group of future classmates seated before the front of the room.

The math teacher smiled and nodded, then added a few words.

"Genga may look very shy around strangers, but he was actually a well-known honor student at his old school. You should all learn from him."

He then spoke gently to a thin, small-looking boy in the front row.

"Class representative, if there's anything you don't understand in your studies, talk it over with Genga and work through it together."

Then the teacher, smiling a very greasy smile, pointed to an empty seat in the back row of the classroom and gave the transfer student some instructions.

"Genga, sit here for now. We'll move you to another seat after class."

The transfer student obediently nodded in agreement, then, carrying a rather retro-looking backpack, sat down in the seat the teacher had indicated.

"All right, class begins now."

The math teacher at the front opened a textbook nearly twice as thick as the students' and began teaching a lesson that Uraraka Shige found extremely boring. But Shige was occupied with some curious thoughts, so much so that he didn't cause any trouble for the entire class.

He? The teacher just said "he," didn't he? It's not "she"?! Was that a slip of the tongue? Come to think of it, I keep feeling like I've seen this transfer student somewhere before...

And so, during that math class, the math teacher with the shyly retreating hairline suddenly found that, for once, he was once again experiencing what a quiet, orderly classroom filled with an atmosphere of learning was supposed to be like...

Yeah, right!