The Serial Killer and the Classmates

It was noon.

Dark clouds gathered in a great mass, covering most of the sky, but no rain fell. They only made the day a little gloomy.

There would be a downpour today.

Uraraka Shige had already checked the weather forecast and brought two umbrellas with him, one for himself and the other for Ochaco. Both were in a corner at the back of the classroom.

More than half the students had already arrived and were talking among themselves. Children their age always seemed to have endless things to talk about, and with the gloomy sky outside, the classroom felt crowded, stuffy, and noisy.

They seemed to be sharing all kinds of news and rumors they had heard from their parents: a newly opened bar somewhere, whose parents had bought what kind of toy for whom, and how a serial killer had recently arrived in the city and was moving from place to place.

Or they were complaining and grumbling about their parents, because their parents hadn't packed them umbrellas, or had woken them up too early and left them feeling sleepy.

Uraraka Shige couldn't find anything to talk about with these children who were the same age as his body. He didn't want to spend time with a bunch of people who, as far as he was concerned, were nothing but little brats and troublemakers. He didn't even want to say a word to them.

He lay quietly on his desk, looking as though he were asleep. In truth, his face was turned to the side, and his eyes were slightly narrowed as he watched in secret through his lowered eyelids, looking on coldly.

Two or three other students in the class were also lying on their desks like him. Most were resting, though one had a stomachache.

Of the few students lying quietly on their desks, all except the one with a stomachache were children subjected to the silent treatment by most of the class and blatantly excluded from their circle.

By rights, they should have formed a circle of their own, so they would all have friends to play with. But they couldn't stand one another and were awkward by nature, so even after spending two years in this classroom, they still lay alone on their desks.

"Bang!!"

A sudden "crash" rang out in the noisy classroom. A little troublemaker had stood on his chair, only for a brat beside him to kick the chair, sending both him and the chair crashing to the floor.

As a result, the whole classroom quickly fell quiet.

"This is really..."

Uraraka Shige opened his eyes a little wider, trying hard to get a clear look at the sorry sight of the troublemaker on the floor, his eyes full of tears and on the verge of crying. Shige felt no stir of emotion. He couldn't muster the slightest sympathy and instead felt a little pleased.

The brat who had kicked the chair stood there gloating for a while, then went over and offered a halfhearted apology. He held out a hand, seemingly intending to help the troublemaker, who was still sitting on the floor, back up...

It looked as though the kick might have been accidental and the brat might have been a friendly kid. But Uraraka Shige, who had silently watched the whole thing, already had a dismissive curl at the corner of his mouth, and there was contempt and disgust in his eyes.

"A bunch of brats..."

He voiced his disdain offhandedly, then watched the brat pull the unlucky troublemaker halfway up before suddenly letting go. The troublemaker fell heavily back onto the classroom floor, landing on his backside. The brat then led several equally gloating children nearby in mocking him.

Shige then watched the troublemaker sit on the floor and wail for a while. When he saw that no one around him was going to comfort him, he silently stopped crying, set his chair upright, and obediently returned to his desk and lay down.

He looked every bit a pushover.

But Uraraka Shige knew that the fellow who looked like a pushover now was actually extremely vengeful. He would surely find a way to get back at the brat who had embarrassed him twice just now.

Uraraka Shige could even foresee how, after the troublemaker got his revenge, the two kids would push and shove each other until a passing good student told a teacher, or, if they were even unluckier, a teacher caught them in the act, and they both got a scolding.

"Sigh..."

Uraraka Shige suddenly let out a sigh. Ochaco, whose seat was right next to his on the other side, turned her attention to him, but he didn't notice at all.

"Why do I still have to spend years stuck in this damn den of brats..."

Hearing Uraraka Shige's complaint, Ochaco's pretty eyes showed a hint of resignation. She sighed too, then turned her attention back to the classmates gathered around her and continued chatting with them.

"Clatter~~~"

The classroom's sliding door was suddenly pulled open by a carefully groomed middle-aged woman. Seeing the mess inside, she walked to the podium and began scolding the students.

Half a minute later, the class bell rang, and the students in the classroom had mostly taken their seats, leaving the room bustling. The middle-aged woman stood at the podium and placed the books she had been holding under her arm on the desk.

The students sat in their seats, talking quietly among themselves. After the teacher at the podium interrupted and scolded them a few times, they began passing notes instead. One after another, the teacher confiscated them, and the students got another scolding.

The teacher at the podium was somewhat frazzled, but the brats below seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Perhaps, in their eyes, each of them was a brave hero who had stepped forward, while the one at the podium was the enemy of justice, the great demon king of teachers. They were fearlessly resisting the demon king's rule, standing on the side of justice and battling evil without end... Or perhaps they simply saw it as a fun game.

Uraraka Shige, however, frowned at the empty seat in the very center of the second row, directly in front of the podium. The student who should have been sitting there was the one he knew best in the entire classroom apart from Ochaco and Genga, who had transferred to another school again: the class representative.

What followed was one lesson after another, a grueling succession of different classes and breaks that continued until the dismissal bell rang.

The students swarmed out of the classroom. Those who had brought umbrellas took them and headed straight home, while those who hadn't used the school's umbrellas to go straight home. Uraraka Shige picked up the two umbrellas he had brought, and after stepping out of the classroom, he looked back and swept a frowning gaze over the room, an ominous premonition in his heart.

"The class representative... didn't come today..."