Chapter Text
Slowly, deliberately, dramatically, Neito Monoma descended the stairs leading to class 1B’s common room step by step, each footfall causing his golden-blond hair to bounce slightly. He wore a smug smile on his face, though inside he was beaming, like a child waiting for Christmas. Finally, it’s almost time! Tomorrow…
His class was waiting in the expansive common room. Kendo stood near the stairwell, looking at Monoma with an exasperated face. “Will you just come down already? There’s no point to a dramatic entrance if you never get to the ‘entrance’ part”.
Shoda was sitting at the dining table, drinking one of his protein shakes (as usual). “I agree with Kendo; Mr. Kan said that we only have two to three hours until we’ve got to go to bed, so we’d better hurry up”
“Three hours?” scoffed Kamakiri, who was sitting next to Shoda with his feet on the table, peeling an apple with a blade that was jutting out of his finger. “That’s a whole lotta time for chatting about, what, different ways to slice em’ up?”. Tetsutetsu, sitting opposite to him, stopped sniffing suspiciously at the blender containing Shoda’s protein drink, and shouted with a toothy grin “Yeah! We just gotta turn up and go punchy-punchy, no plan needed!”
Pausing from browsing a selection of books in the bookshelf, Shishida spoke up, “If I may add my opinion, sir Kamakiri, given that tomorrow’s joint training will be randomised, there will surely be many variables that could affect our chances against our sister class, purely depending on how they will match us up. So it will be in our best interests to be as prepared as possible.”
Sitting on a sofa with Awase, Tsuburaba, and Kaibara, Rin nodded, adding “And that’s not even considering the fact that class A have got more real life battle experience than us”. He pointed at his forehead, “so if they’re physically prepared, then we should try our best to be mentally prepared”. Awase was dozing, and Kaibara was watching Tsuburaba try to blow out different shapes with his quirk.
“So, what? Are we going to prep for every possible scenario?” Tokage rebutted while on another sofa next to Komori, Yanagi, and Shiozaki, with her arms draped over its back. “We can do the strategising tomorrow, after we know the teams”. Komori was shuffling and glancing around the room, Shiozaki was brushing her hair with a metal brush (gifted to her by Tetsutetsu), and Yanagi was just sitting there, spookily.
“Um…S-sorry if I’m wrong, shroom, but...isn’t it better if we just make a general strategy y’know…for what we could shroom- I-I mean do, against each person in their class, w-while everybody’s here so we could…brainstorm together?” stuttered Komori from next to Tokage.
“Uh...y-yeah! Great point, Komori” Kuroiro piped up from a corner. His voice was louder and higher pitched than usual. “We could talk about our worst matchups and see, uh, what…we could…um…do…” Kuroiro shied as all eyes went on him, causing his voice to lower and prompting him to tuck himself further into the corner.
Honenuki and Tsunotori took no part in the ongoing conversation, instead animatedly chatting with each other in English whilst sitting on the floor. Fukidashi sat next to them, trying but failing to make any sense of whatever those two were talking about. A ‘??’ is seen written on his speech bubble head
Kodai and Bondo, ever the quiet ones, were by themselves on the kitchen island, not speaking a word. Kodai watched in awe as Bondo formed what seemed to be a figurine of sorts with his hands, using his glue as a base.
“Guys, SHH! Monoma’s here” an exclamation mark popped up on Fukidashi’s head as he silenced the class
Perfect , Neito thought. Everyone’s here, the atmosphere is just right (the room was dimly lit with candles, courtesy of Yanagi), and he was ready to deliver the most absolutely rousing speech anyone has ever heard. The only possible improvement would be if he had himself a spotlight. Or a stage. Or epic music in the background. Or-
Neito snapped out of his daydream at the sight of Kendo raising an eyebrow expectantly. Everyone was waiting, waiting for him. Driven on by the confidence and eloquence of a true class B member, he spoke:
“Tomorrow, my esteemed classmates! We, the greatest class UA has ever seen, will-
He was interrupted by a blinding flash of light. “Agh!”, he exclaimed, far too dramatically, squinting, and shading his eyes. “Who turned on the light?”
“Sorry, I did” Kendo apologised. “It’s just way too dark. Someone’s gonna slip on a candle at some point, and it’ll be pretty embarrassing to be the first UA class to burn their dorm down, especially since 1A has Todoroki and Bakugo in it. Also, Awase is barely managing to stay awake”
“H-huh?...What?” dazed from the light, the headbanded boy mumbled at the sound of his name. “Has it started yet?”
“Okay, fine” Neito conceded at the mention of 1A, finding his speech-making vigour once again. “As I was saying, we, the gr-”
“Hey, Monoma?” Tsuburaba interrupted, “Your shoe’s untied”
Neito looked down. He wasn’t wearing any shoes in the first place.
Tsubaraba grinned, “Made ya look!”
But before he could chuckle, Shiozaki extended her vines dangerously close to his face.
“Tsuburaba! Cease this juvenile banter and apologise at once!”
“Ah!” Tsuburaba yelped, leaning back into the sofa, “S-sorry! Sorry, Monoma, just joking around. Please go on, I’ll shut up” He turned around slowly to face Shiozaki, whispering “please don’t whip me…”
With narrowed eyes, Shiozaki detracted her vines, but not before everyone else could get a good laugh in.
Finally, when everyone settled down, Neito tried to start his speech for the third time in the past minute.
“Alright”, he sighed, “We, class B, will show those INGRATES, those INEPT, ARRO- ahem, sorry - THOSE ARrogant…profligates…”
Neito paused. He had prepared and memorised a whole list of at least 50 more negative adjectives to associate class A with in his speech, but, for some inconceivable reason, he couldn’t bring himself to recite it. Now, don’t be mistaken, he still hated them with a burning passion, he’s sure of it. But, the atmosphere here, with all of 1-B relaxing in each other’s company in one place…makes it difficult to feel hate, or envy, or anything bad at all. Neito’s smug, theatrical smile morphed into a warm, genuine one. There’s no need to sour the mood , he thought.
“...we’ll show them what we’ve got”, said Neito. Everyone blinked, not expecting him to finish so soon, before clapping
It wasn’t a standing ovation by any means, and it ended in a couple of seconds, but Neito was still surprised that nobody criticised how his “speech” was just a generic motivation line you’d find in any movie or TV show. Maybe they’re just happy they don’t have to sit through an hour of him disparaging class A, or maybe they noticed his change in tone. Heh, who knows?
“Okay!” Kendo put her hands together. “We’ll go through everyone in class A one-by-one. Reiko, would you mind getting us a board?”
As Yanagi floated over a whiteboard using her quirk, everyone shifted slightly so that they formed a sort of half circle around Kendo and the board. Neito leaned on the table.
“We’ll start with Aoyama”, announced Kendo as she began drawing a crude sketch of the French boy’s face on the board. “Any thoughts?”
“A soldier of the light”, remarked Kuroiro. “Not a good match for me”
As everyone started offering suggestions for strategies and tactics, Neito began thinking as he looked at his class.
We-They will win this. Even though I’m just a side character, I promise, Class B, I promise I’ll help you show everyone what you can do. I’ll help you show everyone that you’re all protagonists.