MTLNOVEL Chapter 95: Guilt
A few days before the 1st Term's Final Exams,
"How are things with your classmate… Midoriya, was it?" Aina asked, eating a sandwich in the limo.
As it often happened, she had woken up late, missing her breakfast altogether.
After the beating and screaming Luke had received a few weeks ago, he had given up on trying to wake up the young lady.
Opposite them, Rikuya sat with a mean frown on his face, his eyes closed.
That's all we were missing, weren't we?! Rikuya had blasted the words on Luke's face when he had returned home on the eve of the Sports Festival. A retard trying to kill someone! If I don't submit a letter to Mr. Principal to get you rusticated, my name isn't Rikuya Saionji!!
Luke had kept quiet, then.
From one perspective, Rikuya's outburst was justified.
Luke had lost control in the arena, almost ending up choking the life out of Midoriya.
What truly came as a surprise, though, was that his father, Mr. Reijirou Saionji, hadn't said anything about this matter.
Luke looked outside, a downpour blurring the surroundings.
"It's not that bad…" he said, looking back at Aina. "Sand explained a few things about my past to Deku… Midoriya… But, even without that, I don't think Midoriya holds something against me in his heart."
On the other hand, Rikuya's frown deepened.
Should I visit Midoriya's dream and get him to submit an application, too? Rikuya contemplated. At this point in time, he could do just about anything to get Luke out of the school and confine him at home.
If Rikuya wasn't wrong about it, then the Hero Agencies' offers would be coming today.
And, as much as he disliked admitting it, the bastard could fight… better than most.
Rikuya didn't want Luke to cause more trouble as Dr. Blessed during the Summer Internship program. Because, even if he didn't want to, it would be him who would need to clean up behind Mr. I-have-the-Vigilante-disease.
For Rikuya, the world would be a much more peaceful place if Luke could spend his life at home, away from society, where he didn't belong.
Then, he could comfortably attend his Work Studies under Pro Hero: Mt. Lady…
"Why are you blushing?"
Rikuya's eyes shot open, and he found Nyx staring dead at him. "Go away," he said, trying to sound as mean as he could. "You reek!"
A vein pulsed on Nyx's head. "I smell better than your mother!"
"You…"
By the time Luke and Aina separated Nyx and Rikuya, a few of her feathers stuck in his ears, they had already reached school.
"I talked to Sir Nighteye," Aina said, already sounding sorry. The three of them opened umbrellas and began walking toward the entrance. "But…"
"It's alright," Luke nodded. "Let's catch up later. OK?"
Pouting and sighing, Aina walked away, Rikuya disappearing right behind her.
"Luke!"
Midoriya walked up to Luke from behind.
"What's with that face?" Luke asked, noticing the colors of frustration building up inside Midoriya.
Luke and Miss Justice had already discussed what happened during the Sports Festival extensively.
To their extreme surprise, Nyx hadn't seen any Blue Spirit Particles while using Spirit Vision on Midoriya. Nor had her Danger Intuition been triggered.
However, in the very next moment, something had pulled her consciousness to Midoriya's conscious realm without her will.
It was there that the Vestige of Nana Shimura had caught her, refusing to let her go.
Ever since then, they had been guessing what Yoichi Shimura, the original user of One For All, meant when he said he had the answers Luke was seeking.
Did he know something Bioalchemy that Luke didn't?!
Did he know something about All For One that Luke didn't?!
Or did he know something about Singularity and Conformity?!
Regardless of what the Vestige meant, Luke knew if he wanted to progress further on this journey, then he would need to go back there and talk to them. Eventually.
But, that would also mean awakening them further in Midoriya, accelerating his command over One For All.
Not to mention, if that happened, and the Vestiges began actively talking with Midoriya, then what if they told him something about Luke that he didn't want the boy to know?
Keeping this all in mind, Luke had decided not to visit Vestiges until… he gained Midoriya's trust.
That's why Luke had been taking advantage of this sudden friendship Midoriya was feeling toward him.
Suddenly, the moment he thought like that, an avalanche of guilt drowned Luke's senses.
Once again, Luke found himself manipulating, swindling, and befriending someone for his extremely selfish reasons.
But the guilt wasn't because of that.
It was because how easily these things came to Luke, as if he had been doing this all his life.
If it wasn't for the Clown's abilities, letting Luke control his expressions, Midoriya would have asked him the same question, perhaps.
"It's nothing…" Midoriya replied, smiling wryly as he saw Luke smiling as well. "People keep pointing at me in public… It felt good at first, but…"
The UA's Sports Festival had made everyone famous, especially students from 1-A.
Luke nodded in understanding.
"Luke! Midoriya!"
They looked over their shoulders and found Tenya charging toward them, wearing a raincoat.
"Run! We only have 5 minutes left to the first class!!!" Ida shouted before disappearing.
"Did you hear about Tenya's brother?" Midoriya asked.
Luke narrowed his eyes, burying the guilt within. "Hero Killer: Stain… It was all over the news."
Somewhere in the last week, a Villain had attacked Tenya's older brother, Pro Hero: Ingenium, almost killing him.
Luke had no particular impression of this Villain, though.
When the boys entered the class, Luke could still feel the eyes full of confusion on him.
Most of the students, who had always believed Luke to be the Perfect-Textbook-Hero material, just couldn't relate him to the image of him trying to kill Midoriya.
More than confusion, it was the suddenness of what had happened.
Luke had already apologized to all of them, and even Midoriya had brushed it away, but things would take time to go back to normal, he knew.
"I don't know what's up with Eijiro and all," Toru said as Luke sat down. "Bakugo almost killed me and Uraraka, too, you know. No one's saying anything to him…"
"Get back to your seats…" Erasure Head said, walking into the class.
"We have a special Hero informatics class today," Aizawa said after a while, making everyone sit straight. "Code Names —
"— You will be coming up with your Hero names."
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