Let the games begin, I guess, Kazue sighed mentally, hanging back for a second to judge the Creation girl's speed before taking off in a medium-fast jog. He let half his mind wander as he ran, the other half paying attention to where he was going and what his limbs were doing.

Based on his research of the school, his homeroom teacher for the heroics course would either be the underground hero Eraser Head for 1-A or Vlad King for 1-B. Kazue didn't quite care for the teachers of the other subjects enough to actually check the school's website, knowing he'd probably sleep through them anyway, but for the heroics class...

No one really knew, ever since it had been announced that the current heroics teacher for the first years was retiring at the end of the school year.

But there was a rumor floating around that-

Kazue brought his full attention back to the obstacle course upon arriving at a particular section, grimacing upon seeing the stretch of water they were required to swim across.

Sure, he was prepared for the situation with a waterproof pouch inside his track jacket's pocket, but taking out the small devices in his ears still wasted more time than he would've liked. More irritating than that? He couldn't let himself zone out when he could only hear overly loud noises (like Present Mic's obnoxious commentary) and the rest of the world was complete and utter silence.

Meaning, Kazue couldn't continue theorizing on who the new heroics teacher was and would actually have to focus on not being run over by the random logs floating around that the examiners had decided were necessary.

"What a pain," he muttered inaudibly to anyone, spitting out some water from his mouth in the process.

Mentally checking his progress as he clambered out of the water and was instantly hit with a blast of hot air from several heaters surrounding the area, Kazue fought the urge to just lay down right there and watch the clouds instead. The end of the log-filled pool was just about a kilometer though the course, meaning that he was only one-third done.

Also, the Creation girl was twenty seconds ahead of him and gaining as he fumbled the small devices back into his ears, ending up at twenty-four seconds ahead.

Ugh. Meaning, based on her average running speed, as well as accounting for gradual fatigue... Kazue would have to increase his own speed by-

"Stop calculating everything, idiot," Kazue muttered, catching up to within ten meters with a short sprint instead. He huffed out an annoyed breath as his legs went on autopilot, rolling his eyes at his own thought process and how it automatically did the math for everything. The speed he needed to run for a certain period of time to catch up, the range the average score for the exam would likely be in, you name it, and he was calculating it without thinking.

If he was being completely honest, it was all pointless. Why calculate something constant when Kazue could literally just sprint for a few seconds and have the same result?

He had no goddamn clue. Maybe it was just the way his brain functioned. Maybe it was because he had a slight obsession with the subject. Or maybe it was because the teenager stayed up late last night walking one of his subscribers through their advanced calculus homework over Skype, then proceeded to record a video on the subject the mentioned homework covered because it was apparently difficult to understand.

Then again, none of it really mattered. Even if he stopped himself or not, Kazue still knew the answer to every question he paused halfway through in a heartbeat. It was as quick as breathing, and that was saying something considering the fast pace at which his chest was rising and falling due to physical activity.

It was both a blessing and a curse. To be able to complete homework assignments and tests just by showing all the work without even really thinking about the steps, but making sure to get some wrong all the same allowed the brunet to take wonderfully long naps while everyone else was hunched over their desks, sweat rolling down their brows as the clock only ticked on. However, that also meant that any question that was asked or popped into his head, even if he didn't want to know the answer, his brain betrayed him and said it anyway.

Like the percentage of how likely heroes were to die in the first year after their debut, or how many cases there were per month of hate crimes against the Quirkless (it was growing, too, due to the higher percentage of the population in the newer generations having Quirks).

And, in the minds of many, Kazue himself could be classified as Quirkless in most situations. He had to actually touch someone for his Quirk to work, and even then, he could only boost Quirks at the moment. Meaning, he had no physical advantage against the Quirkless, and only had an advantage against people who did have Quirks if he could boost them for his benefit.

Take the dust intern, Daguchi Ichiro's Quirk. When Kazue was sparring with him the previous week, the guy didn't know he could actually control the dust he shot out. Hence, Kazue could use that to his advantage to enhance his Quirk to blast away all the dust to the walls of the room. Hell, he could even activate someone's Quirk with a single touch, although it did drain his energy more than simply boosting it.

But against everyone else's, like the fire intern's Quirk, he had no physical advantage in the slightest.

Ugh.

It actually hurt Kazue's brain to think about it, and he regularly thought about complex topics in astrophysics when he was bored. Well, at least when he wasn't busy reading the latest teen romance manga.

Speaking of manga, a new chapter of-

"Damn, I really zoned out..." the brunet muttered under his breath, jolting out of his thoughts as he crossed the finish line six seconds behind the Creation girl. Without even waiting to see his time from Present Mic, who was standing at the end of the course, Kazue plodded over to the side of the track and collapsed face-down in the grass.

He wrinkled his nose at the sudden smell of recently-watered plants filling his nostrils, rolling over to his back to lay spread-eagle and stare up at the clouds. One kind of looked like All Might's head, then there was... a chicken? Or maybe a duck. Hard to tell, but damn, was he tired for no reason at all...

Kazue's eyes narrowed as the waves of tiredness washed over his mind like a thick blanket of fog. What the...

The teen sat up instantly, forcing himself to stay awake and scan the surrounding area with both his eyes and his Quirk.

Nobody.

Absolutely no one at all with a Quirk even remotely close to putting someone to sleep was nearby, the feeling receding as quickly as it had appeared. Then again, now that he thought about it, the sensation was akin to what it felt like before he passed out from giving someone all his energy. But he hadn't even used his Quirk at all that day. There was no logical explanation for the sudden bout of unnatural tiredness.

And that made Kazue uneasy. He didn't like when things didn't make sense, especially when they were related to his own abilities.

~-~-~-~

"Hmm," Katashi hummed thoughtfully, compacted jet boots clicking against the pavement as he walked. "That does sound odd. Have you read into it yet?"

Kazue nodded his head in affirmation from where he was plodding along next to his father during the man's daily patrol, hands resting lazily in the pocket of his sweatshirt. He ignored the excited chatter of the civilians they passed, knowing he'd likely be on a dozen or more people's social media by the end of the day. Probably under the title of 'OMG! I saw Dreynen! Oh, yeah, and his kid, too'.

"Yeah," he replied, miffed at his own cluelessness. Kimura Kazue didn't get confused, and yet, here he was, asking his father for help. "In the car on the way back to the agency. It was my Quirk, not someone else's like I'd initially thought, but no trace as to why it'd activated, or where the energy transferred to. Let alone why it came back just as quickly."

"The answer's quite obvious, actually, I'm surprised someone with a mind of your caliber couldn't figure it out," the man answered, eyeing the teen with a small smile playing along his lips.

Kazue rolled his eyes at the reply, the conversation pausing momentarily as a random civilian got their hat autographed by Number Seven. "Quit being a pain in the ass and spit it out," he grumbled, not wanting to be kept in the dark any longer than he absolutely had to.

"Now, now, mind your manners," Katashi admonished, a teasing tilt to his tone. "My power is beginning to manifest in you, and as the kids these days say, 'duh'."

The brunet sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. How the hell had he not thought of that? After all those years of waiting for the dormant half of his Quirk to wake up, it had finally begun and he hadn't even noticed. Pathetic. "Ah," was all Kazue could say, sending a rock skittering across the concrete with an absentminded kick. "That'll be useful."

Katashi arched an eyebrow at the vague response. "Why yes, I believe it will."

Damn I wasn't even planning the random Quirk development but randomly decided to do it to make the chapter a little longer. Tbh though I think it's kind of obvious what the other half of Kazue's Quirk is, but whatever I guess.

Have I succeeded in mYsTeRy?

Question: Guess, as of 11/14/21 when this chapter was written, how many characters for separate books I have planned out.

Questions/comments/things I should change?