MHA Paragon: Version 2.0

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---

"About damn time," I muttered as I sat down in the Lunch Rush cafeteria with two trays piled with food, "My stomach hasn't stopped rumbling since breakfast." 

Splitting my chopsticks, I cleaned off the splinters, primed to dig into my food, only for a shadow to fall over me. 

"Yo Atoma, you mind if we sit with you." 

I looked up to find Sero and Kaminari standing across the table, waiting for permission to sit. 

"Sure, but just call me Kenji. I'm not that big on honorifics," I replied. Even after eighteen years, I hadn't gotten used to people calling me by my last name. 

"Sick man," Kaminari said as he and Sero took their seats, "Totally metal."

I shrugged, "Just a preference." 

"So Kaminari and I were wondering, what's your deal?" Sero asked, leaning forward with a wide grin revealing his square teeth. 

"My deal?" I echoed, confused by the question. 

"Yeah, your deal!" Kaminari emphasized as he started to count with his fingers, "You walk into class with your tattoos and piercings looking like a gangster. That murder girl looks like she wants to kill you. Then YOU threaten to kill Ida, who belongs to an entire family of Pros. Everyone thinks you're crazy, only for Ashido to reveal that you broke the school record. And as if that wasn't enough, you awakened your quirk only a few months ago!" 

"Hm," I grunted through a mouthful of rice and tender sliced beef before swallowing, "That is an accurate description of events...but what exactly is your question?" 

Before either Sero or Kaminari could answer, another much larger shadow fell over the table. 

"Is there room for the rest of us?" 

---

In moments, I went from sitting alone to being joined by every other boy in Class 1-A, minus Midoriya, who had been sent to the nurse to heal his finger, and Todoroki, who it seemed as if no one had even exchanged a word with. 

Eventually, people had to pull together tables and chairs so that everyone could sit. While I didn't plan for it to happen, it wasn't the worst. However, going from 18 years of isolation to suddenly sitting with ten-plus people I barely knew was a bit of an adjustment. 

"So Kenji, how do you know Bakugo?" Kirishima, who by far had the most impressive physique out of the class even if he was on the shorter side, but even more attention-grabbing was his bright red hair spiked up in all directions with gel. 

"Hmm," I looked up from my second rice, "Oh, Firecracker? She saved my life after I did something stupid, then I said something stupid, and now she's mad at me." 

"Really, what did you say?" Aoyama asked, his long blond hair, worn flattened down around most of his head, and a pair of noticeable long eyelashes that he seemed to flutter with every blink. 

"I said she had a great ass," I answered through a mouthful of food. 

The table was silent for a second before Sato, the second tallest boy in the class with a broad build to match and short, spiky brown hair, spoke up, "Do you have a death wish?" 

"You should refrain from commenting on our classmate's bodies so freely," Ida lectured making me roll my eyes.

"While I admit it wasn't my proudest moment, I think I made a good first impression," I answered with a helpless shrug, "And besides, I think it's cute when she gets angry." 

"It seems the darkness of your quirk has warped your mind," Tokoyami, whose head, thanks to his quirk, resembled a bird with a pitch-black feather and a yellow beak. 

"Nah, I was born this way," I rebutted with a smirk as I tapped the side of my head. 

"Is it just Bakugo you find attractive?" Sero asked as he slurped up a bowl of Udon noodles. 

"What, of course not. I think all the girls in our class are beautiful!" I boldly proclaimed. 

"Even, Hagakure," Ojiro, a rather plain-looking guy besides his muscular prehensile tail with short blond hair, asked innocently. It was a good question, considering that the girl had a mutation quirk that rendered her permanently invisible.

"There's more to a girl's beauty than just looks," I stated firmly while biting down on an eggroll, "But I still think if Hagakure was visible she wouldn't lose to any of the other girls when it comes to appearance." 

"What about Ashido or Tsu? Do their appearances not bother you?" Shoji asked who was the tallest guy in our class. His pale gray hair was swept forward, covering most of his face, which was also mainly concealed by a face mask. But his six extra arms, attached by a web of skin, distracted most, especially seeing as one of them had grown a mouth that he was using to eat. 

I smirked, "Some people have a problem with heteromorphs. I'm not one of them. While I can't say I'll be attracted to all of them if their features are outside my preferences, the same goes for women without mutant quirks." 

"That was...very well put," Shoji replied, and though I could be one hundred percent sure, I thought I saw his main mouth twitch into a smile beneath his mask. 

"So, if you were to rank all the girls-" Sero started, only to be cut off by Koda, who, instead of hair, had a rock-like head. He was the last person to chime in, but he started frantically signing with his hands instead of speaking. 

"Yeah, I have to agree with Koda on that one," I said, nodding along, "Ranking girls by appearance is the fastest way to get expelled and is just genuinely a shitty thing to do." 

"You know, sign language?" Sero asked in disbelief.

"No, but I'm pretty sure that's what Koda meant," I replied before turning to Koda, who gave me two thumbs up, "See." 

Sero grunted as he sat back in his chair, "Fine, but I bet you the girls are doing the same thing. They sat together before even Kaminari and I could join you." 

I shrugged as I focused on my food, "I know you don't want to hear it, but it's not the same thing man. Besides, I'm pretty sure they have more important things to discuss and bond over." 

---

"So Bakugo, what's the deal with you and Midoriya?" Ashido asked as she leaned in, only for Bakugo to glare her daggers at her, "There is no deal. He's a spineless weakling that's been lying to me about having a quirk for years." 

"That must sting," Ashido replied with an empathetic frown, "Maybe he wasn't lying, and he is a late bloomer." 

Bakugo snorted before taking an angry bite of her food, "Either way, Deku's got it coming to him." 

"So there's never been anything...more between the two of you?" Ashido asked cautiously. 

"No, there hasn't, and there never will be!" Bakugo growled. 

"So, does that mean you prefer women?" Hagakure asked innocently as she took a bite of food, which disappeared when it entered her mouth. 

 "Where the hell did you get that idea!" Bakugo shouted while slamming the table with her fists. 

"I-I mean, you're wearing pants instead of a skirt, so I just thought," Hagakure replied before trailing off under the weight of Bakugo's gaze. 

"Just because I wear pants doesn't mean I don't like men," Bakugo replied with gritted teeth before she sighed and relaxed, "I just don't like having my legs exposed."

"Well, enough about that. I'm more interested in how you know Atoma," Ashido asked, cutting through the slightly awkward air with her directness. 

Bakugo stiffed for a moment, a reaction that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the girls, "We were in the same practical exam."

"Come on, there's more to it than that," Hagakure exclaimed, "None of us forgot that he called you Firecracker." 

Bakugo's hand tightened into a fist as her cheeks flushed, and her nose twitched, "That doesn't mean anything. He's just a bumbling idiot who doesn't know when to shut up!" 

"I don't think idiot is the word I would use to describe him," Ashido countered with an almost sleazy grin, "Did you see the look on his face when Ida talked about his parents? I really thought Atoma was going to fight him." 

"Who do you guys think would have won between the two of them?" Hagakure asked the table. 

"It's hard to say," Yaoyorozu replied, grabbing her chin in thought, "Even Atoma acknowledged that Ida had years to train his quirk and several generations of previous users to figure out how to bring out its latent potential." 

"But Atoma broke the school record, ribbit," Tsu countered, thinking out loud.

"Maybe the nature of his quirk gave him a leg up," Jiro muttered quietly as she twirled her elongated earlobe around her finger, "I've been thinking about it since the apprehension test; he barely used it outside of the baseball toss; and the track events. If Atoma relies on projectiles, then there's no way he'll be able to hit Ida when he's going at top speed." 

The table nodded, but Uraraka suddenly gasped as she turned back to Bakugo. "Wait, Bakugo! You said you were on the same battleground as Atoma. Did you see him use his quirk?!" 

For once, Bakugo didn't scowl or scream; instead, her eyes gained a faraway look, "Yeah, I did, and I can say without a doubt that if Ida and that asshole were to fight...Atoma would win."