Important Visitors

Chapter 3 – Important Visitors

"Now, for the 48 students who qualified for the second stage of the festival, I will explain the rules of the second trial."

A beautiful woman in her 30s said as she smiled, drawing applause and cheers from the crowd.

"Hey, am I going crazy or is that…" one of the students asked, a bit dazed.

"The number 2 ranked hero in Japan and number 4 in the world…"

"MISS KARMA!?" another shouted like a devoted fan.

She had long brown hair, tanned skin, a purple uniform with golden details that accentuated her toned figure—yet still maintained a feminine charm—and a small covering over her left eye.

Watching the students' expressions, the woman couldn't help but smile a little more as she silently evaluated them.

Rika Enshō, better known as Miss Karma.

With an extremely powerful Quirk, Rika reigned for a long time as the most powerful heroine in both Japan and the world. Her Quirk, Crimson Reflex, basically made her invincible. However, six months ago, she was severely injured in a fight against an extraordinarily powerful enemy.

Although she had recovered, the consequences of that battle forced her to step away from the frontlines for a while. Wanting to do something meaningful, she decided to act as a temporary teacher at U.A., at the request of an old friend, making her debut at the festival.

Seeing the students calm down in her presence, Rika smiled gently and spoke,

"Well, now that you've calmed down, let's begin the second phase of the sports festival: capture the flag.

The 48 students here will be divided into 16 teams according to the color of the flags you possess.

Your objective is to destroy each other's flags.

If a team destroys a flag, it will be considered qualified.

If a team has its flag destroyed, it is not eliminated—as long as it captures another team's flag, it can still move on to the next round.

If a team has its flag stolen but not destroyed, they must recover it before the trial ends in order to qualify.

And if a team keeps its flag safe until the end, they also advance to the next stage.

The trial will last 15 minutes. Good luck."

Karma then turned and left the arena, allowing the students to gather with their teams before heading to the area where the flags were located.

After 10 minutes of preparation, with the teams ready, the sound of the bell rang and the second trial of the sports festival began.

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'Hm… this is a clever way to test how well the students can adapt to situations where they're forced to work in teams with other heroes,'

Arata thought as he lay on Yui's chest and sipped some of her juice, while the wolf boy and a few other older boys watched with hatred.

Arata didn't care. He was still a child and had no impure thoughts about his Onee-san—he just liked to annoy his older "brothers"… besides, it was a comfortable place.

Ignoring the resentful looks and refocusing on the festival, Arata returned to thinking about the difficulty of the second stage.

There are many situations where heroes are forced to work together, whether because they patrol the same area or belong to the same agency. In those cases, they often develop a good understanding of each other's Quirks, which allows for smooth coordination.

However, that's not always the case. Sometimes, circumstances force them to work with complete strangers. In those moments, miscommunication or tension between heroes can lead to problems.

Since the second phase formed teams randomly and forced them to cooperate, Arata could already foresee some issues arising.

The students from classes 1-A and 1-B viewed each other as rivals. Those from classes 1-C through 1-E saw everyone as enemies.

Knowing this was their chance to leave the general studies program and join the hero course, even classmates were seen as rivals to be defeated.

The support course students only wanted a stage to showcase their inventions. Winning wasn't as important as visibility.

The remaining classes… well, they had been eliminated a long time ago and were now enjoying their free time, tending to other tasks, or simply appreciating the festival like regular visitors and guests.

Arata observed Kata joining a boy from the support course and another from class 1-A. Kata seemed eager to discuss something, but the 1-A student ignored him while the support student fiddled with his equipment.

'This is going to be bad. Not knowing each other's abilities could lead to complications during the trial.'

"Attention, everyone, I need to make an announcement."

Just as the second trial was about to begin, a voice echoed from the entrance, making everyone turn to look.

There stood a middle-aged man, the director of the orphanage, watching everyone with a mix of seriousness and nervousness as he began to speak.

"Soon, some very important visitors will come to the institution for a visit. If everything goes well, we may receive increased funding and, more importantly, authorization for Quirk training."

Until then, Arata had been ignoring the conversation, but now he couldn't help but glance away from the television and look at the director.

Authorization for Quirk training—essentially, it's the legal permission to use one's Quirk in specific areas, without restrictions or the risk of arrest for improper use.

These authorizations were rare, usually granted only to retired professional heroes who wanted to establish training zones for aspiring heroes.

These locations were popular among youth because they provided a safe place to train their Quirks. Of course, tuition was expensive due to high equipment costs and staff salaries, but many parents, hopeful that their children would become great heroes, were more than willing to pay for it.

In short, training in such a place greatly increased one's chances of becoming a hero—and now, the director was saying that someone wanted to give that kind of authorization to a small orphanage in a medium-sized city?

'Why?' That was the question Arata asked himself as the second phase of the festival began.

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In a black sedan, a man flipping through a list of names with a somewhat bored expression suddenly asked.

"Any interesting ones?" a woman beside him asked, reading through a stack of documents.

"Not a single one. Some have interesting Quirks, but none are powerful enough to draw real attention."

"I see."

"Tell me… why is it really worth investing in a place like this?"

The man asked, glancing at the woman. "We're taking a big risk for such a small place."

"A small place that got two students into U.A."

"As general course students."

He scoffed as he glanced at the list with Kata and Sino.

"The boy with acceleration has potential—a useful Quirk, but not enough to put him in the top 10 in the future. If he gets lucky, he might reach the top 50.

As for the other one, Puff will be lucky to even make it to the top 200."

He set the tablet down and leaned back, rubbing his eyes.

"It doesn't make sense…" he murmured, while the woman remained silent, continuing to read the documents about the small orphanage.

She knew why her boss had shown interest in that place, and now she had to lay the groundwork to make sure everything went smoothly.

She studied the list of the institution's residents, from the children who had already left to the newly arrived.

It was a long list, but she was determined to investigate it for any irregularities.

Her boss had given an order, and nothing could go wrong.