Boy oh boy!
Today was the day that class started! Runt was so excited that he couldn't even fall asleep, tossing and turning in his little newspaper corner through the night with all kinds of thoughts running through his head. Thoughts like: are my classmates gonna like me? Are we gonna forge a bond in the fires of battle? Does any of this even exist? Should I pack extra loam? What kinds of food do they like? Am I gonna be the smartest one in the class?
In fact, why wait for classes to start at all?
This was the thought(or lack thereof) that lead to Runt, age unknown, no last name, shoving his face against the bars of Shiketsu's front gate at approximately 4 in the morning.
The road was dark and the school's lights were off, but that was probably just because they were trying to save power. Or maybe the war was still on. The meat of his face ached in protest the further he tried to squeeze it through the bars. Damn it... So close, yet so far!
Runt pulled back, assessing the situation tactically. Obstacles: one corrugated iron gate, stretched across the entrance. Approximately... Uh... Three-fifths of a Runt tall.
Whoever did the security for Shiketsu was good.
One of Runt's feet began to rapidly thump-thump against the ground as his grimy face contorted in thought. A way in... A way in... A way in...!
"... huh...? Runt?"
Someone's voice shattered the night air and Runt's concentration. No, not someone's, Skycarver's. A person that Runt actually knew! His face split open into a dopey grin as he loped over to the teacher.
"Woah. Am I genie or something...? Wish granted, haha. Whatcha doing here, teach? Early morning jog? Got the jitters?"
Skycarver squinted at Runt before shrugging his comment off. "Something like that. Why are you here, Runt? School doesn't start for another few hours."
Runt... did know when school started, right? Skycarver had told him a hundred times before, but it was always so hard to tell when it came to Runt. In return all he received was a bobble-headed nod.
"Yea."
Good enough apparently. With a sigh, Skycarver reached over and pushed the (unlocked) gate inwards while Runt looked on like he was having a magic trick performed just for him. "Follow. I'm here for some more preliminary paperwork for 1-F, but you can come along if you're good."
Runt happily spent the wee hours of the morning scarpering from corridor to corridor, often on all fours, until he was guided out of the school to prepare for induction.
Yet after returning, at some point exhaustion finally guided Runt to a warm, comfortable classroom to curl up in.
...
......
..........
"...!"
Snooze...
"nt... RUNT..!"
BWUH.
Light! Sound! The fuzzy suggestion of people!
But most of all, c-c-c-cold!
Runt's torso started to twist and contort, an awawawawawa escaping him as he himself tried to escape the frigid, wet sensation until...!
Plop.
An ice cube fell out the bottom of his shirt, landing on the classroom floor in a small puddle. Runt blinked. The world went bleary. But after a few moments of adjustment, the scene around him became clear.
One boy with green hair, looking like he wanted to go home.
A dark-haired, intense-looking girl standing over him. Seemed like the ice cube was her idea.
Some guy... Oh, that's Rod! Hi Rog.
And Skycarver-chan-sama-mama, looking like he usually did.
"As I was saying, you shouldn't be expecting to leap right into Hero training until we've settled the rest of your classmates. Kinzoku should be here later today, but there's some confusion about the E-class and a transfer into 1-D, so just sit tight and do your normal schoolwork until then. Understood?"
The other students in the class nodded along. Runt surreptitiously bent over to pick up the ice cube from the floor. Just as his grimy fingers closed around it, the bell went off.
Skycarver's expression immediately washed over with relief. "And that's lunch. I'll see you kids afterwards, right now I've a meeting with Karaburan to catch."
The door shuffled shut behind him maybe a little too quickly.
Now left to their own devices, cactus-guy was the first to speak up, however loath he looked to do so. Somebody had to steer this ship towards sanity. "You guys are all newbies to Shiketsu and not coming in from another course, right? How's about a tour of the food court? Pro bon—"
"Leeeeet's... Introductions!" THUMP. With a scattering of dust and debris, Runt leapt up onto his desk! It wobbled precariously.
...
Suki was the first to break the awkward silence that had descended. "What the hell isss he talking about?"
"Mhm... Sho..." Crunch, crunch. "It'sh like... I'm kinduva geniushh, apparently."
A spray of ice shavings and dirt already coated the table beneath him. Runt swallowed.
"I'm Runt, dudes. I took the entrance exam, uhh... a while back, and they told me they'd never seen anyone get every single question on the test wrong while scoring so high on the practicals! Innit that cool? And they keep calling me a warden of the state or whatever haha, so I pretty much haaaad to become a hero. Ruin comes for all." Peace sign~! "Okay, now it's you guyses turn."
"Hissss name can't posssibly be that."
"It's how he introduced himself to me this morning." Rob shrugged.
"No way, haha, it totally is. It's like an ironic name. cuz I was... one, two..." Runt started intensely counting on his fingers. "... like eight thousand percent bigger than my dad or my mom or my siblings or their siblings or the dog or..."
"O-kay!" A near-frantic grin stretched Richard's face, desperate to keep a lid on... whatever this was. "Introductions, you said? I'm R—"
"Nuh uh. Are you the one standing up right now? That's what I thought. I'm the one doing the intros around here. It's your turns."
A dirty fingernail pointed at each student present in sequence, starting with Williams.
"You're Ron, my best friend! You've got a tragic backstory."
"You're ssssssssssssntoad girl! Better watch out, haha, rabbits eat frogs."
Do they?
"And you're Richard Hertz!" Runt smiled sunnily. "Your quirk is Sabotenda: this quirk allows such close communion with cactus plants that they can even create cactus parts on the body. Subtly encourages a love for arid environments and a higher discomfort in high humidity. Become a natural needle sharpshooter! You think becoming a hero will probably be more fun than getting a real job. Even though you're a relaxed and slow-paced kind of guy, you're an adrenaline junkie and will do extreme sports with a sloppy, lazy style."
"... how the—"
"And your favorite thing in the world is your Honda dirt bike, haha."
"Ah. Sounds like you've got me completely wrong. Nice try, dude." Rich hid his abject terror with a casual laugh.
"Jeez, can we just go to lunch, please?" Ron stammered out in limited Japanese.
"Ugh! Not wiss thisss idiot, he couldn't find his earsss if you sssstapled them to hissss eyesss! I'm going alone!" Suki bailed before any more exposure to Runt drained what was left of her brain cells, slamming the door behind her.
"Bwuh?" Runt's head whipped to one side, trying to get a good look at his bunny ears that flopped just out of sight with each movement.
Meanwhile, Richard and Ron began talking among themselves, a distant mix of hesitant Japanese and English, as they realized the conversation possibilities were rapidly shrinking the longer Runt was allowed to take up precious air.
Comprehension finally dawned in Runt's orange eyes.
"Ohhhhh... It's cuz she's a dragoooooon..."
"Do you guys believe in destiny?"
"No," Richard immediately retorted, hoping to strangle the baby of Runt's malformed thoughts in the crib.
The motley group was walking down the hall to the cafeteria, just a few scant meters away from the safe roar of a dull, distant crowd. Runt pressed on anyways.
"I do."
The hall grew just a shade dimmer.
"It's like seeing roadkill. Kinda stains the air a little bit, but you don't really think about it for more than a few seconds, haha. That animal lived a whole life, it crawled or hopped or slithered for years and years only for the last proof that it ever did any of that stuff to be totally ignored as someone else's problem... wacko. Really makes ya think. But it wasn't someone else's problem for somebody. A person smashed into that roadkill with their tires or road roller or inline skates or whatever and kept on driving. It was their problem, and the animal's problem, but not even they cared. Nothing could have stopped it. Some days I look at Shiketsu and don't know if I'm the one that'll be in the driver's seat or the one h—oh snap a bird!"
Runt scampered over to the sunlit edge of the hall, pressing his delighted face against wall of windows. Visible smudges were slathered across it when he finally pulled away.
... then the dust devil that was following Runt crawled off of the fluorescent light, brightening the hall again.
"I... do not!" Velvet Worm finally proclaimed, freeing himself from a valiant struggle with his English-to-Japanese pocket dictionary.
"Haha, that's crazy, man."