The Emperor's Dragon

The Right Research

Yakunita Tanaihito, known as Yakuni to the few friends he'd managed to make at school, sat under a bubbling tank as he read the book in his lap.

Given he was dressed in a t-shirt and a tatty pair of jeans, his choice of reading would surprise many. High School Calculus was not what you expected a teen to read, except when they were doing homework, or actually in school. Even then, one would expect most of them to attempt to skip reading it.

Except Yakuni was reading it intently, and he was actually working his way through the examples in the notebook that was balanced on his knee.

It wasn't exactly the best study environment but Yakuni knew that his employer, one Daruma Ujiko didn't care if he studied, so long as he got his job done. Infact, the man seemed to encourage his learning and had taken the time to explain what he was doing.

Yakuni knew it would revolt most people. He knew they'd have reported Daruma to the Heroes but he didn't care. What did it matter that a couple of quirked gits got dead? It wasn't like it didn't happen to people like him and no one gave a fuck, just because he was quirkless.

He might have been quirkless, but he'd gotten through Elementary, and Middle Schools with the highest scores. Of course, no one at his school would admit it, and the teachers seemed ashamed that he'd done better than the kids with quirks. He certainly hadn't been acknowledged as Dux of his Middle School.

They'd told him but they hadn't acknowledged him.

He'd shrugged at the time. After all, they were giving him those grades and that's what it took to get into High School, good grades, and passing the entrance exams, and his Middle School couldn't change that. So he'd applied to several High Schools. He wasn't applying to anything fancy, like the small Hero School that was for the Prefecture, just the local High Schools that offered classes. He'd sat their exams and then heard nothing.

That was normal, he told himself. That's what everyone told him.

He'd thought they were just telling him to wait.

They weren't.

They were telling him that he just wasn't going to get an answer.

It had taken until the day results were officially released. He'd gone to school, intent on finding his name on the board, and to be fair, his name was there, along with the others in his class who were graduating. He'd waited to see the board. Yakuni knew better than to try to push his way forward to see it through the crowd. That would be asking for trouble.

It hadn't taken that long before he'd been able to get to see the board. Kachi had been with him. It wasn't hard finding his class's listing. They were the last piece of paper tagged on to the board. Kachi's name was there, as was his, and Michita's. He'd been happy to see them both there, until he saw the symbols beside their names. It was a simple dash. Kachi had admitted that she hadn't applied to any High School, and that she was here for moral support.

He'd looked at his own name then, wondering what High School name he'd see there.

Except he hadn't.

There was no name.

There was only a NA.

Not Accepted.

That wasn't possible. He'd passed the entrance exams. He knew he had.

Kachi had shrugged, as if she'd expected it but she had tried to comfort him. It hadn't worked.

He tried to find out more information but there didn't seem to be any appeal, or any way to ask questions. Eventually he'd gone to the Principal of his Middle School. The woman had looked at him as if he was wasting her valuable air but he was used to that look.