Motivation - SPORADIC UPDATES

Seven

"Why do you want to come to this school?"

Kazue shoved his hands in the pockets of his school uniform, slouching down even further in the chair. "If I have to go to high school, why not the best one in the same prefecture that I live in?" he asked rhetorically, watching the giant rat known as Principal Nezu carefully for his reaction. So far, they were only one question into the interview and it was already a pain in the ass.

The brunet blinked as the principal wrote down his answer with blinding speed despite not having opposable thumbs. What the... how could he even hold a pen, let alone write that fast with such neat strokes?

The rat smiled cheerfully. "Next! What are your least favorite and favorite subjects?"

Kazue resisted the urge to claw his eyes out with how vanilla the interview was already. It was just like the questions one would get asked for any prestigious high school out there, nothing specific for the hero course. "Least favorite? I..." he hesitated, narrowing his eyes almost imperceptibly as the answer revealed itself in his mind to be nothing. "Not really anything. And then my favorite... math or science," the teen answered vaguely, not really wanting to give up the fact that he learned things that were college-level and beyond for fun.

The bland questions continued, with Kazue giving a half-assed reply while trying not to pull out the manga he had rolled in his sleeve. What extracurricular activities did he enjoy? Reading. What did he do for fun? Read. An accomplishment he's most proud of? He almost answered 'not falling asleep during this interview', but settled for the lie of 'potentially gaining the opportunity to learn under top heroes'. What had been his biggest challenge?

Kazue bullshitted his way through all the basic questions with ease. Then they reached the more... specific section, also known as a pain in the ass to answer while sounding genuine.

"Why do you want to be a hero?"

"In all honesty, I don't," Kazue shrugged nonchalantly, not missing the rat's beady eyes widening in badly-hidden surprise. "But who knows, maybe that will change in the future."

No, it won't.

"Hmm. Humans really are quite interesting," the principal mused, writing down the answer in what the teen now realized was a student file.

"Thank you," Kazue deadpanned, gaze shooting up to the clock on the wall to check how much time had passed. Eight minutes out of fifteen.

Fuck. He had to go through seven more minutes of this?

~-~-~-~

"I got in," Kazue mumbled as soon as he pushed open the door to his father's office. He pulled the hologram device out of his school uniform's pocket and tossed it through the air, Katashi easily catching it while never looking up from his computer. "Class 1-A, the heroics course."

"Wonderful," the man nodded, lifting his gaze to meet the teen's with a rare smile. "I'm proud of you."

Kazue's eyes widened momentarily at the words as he wordlessly dropped his backpack to the floor next to the couch. That was new. His father had actually said he was proud of him? He'd already known it was implied, and knew that Katashi saying things that were unnecessary was rarer than a blue moon. And yet... he'd said it anyway, even if the teen still hadn't made any progress in activating the other half of his Quirk and now suffered from chronic exhaustion spells because of it.

"Uh, thanks..." the brunet said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck and not knowing how else to reply. "Now I just have to finish the application, design a hero costume and wait. I haven't looked the papers over yet, but they probably need your signature."