Beyond Responsibility

Chapter 10: Trigger Part 1

A/N: This chapter was originally an Omake detailing the opening scene from the opposing point of view. That Omake has been preserved at the end of this chapter following the Author's note.

Trigger: Noun

1. A lever pressed by the finger to discharge a mechanism, especially of a firearm.

2. An event that precipitates other events, especially one that initiates a major change through a chain of events.

Saturday, March 5th, 2XXX

It had been a week since the entrance exam. Peter had been up to his neck figuring, and checking, and double-checking his circumstances, spending so much time at U.A. to the point that he had little time for anything else. When Aizawa had told him that taking classes with the hero course would double his workload, he did not expect that to start a month before the actual classes. Apparently, creating a special exception for his particular class schedule had required a lot of accommodations and paperwork that needed to be completed prior to the start of the school year. Peter also couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion that the excessive busy work was Aizawa's personal way of disciplining him for his antics, and that it wasn't truly necessary to put him through the ringer like this.

But despite all that, Peter still made sure to make time for his friends, or really he should say his only friend now that his relationship with Setsuna was on the rocks. It was a little tricky figuring out a time where the two of them could speak considering not only each of their hyper packed schedules, but also the difference in time zone. But if it meant having a real conversation with his best friend, Peter didn't mind staying up a little later at night.

"Alright, can you hear me now, Pete?" Harry's face suddenly popped up on the video chat. After a week of short disjointed text messages, it was a welcome sight.

"Loud and clear buddy. Been awhile, almost two weeks at this point."

"Believe me when I say that I couldn't find the time to do it any sooner. Especially last week."

"Something happen last week?"

"Sign ups for the student council election."

Peter winced in understanding "And your Dad..."

"Expects me to win Class President."

"Can you even handle yet another obligation like that?"

"I don't really have a choice, if I don't have time for it, then I'm gonna have to make time."

"Even assuming you win, what about the team? Doesn't student council have meetings at the same time as practice? Not to mention the fact that Flash is gonna be on your case if you start lagging behind."

"Don't worry, I've already got it worked out. Believe it or not, Flash is actually going to get the football team to rally for me."

"Flash is helping!? How'd you manage to convince him to do that?"

"Promised to fix the football field's scoreboard if I won."

Peter furrowed his brows at that. "It was broken? I never noticed, then again, none of your matches were ever on the home field, so I guess I wouldn't know."

"That's the secret: it's not broken. Turns out, the custodian was just too lazy to ever turn on the breakers for it."

"Heh, custodians man, always gotta be the stodgiest mop in the closet, am I right?" Peter quipped.

"Hey, I take offense to that." Stan could be heard yelling from out in the hallway.

Peter bristled at his faux pas. "Sorry, Stan. I uh, didn't see you there." Peter apologized as he leaned over to close his door the rest of the way. For a man with hearing aids, he really did seem to be aware of everything that happened in the building.