NOVEL NEXT 47 – Proverbs 22:9
Proverbs 22:9
The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.
“What the? These clothes are hard…!” Katsuki yelled in outrage.
Himiko was ready to pounce on Katsuki already, but Shota had already interfered before she could even react.
James didn't resist as he was already expecting Shota to interfere at some point. He did some minor resistance and inward inspection to see how he was affected by Shota's quirk something that had been part of the reason for him instigating the fight with Katsuki. He would look good defending Izuku, get to smack a bitch and test Eraserhead's quirk on himself.
The quirk had some effect, but it definitely was rather minor on him. It wasn't able to curb the improvements his quirk had already made to his body. He did feel the constant generation his cells experienced that lead to further growth was slowed down, but not entirely stopped. It seemed his quirk was too powerful for Shota's quirk to even completely suppress its active effects. The former he had entirely expected since Shota also can't undo the effects of mutant quirks, but the latter came as a surprise.
As for the more metaphysical aspects of his power such as his power over souls and contracts he still sensed the connection with them which was a relief. One thing he was worried about was whether powers like Shota's could be used to prevent or undo his contracts, finding out that they likely wouldn't be able to was a large relief to him.
The only thing it seemed could be done was using quirks like Shota's to inhibit his growth rate, but that was all and required a lot of dedication to have multiple similar quirk holders watch over him while imprisoning him to even be able to do anything to him at all. On top of that it was only a slight concern at this time, once he has had more time to grow and could simply escape using his physical prowess regardless of what they used to hold him even that wouldn't be a concern anymore.
Katsuki kept pulling at it trying to still get over to James to fight back. He was already starting to bruise all over from the short, but fierce beating he had received.
“They're weapons for capture made of carbon fiber woven together with metal wire made of a special alloy. Jeez... Don't keep making me use my Quirk over and over.” Shota grumbled.
“I have dry eye.” Shota he continued.
"It's such a waste, since his Quirk is so amazing!" their classmates said.
Shota unraveled the scarf that was tying the two of them returning it around his neck.
“We're wasting time. Whoever's next, get ready.” Shota said untying them.
Katsuki despite his rage bubbling under the surface did his best to calm down.
Momo and Himiko were watching him closely. "Are you ok?" they both asked.
"Yes, I'm completely fine," he assured them flexing his arms with a smile to show he was in good health.
“Is your finger all right?” Ochaco asked Izuku.
“Oh, yeah,” he answered nervously.
The rest of the tests flew by pretty quickly. They only had sit ups, seated toe touches and a long distance run left. The results were as expected too after all the previous tests they became quite good at telling how the classmates would perform on a given test now that they had a rough idea regarding the parameters of their quirks, or at least in cases like James what they revealed of their quirks.
“Okay, I'll quickly tell you the results. The total is simply the marks you, got from each test.” Shota announced when everyone gathered after the last test was completed.
“It's a waste of time to explain verbally, so I'll show you the results all at once.” Shota said.
Right afterwards he activated a hologram with their final rankings for the quirk assessment:
1st Momo Yaoyorozu
2nd James Busujima
3rd Shoto Todoroki
4th Himiko Toga
5th Katsuki Bakugo
6th Tenya Ida
7th Fumikage Tokoyami
8th Mezo Shoji
9th Itsuka Kendo
10th Eijiro Kirishima
11th Mina Ashido
12th Ochaco Uraraka
13th Ibara Shiozaki
14th Rikido Sato
15th Tsuyu Asui
16th Yuga Aoyama
17th Denki Kaminari
18th Kyoka Jiro
19th Toru Hagakure
20th Izuku Midoriya
A variety of responses sounded from the crow. Some of the classmates were excited about doing well while others were disappointed in their performance.
Momo was celebrating animatedly, she did have a bit of a competitive streak after all. She knew deep down he was holding back, but she didn't care. In her mind James was on a different level than everyone else anyway so she was first of everyone else. Her quirk definitely gave her a leg up over everyone else with its versatility which was why she ended up in first.
"Congrats girls," he told the two girls with a smile while giving them a big hug which they were more than happy to return.
Mina seemed pretty satisfied by her results, but Toru and even Tsuyu looked less happy.
James let go of Himiko and Momo and gave the two of them a hug too surprising them breaking them out of their negative thoughts.
"I know you might wish you did better, but I think both of you have a lot of promise. You most of all Tsuyu. Your quirk has a lot of potential," he said with a confident smile doing his best to reassure them.
Toru blushed heavily and even Tsuyu had some red on her cheeks.
"Thank you, James-chan," Tsuyu said with a neutral face, but he could make out she was quite sincere. Being an amazing hero was her dream after all just like most of the class.
Toru instead of thanking him verbally returned his hug twice as enthusiastically pressing her nice chest up against his. "Thanks," she murmured quietly.
Katsuki was extremely pissed off, but despite there being multiple people ahead of him and Momo came in first the majority of her rage still seemed to be directed at James. It seems he hit a sore spot when he beat him up like it was nothing. For someone with an ego the size of Katsuki's there wasn't much worse you could do to them.
'I could sleep with his mom,' James considered seriously. It would definitely be a good option if Katsuki kept antagonising him, even if he was provoking him right back. She was pretty hot after all and was sporting a rather impressive chest.
Unlike everyone else though Izuku was panicking entirely sure he was going to be expelled now that it was confirmed he was indeed in last place out of the entire class despite his excellent performance on the ball throw. There was only so much a single excellent event could make up for when coming in dead last on every other event after all.
“By the way, I was lying about the expulsion. It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your Quirks.” Shota announced.
“What?!” The rest of the class exclaimed.
“Of course that was a lie. It should have been obvious if you just thought it through.” Momo said puffing up her chest proudly.
James shook his head at her though. Only someone unaware of what Shota did to the previous year’s class 1A would believe it had been a lie all along.
“With that, we're done here. There are handouts with the curriculum and such in the classroom so when you get back, look over them.” Shota says.
“Midoriya— Have the old lady fix you in the nurse's office. Tomorrow will be packed with even more rigorous tests. Prepare yourself.” Shota says handing Izuku a note for recovery girl.
"Hey, let's celebrate our first day together," James said excitedly.
He instantly got the still excited class' attention.
"Let's go out for dinner to celebrate, my treat!" he continued with a broad smile.
After a quick call to his head butler to request they bring enough transportation for the entire class and to rent out a KTV that offered good food and room to fit everyone regardless of the cost.
When the convoy of limousine's eventually showed up to pick them all up everyone was stunned by how ostentatious it was.
"Uhm, are these all yours James?" Mina asked curiously with a hint of excitement.
"Well my parents, so sort of yes," he answered nonchalantly.
She wasn't the only one amazed though as the class quickly started filing into them and exploring the insides.
James of course made sure he was with Himiko, Momo, Toru, Tsuyu and Mina. Leaving the other two limousine's for the others.
Right as they were about to leave Izuku came running out of the school building in desperation.
'Ah, so that's what I was forgetting," James thought to himself.
