"Look at everyone working so hard. Aren't you embarrassed just sitting here as the class monitor?"
Yaoyorozu stood beside the sofa, looking down at Masata, who was sinking comfortably into the cushions.
"Well… how should I put it? I'm a bit different from them. The situation is complicated, but in short, it's like this."
Even while being scolded, Masata showed no intention of getting up. Instead, he adjusted his position and lay down even more comfortably.
Recently, he had indeed been relaxing more and more.
Even the physical training he used to never miss had slowed down significantly.
The reason was simple.
He was already too strong.
For Masata, ordinary training at school was barely more than a warm-up.
After experiencing the battles at Hosu and Kamino, his strength had increased dramatically. In a society where All For One was imprisoned and All Might had retired, there were now very few people who could truly challenge him.
For most students, even someone as talented as Bakugo still felt tremendous pressure to keep improving. If he slowed down, he would soon be overtaken by others, no matter how good his background was.
There were countless examples of this.
Just look at Midoriya.
When he first entered U.A., even with One For All, he was still at the bottom of the class because he couldn't control his power. But after a semester of training, he had risen to the middle and upper ranks. Even Bakugo, who once looked down on him, now had to take him seriously.
For the top students, Midoriya's growth was both pressure and motivation.
Everyone who entered U.A. had a strong competitive spirit.
Even Mineta was no exception—though his personality made the atmosphere a little strange.
However, Masata was different.
If Bakugo had once given him some pressure at the beginning of school, then after multiple breakthroughs, Masata could confidently say that Bakugo was no longer on the same level as him.
Even the strongest students of their generation couldn't truly pressure him anymore.
As for the rest of the class, they were even less threatening.
So Masata felt no real sense of urgency.
More importantly, basic training had become meaningless for him.
The exercises that left Midoriya and the others drenched in sweat wouldn't even make Masata warm up.
And—
He could still get stronger just by lying down.
Even though his strength had reached a temporary bottleneck, his passive quirk was still constantly enhancing his body.
That meant that as long as he had enough time, he could eventually surpass even All Might at his peak.
"Effort is the best way to show willpower," Yaoyorozu said seriously. "Even if you're already strong, you should still maintain a Hero's discipline. In the future, when we open our Hero office, I don't want to be the only one doing all the management work."
Yaoyorozu had always been hardworking since childhood. Seeing Masata slack off made her feel both worried and frustrated.
Still, she couldn't truly be angry at him.
No matter how lazy he looked, he was always her most reliable support at critical moments.
"That won't happen," Masata said with a smile. "Of course you'll be the chief manager of my Hero office. If not you, then who?"
He caught the key word in her sentence and looked at her with a teasing grin.
"Y-You! That's not what I meant!"
Yaoyorozu immediately understood his implication.
Her face turned red, and she stomped on his foot in embarrassment before rushing upstairs.
With Yaoyorozu gone and Chacha studying her new battle suit in her room, Masata suddenly felt very lonely.
"…Forget it. It's getting late anyway."
He stretched lazily.
"I'll take a shower and sleep. Tomorrow I'll ask Aizawa-sensei for permission to leave campus."
After chatting with a few people downstairs, Masata returned to his room and prepared to rest.
Night had fallen.
The dormitory was silent.
Moonlight seeped through the gaps in the curtains, casting a pale silver glow across the room.
Suddenly—
The door opened slightly.
A figure slipped inside quietly and closed it with extreme care.
Barefoot, she moved silently, tiptoeing toward Masata's bed.
The door had been unlocked.
After all, this was a dormitory full of familiar classmates. Masata never bothered locking it.
The figure stopped beside the bed and looked down at the sleeping boy.
"…Masata."
The visitor was none other than Himiko Toga.
She stared at his peaceful sleeping face.
"I can't control myself…"
"It doesn't look as good as before…"
After observing closely, she felt slightly disappointed.
She had always been obsessed with blood. That had been her original reason for taking interest in Masata.
But now, things were different.
At first, she was just a dissatisfied high school girl who felt alienated from society.
But after noticing Masata, she gradually discovered that he had a strange kind of charm.
An indescribable aura.
It made her want to approach him.
Understand him.
Get closer to him.
The more she learned about him, the more fascinated she became.
She firmly believed that Masata could change society.
That he could bring new vitality to this stagnant world.
This belief was the reason she had once approached the League of Villains.
All for the sake of getting close to him.
Standing in the moonlight, Toga quietly gazed at Masata's sleeping face.
Her eyes shimmered with complicated emotions.
Admiration.
Obsession.
Expectation.
And something even deeper.
"…You really are special."
Her whisper disappeared into the night.