I hated school.

Not because my teacher pitied me for my 'poor little rich orphan status', although there was that.

I hated school because learning to do conversions without counting on my fingers was boring as hell, and according to my chakra encyclopedia, I wouldn't have access to the Shadow Clone for at least another three weeks.

Brute forcing my jutsu training was tempting me more and more as the seconds passed.

Since I'd bypassed the encyclopedia to create a sharingan with Fuin, the encyclopedia had taken it upon itself to show me the various jutsu that were locked, a line of description, and most importantly, the risks involved if I ever decided to learn them from my memories of Naruto.

The risks for the shadow clone were, among other things, using up all my chakra (and ending up in a coma) and death.

Not much to look forward to, but since I was risking senility with every extra second I spent in this class, I gave it serious thought.

And I did well with the Sharingan, didn't I ?

A cornelian dilemma.

“Your attention, please. I'd like you all to welcome a new student who has come all the way from Italy”

The other students whispered.

“New again ?”

“Wow, we have two new kids in one week”

“If he's as weird as Todoroki...”

I threw a piece of chakra-enhanced rubber at the little nuisance.

The little girl turned around, massaging her neck, her eyes taking a quick tour of the rows of students behind her.

She caught my eye and I raised my middle finger.

I really hate kids.

“Maaaaam! Todoroki flipped me off again!”

The woman sighed, one hand on the door handle.

“Did anyone see Shoto-kun raise his finger?”

The surrounding students shook their heads.

I knew that learning this D-rank genjutsu wasn't a waste of time.

“Hina-chan, if you continue to lie, I'll have to make an appointment with your mother”

The little girl fell silent, her eyes filling with tears, and nodded.

The girls next to her smiled supportively as they glared at me. The kids in this class were strange: Hina's gang of girls reigned supreme, pulling hair and refusing to invite kids they didn't like to their sleepovers.

The boys were especially afraid of them because the girls liked to throw pebbles at them in the playground.

The professor opened the door.

A boy with platinum blond hair and blue eyes entered.

The moment I met his gaze, I repeated my thanks to the Shoto of the past who decided to wear a mask.

This boy looks so much like me that if it weren't for it, the teacher would have wondered if I wasn't his long-lost twin.

“Go ahead, introduce yourself”

She pushed him forward slightly.

He gave her an annoyed look, then turned to us.

“Buongiorno... Oh... I... Io... Mi chiamo... uh... Mon... My name is Lucius Mancini”

Children whispered all around us.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What's he talking about ?”

“That's Spanish, isn't it ? I think it's Spanish”

“Pff, you're talking nonsense. It's Mexican. I know because my father-in-law speaks Mexican”

“Awesome, a foreigner ! Do you think he knows All Might?”

The teacher made him sit in the - what a coincidence - empty seat right in front of me.

His lack of reaction to my presence told me right away that he'd been expecting me.

Meeting Rei at the beginning of the week was strange enough, but now... did her sister send her son to try a new approach ?

I got my answer at noon when the lunch bell rang.

As always, I had a home-cooked meal - by our chef - because I was on a very strict diet. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the blond boy being attacked by a bunch of kids who were excited to talk to him in "Mexican".

He broke away from the herd and pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket, which he unfolded and read silently. I could barely make out a few words.

The encyclopedia may have given me the method, but it was still hard to do in real life.

I still had a lot of work to do.

“Hey, where are you going ?”

“Why is he going to Todoroki ?”

“Don't talk to him, he ignores everyone”

Mancini stopped in front of my desk, looking embarrassed but determined.

“I'm Lucius, your cousin. Pleased to... uh... I mean, Bueno to meet you? Ah che cos era questo...”

He looked at his sheet.

"I hope you (he pointed at me) and Io (he pointed at himself) will be good friends"

Rei wasn't snippy enough to put a child on my payroll.

So this is her sister.

I made a list of possible reasons in half a second:

- Learning 'horrible' things about Endeavor that would lead to the collapse of his career

- Show my father what an 'incompetent father' he was

- Helping Rei 'clear her conscience' by bringing me back to her

The last reason, while plausible, struck me as the most absurd, since she had already scored a 2 out of 3 when it came to custody of her children.

I looked at Mancini for so long that the boy blushed uncomfortably and paced from one foot to the other.

“Non parlarmi mai più”

His eyes widened in confusion and shock.

I took my lunch and left the classroom to eat elsewhere, refusing to be disturbed in one of my rare moments of peace in this juvenile prison.

I wasn't sure what I had said, but it was one of the phrases Teka liked to repeat to me when she got tired of me hanging around (because I was bored).

That crazy old woman still had the audacity to pay for my Italian lessons for the next three years. She was forcing me to take over the family business, but the idea of having my own personal army wasn't too bad, so I decided to take the classes - even if it was more or less willingly.

*

After our last meeting, Mancini tried to approach me twice more, but I spent my time fending him off.

One afternoon, when I was already late for my first Krav Maga class, I noticed Mancini and his mother standing outside the school gate.

The latter was pushing back her hair with one hand, laughing as she chatted with a group of mothers before glancing briefly at the crowd of students leaving the school.

Guessing what scene she was about to make, I turned around and walked through the main building to the teachers' parking lot.

They only have one camera pointed at the trash cans, so I shouldn't have any trouble getting around.

It was then that I saw an interesting sight, to say the least.

A dark-haired, blue-eyed boy, tennis racket in hand and dripping with sweat, was being cornered by a group of boys.

He had surprisingly square shoulders for a ten-year-old, and a band of gauze encircled his right fist, as if he were a boxer.

“We told you to stop showing off, Natsu”

“It's Natsume to you" the boy replied, and the group of stalkers became agitated.

I continued on my way, deciding to ignore them.

Then I heard a scream.

My head spun around so fast that my neck almost snapped.

The boy - Natsu - had just hit a boy with his bat.

He didn't stop there and started hitting boy after boy, slapping their outstretched hands or legs one after the other.

The boys screamed and ran away.

Natsu watched them, the bat resting carelessly on his shoulder, his gaze cold.

He turned his head to me.

“What do you want?”

I raised an eyebrow.

My eyes darted to the left.

Mancini emerged from an emergency exit into the courtyard.

Had his mother asked him to pick me up ?

The boy had his back to me, his hands in his pockets. He watched the racket and then the dark-haired kid in silence.

“Una volta ho colpito qualcuno con una mazza da golf”

Natsume raised his eyebrows.

“What's that ? I don't understand a word you're saying”

Mancini stepped forward, dragging his feet.

He stood in front of Natsu and raised both fists to his face.

If I had expected this…

Natsu stared at him, mouth wide open, a huge smile on his lips. He pointed his tennis racket at him.

“I have no idea who you are, but I'm going to slaughter you”

And to my surprise, they fought. But this was no ordinary child's fight.

Both boys had taken lessons, and it showed in their stances and the efficiency of their gestures. Their gestures were a bit pasty, but the fact that they could take each other's blows to the face without crying told me a lot.

At some point, Natsu's bat slipped out of his hand - or maybe he dropped it on purpose? - and fell further away.

Neither of them made a move to retrieve it.

I looked at them, stunned, as they continued to fight for no reason at all.

Gradually, their scowls softened and wicked smiles appeared on their faces.

The boys were really hitting each other, each one trying to hurt the other, but they were also having fun.

Mancini spat spit, his eyes glistening. Natsu wiped the tiny drop of blood from his nose with the tip of his thumb.

The way they smiled, the excitement clearly visible on their faces, awakened something in me I'd never known.

It was the first time in both my lives that I'd met people who liked to fight. And I loved it.

“Do you have room for a third ?”

They turned their heads toward me in unison. I tossed my bag aside and rolled up my sleeves. The boys exchanged glances, then smiled wickedly.

The Krav Maga's class could wait.

It seems I found something far more interesting.