T/N: Here’s Part One of the Chinese > English translation for BNHA Light Novel Vol.3, Chapter 3.

I’m going to split this chapter up into parts, as the Jpn>Ch translator isn’t paraphrasing as much and there’s more content to translate. She isn’t done with the chapter yet, but I’m anticipating three parts or so.

Disclaimers

Names were a huge struggle! I had to look up a bunch of Chinese names for the 1-A and 1-B students. The Chinese translator used last names for everyone except for Izuku. I added in honorifics where they appeared.

Other BNHA Light Novel Vol.3 Content

Chapter 1: “Cheers!” –> After UA home visits, the teachers go out for drinks.

Chapter 2: “Dramatic Makeover” –> Class 1-A moves into the Heights Alliance dorms. Todoroki-centric, interspersed with scenes from the other students.

Chapter 3: “Crisis” –> It’s an ordinary day at the 1-A dorms.

> ***Part One

Fantasy AU, translated by aitaikimochi –> Dragon!Kirishima is canon. This is not a drill.

(Fan works related to the light novel)

Useful Manga References

Chapter 98 – dorm layout, room assignments, and some 1-A room tours

Chapter 99 – more 1-A room tours

Class 1-A students

Class 1-B students

Chapter 3: “Crisis”

** reference for Class 1-A students

It’s an ordinary day in the 1-A dorms. On the first floor, Kaminari, Ojiro, and Satou hang out and chat in the common area.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting scream echoes throughout the floor. “Kyaa! A peeping Tom!” It’s Hakagure.

“Eh, isn’t Mineta also in the baths right now?” If there’s a peeping Tom, it has to be the perverted grapey sex offender. The three boys rush out of the lounge to catch the obvious culprit.

But Mineta is clearly still in the boy’s side of the baths, relaxing in the hot water.

“Not Mineta!” Hagakure says to the trio. “But for a moment, I definitely saw a creepily smirking face peering in through that window.” Her sleeve points towards the entrance hall window. From her furious and terrified tone, it’s obvious she’s not pulling a prank.

Kaminari and his friends exchange surprised looks. If it’s not Mineta, the offender can’t be anyone in 1-A, as all the remaining students are inside the dorm. Who would attack Class 1-A? It must be the villains. Tension mounts.

“What’s happening?” They’re joined by several more inquiring classmates: Izuku, Iida, and Todoroki finally emerge from a long bath, and Kirishima is about to enter to take his own. Upon learning about the situation, everyone agrees that it must be a villainous scheme and the mood grows somber. Iida suggests telling a teacher.

There’s a sudden violent knocking at the door.

It’s too late to find a teacher for help. With a silent exchange of glances, the gathered students encircle the main entrance.

“Excuse me, who’s there?” Iida calls out nervously in front of the door.

No response.

Iida considers the closed door for a moment, then looks back at the group. I’m opening it, then? inquire his eyebrows. Everyone nods, settling into battle stances.

Iida yanks open the door.

“Hah? You guys finally get a visitor and you greet them like a villain? You’re Class 1-A alright, already pretending to be heroes!” Doubled-over in laughter (and arguably even more formidable than a real villain) is Class 1-B’s Monoma.

The 1-A teens watch dumbly as the blonde waltzes into their dorm. “Wait, so the person who was peeping through the window earlier was Monoma-san?”

“Eh?” Hagakure shoots a curious look at Monoma.

“Don’t say it like that,” Monoma returns. “I just wanted to check if anyone was home.”

“… So you’re admitting to peeping?” Monoma shrugs, indifferent to Iida’s accusation.

They can’t continue down this path. Izuku hastily tries to smooth things over. “So… What brings you here? Did something happen?”

“Are you saying I need a reason to visit?” Monoma arches an eyebrow.

“Oh no,” Izuku backtracks. “I didn’t mean anything like that!”

Monoma decides he’s terrorized Class 1-A enough for now. “Actually, I just came by to inspect your dorms. There might be differences between the 1-A and 1-B dorms, right?”

Kaminari counters, “Why would they be any different? The dorms were built together.” Besides the main entrances, all the new class dorms appear to be identical.

But Monoma just laughs. “Have you been to any of the other dorms?” A collective shaking of heads. “So how would you know for sure?”

“True…” admits Iida.

Monoma jumps at the opportunity. “So you’ll let me check, right? Right?” Permission thus granted, he eagerly explores the common areas on the first floor. “Let me see the rooms as well,” he commands. With that, he heads towards the boy’s dorms, intent on checking every person’s room.

Unable to stop Monoma, the assembled 1-A members can only trail after him.

During all this, Mineta, Tokoyami, Bakugou, Shoji, Sero, and Koda have been taking their sweet time in the baths. Since they locked their doors, Monoma and the other 1-A teens have to skip their rooms.



They check out the available rooms on the second floor. Monoma is eager to pronounce his judgment.

“Otaku!”

“Ah… well…” Izuku had already suffered through teasing over his room the night he moved in, so he just accepts Monoma’s needling.

“How dazzling!”

“Thank you ☆!” Aoyama merely takes Monoma’s barb as a compliment.

“Aw, this isn’t fun at all.” Monoma appears bored, though he’s the one who wanted to see everyone’s rooms in the first place.

“The rooms aren’t supposed to be interesting or boring in the first place. They’re fine as long as they’re functional,” Iida counters hotly.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Monoma fires back. “That’s obviously wrong. A bedroom is a very private space, which means it reveals much about the owner. You can tell a lot about a person’s true nature if you see their bedroom!”

Aoyama nods, gratified. Izuku stammers a bit, face morphing into a complicated expression. “So my true nature is an otaku…?” Despite its modern connotation, ‘otaku’ can also refer to a person who takes something to the extreme, and Izuku has no counter to that. But to say his very essence is otaku seems a bit…

The rest of the group just looks at Izuku, nodding their heads and voicing their agreement. With his life-long devotion and love for all things heroic, Izuku was already a splendid otaku.

The group then files up to the third floor to check out the rooms of Kaminari, Iida, and Ojiro.

“Is it my turn?” Kaminari cries. “Lemme show you my room!” He opens his door with a flourish.

The room showcases a carefully arranged assortment of baubles and knick-knacks. Not an inch of space is wasted; even the walls display things like a skateboard and dartboard. The various lighting appliances seem to be a perfect match for his electrical quirk.

The 1-A girls hadn’t been impressed when they did room tours the first night, but Kaminari is certain that they just didn’t understand the subtleties of his aesthetic. Monoma seemed to have a good eye for things and would surely appreciate it.

Alas – “Wow, so cluttered! There’s no room to breathe… not a single empty spot. It’s like you just took everything you found remotely interesting and put them all here. How unrefined!”

“Ha-a?!” Kaminari is betrayed.

Monoma breezes on to Iida’s room. There’s the ridiculous spare glasses collection, but beyond that? “Too serious. Not even remotely interesting,” Monoma decides.

Ojiro’s minimalistic room is next. It’s so ordinary that it’s impossible to be simplified any further. Monoma appears intrigued, though. “Wow, it’s normal to the extent that it’s actually kind of refreshing!”

“Is it really that ordinary?” On the first night, every girl had pinned Ojiro’s room with the exact same descriptor (‘so normal!’). Ojiro is at a loss.

On to the fourth floor.

“A guy like you would never understand the manliness of my room!” Kirishima still lets them in. There’s a massive punching bag in the center and hot-blooded motivational slogans plastered on the walls.

Monoma blinks. He silently whips out his phone, taps at it, and shows a photo to Kirishima. It’s a room with a punching bag, various exercise equipment, and equally hot-blooded motivational posters.

“My room…?”

“This is Tetsutetsu’s room.”

“Even our rooms match…!”

Monoma waggles his fingers. “But look closely, Tetsutetsu’s curtains are made of a heavy steel!”

“…… So he can exercise even while drawing the curtains…!” Kirishima is awestruck.

Monoma leers. “Hah, this is just a hint of the true extent of Class 1-B’s secret efforts! You complacent fools, just keep on daydreaming away in your rooms. Coming over to see your dorms really was an excellent idea. You 1-A members lack all foresight. Someday you’ll kneel at the feet of 1-B – ”

“You’ll be the one kneeling.” Kendo drops Monoma with her signature karate-chop to the back of his neck. “Really,” the Class 1-B class president admonishes as she hoists up the now-paralyzed boy. Behind her are the serious-faced Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori Pony, the foreign student.

**reference for Class 1-B students

“The hell are you doing, Monoma,” Tetsutetsu scowls.

“Monoma-san,” Tsunotori chides. “You said you wanted to go see Class 1-A and just ran off. You scared me!”

After hearing about it from Pony earlier, Kendo had set out for the Class 1-A dorms, intent on dragging Monoma back. It wasn’t much of a trek to the 1-A dorms, but Tetsutetsu still hadn’t wanted the girls to walk around alone at night so he’d joined them.

“Sorry about Monoma causing trouble again,” Kendo says when they reach the first floor lobby.

Monoma ducks his head. “Slow down there. I wasn’t causing trouble! I simply jumped on this rare opportunity to hunt for Class 1-A’s flaws.”

“Oi, didn’t you say it was to check if our dorms were different?” Kaminari challenges.

Monoma’s dastardly plans have finally been revealed. Inspecting the dorm building had been a front, and his real intentions had been to infiltrate and scope out the enemy!

Kendo’s fist smacks down just as Monoma opens his mouth to respond. “Hmph, you guys finally get some visitors from Class 1-B and don’t even offer them some tea? 1-A really is high-and-mighty.”

“Ah, I suppose that’s true!” Yaoyorozu heads towards the dorm cafeteria, closely followed by Satou.

Meanwhile, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu chat excitedly.

“Using steel curtains to train, how amazing!”

“You’re the amazing one, Kirishima! It looks like you’ve used that punching bag a lot.”

The two clasp hands with a grin.

.

–– End of Chapter 3, Part 1 ––

Chapter 3, Part Two