After the Combat Training session that was exhausting for most students and very relaxing for Nabiel, the atmosphere in Class 1-A was filled with leftover adrenaline. Nabiel sat at his desk, resting his chin on the thick fold of his shirt sleeve atop the table, observing the classroom dynamics as if watching a peaceful filler episode.
Midoriya Izuku, the main protagonist, was frantically jotting something down in his notebook, muttering at a speed that defied the laws of human articulation. Nabiel watched him with half-lidded eyes.
"Midoriya," Nabiel called out in a flat tone, his voice nearly drowned by the classroom noise.
Midoriya startled, his pencil slipping. "Y-Yes, Nabiel-kun? What is it?"
"Just an observation," Nabiel said, his deep black eyes fixed on Midoriya's bandaged arm. "Your body is not a plot device that can be regenerated indefinitely. Sacrificing limbs for every obstacle may be a dramatic hero metaphor, but statistically your career will not last long if you keep doing that. Learn to use your power without destroying its container."
Midoriya blinked, processing the words that sounded like medical advice mixed with a film critic's review. "Th-That… you're right. I still can't control it yet. Thank you, Nabiel-kun! Your analysis is really sharp!"
Nabiel answered with only a yawn, sinking his face back onto the desk. Yet his peace did not last long. A shadow fell over his desk, followed by the sound of a hostile tongue click.
Bakugo Katsuki stood there, his eyes blazing with residual anger from his loss to Midoriya. He glared at Nabiel, who looked like a white lump of fabric slumped in his chair.
"Hey, Panda Eyes," Bakugo growled. "Don't think you can act cocky just because you were grouped with Half-and-Half and won without doing anything. In my eyes, you're just an extra background character who snuck in!"
Nabiel slowly lifted his head. He stared at Bakugo, completely unintimidated by the boy's murderous aura. In his Outer perspective, Bakugo was merely the rival archetype currently in his aggressive tsundere phase.
"I agree," Nabiel replied in an extremely, extremely monotone voice.
Bakugo fell silent. His eyebrow twitched. "Huh?"
"I really am an extra. I like that position. No pressure, no expectations," Nabiel continued, blinking slowly. "Thank you for acknowledging my role, Bakugo. Please keep being the explosive character so the camera stays focused on you and not on me."
Nabiel's overly passive and nonsensical logic caused Bakugo's anger circuits to short-circuit for a moment. Bakugo opened his mouth to yell, but no words came out. Arguing with Nabiel felt like punching a ball of cotton, so Bakugo finally just snorted roughly and stomped away.
One more social interaction successfully avoided with efficiency, Nabiel thought with satisfaction.
***
When school ended, Nabiel was walking lazily down the corridor near the changing rooms when something small and sticky tugged at the hem of his pants. It was Minoru Mineta.
"Hey, Nabiel! Psst!" Mineta whispered, his face sweaty and his smile suspicious.
"What?" Nabiel replied lazily.
"You're tall, and those shirt sleeves of yours are really long. Can you help me for a second? Lift me up a bit. I need to check something on the girls' changing room wall. There's… uh… a dangerous structural crack!" Mineta explained breathlessly.
Nabiel looked at the wall, then at Mineta. As an entity that oversaw the narrative, Nabiel knew exactly what event this was. It was the cliché comedy scene where the perverted character received his karmic punishment. Normally Nabiel would have walked away. But today his energy was too low even to argue or refuse. Lifting Mineta seemed to require fewer calories than listening to his whining.
"Whatever," Nabiel muttered.
He let Mineta climb onto his back. To hide their presence, Nabiel raised both arms, allowing the oversized fabric of his shirt sleeves to drape over Mineta like a white curtain.
"Hehehe… heaven, here I come…" Mineta whispered, peering through a small hole.
ZRAAAASH!
An earphone jack cable shot through the wall straight toward Mineta's eye.
"GYAAAAA!" Mineta screamed, tumbling backward and crashing onto the corridor floor. Nabiel simply stood there, arms still raised like a ghost surrendering to the police.
The girls' changing room door slammed open. Jirou Kyoka, Ashido Mina, and Uraraka Ochaco stood there with murderous auras.
"You damn perverted midget!" Jirou shouted, before her eyes shifted upward and widened. "Nabiel?! Y-You too?! I thought you were the quiet and nice one!"
"Wait, Nabiel-kun is in cahoots with Mineta?!" Uraraka covered her mouth in disbelief.
"Our class's pervert gang just got bigger!" Mina accused, pointing at Nabiel.
Nabiel slowly lowered his arms. His expression remained as flat as an exam sheet. "You misunderstand. He asked to be lifted. I lifted him. I did not know there was a peeping event on today's schedule. Thinking about human anatomy is too tiring for me."
"What kind of excuse is that?!" Jirou yelled, ready to whip Nabiel with her earphone jack.
"Wait, everyone! Stop!"
Yaoyorozu Momo appeared from behind the girls, still wearing her half-buttoned school uniform. She looked at Nabiel, who resembled a resigned victim of mistaken arrest, then let out a long sigh while pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Momo, don't defend him! He's plotting with Mineta!" Jirou protested.
"No, Jirou-san. I have known Nabiel very well since we were children," Momo said in a tired yet authoritative tone. "He is not a pervert. He is simply… the laziest creature on earth. If Mineta asked him to become a table, he would become a table just to avoid arguing. He has no motivation to peep on us. Trust me."
The girls exchanged glances, then looked at Nabiel, who was yawning widely enough to produce tears. Somehow Momo's argument felt entirely reasonable.
"Well… if Yaoyorozu says so…" Mina muttered, though she still eyed Mineta with disgust.
"Thank you, Momo," Nabiel said flatly. "You just saved me from unnecessary character assassination."
Momo only shook her head slowly. "Go home, Nabiel. Before you accidentally help a villain rob a bank because you are too lazy to say no."
***
That afternoon, Nabiel did not eat in the school cafeteria. Since it was the weekend and coincided with his free schedule, he went home to his family's large house.
Nabiel's cover family in this world was a conglomerate family in the international logistics business, a background he had deliberately created so he would not have to worry about financial matters while being an Observer.
In the long dining room lit by crystal chandeliers, Nabiel sat leaning back in a mahogany chair, chewing his wagyu steak extremely slowly. At the other end of the table sat his father, a middle-aged man with a strict aura yet possessing extra patience for his eccentric only son.
"Nabiel," his father called, setting down his wine glass.
"Yes," Nabiel replied without looking up, still focused on cutting his meat into small symmetrical cubes.
"Tonight the Yaoyorozu family is hosting a small celebration party for business colleagues and some associates. Since you go to school with their daughter, you must come with me."
Nabiel's knife stopped moving. He stared at his father with a blank gaze. "A party. Lots of people. Standing for hours. Empty small talk. Father… can I just pretend to be dead tonight?"
"No. This is a social obligation," his father replied firmly. "And please, for God's sake, take off that oversized shirt tonight."
Nabiel let out a heavy sigh, realizing this mandatory quest had no skip option.
***
That evening, the Yaoyorozu residence looked magnificent with bright garden lights and a row of luxury cars parked in the driveway. Inside the main hall, soft classical music accompanied the chatter of the social elite.
Momo, wearing an elegant maroon evening gown, was holding a glass of juice when her eyes caught the figure who had just entered the room. Her eyes widened, nearly dropping her glass.
Walking behind a middle-aged man was a young man who looked very unfamiliar, yet somehow felt familiar.
The young man wore a perfectly tailored black three-piece suit that fit his posture flawlessly. No oversized shirt. No dangling sleeves. Most shocking of all, his usually messy bird's-nest black hair was now neatly slicked back with gel, revealing his forehead and surprisingly sharp facial lines. The dark circles under his eyes that usually made him look like a sleep-deprived ghost had been concealed with a thin layer of concealer.
It was Nabiel.
Momo quickly approached him after Nabiel's father left to greet his business colleagues.
"Nabiel…?" Momo greeted, still half in disbelief. "You… look like a human being."
Nabiel turned. His expression remained as flat as ever, contrasting with his current appearance that resembled a prince from a romance novel. He tugged slightly at his collar, feeling choked.
"This is high-level narrative torture, Momo," Nabiel complained in his monotone voice. "My hair is stiff like it was cemented. This suit restricts my movement by sixty percent. And the servants at home smeared something under my eyes that makes my skin feel heavy."
Momo laughed softly, covering her mouth gracefully. Nabiel's elegant side was apparently only an outer shell; inside, he was still the lazy Observer.
"But you look really handsome, Nabiel. Seriously," Momo praised sincerely. "You should dress up like this more often."
"I would rather fight a zero-point robot with my bare hands than wear hair gel again," Nabiel replied flatly, taking a glass of water from a passing waiter's tray. He scanned the entire room, analyzing the social structure of the party.
"At least," Nabiel murmured quietly, "there is no Mineta or Bakugo explosion here. I will find the quietest corner, stand there like a decorative statue, and observe the progress of this event until it ends."
Momo smiled gently, accompanying her friend as they walked toward the corner of the room. Amid the glitter of the hero world and high society, the Outer once again found his favorite position: being the background extra who watched from the shadows, even if tonight that extra was dressed far too neatly to be ignored.