POV: Issei Hyoudou
"I want to be a hero."
Those four words had been bouncing around in my head ever since I saw All Might change the literal weather.
I know I kinda bashed Izuku a little for having a childish dream earlier, but in my defense, I hadn't known superpowers were actually a thing here.
That doesn't change the fact that this line of thinking is a little abrupt.
I mean, Ever since I was a kid, I strived to become the Harem King—to be constantly surrounded by women way out of my league. I knew this goal was unrealistic, damn near impossible, but it was my dream, dammit, and I wanted to see it through.
I had always believed that nothing could take priority over that goal, but something changed. I changed. For once in my life, I stood up for myself. Yes, I only did it because my only other choice was to die, and yes, the person I fought was a villain made out of sludge. But for a few moments, I felt the thrill of putting everything on the line for what I believed in.
The absolute rush of committing to one desperate move—of wholeheartedly believing that the next few seconds could be my last and still choosing to act despite it.
And I'm not one hundred percent sure becoming a hero is the right way to go about it. But if that doesn't work out, at least I'll become popular with the ladies. After all, women love a man in uniform.
So, with the fight over and a new, exciting career path to pursue, I was eager to get a head start.
"Do you have any idea how risky your little stunt was, young man?"
The only roadblock was the heroine clad in spandex blocking my way.
In hindsight, throwing a piece of rubble at a supervillain with hostages was not a smart idea—especially when there were tons of witnesses around to point me out afterward.
So now, here I am, getting scolded by Mt. Lady, which was better than the alternative. Looking past the agitated heroine, I caught a brief glimpse of Izuku also getting chewed out by two male heroes.
Yeah, no thanks. If I had to get scolded, I'd much rather take it from a pretty lady in tights than two sweaty dudes who smelled like gym socks.
"Excuse me, am I boring you right now?"
Shit. I spaced out.
"No, ma'am, I'm listening, I swear."
I responded quickly, hoping she'd let my little mistake slide. Judging by the fact that she looked a little less agitated, I'd say the plan worked.
The problem wasn't staying focused, mind you. The trouble was trying not to focus too hard on certain places she probably wouldn't appreciate getting stared at. But this little act of restraint was proving difficult, considering how form-fitting her costume was.
I was just a guy fighting for his life against his own survival instincts. If my gaze so much as dropped an inch below her collar, I was done for. One wrong move, and she'd be the first hero in history to take out a civilian with a single backhand.
Besides, I already get my ass kicked regularly by normal high school girls. I really didn't want to find out what a woman who could grow to the size of a skyscraper would do to me.
So there I stood, hyper-aware of every single movement I made, nodding when appropriate, and keeping my eyes locked firmly on neutral, non-life-threatening zones like her forehead, her shoulders, or the tree in the distance that I was suddenly very, very interested in.
Safe to say, those few minutes were some of the longest of my life.
By the time that borderline torture session was over, most of the surrounding bystanders had already left. Unfortunately for me, that also included Izuku.
Seems the other heroes went easy on him since he was just a victim in a villain attack. I wished I had the same treatment, but alas, it seems I'm fated to get chewed out by pretty girls.
Jokes aside, I really needed to find Izuku, because it was getting late, and I'd rather not sleep on the streets tonight. I know it's scummy to ask someone I just met today to crash at their place, but what choice did I have? It was either that or roughing it out on the streets.
looking around proved to be difficult, due to the recent destruction from the villain attack, the area was swarming with cops and heroes. So I switched my approach and started asking around to see if anyone had spotted Izuku. Sure enough, most of their conversations revolved around the incident.
But instead of telling me where the green-haired boy had gone, most of their answers went something like this:
"Oh my god, can you believe how cool All Might is? Just one punch from him, and he sent that villain packing!"
And when I asked about Izuku:
"Huh? Green-haired boy? I don't remember seeing a kid with green hair around here."
Asking others proved useless since they all gave the same answer with only minor variations. Though there was one older lady who seemed very passionate about describing the way All Might's muscles pressed against his clothing.
I don't need to tell you how fast I exited that conversation.
Thankfully, after some more useless—and borderline uncomfortable—conversations with old women, an older man finally gave me the answer I was looking for.
"Oh yeah, he walked past me a while ago. Poor kid, having to deal with a villain attack just to get scolded by pro heroes afterward."
After saying his piece, the man pointed to his left.
The answer may have been vague, But compared to all the other answers I received it was enough. So without any time to waste I quickly made my way in that direction. I started to scan up and down each and every person I came across in hopes of spotting him. I did receive weird stares because of this but I had to do this, I couldn't risk accidentally walking past Izuku unknowingly.
After some time of searching down every street I came across, I managed to catch a glimpse of a yellow backpack turning the corner. The only problem was the fact I couldn't catch up with him no matter how hard I tried. Every time I turned a corner all I would see was that damn yellow backpack turn the next corner at the exact same time.
The constant foot traffic and the fact that I didn't know where I was going didn't help.
By the time I did catch up to him, not only was the sun already setting, but I also managed to catch the tail end of a conversation I was probably not supposed to be listening to.
"You're just a quirkless failure who won't even cut it as a rent-a-cop"
Those words caused me to freeze just as I was about to turn the corner. I didn't recognize the voice, But from the heavy amount of emotion I could hear I'm guessing they know Izuku.
"You didn't help me"
The voice continued. Since they were already midway through their conversation, I decided to just wait it out and pretend I didn't hear anything.
"You did nothing. Don't forget it."
"I don't owe you anything!"
I heard footsteps going off in the opposite direction. I waited a few seconds for the sound of footsteps to fade away, Wouldnt want to come off like I was spying on people's conversations.
Even though that's exactly what I was doing, in my defense the conversation was practically over by the time I arrived.
"Welp think I've spent enough time snooping around, I think it's time to ann-"
"I AM HERE"
Well..shit
As the now familiar voice of All Might practically tore through the empty street. I was now forced to just stand behind the corner once again as another conversation played out.
I mean it's not like I don't want to butt in, But I also don't want to be rude. Since I've waited this long mite as well let them talk and turn the corner when they're done.
With that, I rested my back against the concrete wall.
Since I didn't have anything to do for the next few minutes I decided to pass the time by gazing at a few houses. Not really a fan of modern architecture, I was just curious to see if I found any differences in building style.
Five hundred years is a long time, after all, There's bound to be design improvements in all that time. But sadly just like with the technology the buildings also looked more or less the same.
Before I got too disappointed by the lackluster surroundings, I started to hear someone whimpering. Growing curious I decided to peek my head around the corner, And what I found was definitely a little odd.
I had expected to see Izuku potentially getting lectured by All Might for his little stunt earlier. Instead, I saw a malnourished man with blonde hair standing before a now sobbing Izuku.
The man Looked like he hadn't eaten a meal in weeks, while the heavy bags under his eyes made it seem like he hadn't slept in days. He wore a white T-shirt that was clearly too big for his lanky frame. He also sported a pair of familiar-looking cargo pants, Along with some black military boots.
All in all, this man was the perfect example of the creepy guy your parents always warned you not to talk to.
I thought about intervening since I didn't want some lanky stranger messing with Izuku, but I decided to wait a little longer to see how this played out.
Once Izuku's cries began to die down a little, the man spoke.
"And today, that's what happened to you."
His voice was deep but strangely assertive, like he was used to giving orders or delivering speeches. The man's words seemed to strike a chord with Izuku since he began to fold in on himself and cry even harder.
Just when the conversation seemed finished, the skeleton of a man spoke once again.
"Young man, you too can become a hero."
Despite how confused I was, I couldn't deny how picturesque the scene was. The setting sun was in the background, the cherry blossoms swaying gently in the wind, all while the stranger stood above Izuku's now-babbling form like a master reassuring his wayward disciple.
This moment was like a manga panel come to life. I even felt a tear threatening to spill from my eye at such a powerful scene.
"I deem you worthy of my power. My Quirk is yours to inherit."
That declaration rang out like a gunshot. Everything stilled. Nothing moved or even dared to make a sound. I just stayed silent because I didn't want to get caught, also their conversation was starting to get a little interesting.
"Wait. What do you mean inherit?"
"Inherit what?"
The malnourished man began to laugh as if Izuku had told him a hilarious joke.
"You should see your face right now." The man wiped a tear from his eye and began walking toward Izuku's crouched form. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna force this thing on you." He halted his steps and pointed his left index finger to the sky.
"Listen well, young man. This is your choice." The man suddenly dropped his finger and started pointing it directly at Izuku while his mouth overflowed with blood. "Do you wanna accept my awesome power or not?"
The man rubbed some blood from his mouth and continued. "There are a couple of things you should know about my abilities.
"Journalists always guess my Quirk is super strength or some kind of invulnerability. When asked in interviews, I always make a joke and dodge the question.
"That's because the world needs to believe that their Symbol of Peace is just a natural-born hero, like any of them."
The man let his words hang in the air for a moment before continuing.
"But I'm not. There's nothing natural about my ability."
He raised both of his arms and brought them behind his head before abruptly extending them outward. With the way he bent his head backward in the same instant, he now looked like he was praising the sky.
"I wasn't born with this power. It's a sacred torch that was passed on to me from someone else."
"Someone gave you this Quirk? No way." Izuku was clearly confused by this point.
"Yes, way. And you're next. I can give you my abilities," the man continued, still holding his strange pose.
"Wait. Hold on, this is a lot to process. It's true that there's a lot of debate about what your Quirk actually is. Nobody's ever figured it out. It's one of the world's greatest mysteries. People are constantly talking about it online."
It was easy to see that Izuku was overwhelmed by the influx of knowledge. But as his questions increased, so did the speed of his ramblings. It got to the point where I couldn't even decipher the words coming out of his mouth.
"Stop nerdin' out!" At some point in his rambling, the man just decided to shout at Izuku to get his attention.
"You'll have to adjust your reality and accept this new truth! I can transfer my Quirk to someone else. And that's just one facet of my secret abilities. The true name of my power is One For All." He held his left arm forward as if trying to grasp something out of thin air.
Ninety percent of what they were saying was completely lost on me, but whatever this "One For All" thing was, I could tell it was totally badass. Still, I wished they'd hurry it up. Sitting on the cold, hard ground wasn't exactly my idea of fun. My butt was starting to go numb, and I had bigger problems—like figuring out what to tell Izuku's parents when I inevitably had to ask to crash at their place.
Hell, I hadn't even come up with a solid introduction yet. It's not like I could just walk up to them and blurt out the truth.
"Hi, my name's Issei Hyoudou. I met your son today. Can I please stay at your house?"
Yeah, no. Any sane person would slam the door in my face and probably call the cops. Best-case scenario? Maybe they'd just chuck a shoe at me.
All this thinking was starting to fry my brain. Normally, I only used about twenty percent of my mental energy unless the subject involved women or breasts. But this whole situation had my processor overheating like an old laptop running too many tabs.
"Whatever. No point in overthinking." I peeked around the corner to see what Izuku and that weird, lanky dude were up to. Since my brain clearly wasn't helping, I might as well get some entertainment out of this.
Instead, I was met with two small, sky-blue orbs staring right back at me.
I blinked.
Then blinked again.
Maybe if I blinked enough times, reality would reset itself and this incredibly awkward staring contest wouldn't be happening.
Nope. Still happening.
The tall guy and I just locked eyes for a solid ten seconds. Neither of us blinked. Neither of us moved.
Panic set in.
I did the only logical thing.
I slowly slid behind the wall.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit." He totally saw me. We literally had a whole moment. That wasn't just a glance. That was deep, soul-piercing eye contact.
Unless… maybe he had something in his eye? Yeah! Maybe he wasn't looking at me specifically. I mean, besides the apple fiasco earlier today, I was known for being a pretty sneaky guy. Well… if you ignored all the times the Kendo Club caught me. But those were, like, flukes. Super rare. Like, once-in-a-blue-moon rare.
Okay, maybe more like every-other-day rare. But still.
"Yeah, yeah, that had to be it. He was probably just looking at a cat or something."
"No, I was definitely looking at you."
My soul nearly left my body.
"Also, why are you talking to yourself while sitting on the ground?"
I froze.
The voice wasn't coming from where it should have been. No, it was coming from my right. And when I turned my head ever so slowly—like a horror movie character realizing the monster was already behind them—there he was.
Standing right above me.
And to make matters worse, Izuku was behind him, giving me the kind of look that said 'Issei, what the hell are you doing?'
This was it. I was done for. Back against the wall, no escape, and two pairs of judging eyes locked onto me.
Sweat dripped down my forehead as I scrambled for a response.
What came out of my mouth was not the response of a rational, thinking person.
"I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING PERVERTED, I SWEAR!"
Silence.
Both of them just stared at me like I'd confessed to a crime I wasn't even being accused of.
Okay. So maybe getting caught by the Kendo Club every other day had conditioned me to react a certain way in high-stress situations. Definitely needed to work on that.
But first, I had to explain myself before these two decided to throw me in the nearest trash bin.
Authors Note:
Okay, I'll be honest—I don't like the way I wrote the previous chapter. It felt lacking compared to the others I've done so far. But I'll update that one later. Right now, I'm focusing on this chapter and Chapter Eleven, which is scheduled to be released some time in the near future.
(Hopefully)
Now, let's talk about this chapter. For starters, I wanted to reach the beginning of Izuku's training arc before ending it, but as you can see, that didn't happen. I struggled to even write this much, let alone another thousand words. To release this chapter as soon as possible, I decided to save all that for the next one.
A couple of other things: first, Issei's reaction to the plot of MHA. I want him to interact with it and influence it to some degree because of his actions—otherwise, I might as well have just written an MHA fic. At the same time, I don't want to mess with the story too much this early on. Striking that balance has been tough.
The last thing before I head to bed—Issei's Boosted Gear. I originally planned for him to address it in this chapter, but I couldn't find a natural way to introduce it. So, I decided to push it to the next chapter as well.
That's everything I wanted to say. As always, please leave a comment or drop some stones to show your support. Hope you're all enjoying the story!