Check Author notes for stuff about the chapter (Last time I'll be saying it for this fic)
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"Man... That's middle school done huh?" Kirishima stood facing the crowd leaving the school with their parents, all holding certificates for their days on school.
Rakuro nodded, "Done and dusted."
Kirishima watched as their classmates stood near each other and took pictures, "So the deal with your parents?"
"Its a bit different now." Rakuro answered, "But after I start high school it should go back to normal."
He spun around looking surprised, "You stopped playing games?"
"No!" Rakuro shot back, "Why did you think that? No. The deal was that I would be allowed to play games as long as I performed well enough in school. That won't be changing."
"Then what's different about it?" Kirishima asked.
"Well since I'm trying for the hero course-" Rakuro stopped himself, grabbing his head he groaned, "Wait.... I'm not trying for the hero course." He turned to Kirishima and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Eijiro. Forget what I just said. Nothing's changed."
Kirishima doubled over laughing before stopping and asking, "So how's training going?"
Shrugging, Rakuro answered, "Pretty well. I can feel my stats go up."
"What about your quirks?" He asked.
"That's a secret." Rakuro grinned, "Picked a hair color yet?"
Kirishima grinned back, "You will just have to see."
"I guess." Rakuro answered.
"Been playing Shangri-La Frontier recently?" Kirishima asked.
Rakuro shook his head, "Waiting for the next expansion update. Utopia is working on some hero fighting game so it will be a while before I go back to it."
Kirishima frowned, "They are making the game themselves? I thought they were just sharing the engine."
"The whole works." Rakuro lamented. SLF had been something that had taken up most of his year before this exam preparation. A super polished virtual reality game that blew everything else out of the water. Smooth controls. Great gameplay. Challenging bosses. There was some overarching story but Rakuro wasn't playing it for that.
"The whole works? It might be pretty good." Kirishima repeated impressed.
Rakuro sighed, "Its all about the heroes anyway. The market is too oversaturated with these kinds of games anyway. I mean I'm probably among thirty people in the country who beat Endeavor's Endeavor 4."
He shuddered at the memory.
Unlike the past games, this game was too focused on realism. You played as Endeavor who moved out across the country in order to fight villains and save people. You arrived on time? People died. You arrived late? People died. You beat the villains? People died. You stopped an attack? People died. You burned too hot? People died. No matter what you did..... people died.
Now in most games that wouldn't matter.
But this particular game.....
Oh this particular game.......
Its ending route got locked if even a single civilian died in a mission.
And that was how he beat it.
The ending route is locked if even a single civilian died during a mission.
Yep.
He killed every single person in the area before starting the mission. There wouldn't be any deaths if there were no people to die. But playing as Endeavor and killing countless civilians left a bad taste in his mouth.
But he wasn't just cheesing it.
Since it was impossible to beat it otherwise. Even if you manage to save every single person you couldn't do it with the timer which locked the ending when you exceeded a certain limit on each mission.
The bosses were well designed. But that was about it. Hard to screw up enemies when they were villains that actually existed.
Originally, since the story was based off of Endeavor's actions as a hero, the amount of people that could die was based on the casualties in real life but his agency put a stop to that real quick. And it was probably the right thing to do but god did it make awful game design.
"But the Double Dragons game was fun." Kirishima tried to help.
Rakuro cringed, "But the flying..."
Double Dragons. It was a collaboration game. Both The Dragoon hero, Ryukyu, and Seigwurm, The Sky Ruler, find themselves on an island and they have to fight their way out of it while finding all the captives on the island while also piecing together how they got there.
The gameplay was pretty fun. Playing as two heroes that could transform into dragons was novel and great fantasy.
But the flying gimmick bosses were bad. The controls felt off and the way the earth and sky moved was disorienting to say the least. It would leave you feeling queasy on a good day. On other days it would leave you with a splitting headache at the minimum. It got so bad that there was a health warning on the game label and a few months after release they re-released another version without the flying.
"I need something else to clear my mind." Rakuro muttered.
"Shitty game hunter is back then." Kirishima nudged him with his elbow.
Rakuro's smile drooped, "I wish. But the only thing happening is preparation for the entrance exam. Both quirk training as well as study for the theory. No games for the next two weeks. Afterwards it is free real estate."
"You two!"
They looked at Mina calling out to them.
"Class picture come on!"
Kirishima sprinted to the group and posed with a peace sign. Rakuro followed behind and slung his arm around Kirishima displaying a wide smile.
CLICK
An hour and more pictures later, he stood outside the gates and looked back at his school. Silently giving the place he spent the last three years. Well six years total considering his school had a separate building for elementary school and he did both at the same place.
Musutafu Private Middle School.
"Thanks for the memories." He waved at the building once before walking toward his family that was waiting for him.
"Dinner outside?" Rumi asked her parents.
Senji shook his head, "Not today. Your mother and I are going to be cooking up a feast. We can have dinner outside tomorrow if you'd like."
"Yes!" Rumi replied instantly, "I'd like that please!"
Meanwhile, Eika walked beside her son, "And that's middle school done....." She had her hands behind her back as she walked, "I remember when you started elementary here. You wanted that standard black school bag that you saw in an anime for your very first day and refused to go to school without it. And now you are applying to be a hero...." Placing her hand on his head, she continued, "You've grown so big."
"I'm not applying to be a hero?" Rakuro asked with a confused look.
"Are you giving the hero exam?"
Rakuro nodded.
"Then am I wrong?"
He raised a hand but then shook his head and dropped it.
Rumi spun around walking backwards, "Now that your done with middle school.... how about you start the rest of your life with your next ability."
"Right now?" Rakuro asked her like she was stupid.
She nodded.
"Out.... here?" He waved his hands around.
"Just do it."
He looked away from her and to his parents.
And watched them stare at him expectantly.
PING
PING
PING
WATER COMPACTION
Rakuro looked at his family, "Its Water Compaction." At first glance he couldn't see anything different about himself, nor could he feel anything different.
"And what's it do?" Rumi asked.
"I don't know." He said as he looked back at his hands and then groaned, "Aghhhhhh."
Senji leaned close and looked at his hands, "Ha!" He snorted.
"Don't laugh." Rakuro groaned in response.
"What's so funny?" Rumi looked up at his hands.
Rakuro moved his hands close to her face, "I'm a sponge."
Eika's eyes widened as she spotted the sponge like look his skin took on. Holes and all, "That's....."
Rumi clutched her dad and started laughing and Senji closed his eyes and shook silently trying to hold his laughter inside.
"Its not funny!" Rakuro shot back, "Imagine if someone was born with this as a quirk. Would you laugh them?"
"We don't need to imagine." Rumi pushed out through her laughs, "We have you."
"Ah." His mom let out a sound. Her hand rose up and pointed to his face, "Its spreading to your whole body I think."
Rakuro deflated.
Back at home, the family prepared for dinner.
"Wash your hands." Eika said as she called them for dinner.
Rakuro ran his hands under the sink and sighed as the water was absorbed into them. He closed his eyes as he felt them grow heavier and the wetness began to travel up his arm. Pulling his hand out of the water, he absentmindedly rubbed them against each other.
His palms squished against each other as water poured out from them.
His eyes widened as he screamed.