Chapter 412 - My CO Stash #12 - The Heroic Chronicles of a Young man by Requiem_Jeer (Youjo Senki/My Hero Academia) (1/2)
-This CO fic is mad cool with da MC reminding me of Tatsuya Shiba and the most 5Head quirk I ever read about/
Synopsis: Deguchiya Tenya was not the best. He wasn't the worst, either, so he must be average.
In this modern world, the keys to success are simple. Signal the appropriate virtues to the society you are born in, climb up the social ladder in the defined manner, live frugally and save for your retirement, where the fruits of your labors are to be enjoyed for the rest of it. If your position allows, find a like-minded member of the opposite s.e.x to start a family with.
When looked at with such a perspective, Quirks are irrelevant.
Rated: ???
Words: 56K
Posted on: forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-heroic-chronicles-of-a-young-man-youjo-senki-my-hero-academia.875316/ (Requiem_Jeer)
PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)
-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)
Chapter 0+1
My name is Deguchiya Tenya. I can only stare at the innocuous white headband I held in my hands. ”How did it come to this!?”
In this modern world, the keys to success are simple. Signal the appropriate virtues to the society you are born in, climb up the social ladder in the defined manner, live frugally and save for your retirement, where the fruits of your labors are to be enjoyed for the rest of it. If your position allows, find a like-minded member of the opposite s.e.x to start a family with.
When looked at with such a perspective, Quirks are irrelevant.. The heroics industry is the largest, highest status industry one can be a part of. But it is also dangerous and fickle. On average, only a single new agency every other year has what it takes to last more than ten years of business. If you count the ones that get bought outright rather than dissolving, it's component human resources being picked up piecemeal by other agencies, that number triples.
No, being a hero is not something that can reliably lead to a comfortable retirement. Especially not for someone whose Quirk is merely average. My Quirk is Mathmagician, I have a reserve of energy that I can use to affect changes in the world, expressed via mathematical formulae. This reserve is refilled by cannibalizing my caloric energy.
So, I applied to the most prestigious high school in eastern Japan. UA high school. A truly top-tier business course, perfect for attaching yourself to the heroic industry, without that pesky 'risking your life' and 'being in the spotlight'. I got fifth place in the general exam, and second in the business exam. I had actually held out hopes that I could excel, for once, with that business exam, but as it always was, the first place podium was denied to me.
The culture of UA was significantly different from my middle school. While in most of Japan, the expectation was to respect the hierarchy, to succeed silently and humbly, and to not create a disturbance of yourself, in UA, the motto was 'Plus Ultra!'. The worst thing anyone could ever accuse you of is being lazy, and of not trying your hardest to succeed. Someone who proudly declared their expectations of victory was still derided for arrogance and presumption, as that top heroics student (And number three in the general exam, I remembered that name) demonstrated in his speech, but open competition was the norm.
So, coming in to the obstacle course race, in my regular gym clothes, I expected what my peers expected: to valiantly try my best, but to be left in the dust behind the forty demigods who have trained their bodies far longer than I, with Quirks stronger than mine, and quietly fade back into obscurity, rubbing elbows with my peers as we fill out Professor Nedzu's assignment on predicting the marketability of each contestant and their resulting offers from hero agencies.
So, when the recommended student iced over everyone except his own classmates, I used my Quirk to melt the ice, spin up a shell of applied force around me to deflect any further attacks, and flew at top speed through the course. My Quirk's reserves were only good for about two hours of sustained flight, which was woefully inadequate for any kind of full-time job using it, but after mere minutes, I had finished the course… only to look behind me and see absolutely no one. Present Mic, the announcer, was announcing my victory, only to follow it up with an announcement of the second person starting to encounter the second obstacle.
Even following the past events step by step, I still could not understand why, after my patient efforts to secure a nice, safe position as a manager in a hero agency, I now held this headband, with eight red digits mocking me and painting the mother of all targets on my back from those same demigods who have trained themselves nigh exclusively in violence for the past two months.
I can only repeat my mantra of despair. ”How did it come to this?”
Chapter 1
Yaoyorozu Momo thought that of all the people in the stadium, she was the least, and yet the most surprised. Tenya was someone she knew in middle school, and she knew the vague capabilities of his Quirk. Like hers, it required that he eat enough food for a half dozen people, a common thread that, along with their high academic marks, ensured they were compared with each other constantly by their classmates. Unlike hers, he had to eat that much regardless of whether or not he was actually using it.
Tenya always seemed like someone who always knew what to do, taking what life dealt him with a stoicism that was the envy of the class. He was multitalented, succeeding with apparent ease, and never being bothered about losing to anyone, merely congratulating whoever he lost to with his usual placid expression, never emoting anything greater than annoyance, disappointment, and vague satisfaction at any point during the years she's known him.
Even in UA, he calmly sat next to her at lunch, as if being enrolled in the top hero school in the country was no more life-changing than sitting at the next table over. They discussed their classes, the teachers, what they'd done with their Quirks recently, normal things to discuss with classmates, even if he only ever spoke with her at lunch, even during middle school. At first, she thought he was trying to befriend her because of her parent's wealth, but he seemed most comfortable just asking about her progress on becoming a hero, and asking her what she thought about the latest party trick he figured out how to pull off with his Quirk, which was all he thought it good for.
He did have a truly wide variety of those, though. Instantly melting or freezing water, making things float, turning random flat surfaces into mirrors, cutting paper by running his finger over it, making his eyes glow, a laser pointer out of his finger… the list went on. She honestly thought that he had a real chance at getting into the hero course if he had tried, but he didn't get a recommendation like she did, and he resigned himself to the business course, which was plenty prestigious of course but in UA, everyone knew that it was the hero course that was what the school was made for.
Unlike some of the other students, he never seemed resentful of other people's success though. She didn't see him during that fracas where that general studies student spitefully challenged her class, and he gave insightful advice about her own Quirk use when she asked for it. When she brought up to him how students who did well in the sports festival could transfer into the hero course, he seemed interested, asking a few questions about what she knew of the process. It was a short conversation, as she knew essentially nothing beyond the limited information the general education student shared, but he said he'd have to do his best, with the same sardonic smile he used whenever his Quirk was brought up.
So seeing her sort-of friend completely counter Todoroki's Quirk, melting the entire ice structure he made to trap everyone, before shooting forward like a bullet past everyone else, flying over every obstacle in the way, was not something that surprised her overmuch. She expected him to rank highly, and knew he could melt ice and was fast on his feet. What did surprise her, however, were the glowing eyes and maniacal laughter he belted out as he shot past her. It was so out of character that in her surprise, she completely missed that little troll Mineta affixing himself to her butt using his Quirk until he had already succeeded.
Still, the first thing she did after the race was approach him. He seemed… surprised, which was a new expression on his face. ”Deguchiya?” She began. ”Could you always fly?” It was certainly never something he mentioned before.
Hearing his name seemed to snap him out of it, but his shock still put his expression into a must softer cast than she usually saw him use. ”Yaomomo?” He began, before flushing. ”I mean, Yaoyorozu, hello. I see you scored eighteenth, good job.” Now that was an interesting reaction. While he certainly knew about her usual nickname, it was something her actual friends used frequently enough that he was bound to have heard it at least once, she had never heard him use it before. ”And… that wasn't really flying. That was throwing myself through the air and missing the ground for long enough to reach the finish line. You could have done the same, I'm sure.” He trailed off, seeming a bit confused. She thought he was going to continue with 'why didn't you?' but he remained thankfully silent.
At least she could be sure that this was definitely Tenya. ”Are you hungry? I need to restock on lipids while I can, and I don't know how often you can do that, but from what you've said, you're probably spent after that. Let's get some food.” WIth that, she turned around and went towards the snack table, where next to that lunch rush had a special table set up for students whose Quirks included large metabolisms with more substantial fare.