Location: Several blocks away from Child Services Agency Branch 12. Tokyo. 10:57 AM
LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO!
I don't know why I always wait until the very last minute when I had to go somewhere. Probably some combination of procrastination and eagerness to use my quirk in non-dangerous scenarios. My foster parents never let me use it at home or around other kids out of fear that I might suck them all into an alternate dimension or find some way to kill everybody. On the streets of the city though, I was free to go apeshit with it.
And boy would I have to in order to make this meeting on time.
I darted along the sidewalk, dashing past people and annoyed businessmen before they could look up from their cellphones and see me coming. At traffic lights, I would throw the exit portal on the other side of the street and throw the entrance portal 6 feet in front of me, dashing through and immediately teleporting to the other side of the street. Pedestrians watched in surprise, an occasional car would slow down to look at what I was doing, and I kept running.
KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING
Making it 7 blocks and up 4 stories in 3 minutes was no easy feat, and after running as fast as i could nonstop for 10 minutes, even my legs were starting to get sore. I had been late to meetings before, sometimes by as long as 20 minutes. It wouldn't be the end of the world to take it easy and show up a little late.
But thats now what All Might would do. All Might would jump halfway across the city just to be somewhere on time! KEEP GOING!
I dodge some some more pedestrians who don't see me coming until I'm sprinting right past them, and I portal my way across another intersection where early morning traffic is at a standstill. With just 2 minutes left, I could make out one of the skyscrapers at the corner of the street the Child Services branch was located on. 30 seconds later I made a hard left and darted down the sidewalk.
I might actually make it!
I charge into the building and sprint past the lobby, the receptionist too tired to put up with my shit this early in the day. I skip past the elevator and go right for the stairs because it's faster. Portal at the top, portal in front of me. I dash through. Portal at the top, portal in front. I dash through again. Repeat 5 more times.
Slamming the door to floor 4 open, I burst out of the stairwell and sprint 4 doors down the hallway before grinding to a stop at the office of Shina Komena, the Child Services officer who has dealt with my case since I first entered the system.
"I MADE IT!" I throw my hands up in the entrance to her office like a champion who just set an Olympic record. Shina sat at her desk, unimpressed, knowing what was coming next.
She held up the small trash bin at the foot of her desk and held it in front of her... "Make it quick"
I took the trash bin and vomited. Profusely. Well, it wasn't a wet vomit that smelled like death, it was more of a dry heave where most of what came out were my lungs and several cheerios I hadn't quite digested yet. Catching my breath while dry heaving chewed up a couple of minutes, and Shina sat at her desk patiently waiting for me to finish, albeit with an incredibly annoyed expression on her face. She remembered very well the number of times she had to replace the carpet in her office because I had left an unremovable stain of stomach acid and bile at the entrance.
Shina: "Glad you could make it on time"
Me: [Panting] "Almo-... Almost thought... Thought I would be late"
Shina: "Anything to report?"
Me: [Still panting] "Nothing new... [Exhales]... Foster parents don't like me, other kids pick on me... [Exhales] The usual"
Shina: "Can I have my trash bin back?"
Me: "Oh sure, here you go"
She furrowed her nose to block out the smell, and set the trash bin back at the side of her desk.
Shina: "I know that it's not time for our quarterly review, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about"
Me: "You want me to join the army?"
Shina: "No"
Me: "You want me to join the navy?"
Shina: "No"
Me: "Oh so you want me to join the circus as an acrobat in order to make stable income that I could use to finally finance that moon-city idea I've had for a while"
Shina: "Maybe we'll explore that on a later visit..." The nice thing about Shina was that even though she was my adviser and a government employee unlucky enough to be assigned my case, I could be humorous with her and not have her question my motives or think I was playing some sort of mind trick on them. Foster parents and other foster kids only ever became suspicious or angry when I tried to joke with them, but not Shina.
Me: "What's the occasion for our date then?"
Shina: "This is not a date"
Me: "You don't seem interested and I'm throwing up, it feels like a date"
Shina: "[Sighs] You are currently approaching your 16th birthday, which means you will be moved from a homeschooling education into either the public or private education system depending on what you choose. So, we are here to go over your options and see what you want to be"
Me: "I already told you what I wanted to do"
Shina: "Yes you've told me about the circus idea a couple times now"
Me: "It's a pretty solid plan right?"
She wasn't amused.
Shina: "Mazu I want you to be honest with me... What is it you really want to do with your life? If you could be anything in the world, what would you want to be?"
While I had always worshipped All Might as a God, and many other pro heroes I would catch glimpses of on tv as lesser gods, I never actually told anyone I wanted to help people when I grow up. People would never believe that I, a member of the dreaded Risuto villain family, would ever want to use my powers for good. On top of that, none of my foster parents even cared to ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up, they just wanted me to get the hell out of their house more than anything
Me: "Is 'water smeller' still not an actual job yet? I think I would be good at that"
Shina: "Mazu..."
Me: "I was also thinking about stapling leaves back onto trees during the fall, just to supplement my income"
Shina: "Mazu, you can be honest with me. As your adviser, it's my job to help you as much as I can in terms of your present situation and what you want to do in the future"
I looked off to the side of her office and fell quiet, avoiding eye contact. How would she react when I told her I really just want to help people? Would she just think I was making another joke and ask me what I really want to do? Would she just laugh at me, or at the idea that a Risuto wants to do good in the world?
I probably crossed a line earlier by suggesting this was a date... Might as well be honest with her rather then keep giving her a hard time for no reason.
Me: "To be honest..." I trailed off
Shina: "Go ahead... You can tell me"
Me: [long pause] "To be honest, I just want to be able to help people"
Silence. I looked back at her after a while, she had the same expression on her face as always
Me: "You don't believe me?"
Shina: "No I believe you, I was just wondering what exactly you mean"
Me: "What do you mean 'what do I mean'?"
Shina: "Well you want to help people. That's good. That's great actually. I'm proud of you that you want to do that... The thing is though that there are a lot of different ways you can help people... You could be a police officer, a doctor, a nurse, a hero, a-"
Me: "Pfft... I don't think I'd be able to help people as a hero... Heroes only ever charge into danger to save people, I've only ever run away from danger"
Shina: "You want to help people though. Thats good! Do you know how you want to do that though?"
She hit the problem dead on... I always have wanted to help people, but I never really figured out how I could do that. Every time I ever tried to think about it, my mind would just wander until I started thinking about how great All Might was for being amazing at everything. I wasn't particularly good at anything other than running, specifically away from something, so how could I help people in the most effective way possible? I had never figured that part out.
My silence gave her the answer.
Shina: "If you want to help people, but just aren't sure how, there are schools that offer a bunch of different courses you could take. Pick a little of everything, whichever ones you like the most or are the best at would help you figure out the best way to help people"
Me: "Really?"
Shina: "Of course. That's what school is all about"
Me: "I thought school was more about learning things you're never going to use for the rest of your life? Like mitochondria, or a hypotenuse..."
Shina: "Its called 'general education' courses, where students who want to help people figure out the best way they can do that. You could get a lot of attention from even top level schools"
I laughed at that idea.
Me: "What school would ever want me, mister 'Risuto-kid-with-rough-past-who-might-be-a-ticking-time-bomb' as a student at their school?"
Shina: "It wouldn't be easy, but your quirk might give you a chance"
Me: "Why would my quirk give me a chance?"
Shina: "From what I can tell, a warp quirk is pretty rare and can be useful. If you really want to help people and have a good quirk like yours, schools might look past your last name and consider accepting you"
Me: "I doubt other students at the school would feel the same way"
Shina: "It doesn't matter what they think. It only matters what you think"
Me: "That's such a lie... I've learned throughout my entire life that if a person thinks I'm evil that there's no way to convince them otherwise, especially when they learn my last name"
Shina: "Do you think All Might would decide to not be a hero if people thought he couldn't be one?"
Me: "Absolutely not! If people didn't think ALL MIGHT could be a hero, then they don't deserve to have him as one, and All Might would go ahead and be a hero regardless of what other people thought about hi- Oooooh I see what you're getting at now"
Shina: [Smiles] "If you genuinely want to help people as best as you can, it doesn't matter what other people think about you"
Me: "But All Might is All Might... And I'm just... Me"
Shina's smile receded. She was a good government worker who could keep tabs on dozens of foster children all over Tokyo, but giving pep talks and being a psychologist weren't exactly on her resume.
Shina: "What if you just give it a shot? Schools have these open tryouts where people can sign up to get accepted, and a few of them start pretty soon. You could sign up for one, see how you do, and work on something from there based on how it goes"
Me: [Long pause] "If it doesn't work out could we reevaluate the circus idea?"
Shina: [Rolls eyes and snickers] "Sure. Why not"
Me: "Then I'm in! Which school has the soonest tryouts?"
Shina: "U.A. Academy"
Me: "Cool! Which school that I could ACTUALLY GET INTO has the soonest tryouts?"
Shina: "Mazu you should still give it a try..."
Me: "There's no way in HELL that I would be able to get into U.A. Academy... I might as well apply for Oxford or frickin MIT"
Shina: "Mazu you don't have to actually get accepted, you would only take the test to see how you do, and use that experience to prepare for the other exams"
Me: "Oh... Okay that actually makes more sense"
Shina: "If you do well you could get into U.A. anyways"
Me: "Okay now you're back to not making sense"
Shina: "The tryout is 5 days from now. I'll pull some strings and get you in if you want"
[Longest pause of the day]
Shina: "What do you think?"
Me: "If this is the best way to find out how I can help people for a living..."
Shina: "I one-hundred-percent believe this is the best way... Take the test to get an idea of what other exams will be like, prepare for those exams when they come, get in to a school under a general studies program, and work things out from there about how you can help people the most..."
[Shorter pause since it seemed to make sense]
Me: "Okay. I'll do it. Sign me up for the U.A. tryouts"