Chapter II: A place where I belong
Disclaimer: I own nothing that is related to the Boku No Hero Franchise and all credit goes to their respective owners. All I own are my OCs.
"Come on we're going to be late!" Mina called out to me as she stood next to me at the gate.
"Give me a moment I've got to savour this!" I said to the impatient girl.
"Savour what!"
"You know… first steps and whatnot,"
"Oh my god, just hurry up Aizawa-sensei told me if I was late again he'd make me the boys changing rooms and trust me when I say this, you do NOT want to clean the boys changing rooms."
"Well then guess I'll take my time then,"
"Archer… I will make sure you'll clean it with me,"
"...Yeah, let's go inside," I took a deep breath and stepped past the blue gate onto school property.
I am here. This step would mark the first of many on my journey to become the first quirkless hero and it would take nothing short of a miracle to stop me. As if agreeing with my unspoken thoughts, Mina grabbed my left wrist and started to run towards the main building and then into one of the towers.
"You see, each of these towers is allocated each year group, the 4th one is just for the teachers and administration," the horned girl said as we were racing up the steps of said towers.
"Oh good to know," I shouted back, trying my hardest to keep it at this. I would like to think training since I was 9 in endurance, strength and fighting would keep me in front of the pink girl.
But apparently running every day to school for, I don't know a few weeks seemed like better training than being beaten down by my uncle every day. With that mind rant out of the way, I turned my attention back to Mina so I didn't lose the pink blur.
Soon enough we had reached the door with paint symbols that read 1-A so we both skidded to halt and I was pretty sure I could hear cheers from my heart, but that may be the overheating in my brain causing me to hear that.
Mina flung open the doors and stood, panting and an unchanged expression of a person Mina called Aizawa Sensei. He was… well, he was someone I suppose.
Aizawa had bloodshot eyes and an unkempt stubble with an expression that suggested he was nothing more than a shell. His figure, slender which made me wonder if he even ate but what I noticed the most about the unusual hero were the items draped around his neck.
A tattered scarf and slitted goggles. Not the most ordinary choice of weapons as it were but then again I didn't think that this hero would be ordinary. His slitted goggle and bloodshot eyes gave away that his quirk probably resolved around keeping his eyes open for long periods of time.
However, before I time to deduce much else Aizawa Sensei spoke.
"Mina Ashido do you remember what I said would happen the next time you were late?" his voice surprised me. For such a skinny figure, his voice more than made up for it with a booming and stern tone.
"You would make me clean the boys' changing room,"
"Oh, so you do remember? It almost seems like you want to clean the boys' changing room"
"N-No sir I bumped into the transfer student so I had to show him the way,"
"Oh is that so? Then where is this transfer student you speak of?" at this point it had dawned on me that I was still outside, still out the view of Aizawa. I stepped into the classroom, through the giant doors but soon enough I was in the eyeliner of Aizawa whose expression remained unchanged even of my unusual appearance.
"Ah I see well it seems like you'll have company during your expedition into the boys' changing room" that statement didn't surprise me in the slightest and nor did it to Mina who looked she was going to protest but decided against it.
Instead, she dejectedly moved back into her seat leaving me facing a crowd of strangers, something my childhood had not prepared me for. After seeing me like this Aizawa reluctantly called me to the front so all the whispers in the classroom came to halt to stare at me.
To stare at my scruffy white hair, my naturally dark skin and my blazing blue eyes, it was... uncomforting, every part of me was in the view of 18 strangers and I didn't like it, not one bit. It was safe to say that in this room full of mutated people, I was the strangest.
I was the person who didn't belong and that thought scared me, to be alone in this vast world not fitting in anywhere at all. I was then abruptly pulled from the dangerous thoughts with a cough from Aizawa.
"Well? Are you going to introduce yourself?"
"O-Oh yes," I said to Aizawa before turning towards the class before freezing once again and would've stayed like that, if Mina hadn't caught my attention and gave me a supporting thumbs up.
I took a deep breath before speaking.
"Hello 1-A my name is Archer Livius and as of today, I'll be transferring to your school and this class. So please take care of me." I bowed politely as I was taught by my stepfather to so. When I looked up all I saw were a sea of hands,
Great. Just what I wanted, more attention but I knew I couldn't shy away from this. I looked over at Aizawa who looked more than happy enough for me to answer questions as he went back into a brown sleeping bag.
"Yes?" I said pointing towards the black haired kid who looked like the most normal one in this class, well at least with his uniform on.
"Where are you from?"
Okay. This is pretty easy I said before answering.
"Uh. America" then the next person put their hands up, and I say hands. He had like 6 with hair similar to mine.
"What school did you go to before this?"
"Ketsubutsu Academy," there was one more hand up, a green haired boy with freckles that seemed to be taking a note of everything I said.
"What's your quirk?" that was it. That was the one question I was hoping to avoid, the one question which will isolate me once again like they did in middle school back in America but I didn't want to lie, not after Ketsubutsu showed me such hospitality.
I needed to take another deep breath before I spoke.
"Well about my quirk… I don't have one," and there was silence. The mumbling teenager who asked the question had eyes wide open his hand frozen in his notebook.
I looked over at Mina who was as shocked as the rest of the class and this was only the beginning. The mumbling teenager suddenly stood up disrupting the shocked faces. His eyes were now gleaming and his face filled with delight.
"Wait… so you mean to tell me that you beat those robots with nothing but your fists and no quirk,"
"Yes?"
"That is so cool, you must be really strong then!"
"I'm sorry what? You think that's cool?"
"Of course I do. How many people can say that they can defeat those robots with just their fists,"This guy… he's going to be something great I thought to myself as almost all of the class agreed with him bar one person.
He had spiky blonde hair and used his crimson red eyes to stare daggers at me like I was a lesser being. I quickly turned my attention to the front and into the eyes of Mina who was smiling at me so much so it made my cheeks burn up again.
I didn't know it was possible for blushes to show on dark skin but apparently they are but as soon as that happened Aizawa came of out his cocoon of a sleeping bag and instructed to sit in the empty seat between a red-haired teen and another with a body so ripped it made me question if he was on steroids.
Without questioning further I made my way to my seat and placed by bag on the handle provided there and sat down looking at the ever tired Aizawa who looked less than pleased as he read out news ahead of the new school day.
The red-haired teen tapped my shoulder so I turned to him to see an extended hand.
"Hello how are you, my name is Eijiro Kirishima and I just want to say what you did to score points on the physical entrance exam is so manly," I shook it eagerly and my eyes drifted back into his red ones.
"Thanks, I really appreciate it, to be honest when I heard that you guys were okay with me being quirkless, I was shocked,"
"Well… I was a bit sceptical at first but after the incident at USJ we need all the good heroes we can get and if you managed to beat the entrance exam robots, you must be alright at least."
I was about to respond when Aizawa suddenly said something that caught my attention,
"As you, all know that even after USJ we need to move on with year as scheduled and that means that in 2 weeks time it will be time for the sports festival,"
The sports festival was a place to prove oneself for the future to the many pro heroes and hero agencies that would be present. It was a chance to show anyone who still doubted my ability to fight crime, that they were wrong. It was a chance to test my growth against others who earned their place at this academy.
I got excited just thinking about it but as usual, was pulled out of my daydreams by the voice of Aizawa
"Very well, know this about the sports festival for I have to warn you, that this year to train after recent events will be the hardest that's ever been done. If you want to quit now put your hands up,"
There was utter silence once Aizawa had finished talking. They knew their teacher to be a merciless man so if he was offering a way out it would mean that this was indeed a challenge.
No one put their hands up. Of course, they didn't, they were class 1-A, everyone there including myself needed to show others why they were the elites. Now that Aizawa had finished what he had wanted to say, he left the room jumping in his sleeping cocoon giving us around 10 minutes before our next teacher showed up so everyone just got up and went to their friend circles.
It wouldn't be long before I was ignored again so I pulled out my phone and its matching earphone so I could drown out the sounds of happiness but even that was short lived as my earphone was yanked out by a towering figure.
I looked up to see a glare from Mina as she held the piece of wire between her perfectly manicured fingers.
"Nuh-uh, we are not having you by yourself on your first day,"
"Mina please don't do this to me, just leave me with my music," she glared at me again as she grabbed my arm and pulled me from my seat.
"Well that's not my problem my friends want to meet you"
"I'm not exactly amazing at social situations," she then proceeded to stare me down.
"You don't say,"
"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" I asked whilst being dragged by my blazer sleeve down to where her friends were gathered and given the short difference she didn't have time to respond, she didn't want to respond.
I didn't know how but soon enough I was in a circle with Mina's friends who were then staring me intently, not letting me leave in any way possible. The first question after a deadly silence was asked by the invisible girl who had her hand up from near the start but due to my
Lack of experience with invisibility I hadn't noticed.
"Hello Livius-kun my name is Toru Hagakure and I just have one question for you, why a hero? You're quirkless aren't you, isn't it too dangerous?" great, a hard question right off the bat.
"W-wow right, okay. I guess I wanted to become a hero because I like danger," I paused to look at the crowd's reaction where I saw a sea of shocked faces, mainly of disbelief so I decided to continue. "There is also another reason. Growing up quirkless isn't exactly...easy so I want to show the world that no matter how you are born, you can be whatever you want to be,"
There was a short silence before slow claps rose around the circle before a person who I know as Denki Kaminari spoke.
"You are either really stupid or really ballsy," this caused another of Mina's friend to speak, Kyoko Jiro to retort at his comment.
"Don't you start Denki about calling other people stupid. Get higher than bottom in the class and then you can talk," this earned laughs from the circle and I chuckled a little. It wasn't particularly funny but if made me feel like that they had no reservations about me, no discrimination if felt great.
The next question came from the Kirishima who I became friends with, not too long ago
"So, how did you beat the robots?"
"Well, it happened when I was 9 and I finally told my parents that I was being abused to which they suggested that I go live with my uncle who was master at Japanese martial arts and he taught me, every day since. Due to that training, I was able to take out some of them,"
"Wait so you mean to tell me that you learnt Japanese martial arts?" Mina said with much doubt in her voice.
"Yep, I learnt Kyoushin, Jujitsu and Taijutsu from my uncle,"
"Is that all? I figured you would have learnt more, you know quirkless and all," said Kirishima.
"Oh you think that's it, I only told you the unarmed martial arts I use, my armed arts were taught to me by my aunt."
"So what are they?" Mina asked staring with her golden irises straight in my azure could I say no those gorgeous eyes.
"Well, my aunt taught me Bojutsu and Niten Ichi-Ryu,"
"Niten what now?" questioned the hardening quirk user.
"Niten Ichi-Ryu was created by-" before I could speak I was cut off by a very excited Mina.
"Oooh, I can't take it anymore. Niten Ichi-Ryu was created by the greatest dual-wielding swordsman of all time, Miyamoto Musashi who first created it back in 1584. He was the only one to use two katanas whilst all of his successors used a katana and a wakizashi,"
I like most of the group was shocked, the only exceptions being a frog girl who was known as Tsuyu Asui and Kirishima who stood with his arms folded, smiling. Mina then turned to me and started to speak in an excited manner.
"So I'm guessing you use only one katana, like all the other students I met," her face was almost pleading me to be different, for my answer to be no.
"Okay, so you are definitely a sword arts maniac that much I can tell. And to answer your question no I don't, I use two katanas,"
You could tell the moment her face turned from excitement to ecstasy and there is a pretty big change. I could feel her suffocating aura which would've actually succeeded in doing so if the door hadn't been swung open to welcome the next lesson of the day, English with someone called Present Mic.
I could only assume by the name that he went by that he was the peppy invigilator that oversaw the entrance exams and my guess was correct as I saw the blonde haired man walk into the room.
His neck still wearing the boombox making me question that if indeed that was part his natural body or not. Other students quickly bundled back to their seat and I was to do the same if Mina had not grabbed me by my collar and pulled on it so our faces were mere inches from each other.
"This conversation is not over," I both blushed and flinched. For the fact that our faces were close together and how enthusiastic she was, it was scary. Once she had said that however she quickly let go of me, her face turning the same shade of violet it had done when I first called her Mina.
It seemed as if she finally gained control of her own body and seemed embarrassed by her actions, Mina avoided eye contact with me completely as she shuffled back to her seat. I also went back to prepare for the lesson ahead but my mind was still on her immense knowledge in the sword arts.
Out of the faces who had heard Mina's explanation, only Kirishima and Asui were remained unchanged, one of whom was sitting right next to me. I got Kirishima's attention so I could satisfy my curiosity.
"Hey Kirishima, how does Mina know so much about the sword arts?" he looked at, smiled, then continued.
"Well, Ashido was way worse back in middle school. She was so intense when it came to swords, one mention no matter where you were in the school, she came running. It was all because of her grandfather, he loved sword, he loved the ideals, the peace that came with it.
It was safe to say that it rubbed off on her, as soon enough she was the captain in the kendo club where Ashido never lost a match. That was until last year when she was in her 3rd year of middle school and she got to the final of the Winter Invitational.
She told her grandfather this and was overjoyed telling her that he'll be there however on the way he got into a car accident due to a major villain attack and died several days later. Ever since that day she quit the kendo club and has not touched a sword since then.
You were the reason she opened up again,you're the reason she can truly smile, I think you're a good influence on her," once Kirishima had said that he returned to his normal position so he could not be noticed by the Present Mic whose voice deafened the class.
I had to process what I had just been told meaning I neglected the work which Present Mic had set which was not a big deal given the fact that this was an English lesson and the work was of a standard I learnt in middle school.
The rest of a lesson went by quickly as I was still within my thoughts and soon enough the bell rang which made me finally pay attention to the notebook which was filled notes of the lesson that passed, how I managed to do it I have no idea nor did I care enough to find out.
I didn't understand why this was needed when it came to heroics but I didn't complain, I mean studying here at Yuei was a dream come true so I had to endure what I had to make sure that they can't take what I wanted most away from me, being a hero.
The next 3 lessons were just as boring as the one with Present Mic, just quieter. And just like the first lesson I had managed to copy down everything while my mind was elsewhere, it really was a skill to be feared.
After the mind-numbing labour had passed it was now time for lunch meaning I could finally eat food after my breakfast of a banana and a single slice of bread. When my stomach heard the bell for the start of lunch, it let out a deep growl as if in pain, the only remedy being food.
Due to this, I was gone the minute we were dismissed, I ran out the classroom like a madman and jumped down multiple flights of stairs until I stood at the foot of the tower in which the year one student studied, trying to catch my breath.
Great, where now? I thought to myself looking around at the labyrinth that lay ahead of me which was now filled a multitude of students, all of whom were of different shapes and sizes making it hard for me to see further than the third row.
My stomach growled again, this time louder as if saying that if I did not move it would leave without me, how that was possible I'm not sure but that was what I had got from that. Quickly I dived right into the crowd, the flow taking me to a certain destination, which I hoped to be the direction of the cafeteria.
And sure enough it was, the room in which I had entered was massive and was probably the size of the entirety of my Uncle's Dojo which was dubbed the largest dojo in America, the cafeteria itself was very colourful, streaks of auburn orange and bright yellow pasted against a blinding white wall.
The windows, which were the only source of light, were massive and spanned from the 30 ft ceiling to the 2 ft off the ground and was separated by a thin piece of wall coloured the same orange as on the other wall, which changed halfway into the blinding white.
What drew my attention was the metallic hut that shone the light coming in from the windows, it was the place where food was served. That's where I wanted to go, that's where
my stomach wanted to go so I slipped multiple people who were on their way to join the line and so enough I was part of the line that seemed to move a foot a second.
2 minutes later I was already sitting on a lone table with my food tray and me munching down on the food that was in front of me as if I hadn't eaten in days, that was until I got a phone call. I pulled out my phone to reveal a contact number that read Mina followed by many emojis,
during our journey to Yuei she had gotten ahold of my phone and promptly entered her details before she took mine. I answered the phone and held against my ear… what a mistake that was.
"Where the hell are you? How could you leave me like that!" her voice blasted through the phone, threatening to rip apart my ear drums. I responded quickly after the initial battering, not hoping to incur more of her wrath.
"I-I'm in the cafeteria,"
"Where?" she asked in a calmer tone.
"Uhh row...G," literally two seconds later she slammed her tray right next to mine, making me jump before sitting down next to me, she was followed by Asui and Kirishima who were chuckling before sitting opposite us.
"Tough luck man, first day and you already made her mad," Kirishima said as he bit into an apple.
"Eijiro you must be joking, she wasn't even mad," the frog girl was scooping up her food with her tongue, it was a bit freaky if you ask me. She then looked at me before whispering,
"Trust me when I say this you never want to make her mad,"
This whole time Mina had not spoken a word but was slowly eating her vegetable, tearing off each mouthful with a violent rip. I was almost too afraid to talk to her, even all my training did not help me with a pissed off teenage girl.
"Hey, Mina?" I said as gently as possible. She looked at me dead in the eye before returning to her food. "Mina?"I asked again, almost afraid of the consequences. "Are you okay?"
"HOW THE HELL WOULD I BE OK. DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS, I MEAN WHAT IF YOU GOT LOST AND COULDN'T FIND YOUR WAY BACK!"
she screamed, drawing the attention of those nearby. I smiled at the fuming Mina, she was worried about me, that's all.
"How much of an idiot do you think I am? I mean come on, I think you should've been more worried about Kirishima and he was with you the entire time," Kirishima was going to protest but he knew it was no more than a jest to diffuse the situation.
It worked as soon after the mad Mina cracked an unwanted smile and soon her body language changed to display the true happy Mina again. She sat down and turned her upper body so she was facing me.
"So you haven't told me why you use two katanas yet?"
"Huh, yeah right. My aunt is a direct descendant of Musashi and was tasked with the job of keeping alive the two katana style, Nitoryu," she seemed dumbfounded by this and was about to ask more question when Tsuyu butted in.
"Wasn't it called Niten Ichi-Ryu?" she asked. I was going to answer but looked over to Mina instead who looked she wanted to display her knowledge badly so I gave her the go-ahead, much to her delight.
"So Niten Ichi-Ryu means the school of strategy of two heavens as one. This school focuses on using two weapons instead of one for better protection and attack. Nitoryu is a style which focuses on the uses of two swords instead of one, it is dying out the number of true swordsman being able to utilise this technique.-"
The rest of the explanation went past me as I delved into my thought like I did so many times in this past day.
It was finally happening, I was here in this school training to become a hero, and nothing could stop me. I had to prove the father who had left me when I was 4 that I was someone worthy, that I was someone special.
His last words were to me were
"You're a worthless child who will never find a place to belong"
I proved him wrong. 11 years after that incident, I proved him wrong.
I found a place where I belong.
Author's Note:
Okay so a lot more than 3 people found this which I find to be amazing, so I want to thank everybody who looked at the pages and thought, this might be a good read.
Also, I have used a lot of technical terms in this chapter and tried to explain the best I could but if you still do not understand, a quick look at Wikipedia might help you, if you still do not understand, PM and I'll explain it to you to the best of my ability.
I realised that like the last chapter that there were no fighting scenes and don't worry I am saving that for Chapter 3: Ground Alpha
That's all from me so tune in next time for the adventures of Archer Livius, the quirkless hero.
