Chapter 3: Heroes

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Chapter 3: Heroes

Who are heroes? Are they ones who protect the innocent, or are they the ones who protect those who aren't innocent, but still need help regardless. Do they do both? Is it merely an empty title to bestow upon someone?

Not everyone is cut out for heroics. That's obvious. But everyone can still be heroic, no matter who they are, or where they come from. It's the fact that they want to help others, to protect those who can't protect themselves, to sacrifice their own pleasures and joys for the good of the bigger picture.

The heroes aren't the ones who do good without needing to. It's the ones who do good without needing to, that get called heroes.

"You know, I've been thinking about something."

"Oh dear, did it hurt?" Todoroki glared at the grinning Kaiya before continuing.

"Today at USJ, you never finished your story." There was a long pause before Kaiya spoke.

"I've been pondering something in the old think-tank as well," she admitted. Shouto looked at her curiously, expecting her musings to be connected to what he had previously pointed out.

"When people say 'extraordinary', it's basically 'extra' and 'ordinary'. So are they just saying that somebody is normal beyond belief?" she mused.

…

"This is what you think about?" he teased, referencing one of their past conversations (Chapter 2 on the bus, if you were wondering). She blushed.

"It's not like I had a lot of time to study being normal! My mind just happens to wander to random things, jeez," she sulked.

The two of them were currently sitting atop a building's roof. Todoroki had insisted on walking her home after the day's events, and was surprised to find that she would be staying here.

It was the roof of one of the buildings at school. Surprisingly, Kaiya said she had requested to stay up here, and principal Nedzu agreed. There were few items there, only a blanket, a cast iron skillet, and a bag. The skillet was apparently used to contain a fire she had started, while the bag held a few extra clothes and a worn out baseball cap.

Not much else other than those.

Kaiya had explained that her current situation wasn't the kind where she could afford to live fancily, so Shouto immediately suggested that she could stay in the guest room at his own residence. It was quickly denied by her, stating that she enjoyed the freedom of the outdoors.

The two of them were currently drinking water that had been boiled with tea leaves to give it flavor, as well as a roasted rabbit that she had caught using a trap she had previously set. It's surprising what you can set up in a city without any questions. A crackling fire was giving warmth to the slight chill in the air.

"You still haven't answered my previous statement," Shouto prodded. It was his first time eating something that he had seen prepared before him. It was a new experience, but not necessarily a bad one.

"And you still haven't stopped poking that poor piece of meat. It won't bite you anymore." The heterochromatic eyed boy took a large bite of the rabbit before turning back to her, eyebrow raised.

"Ah, yes," Kaiya sighed, looking off to the side. "Well…" Obviously, she was trying to avoid the subject. In her silent musings, she thought back to what had happened earlier that day.

"Looky here~ it seems like some of the young eggs weren't caught in the trap," drawled one of the strangers that had appeared randomly. "The boss would be pleased to know that we killed off some of the pests that had escaped."

Many of the other strangers chuckled and sneered. They seemed to give off some sort of sinister presence, but not one that was too alarming. Kaiya had dealt with worse.

"Don't you have any mercy for kids?" Todoroki asked. "Pull yourselves together. You're grown-ups, aren't you?"

He also seemed unfazed by the sudden turn of events, immediately freezing everyone in the vicinity minus himself and Kaiya.

After all of the enemies were frozen solid, Shouto turned to his companion.

"The sensors must not be working because of one of their quirks. It seems like villains have invaded our training session," he said grimly.

"Why would they come here now, of all times?" Kaiya asked, confused.

"That's the question, isn't it. I'm going to try to contact Mr. Aizawa." He pulled out a communicator, before selecting a few choice buttons. It was staticy, but they could still make out a bit of their teacher.

"Todoroki? … that you? Villains… now… going…" the sound cut off.

"D***it, it looks like they also have someone blocking radio waves," he sighed disappointedly. "To attack here and now, the villains must have some solid objective in mind. This ambush was thought through carefully."

"We could ask one of them," Kaiya suggested, pointing towards one of the villain popsicles. Shouto made a sound of confirmation, before heading over and unfreezing the head of the one that acted like the leader using his left hand.

"Go drown in a lake!" he immediately snarled. Shouto didn't even flinch. "All of you are useless after we separated everyone! Now all we have to do is kill you off, one by one! Then we'll get that idiot 'Symbol of Peace'!"

"Scatter us and kill us… huh? Sorry to say it, but to me it looks like you're just a load of mooks who don't know their quirks from their rear ends."

"That stupid little kid! The second I can move again, I'll… Is he really just in high school? Ow ow ow!" the villain cried out in pain. Shouto watched on with cold eyes, Kaiya merely spectating what her friend could do.

At first glance, I'd surmise they thought they could overwhelm even elites with sheer numbers, Shouto thought. And they thought they could just pop open the lid and use us as pawns. From the looks of them, the the number of actual threats caps at 4 people, maybe 5… That'd be my estimation.

"At this rate, you guys will gradually succumb to death by necrosis," Shouto admitted. The villains cried out in shock; those that could, at least. He continued.

"But since I'm aiming to become a hero, I want to avoid doing horrifying crap like that as much as I can." The villains were now shaking as much in fear as well as freezing.

So the thing to do now would be…

"What's the basis of your plan to kill All Might?"

"Are you done spacing out now? Or have you lost your mind?"

A certain heterochromatic eyed person's voice snapped Kaiya out of her reminiscing, causing her to blink owlishly at her companion.

"I'm sorry, but it seems like I've forgotten what we were talking about," she replied innocently. Shouto merely raised an eyebrow, not buying her story for a second.

"I clearly remember you saying that you have a 'pretty good memory'."

"I see. So you were eavesdropping?"

"No, merely listening curiously to what my fellow classmates were talking about."

"Ah, of course. Silly me, the great and powerful king of frost would never eavesdrop. He listens to other people's conversations with dignity," Kaiya said dryly. Shouto cracked a small grin.

"I was just recapping what happened today. I had just reached when the villains spilled all of the beans about their plan," she said. Shouto looked curiously at her and began thinking back to the moment they reached where most of the action was going down.

While Kaiya and Shouto had been forcing information out of their enemies, the rest of the class had been fighting their own battles. The two immediately set off towards the final battleground, briefly making small talk despite the situation.

"You're pretty powerful, you know, Shouto? I mean, that was really impressive," Kaiya complimented. "Now I know that I can relax when you're around."

"... Thanks," he answered with a hint of a blush. Before he could turn too red, however, he decided to change the topic. "I bet you were scared though, so I guess it was good that I was there."

Kaiya, not appreciating his smugness, retaliated.

"Like heck I was! You were 1,000,000% more scared 'n I was!"

They bickered the entire way back to the main group, smiles gracing both of their faces. The reason they had to take some time and distance away, forgotten.

As they got closer to the battle site, all smiles and laughter were cast aside in favor of treating the situation calmly and accordingly.

Bakugou had just arrived, it seemed, and had punched a shadow-like figure with his explosions. It seemed to be the warp-user like the villain had explained. To the side was All Might being restrained by some odd, black creature.

Shouto wasted no time at all in freezing the jerk who was restraining their teacher.

"I heard about you bastards' plan. Of each of your roles in your scheme to kill All Might." Kirishima took this chance to charge the guy with many hands on his body, narrowly missing. "The symbol of peace won't go down as easy as you clowns," he finished.

Bakugou continued to threaten the shadow-guy he had pinned, even going as far to say, "The second you so much as twitch, I'll load you with a nice little explosion, right here, right now!"

"Not a very heroic line there, buddy," Kirishima sweatdropped. Kaiya giggled, having stepped off to the side in order to stay clear of a situation that might provoke her quirk.

"We've been cornered, and what's more, you're all nearly unscathed," the face-palm villain complained. "Man, I have to hand it to the kids these days… At this rate, the Villain Alliance will be a laughing stock…!"

"Well, duh! You guys lack most of the fundamentals to being a proper threat, so of course it's laughable! The only reason you did any damage at all today is because you obviously have some inside worker and caught us by surprise," Kaiya said. The ones present were shocked at her knowledge of the subject.

Shouto added that to the list of things he had to still ask her about.

"Noumu," the face-palm villain sighed, "go ahead and finish explosion boy over there. We're rescuing our revolving door."

Shouto gasped when the abomination broke off its own limbs to escape his ice. It charged Bakugou and a sound of impact was heard.

"KACCHAN!... Kacchan?!" Midoriya yelled in surprise. Bakugou was right there next to him without a scratch. "You dodged him!? Wow…!"

"No you idiot," the 'explosion boy' growled. I couldn't even see him… at all!

As the smoke cleared, a large muscled figure stood solitary, having taken the entire blow for himself.

"... Do you know not mercy?..." he coughed. The villain came up with his own excuse.

"We had no choice. We had to save our ally, didn't we?" he shot back. "And not long ago, one of your kids over there… ahhh, which one…"

He pointed at Midoriya. "The plain-looking one. He tried to beat me up with all his strength, hear? And who do you think taught him such acts of violence?

"Hmmm, 'hero'?" he asked accusingly. Spreading his arms wide, he began his monologue.

"Now listen here, All Might! I'm very ticked off! We're all categorized as either heroes or villains, but at the end of the day violence is violence. And who gets to decide right and wrong? Society does! The 'Symbol of Peace'? Give me a break!" he continued. "You're nothing more than a bludgeon of oppression yourself! Violence only breeds more violence. And once we kill you, that'll be made known to the world!"

"Values!" a female voice suddenly shouted. Everyone looked to see Kaiya in a rage. "I completely agree; violence is violence at the end of the day. But the thing that separates the heroes from the villains are what they stand for!

"Heroes are here to protect those who can't protect themselves. They aren't here for violence! That only happens when you villains get involved. You, who prey on the weak, will never win the favor of society, for we still have the heroes who fight! Our quirks are here for helping! Not hurting!" she finished, practically seething with emotion. "Only the insane would think otherwise!"

"You're mad," All Might agreed. "You oughta keep your anti-social beliefs to yourself; you're beginning to corrupt children. Besides, be straight with me.

"You're just in it for the kicks."

There was a pause, before the villain broke out in maniacal laughter.

"You saw right through me so quickly…!"

"It's 3 on 6!" Shouto called.

"And Kacchan already exposed the shadow guy's weak point…!"

"These guys are outrageous but if we give All Might some support, then we'll send these guys packing no problem!" Kirishima said excitedly.

"NO!" the #1 hero shouted. "Please escape!" This confused many of them.

"But if I hadn't come to support you earlier, it'd have been bad," Shouto pointed out. Midoriya joined in, pointing out something about him coughing blood and a time limit, before trailing off suspiciously.

"Right you are, Todoroki my boy! Thanks a ton! But now I'll be okay! All you need to do is watch a pro show you how it's done!" he assured. After giving orders to his subordinates, the face-palm villain and his allies charged at the group.

All Might shot forward in a flash and met Noumu in a battle of fists. Countless hits made contact, each above %100 of All Might's usual power. Even though he was coughing blood throughout the encounter, he pushed onwards.

"I agree with you, young miss. A hero is someone who smashes through every obstacle that life puts in his way!" All Might shouted passionately. "Do you know what I speak of, villain!?

"PLUS ULTRA" The Noumu shot through the ceiling and continued onwards, soaring through the sky.

The events that followed were a bit questionable, but in the end, Iida seemed to have returned with reinforcements. The villains were forced to retreat, and the day had been won.

After that, Todoroki had insisted on walking her home, as she still needed to calm down a bit after her outburst.

After a few more beats of silence, Shouto realised that he wouldn't be getting anything else about her story easily. He cleared his throat, gaining Kaiya's attention.

"You know, Kaiya, everybody has their own past and secrets they'd rather not share. But after everything we just went through, I think I can trust you with mine," he finally said. "Have you ever heard of quirk-based marriages?"

Kaiya contemplated this for a moment before shaking her head no. Shouto further elaborated.

"Basically, it's where two people get married for the sole purpose of creating offspring with powerful quirks. My father married my mother for that same purpose, but for an even bigger goal in mind.

"He wants me to become stronger than All Might himself and surpass all of the #1 hero's achievements. But I don't want to do it for my father's behalf, but for my own will to get stronger and reach the top." Shouto said with determination. His eyes sparkled different colors, but their resolve was the same.

He felt her place a hand on his shoulder.

"Like I said, you're really strong, Shouto. I'm positive you'll make your own path." He smiled at her before raising an eyebrow in silent encouragement. She sighed deeply.

"Well, I guess based on one of those laws of physics that I learned about once, I can either return your action with an equal and opposite one and stay quiet, or spill my own story." She sighed before continuing.

"To fill in some of the blanks I left in my story earlier, as you might've guessed it, I was given one of the Manufactured Quirks. Mine is known as MQ Tigerwolf, as it contained a quirk to transform me into each creature separately. I can't turn into both, obviously, and even my real quirk's powers are separate. I was injected before my real quirk manifested, so the two coincide together nicely. But the problem lies in a certain side-effect.

"It isn't a guaranteed side-effect, only one that decided to effect me. Every time I transform, my heart beats at an absurdly erratic rate to sustain the form. As only the outside is changed, I still have a human heart, which can't sustain such an unstable rate," Kaiya explained further. "Essentially, I could fall unconscious, into a coma, or even die."

Shouto looked shocked at the news.

"Why would your parents even want to inject you? From what you told me, your quirk would already be extremely powerful," he pointed out. Kaiya hesitated, before plowing ahead with her story.

"Not many over here know this about me… only the principal and a few other choice people… *Sigh* My parents… the life-changing decision they made was to become villains. Big-Time villains. They quickly surpassed their previous status earned by being heroes.

"Our stories are similar, you know?" she chuckled bitterly. "Both of us were created to be tools for our parents' own ambitions. Both of us decided to rebel. But I have a feeling that only one of us will actually achieve our dreams, and it ain't gonna be me."

"Don't say that!" Shouto interrupted. Kaiya stopped, surprised by his sudden outburst.

"Weren't you the one to tell off that villain about what heroes were? What they stood for? Don't give me that bullcrap about only one of us being free to do what we want!" He was enraged. Enraged by the fact that the girl that caused him to feel a spark inside whenever they were together had given up hope.

"I saw him!" she shouted. The boy looked confusedly at the girl that had become so close to him in such a short period of time. Closer than any other girl-no-person had dared to come. His own mother had looked at one half of him in constant disgust.

"My brother, I saw him perched on one of the rooftops. As we were walking away from the group after my small internal attack, I saw him. He smirked when he saw me before disappearing," Kaiya admitted to one of her first ever real friends.

"He doesn't care what happens to me, just so long as I'm on his side. Even if I'm treated like some trained monkey, he won't even bat an eyelash. He only despises the idea that I'd oppose him." She felt a sudden pat on the head.

"Do you like it here?" the owner of the hand asked. Tears began to gather in the girl's eyes. All of the pent up emotions were threatening to break loose.

"... y-yes…" she answered quietly. She couldn't see it because it was hidden by the shadows, but her companion smiled at hearing this. It was a warm, sincere, honest smile.

"Then nobody has the right to take you away from here."

She had only been comforted once before, by her very first friend when she decided to quit being a villain's puppet. Her father had never patted her head. Her mother had never uttered a single word of comfort.

Shouto never pushed her to reveal anything else. He just let her sit there in silence for a moment. He was there to lend her an ear when she spilled her heart for all to see.

And most of all, he was there for her when she cried. She let out all of the pain and frustration she had held within herself. One could only hold on for so long before breaking.

And Todoroki was there for her. He was there to offer comforting words or pats on the back. He was there to help her get through all she had suffered. He himself had never had a shoulder to cry on, so he was happy to offer her what he had always desired.

"S-sorry," she sniffed, eyes red. "I kinda lost control for a while, huh. I apologize for being so selfish. It's rude of me to force you to endure all of that."

He only smiled.

"We're friends now, aren't we? I'm happy to help," he said. She could only helplessly smile back. It was then and there that the two of them exchanged their life stories. Some of them they laughed about, and others they cried. Kaiya more so than Shouto, but even his eyes became glassy at certain parts.

"Shouto, thank you. I feel a lot better than I have in a long time." And then she surprised him. She caught him in a warm hug that caused him to blush slightly. "I couldn't ask for a better friend," she mumbled into his chest.

He could tell that she had fallen asleep in his arms, so he whispered one last thing to her sleeping form before laying her down on her make-shift bed and heading home himself.

"You don't have to worry about a thing… because I'll make sure to protect you."

He had said many things to comfort her in the heat of the moment, but now he had time to reflect. He still believes that both of them would find freedom, but he withheld the part about him never using his father's quirk.

Little did he know that he, Todoroki Shouto, was the first person to have ever listened to her like he had. Even Kaiya's first friend had never heard some of the things she had just shared with him.

But another thing he didn't know, or rather, didn't realize, was that she couldn't always control when she transformed. Not because she wanted to hide it, but because she merely forgot to mention it. This small secret, however, would lead to a twist of fate.

That day, the day Akira Kaiya had first stepped into the room of Class 1-A was when her destiny became forever intertwined with the rest of her fellow peers'.

From this day forward, her life takes a drastic turn. For the better or worse, we'll have to wait and see.

To Be Continued….

Third Chapter is done! Now you all have an idea of who Kaiya is, and it can only get more tangled from here… (*v*)

This wraps up what you could call the "Prologue Arc". Where our characters go from here depends on my imagination~. I hope that Kaiya is a bit easier to understand, as in the past few chapters I've been trying to develop her character. If you aren't getting that, then please let me know. Also, her outburst and heart-to-heart chat with an OOC Todoroki is mostly resulting from the stressful day she's had. Her personality will be further explored throughout the story.

I could've written a lot more about the villain encounter, but I felt as though this was getting a tad long, so I tried to subtly cut it short.

Bye! Hope Out!