As the months passed, my grasp on the Japanese Language got stronger and stronger, to the point that I could start catching up on the news that had happened while I was here. Not that I didn't trust Yubi, but he and Te probably don't want me seeing the darker side of things. It says something that even with it having been almost a year now and there being so many heroics I could find a series of news stories by different stations and websites. Debates made on forums about the nature of Quirks, who was to blame and the like. The forums varied wildly in the comments of course, with some arguing over if my Quirk demanded stricter laws or more comprehensive medical examinations. Honestly, it got a bit too complicated about medical science I had no right to know about in EITHER of my lives but from what I can gather the whole toe joint test is seen as pseudo-science.
Given what people suspected of the Doctor who tested that for Izuku, I'm not surprised.
But the ones that got more interesting on the forums were ones who discussed what I meant.
HeroesOath said: I'm just saying that this kid's Quirk opens a lot of questions up about what Quirks are. If someone can produce gas from one of the old Kamen Rider shows, where does it end? Could someone grow to the size of an Ultraman and just start firing lasers from their arms? Could someone like Superman exist?
MightyAllMight said: All Might is our Superman though. Even if he wasn't, we would hear about someone like that right? Superman was an alien
The_Aeon said: I think what Oath is getting at is that this kid can make a gas that shouldn't exist. Heroes usually tend to stick to what we know when they produce things like that. Endeavour's fire can't break the laws of thermodynamics as some sort of special fire after all. Could we make Stands, literal manifestations of the spirit? Someone just needs the right Quirk. Shazam? Transformation Quirk.
Blizzard Of Heroes said: You could argue that's already the case though. Certainly, there's nothing to explain how Captain Celebrity's Quirk works so well or anything about All Might.
And so on and so forth. It was surprising really that while the mainstream news stories seemed determined to focus on the consequences of the event even months after I had gotten released from the hospital, the forums were willing to explore the more esoteric side of things or what it meant for Quirks as a whole.
But for me, the most important piece to come from the topic came from an older news story. A few months old now I still watched it on occasion. The news studio had arranged for an interview. Not with me of course, but with a man I hadn't recognized at first. One Taro Hakaiken – the first Strong Smash of this world (and his name had the word for Destruction in it in Japanese because of course it was). In my defence, the man had actually cleaned up a bit and was dressed better than the dirty clothes he had been in when we first ran into each other. The interview goes on talking about the event and the man being the Smash for a bit but then…
"What do you think about the idea that people are saying that the child who did this to you should be punished?"
Taro blinked a bit, even as he shifted a bit, looking a little uncomfortable in his white suit. "I just think it's stupid if ya don't mind me being blunt," Taro noted as he rubbed his cleanly shaven skin.
"But the boy turned you into a monster, you went on a rampage- "
"And if he hadn't gotten in the way I could have hurt a lot more people." Taro countered. "' sides, like I've said ta any reporter that'd listen, the kid was defending himself. And feeling that power but seein' what happens when it's out of control really puts yer actions inta context."
"How so?"
Taro sighed as he leaned back in his seat, any semblance of professionalism gone as he did so. "I'd just gotten fired tha day before. It was a job I enjoyed, so I got drunk and woke up in the alley. Then I see this kid come near me and suddenly I'm this monster. Then when I'm lying in hospital, I get flashes of what happened. People running. Screaming. The same kid scared out of his wits at the thing he made… and he reaches out and stops me. Just this one kid who looks at a mistake he made. A kid who by all rights should have run for it. And he tries to fix his mistake."
For a moment Taro sighed and let the silence hang in the air. "A kid. That's all he was. He had no reason to try and stop me. But he did. So many people focus on what the power can do that they don't think about the user. It's not right. In my mind, the kid acted like a hero that day. I'm just trying to do the same thing now in my life."
It… well, it felt good. I was always a bit worried about what people would think of my Quirk – given what happened to Shinso and all – but to see someone looking past that was nice enough. That someone being the guy I had turned into a Smash? Even better, even if it seemed like he didn't remember his time as one, the standard for a Smash.
Of course, that brought me to another issue I was worried about over time. I had at least 4 or 5 years to go until I can even try for U.A. I was going to forget things, and I don't want to be someone who was dropped into a universe and just forgets what useful information they have. So, I had asked Yubi and gotten some of my money to get a simple pair of notebooks and some pencils. The first notebook was always one that I kept locked and usually left in the lab to avoid Mei trying to look at it – this was details of what I remembered from the series. Nomu, USJ, Training Camp, Stain, as much as I could fit in without over-complicating things. Fortunately, unlike his daughter. Yubi believes in privacy.
And the second? It was what I used to convince Yubi to give me money in the first place. A notebook for me to take notes or record data about my own Quirk, draw up designs for future support costumes and more. As much as I'd love to write down ideas about others Quirks… well, aside from me still coming to grips with the idea of becoming a hero student, I need to be practical: There's no guarantee I'd even pass the exam, let alone get into class 1-A. Plus to get into a high school like that, I'd need to go to a middle school. And I don't NEED to go to middle school
Of course, a couple of months after I thought that nothing had really changed.
"You want me to go to middle school?" I blurted out.
Alright, so it had. We were in the middle of dinner and like expected, Yubi had dropped the topic into my lap unexpectedly. The summer break was in full swing true, but I didn't expect that when it commenced, I'd be going there!
Yubi nodded with a sigh. "As fun as our experiments have been Andros, you're at the point that you're just as good at speaking Japanese as you are at English, and if what Mei tells me is true she can barely tear you away from the news some days." He noted with an almost… disappointed tone.
I blinked and looked over at Mei, who just flashed me an enthusiastic grin. Alright, so she isn't wrong. At this point, it had almost been a year since the incident that dropped me here and with me learning Japanese more and more, I was at the point that I was fluent. "That doesn't answer the question." I countered.
"Simply put, while you don't need an education, you need credentials to get anywhere in this world," Te explained. "As nice as it sounds to get to home-school you, if you want a chance at using your gas in ways to help people, you'll need a support license or a heroes license. Which means getting into a hero school either way."
"And by going to Middle School first it also allows you to get out there and socialize a bit," Yubi added. "While you might not be the same age mentally, you also don't entirely act as an adult does. You're definitely more mature and intelligent… but your body is still just entering its teenage years. Better to spend that around friends who are going through the same thing, correct?"
… damn. It might not be ironclad as a reasoning, but I will admit I am starting to feel a bit lonely. And as much as it's easy to say that I'm older mentally no adult who isn't in the know and believes me will treat me like an adult at this point. I need some friends. "I… can give it a try at least," I admitted. "Plus, maybe this way I can learn some history."
"That'sthespirit, nowwehadto-" Yubi started to enthusiastically explain as a hand slowly stroked his moustache.
Te cleared her throat, and Yubi halted mid-stroke with a wince. "What Yubi was getting all excited to say was that we've already cleared it with Mei's school, you will be going there as a foreign student that we've been hosting over the summer and plan to be hosting for the future. And I've already sorted out your uniform, don't worry." She added before I could even ask.
Yubi chuckled a little nervously… and stroked his moustache again. "Yes, and I'll keep you up to date on the tests with the Nebula gas. We'd just like to see you make friends, ok?"
Make friends. Oh yes, that should be EASY. Sarcasm aside, even having Mei walk with me to the school when the break ended was nerve-wracking. I wasn't the most social person at the best of times, but here I was not only going back to a school where I knew I'd likely know a lot of the answers, but with a culture I was still learning, not familiar with some of the latest kids things – beyond heroes – and to top off everything else I had to go out in the protective suit!
The stares the other kids gave me, the questions that kept getting asked about why I had the suit on ("I don't always have the best control of my Quirk, and I don't want to hurt anyone"), why I was only just now going to school (A lie or two about just how long I had been in Japan settled that) and the occasional fumble with the Japanese language didn't help matters. It made the shadows feel longer, the crowds feel tighter, the scoff I heard in the English lesson when I got called on meaning someone already didn't like me it's wrongwrongwrong- breathe Andros, breathe. You're fine, it's… just different.
As you might have guessed, this left me a nervous wreck idly trying to see if any of the kids would let me sit at their tables for Lunch – Mei didn't seem to be anywhere in the cafeteria at the time and I wouldn't be surprised if she ate lunch outside. But nobody seemed to open a seat, or when they did it was usually joined by questions… asking how bad my Quirk was if I was an alien and so on. Suffice to say soon enough I was sitting towards the back of the cafeteria by myself, feeling more alone than ever.
Still, being this far from others meant I didn't need to worry that much as I sighed and raised my hands to the headpiece, slowly pulling it off to at least allow me to breathe and eat peacefully. Honestly, I can't help but think this was a bit of a bad idea. I'm already an outcast, none of these kids have asked me a question about me without it being if I was a villain or an alien or the like. So, what's the‒
And before I can finish that thought another tray slides its way onto my table and a boy with blond hair and blue eyes sits down opposite me, a little smile on his face. But he doesn't say anything at first, simply starting to have some lunch there and then as I looked on in silence. After a minute or so he paused and muttered. "You didn't want to sit with the others because they were asking you weird questions, right?"
I blinked, stunned that one of the others had actually picked up on that. "Uh… yeah, but how did you know?" I asked.
The blonde kid kept the smile on his face. "Well firstly… you're not the first new kid to come into this group, my family only moved here last year. And second… a lot of people like to assume things about me based on my Quirk too. It's rarely anything nice. You remind me of me last year." He said quietly before holding out a hand across the table. "Monoma Neito, nice to meet you."
And that shocked me. Hatsume Mei was more or less engineered by me meeting her dad. Aizawa was a hero in the area and he knew Present Mic. But in hindsight given how wide U.A. seemed to reach for its students, I shouldn't be too shocked that two unrelated students had gone to the same school. But it was more than that. Monoma was always a bit of an ego when it came to class 1-A being in the spotlight… but it was pretty much what he was saying now wasn't it? That it was because they were in the spotlight because of their Quirks. And yet he sees someone who's being looked on with fear but with a stronger Quirk… and he just holds out his hand?
I could feel a sting that was becoming a bit too familiar for my liking… but I just put on a smile and held out my suit covered hand. "Nebulos Andros. And it's more than that – I was the kid who accidentally made that monster last year." I admitted. Monoma, for all his ego, was a hero at heart from what I remembered.
Monoma chuckled lightly in response. "Suddenly the suit makes sense then. It's there so you don't have an accident with worse consequences than most do." He said.
I blushed beet red in response. "It's not like farting!" I insisted… before letting out a giggle in return.
Because just like that, everything seemed a bit brighter and the future seemed a little better.
Having someone be there meant that as the weeks went on and I continued to go to class, while I never became the most popular kid in class, it always left me with at least a couple of people to talk to on occasion. Monoma wasn't massively popular but that just meant between him and Mei I had a solid group of people that I could rely on to talk to about things that bothered me on occasion – especially as both were smart. Really smart. As in Monoma and Mei both competed with me in Mathematics smart and I have years of experience over them.
But time went on, an anniversary for my arrival in the world (as I had actually forgotten to tell the Hatsume family when my Birthday had passed – when Mei found out she had insisted on celebrating it) came and went and I had the one tool that every teenager wants, needs, and adores. A mobile phone with a flexible plan!
Yes, it's mundane for this world, but when you go without anything like that for a year you learn to appreciate the little things in life. But it also meant that I could finally do something I had promised to do while I was here. To do once I could speak Japanese fluently.
"Hey hey! What's up, everyone! Present Mic here ready to give ya Friday night dose of heroism! Our nonstop music will be starting soon, but asss always we'll be taking callers first who want to ask me some questions!"
Oh, don't you judge me, I still carried around the English to Japanese Dictionary that Mic had given me over a year ago at this point, and I wasn't gonna go without paying that back. Plus, Mic's music choices were always interesting, he'd pick a theme of music, be it style, period, county of origin or more, and he'd always challenge the listener to try and figure it out by the end of the night. You had to be quick to get in to ask questions though – I swear I heard a younger Jirou call in at one point calling his choices predictable.
"Alllllright then! Now, let's take this list of callers and pick caller number 5! Hello there, lucky caller you're on the air!"
I gaped in shock as I heard the same sound come out the radio and the phone speakers but shook it off. Don't choke don't choke, he's a friend, he's nice, you MET him!
"Caller number 5? You there?"
Oh, right. "Uh y-yes I'm here Present Mic. Or should I call you Mic Mic?" I asked my voice stuttering out of nerves and excitement.
"Eh?" Present Mic sounded confused for a moment… before laughing. "Oh wow! Now here's a story for all you folks out there, our mysterious caller here is a little buddy I made about a year ago!"
"Some buddy, all I got was a dictionary." I joked. "You did call me a future listener back then!"
"And it's good to see you have the right taste in radio shows!" Present Mic responded. "Everyone out there, let me introduce Nebulos Andros – or as some might remember, the kid from the monster gas incident."
I gulped. Hadn't expected this to turn into an impromptu radio interview. "I-I mean I was a bit scared at the time," I confessed.
"Any kid would! You barely knew any Japanese then and – as well-informed listeners should know – you were all alone. Hearing you able to call in and speaking practically perfect Japanese is fantastic!"
"Practically?"
"You still have an accent!"
As Present Mic chuckled, I couldn't help but smile.
Of course, that said, I still spent quite a bit of time with Mei and Monoma – Neito, sorry - not just at respective homes but also out and about, more than once going to see a movie. Neito even insisted at one point that Mei and I help him track down an old comic on the internet… but for now it had come to a dead end because to his shame, he couldn't remember anything beyond two men in bowler hats showing up. Admittedly it sounded familiar, but the fact that he said it came from Europe means I don't have much hope of us ever finding it.
But even with all the fun and games, the occasional lunch catch ups thanks to parents and so on, Neito hadn't willingly admitted what his Quirk was to me even after a year of me knowing him. Until one day, as we were eating in the cafeteria – Mei was busy tinkering with one of her new babies out in the courtyard – that Neito sighed as he put down his cutlery.
"Andros… what do you think when people talk about your Quirk?" Neito questioned. "When they say it's a 'villain's Quirk'."
I looked over and raised an eyebrow. "I don't really pay attention to it honestly," I confessed. "Sure, it has the potential to do bad things… but any Quirk has the potential to do that."
"But some Quirks are stronger than others. Flashier than others." Neito insisted. "Don't you ever worry that even if you manage to become a hero that people will still be scared of you? That they'll worry you might turn them into monsters?"
I let out a sigh. "Yes. And its human for me to worry. You're right, my Quirk isn't too flashy – it's just special gas that would get me more recognized if I was turning people into monsters. But that's not exactly a heroic action." I said. I think I know what's going on here.
"Exactly. So, you have to choose between handicapping your Quirk… or being called the villain. Either way, it forces you to the side compared to others." Neito elaborated as he swept out an arm. "The same could be said about Mei-san too, if she was trying to be a hero her Quirk would force her into supporting others. To be the scout, the observer, but never the one who gets the glory. Only a side character."
"And you're worried that's what's going to happen to you, right?" I asked lazily, slowly lowering my eyebrow from earlier. Neito flinched at that but I pushed on. "Neito, you haven't actually told me about your Quirk. And the way you're talking, it's not a flashy one either… but I think you're looking at this wrong."
Neito looked over at me suddenly, his eyes widened slightly. "And… what do you mean by that?" Neito asked slowly.
Hmm… how best to… ah, I know. "No two stories are exactly alike. You just need to look at the story of Spider-Man to know that." I insisted. Yes, that's a good example, classic hero!
"And assuming I haven't got the same insatiable taste for classic hero comics like you do?" Neito countered
Ngh! Great, I had hoped to use Peter Parker and Miles Morales as examples. I suppose it's better to stick to what we know though… "Alright then… you say Mei's Quirk is a support Quirk. But what makes you think she'd be a hero by just using her Zoom? Many heroes in comics and even now use gadgets to augment and take advantage of Quirks that can support that – so if she wanted to use a special rifle, she could go without needing to use a scope. She could be an airborne hero like Air Jet and be able to spot crime from miles away. The gadget hero is one that she could easily be." I remarked.
"And then you get to my Quirk. Yes, it's dangerous when I use it on others… but that's why I've been training it with Yubi-san. Why I've been practicing being able to stop the monsters, or even direct them. And even then, my gas could be a great source of energy for the right hero suit." I sighed a bit… and then looked Neito head on. "But this isn't about my Quirk, is it? It's about yours."
Neito stayed quiet for a moment, unwilling to break eye contact… before letting off a single laugh. "My Quirk is Copy. It's why when we first met, I shook your hand through the suit instead of wanting to shake hand to hand. Because I didn't want to accidentally risk using a dangerous Quirk." He confessed. "But… how can I be a big-time main character with a Quirk like mine? Yours at least can do a lot, and Mei's supports her ability to make gadgets… but all I have is copying."
I shook my head with a chuckle. "Amazo."
Neito tilted his head at that. "Amazo?" He asked.
I nodded. "A character from DC comics in the west. Sometimes a hero, sometimes a villain, he was a robot with the power to copy the powers of other heroes and use them for his own. And in one of those continuities, he was basically the strongest hero of that world, to the point that the writers of the story had to make him disappear so they could make it actually feel… tense." I elaborated. "What I'm saying is… copying isn't a bad Quirk. It just requires you to play smart, and to pick wisely."
Neito blinked and hummed, cupping his chin as I went back to my food
School wasn't the only part of life, obviously. With a phone and access to the tablet in the lab, came computer time. And that meant forums. Japanese forums specifically because somehow none of mine have endured – or existed in some cases – in this world. Still, the range of forums was just as diverse if not more so, from forums about anime and manga, forums discussing entertainment and heroes, and the effects of both on each other, lots of Star Wars forums because of course, Star Wars is massive in Japan. But the ones that interested me the most were the Hero Forums. Forums where people discussed different heroes, opinions on them, cataloguing up and coming newcomers, great fights, and of course debating over who would win in a fight. They were one of the forums that talked about what my Quirk meant so I tended to pop on every so often to check what was going on and… politely express my opinions.
QuirkNebula said: Of course, Superman could take on All Might! DC just kept making him stronger, but All Might is an actual person.
MightyAllMight said: Except we don't know what All Might's limit is either! For all we know he could be way stronger than people think
QuirkNebula said: Strong enough to pull a planet?!
MightyAllMight said: Maybe? Has anyone ever asked him to try?
QuirkNebula said: THAT'S NOT HOW PROOF WORKS!
To be fair in a VS debate that IS polite. But it meant I didn't just have to rely on Monoma and Mei for reliable consistent friendship. If I ever felt down or a dip and I wanted some me time I could just check out the forums and talk with others about heroes, about villains, about why they shouldn't compare Superman to anyone because DC comics didn't seem to know when to stop powering him up… before long I found my profile had been given the tag 'Classic Connoisseur' and… well, I didn't really mind that. Anything to give me an excuse to nerd out
But there's always one thing that you learn in life at one point – you aren't the main character of every story around. You're just the main character of your own story. A philosophy I refuse to share with Monoma because goddamn I don't know what got him into his current mental state but the last thing, he needs is that statement.
But no incident proved it accurate more than one day when I was 13. When some fool had left Mei unsupervised near the metalworking area for more than a minute.
"How did you manage to make an explosion?" Neito asked Mei incredulously, arms up in the air as I stared at the now smoke issuing metalworking shed with my jaw dropped. "You were in there for five minutes!"
"A gas leak?" Mei excused with a grin on her soot-covered face.
"There's no gas except in canisters in there and you'd notice it in seconds!" Monoma half yelled.
I just continued to stare.
Of course, by now you might be guessing where, beyond my stipend from the government, I got any cash to do anything or to buy anything that the Hatsumes' didn't help me get. Yubi thankfully came through for me on that front.
"You want me to license out the use of Nebula Gas?" I asked, confused. It had been four years at this point and Yubi had tried to keep me out of the more complex parts of the process. "But… isn't it just a chemical?"
Yubi chuckled in a sound that almost reminded me of quite a few mad scientists from fiction. "If it was a regular chemical then yes it would! But even with all the study that's been done over the last few years, I haven't found a way for us to replicate it without the product being unstable or needing your involvement." Yubi exclaimed. "I'd be happy to organize and sort out the paperwork of course, for a small part of it, but this way you can be earning your own pocket money."
I hummed at that… then grinned. "Alright then Yubi-san… who do you have in mind?" I queried.
"Well firstly, the people at Intelli Labs want to try and get an engine running with Nebula Gas and would be willing to send back the notes."
My grin only widened… after all, if that was the case, I might just have a bigger win to come from this if I get into U.A.
And with that… I had a LOT more money coming in. Nothing that was all too much in the grand scheme of things, but certainly more than most kids would expect my age. It let me hunt down my old hobbies of collecting Kamen Rider figures, model assembly, and painting – thankfully one of the things that had survived – but it also meant that I renewed a different hunt towards the end of the last Middle School year. By this point, I was 15 years old and Neito, Mei and I were one of the tightest knit groups in the school. We had a table, we were a clique onto ourselves and we were known to occasionally give advice to people who came around – or just chat about cartoons, manga, even Star Wars once.
But on this day, it was just Neito and Mei before I rocked up… and slid a small package across to Neito. "Eh? What's this Andros?" Neito asked.
"You remember how you mentioned wanting to find a certain old comic a couple of years ago?" I asked. "Well, I figured out the answer finally – a couple of weeks ago. But I didn't want to just give you the answer."
Neito froze for a moment… and then in a moment of undisguised glee frantically ripped off the packaging of the parcel turned present revealing a couple of books and a single DVD case. One that I know all too well. And yet he hadn't said anything.
"Blistering barnacles Neito… do you know how many things have a pair of men in bowler hats?" I joked. "I should have figured it out ages ago you were talking about a titan of pre-Superhero comics. Did I guess it right with Tintin?"
Specifically, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo, the first two books, as well as the animated movie based on – among others – Secret of the Unicorn. All in English, but Neito was as fluent in English as I was in Japanese at this point, thanks in no small part to years spent around me.
"I tried for the original Franco-Belgian translations of the comics bu-" I started, only to be cut off as Neito just smiled. A massive beaming smile with tears running down his face.
"It's fine Andros… I barely remembered when we spent all night searching for these same comics once. But they're so old but in such good condition. How did you find them?" Neito asked, slowly wiping away the tears.
I just grinned back. "I knew someone who knew someone." I insisted. After all, when you're interested in high detailed figurines of a now ancient series of television shows you start to have to MAKE connections to find them – most of the profits from the deals Yubi had helped set up went into that. And from there, all it took was asking those same connections for something different. To see if they could ask people with European ancestry or migrancy. It hadn't been amazingly easy, but I had gotten the comics eventually. The movie was easier to get. "And before you say anything… you don't owe me anything Neito. Before I met you and Mei, I didn't have any friends. And you two have stuck with me and each other… it's the least I can do."
And the sight of Neito smiling as Mei leaned over and glanced at the comics was something I'd always remember.
