Shigaraki's words still stuck with me, and I could never get them out of my head. All updates I received were shared with Eraser Head. Given how much he talks about rational decisions, I trust him to tell the facts.
Outside of school, I decided to make another excursion to be sure that Shigaraki's information was right. This time, I took a skateboard with me and that made my trip through the maze slightly easier.
This time, I could clearly see the door's outlines. Kurogiri was in a really big rush this time if he didn't bother to close the door correctly. When I stepped inside, it was like entering a paper tornado. The premise of a clean lab with neat, organized shelves was completely destroyed, and I had already stepped on several papers.
I didn't bother cleaning them up; I already had backups for that. Narrowly avoiding tripping over a wire, I walked into the particle accelerator room. I carefully touched all the equipment, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. When I put my hand over the machinery powering the accelerator, I nearly burned my hand. While fanning it over and over, I used my free hand to search for any documents that might explain this.
A handwritten note on the desk was stuck out above the rest. It was covered in messy scrawls with red circles in several places, and I picked it up. It took me a while to decipher the message, but in short, the accelerator has a cool-down. Kurogiri can somehow bypass it by using his fog, but I have no idea how he does it. Basically, for anyone else, as soon as you use the machine, it becomes too hot to use for a month.
For some reason, if you have to use it within the next month, the cool-down period becomes longer based on the day you used it. In extreme cases, the machine will overheat so much that it will stop working, or the portal that will be created will have different properties. It might lead to a new place entirely or to your death; there's a lot of grey area in this that Kurogiri didn't explore fully.
I've tracked Kurogiri before, so I decided to try it again. I closed my eyes and was able to see only the faint outlines of buildings and people. Kurogiri was nowhere to be found. Closing the door of the lab, I repeated the same process, but I did look out so I didn't run into anything. The results were the same.
If I couldn't find him here, I needed to look higher. At the public library, I found a set of stairs that led to the roof. From there, I could plot a path that would take me to the top of taller buildings until I could see the entire city.
After collecting the trash and dust that I found, I looked over the edge and felt dizzy immediately. Vertigo shouldn't be a problem, and I firmly reminded myself that I could always get out of a sticky situation. Using the dust cloud, I went to another building. Closing my eyes again, I looked for Kurogiri's outline. It wasn't visible, even though a good portion of the city was.
With every step, it was harder to control the dust cloud, which had also become bigger over time. I kept reminding myself not to look down. Given the cyclone below me, I was surprised that no one had done anything about it yet.
Looking at a worker's clock in one of the buildings, I saw that I had about two more hours before sundown. My current height was at 200 meters. I could see past several city blocks, and the cars were the size of toys. The statues below could've been action figures for their size in my field of view.
The Tokyo Skytree was visible in the distance. Its height is at 634 meters, but the top floor is only at 451.2. Height would surely help, but I'm really looking for a perspective that will let me see the entire city at once. In the middle of the school year, no one really travels here, and because of Kurogiri's attacks, the only people allowed there are maintenance workers.
Most of the buildings surrounding the Skytree were about ten floors or less, and I carefully lowered myself to the ground. I did receive some stares, but I was able to vanish as soon as their eyes left me. Doing anything is so much easier when you're invisible. The doors, surprisingly, weren't even locked, and I could do whatever I wanted.
Once inside, I confidently walked inside the elevator and punched the button for the top floor. I flinched when I saw that other people were inside, but they were too busy trying to get to their floors to notice that another person was hitchhiking with them.
After a couple of minutes, the workers slowly trickled out, leaving the top floor to myself. The view was amazing, and I didn't have to worry about falling to my death. I stopped and watched life in the city go on. People's Quirks were barely visible here, and society didn't seem very different from the world I used to call home.
The humming of the air conditioning brought me back to real life, and I searched for Kurogiri yet another time. There was no trace of him up here either. Even using those telescope devices to see farther, I couldn't see him.
Shades of orange and yellow began to tint the sky, and that was my cue to leave. Remembering that I was still invisible, I rode the 29 floors down to the lobby, and I found a bike to get me to UA. When I began to sift through records of security cameras across Japan, Kurogiri still eluded me. If there's one thing I knew for sure, Kurogiri had disappeared.
The next day, hero class distracted me from this. Iida was talking to Midoriya, and I overheard that there was going to be a class on hero informatics. With my head on my desk, I brought up a file of all hero-related laws just in case.
"You all need code names." Eraser Head didn't disappoint. "Time to pick your hero identities." He cut through the chatter like it was nothing. "Pro Heroes are investing in your potential by extending their offers to first-years like you. They watched your performance at the sports festival and placed their offers, even if it was cut short." He brought up a chart on the blackboard.
Understandably, Todoroki and Bakugo took the majority, and with powers like those, I would want to recruit them. The two had more votes than the others combined. After looking at the list, I was happy to see that I had been chosen by three people. After hearing ringing in my ears, I shut my eyes and blocked out the noise, but it wasn't a perfect seal.
"Midoriya got none?" Mineta looked over Midoriya's shoulder. "To be fair, your fighting style was pretty crazy."
"This isn't fair!" Kaminari slouched backwards.
"Silence, all of you. This is important." The door burst open and I heard another high-pitched voice. "These hero names could stick with you for life. Choose carefully!" I opened my eyes a little. It was Midnight.
"The name you pick reflects your image and tells everyone what kind of hero you're going to be. A code name shows others what exactly you represent." While Eraser Head continued to talk, I noticed that whiteboards and markers were being passed to everyone. I took mine and waited for instructions.
Midnight clapped her hands. "Who wants to volunteer?" Nope. I'm out. Taking a look around me, I saw that others were feeling the same way, and I stopped paying attention again. By hearing the whispers of other people, I could tell that Aoyama and Ashido went first, and their attempts weren't that good. When I suddenly heard cheering, I was instantly jarred awake. Asui showed her code name, and it gave me some ideas of my own while I kept a record of the others' names.
[Eijiro Kirishima: Red Riot]
[Kyoka Jiro: Earphone Jack]
[Mezo Shoji: Tentacole]
[Hanta Sero: Cellophane]
[Mashirao Ojiro: Tailman]
[Rikido Sato: Sugarman]
[Mina Ashido: Pinky]
[Denki Kaminari: Chargebolt]
With each new name, I felt more and more crushed. These people had noble reasons to be a hero. Kirishima compared himself to Crimson Riot and hoped to live up to his name by protecting others. What did I have to offer? I joined this school to figure out how to use my power.
I grabbed the side of my head as I suddenly saw a flash of a memory. Above all, I wanted to figure out how to get back home. I didn't even know what that word even meant anymore. If it was possible, it would be nice to see my parents in a place that wasn't just my mind.
[Toru Hagakure: Invisible Girl]
[Momo Yaoyozoru: Creati]
[Shoto Todoroki: Shoto]
Really? Just your name?
[Fumikage Tokoyami: Tsukuyomi]
[Minoru Mineta: Grape Juice]
[Katsuki Bakugo: ]
"King Explosion Murder!" Classic Bakugo. Welp, that's not my problem. While Midnight sorted this out, I kept on adding to my list.
[Ochaco Uraraka: Uravity]
I was done thinking, so I vanished while shuffling to the podium. "Where did Shiraseru go?"
"I have my code name." I reappeared, holding my whiteboard. "I'll be Flicker."
"Is there any underlying reason for that name?"
"No, it sounds cool." I went back to take a nap. Hopefully, I would hear Midoriya's code name before I fell asleep.
Tenya gripped his marker and recalled a moment several days before. He was in a hospital. Every surface was scrubbed so it gave off an unnatural white glow, and Tenya could hear the quiet buzzing of the fluorescent lights. The patient was hooked up to several machines. Green lines on the screen formed predictable patterns, and the constant beeping wasn't helping much. It was hard to breathe through his mask, but he didn't care.
"Are you okay?"
The patient sighed. He had a resolute look in his eyes. "I've lost the feeling in my legs. I'm useless now."
"No way! You need to go out there!" Tenya's worried tone could be felt beyond his mask.
"The hero Ingenium is finished. Tenya, look at me." Ingenium's voice, though soft, still took control of the situation.
"There are hundreds of people that you continue to inspire, brother!"
"Tell them I can't do much for them anymore. You've done a lot for me, and I'm asking you to do one more thing. Carry on my name. That's it."
In the present, Tenya's hands shook as began to write the first few letters. He suddenly paused midway. I can't.
Midoriya was thinking hard, and he was also reliving an old memory of his.
He was barely four years old. "Mom! Look!" Inko Midoriya stopped cleaning the counter and sat on the couch with her son. Izuku was wearing an All Might hat and looked like he was about to explode with excitement.
"Let's see here... Mighty All Man, Mighty Boy, Captain All Might..." There were about ten other names in the same vein.
"Yeah!" Young Midoriya continued to jump, and there was no telling when he would run out of energy.
These names were great when I was a kid, but now that I've inherited All Might's power, I've seen how much more I have to go before I'm truly worthy of sharing his name. He continued to think for ten long seconds before finally stepping up.
"No... it has to be." Midoriya started to mutter before Eraser Head pointedly cleared his throat. He took a deep breath before turning his whiteboard around. The class let out a collective gasp except for me. I was thrown for a loop.
"Are you sure? You'll be called that for your entire life!" That's basically what they were saying, in one form or another.
"I'm sure. At first, I hated it, and it was just another insult. Someone told me something that completely changed my perspective. I like this now." Midoriya smiled. "My hero name is Deku."
Bakugo seemed a little angrier than usual, and I noticed Uraraka's eyebrow shift slightly higher.
That was it for the hero names. Looking at the clock, I saw that there was still about fifteen more minutes of class.
"Here are your forms. Those of you who received offers will pick from those, and the others will receive something different." Eraser Head took out a pile of papers and stacked them. "You'll be choosing to take part in an internship with a Pro Hero."
I barely noticed when I received my form, so I listened to the others.
"I'm going with Gunhead!" Uraraka had already finished, even though two minutes had passed.
Midoriya said, "Wait, aren't you more interested in becoming a rescue hero like Thirteen?"
"That's the plan, but I think that going with a battle hero will give me a new perspective on things. Plus, I need to be stronger if I'm going to be saving lives!"
Similar conversations popped up around the room, and I was about to slip out of the classroom when Midoriya asked, "Shiraseru, which hero are you planning to go with?"
This was the question that I really wanted to avoid. I didn't know what to think about this whole situation.
Over the last year, I've slowly accepted my fate. Using my Quirk, I've accommodated myself into being the majority of this superhuman world, and that was the way it was. Focusing on UA gave me something to focus on, but I never thought about my future after that. Plus, with the discovery of Kurogiri's particle accelerator, that opened up a whole new branch of science for me to study. Most importantly, it gave me a possible route back.
"Yeah, what agency do you want to join?" Apparently, everyone wanted to know where I was going. I didn't know how to say this. What I would say next would determine my relationship with the class.
"I want to go home." I winced. That didn't sound right, and to the class, it didn't either.
"That didn't answer my question."
"To answer your question, we'll have to go back in time a year. Can you all do that?" I saw nods coming in my direction. "First off, I used to live in this apartment building." I showed a holographic image of the apartment complex.
"Wait, isn't that one of the cheapest apartments to live in? Why don't you live with your parents?"
"We get there when we get there." I showed them my room. "The room that I live in was never assigned to me in the first place. I never gained access to this building until I took a look at another resident's code. My room is one of three rooms that are 'empty' as considered my the apartment registry, and as I had nowhere else to go, that's where I stayed."
"Now let's go back even further. Earlier that day, I had an encounter with the police. No, I didn't do anything illegal; I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's when I had to make myself known to this world, but I'm kind of grateful for that. They actually enrolled me in Aldera Junior High. Remember, Midoriya?"
"Yeah." Midoriya nodded.
"Before meeting the police, I had just appeared in this world."
"What do you mean, appeared? People don't spontaneously generate in midair." Kaminari was definitely listening now.
"I'm getting to that part. It was about 3 in the morning, and I was in my world, the one with all Quirkless people. Some guy created a portal that brought me here. If you see the files that I showed you from Kurogiri's lab, the two portals were kind of similar. Now that I think about it, there's a way for me to return home."
"That makes no sense at all." Jiro crossed her arms.
I scratched my chin. "Thinking about it now, I should have started with the portal first. Just follow the events in reverse order."
"What's your point?"
"The thing is, I might not even have a future in this world. My parents probably think I'm dead, and that's terrifying. I'm staying here mainly for the science. The more I know, the more certain I am of what path I'm going to take, and hero work probably isn't for me."
The last few words hung in the air, holding all the tension. Even Bakugo stopped writing to look up.
"So... when are you planning to leave?"
I felt a lump being formed in my throat. "I don't know."
