OmnipotentAbsoluteUIGodzilla: So Genki and his father Ares are the only OCs of this story, while the rest are existing characters from the Arachnid and Caterpillar manga incorporated into BNHA to fit within the Quirks setting? Huh!
Re: Outside of Villains and Background characters, yes. I try not to bog down my stories with too many OCs, hence the multi-crossover style of my more-recent writings.
LoamyCoffee: Oh, I'm well aware of that my friend! But I think of them as OC/Cameos, after all their characters are making cameos in your story and you've adapted them to the series. You're doing so excellently~ That's right Genki, never ignore a location only text again. And we get to see more of Genki's Onee-Samas and what Kana looks like without the ninja mask. I do enjoy MURATA Shinya's work as well, So many series and so few people willing to use them. I am surprised you haven't watched or read Demon Slayer but I imagine you'd enjoy it.
Re: To be fair, Genki only ignored the first L-O Text because it was half the country away. The distance between the Mie and Kanagawa Prefectures is 533.2 kilometers (331.3 miles), a 7-hour commute without delays. When Kana SOS'd him, he was still close-enough to Mie that he could make the run and still get there in a reasonable timeframe. As for Demonslayer, I'll see about giving it a watch since I've heard such good things about it.
: How srong is Genki's bite because real life cockroaches can bite with 50 times more force than their body weight? And how durable is Genki cause cockroaches can withstand 900 times their body weight?
Re: Gokiburi Genki has the height and weight of an average Japanese teenager of 15 years, so slot that into a 50x or 900x Multiplier formula and you'll get your answer. The reason I don't give an exact height & weight is because the information amongst sources varies for what's considered "average".
He hasn't had much cause to bite people with that much force beyond breaking Bakugou's skin, but he can definitely take a beating. That's why he's still alive even after the pounding his aunts and uncles gave him in the early stages of his training; imagine what Rikido Sato got, just… a lot worse. While a 50x multiplier for bite force is definitely impressive, it's not like he has caterpillar or bagworm teeth to crank that up another notch or twelve. His teeth are still Human, and not-especially great at cutting through cloth or leather, so the most he'd be able to bite through without mandibles would be people's flesh for a passibly-poisonous bite.
skinnydude911: I thought that was a Demon Slayer reference you made there.
I also like how you shined some light onto the Kamen Rider aspect of Japan's hero history. I got into the series back around Den-o's run and my first series I watched was Kiva. Heisei riders had a very huge variety of motifs for their riders, heck Shinobi (one who was shown briefly during Zi-o before the Reiwa Era started) is the closet to ninja main theme for a Rider since I think one of the Showa riders. Here's hoping we get him in 2022 when he was set to be introduced.
Back on topic, nice call on Genki not ignoring a location based text given what happened the last time he got one 3 or 4 days ago with the whole Stain attacks. Pretty funny with the Conductor being chill about him using the rooftop emergency exit, not the first time and it won't be the last. At least he knows his luggage would make it before he does.
Was I crazy or did you possibly make a Jojo reference with Edgeshot going " .Gaaaawwdd!" at the thought of dealing with Genki's mother finding out he made her son late for school. And I'm afraid to know what would be a good way to be folded origami style.
Re: It is; at the behest of my Beta when I decided to put in a "Poison Villain".
Well, the Hero industry is largely about merchandising, as are Kamen Rider.
Well, like I said in-chapter, that time around, he was actually nearby. By the time he would've arrived at Hosu in response to Izuku's text, the fires would've literally been put out by then. Sure, he can run 200mph give or take, but there's no way he can go from Mie to Hosu in a straight line, and there's lots of obstacles in the way. As for the Conductor… I just imagine that's a common thing in the Hero World where certain things are just… accepted. Like Midnight's choice in Hero attire. Heyo~!
As for that last bit… PASSIVELY a Jojo's "OH MY GAWD!" reference.
Guest: Damn, this is taking too long. Want to include his bathroom breaks as well?
Re: . . . If you hate reading so much, why are you on this site?
*MHA*
"Genki. You look like shit."
"Shinso, I feel like shit," Genki returned as they ascended the hill to Yuuei that Monday morning, dark bags colored purple under bloodshot eyes. Not only that, but his bedhead stuck out in all directions, making him a dead-ringer for Shinso himself.
"Oh… So that bad?"
"Great, actually. I got lots of media coverage, so I should still have buyer's choice for Internships… Problem was the last day in Mie."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that. Some kind of… environmental scare?"
"You could say that…"
"Is that why you stink so badly?"
"Wha-Seriously?! I took like… five showers!" he cried opening up his jacket.
"Yeaaaahhh… It didn't take~"
" . . . I hate you."
"I hate you too~" Shinso quipped in turn. "But seriously, how lucky can one guy be? You were everywhere last week. Internet, news, social media," he trailed off.
"It helps to know your audience," Genki hummed. After his first media appearance, half his family flooded him with texts filled with emojis and stickers, and just words of congratulations in general. "Urrrghh…"
"Seriously, though. What happened to you?"
"Shinobu-san's antidote did its job, but it still took a lot out of me…" Genki groaned as he rubbed at his eyes, coughing a speck of fluid from his lungs. "I'll probably have to visit Recovery Girl so I don't fall behind the others."
"With how-much coverage you got, I doubt that'll be an issue," Shinso hummed, since apart from one mention about Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki being present at Hosu, there was very little media exposure for the Hero Course in general. "By the way, have I ever told you what a bullshit Quirk you have? You've basically got a half-dozen of them under your belt, and you can turn bread into energy, which you can find on pretty much every street corner in this country, on-demand."
"I'm just a lucky Mutant is all," Genki waved off. "There are plenty of Mutants whose features are purely vestigial, like having wings they can't actually fly or glide with, or ears that don't really do anything."
"I suppose you're right," Shinso hummed, remembering how much power 1-B's Jurota Shishida had for only being a Mutant-Type, whereas Mashirao Ojiro's was a result of hard work and plenty of it.
"Besides, if anyone's Quirk is BS, it's yours."
"Yeah, as long as no-one knows the bullet points," he said with an eye-roll.
"Well then, have Hatsumei whip up some sort of… analogue voice modulator so you can still trick people, since you can't exactly brainwash people over the phone."
"Yeah, sure, I'll get on that," Shinso said half-seriously, half-joking. And maybe just a little bit worried since rumor said walking by the Support Studio on most days was like walking into a minefield.
Didn't help that one half of the school could hear it, while the other could just feel it, while others still could sometimes taste it…
"If it helps, I can write a letter of recommendation."
"Right. Because that worked out so-well for the last suckers you did that for."
"Ugh, what did they do this time?"
-asked he in reference to his eccentric family.
"Well, to be fair, at least one of those poor saps made out like a bandit," Shinso shrugged, since after hearing what deranged lunatics Genki's extended family could be, he couldn't help but want to see how his competition in 1-A was faring with them. "The others… not so much," he shrugged.
"Well, I did warn them," Genki waved flippantly. "Here's hoping no-one died over Internships. From what I heard, a few of my class got hospitalized after what happened in Hosu."
"Yeah… Don't think I'd have been much help there. Not unless those googly-eyed brain monsters learn how to talk," Shinso huffed as they approached the "Yuuei Barrier".
Of course, getting into school that morning wouldn't be quite that simple. Similar to the reveal that All Might had become part of the Yuuei, the front gate was swarming with media and paparazzi, though hopefully they'd learned from their predecessors and wouldn't just up-and-walk into the campus after a Villain opened the way for them.
It might've been a little arrogant on his part, but Genki had some inkling to suspect that this time, they were there for him.
May Kami have mercy on his soul…
"Ugh, dammit, I do not need this right now…" Genki groaned as he tried desperately to flatten his hair. Even a single bad hairday could be damning for an up-and-coming Hero, and if he were to reach his ambition, he had to avoid the pitfalls that would plague his colleagues like the… well… plague.
"Why not use the Shichihoude?" Shinso quipped. "You did go to a ninja school for internships, didn't you?"
"Firstly, I'm not carrying disguise materials on me, and second, a Buddhist priest, merchant, acrobat, street musician, farmer, or warrior would really stand out in modern Japan," Genki deadpanned in response to an inquiry about the 'Seven Ninja Disguises'. Sure, a great deal of Iga's ninja culture had been dumbed-down for foreigners, but the majority of it was still based in fact, and it didn't help that in the advent of Paranormality, that ninja tactics experienced an upswing in real-life utility. Even Eraserhead, who most of the time looked like a scruffy hobo, was 'more ninja' at times even the self-proclaimed ninja of the industry. "If I keep my head down, maybe they won't notice me."
"Hey! There he is!"
"Well so much for that idea. What now?" Shinso asked as the throng of reporters moved to surround them like ravenous sharks.
"Shinso. I need you to do 'the thing'."
" . . . You're joking, right?"
"Does this look like a joking man's face?"
"Honestly? You look like Eraserhead's lovechild right now."
"Shinsoooo…!"
"Alright, alright, fine, whatever," Shinso sighed, schooling his expression before suddenly gawping up at the sky, a finger outstretched as he shouted- "OH MY GOD! IS THAT ALL MIGHT SKYDIVING IN A BIKINI?!"
"WHAT?! WHERE!?" the press demanded as they whirled about, cameras raised before they all adopted dead fish-eyed stares.
"You owe me for this."
"Yes, yes, I'll pay you back later. For the time being, tell them to go play in traffic or something," Genki said as he sidestepped the horde of brainwashed reporters in its entirety before slipping into Yuuei in an oily-haired blur.
*MHA*
Elsewhile in the Hero Course 1-A classroom…
"D-Dude…! What happened to your hair?!" Kirishima wheezed, gasping for breath.
"Don't laugh! It's stuck and washing ain't fixing it!" Bakugou raged, his normally-explosive hair combed neatly over.
"So you got to do Villain clean-up?" Toru questioned.
"Yeah, but really it was just guiding evacuees and logistical support stuff, so I didn't actually get into any fighting or anything," Kyoka replied. "What about you? What'd you get up to?"
"I was doing nothing but training and patrolling, too. I did capture a stowaway from a neighboring country one time. That was it," Tsuyu hummed with a frank expression.
"'That was it'? That's pretty incredible if you ask me…" Kyoka hummed. "Hey, Ochako, how was it for you?"
"It was very… fruitful," Ochako answered, standing in a fighting stance with an aura of readiness surrounding her.
"Ochako's become Awakened, looks like," Tsuyu hummed as Ochako threw a series of punches.
"She went to that Battle Hero guy's school, right?" Kyoka blinked before Toru suddenly shot up straight in her uniform.
"Oh my god! I think it's spreading!" the invisible girl cried out in terror.
And true to her words, it wasn't just Ochako who'd returned to Yuuei drastically changed.
Denki Kaminari, usually so laid-back, had become completely stoic, twirling a shiny steel nail around his thumb like one would a pen. Mina Ashido on the other hand was completely stone-faced as she stared ahead into nothing, her arms crossed and feet set at shoulder length, a pair of iron geta on her feet that looked like they could crush cinderblocks; on top of all that she'd gone full Sukeban, a bandage across her nose with a few more scattered across her arms and legs, her skirt lengthened past the knee and her tie loosened rebelliously. Hanta Sero's face had gone completely vacant, devoid of all emotion as he assembled an impressive-looking house of cards with machine-like precision.
Rikido Sato's transformation however, was the most-drastic of all of them. Clutched in one hand was a hand strength trainer, a barbell in the other, and his muscles visibly strained against his uniform like they would were he to trigger [Sugar Rush]; except he was completely cognizant as he worked out in full view of everyone. He was sporting a black eye for some reason, and a number of protein bar wrappers were scattered around his feet.
"Geez, what did they go through?" Kyoka muttered, a light flush on her face as she glanced at Denki before turning away and shaking her head.
"Dude, I'm kinda scared," Kirishima added, Mina's stone-faced visage so alien to him.
And that was saying something since her Hero Name was "Alien Queen".
"At the very least, Mina seems to have not skipped 'leg day'," Iida said passively observing the girl's toned leg muscles.
"Did… Did you just make a joke?" Toru gawped.
"No. Merely an astute observation pertaining to the state of her physical being," Iida said with a shake of his shoulders.
" . . . "
"Well, that change is a little jarring, but I think the ones that transformed the most are those three," Tsuyu said inclining her head towards the back of the room where Izuku, Tenya, and Todoroki had formed their own little clique.
"I had heard you confronted the Hero Killer," Shoji hummed.
"I'm so happy you're alive; no joke, that's the most important thing!" Kirishima added while Bakugou furiously ruffled at his hair.
"I too was worried for your wellbeing," Momo nodded. "At least the No. 2 Hero was there for you."
"…Yep. Rescued," Todoroki nodded after a moment, Izuku letting out an awkward- "Yeah."
"I saw it on the news: Something about the Hero Killer and the League of Villains being connected?" Ojiro questioned. "I shiver just thinking of how the USJ would've played out had such a terrifying bastard come on the ambush, too."
"Well, he was frightening, but, have you seen his video?" Kaminari questioned as he broke his stoic façade, a little of his original personality poking through. "I don't know if it's his single-track mind or tenacity, but I thought he was kinda cool."
"K-Kaminari…!" Izuku stammered.
"Huh?" Kaminari blinked before realizing his blunder. "Oh! Iida, I'm so sorry-"
"No, it is all right," Iida said somberly. "He was certainly a man of great conviction, so I can understand how people might find him 'cool'. However, he chose to advance his cause by means of a 'purge', and whatever beliefs you may hold, that alone is in error. And so, in order too, that people like me may not hereafter multiply, I shall proceed down the path toward being a Hero anew!" he said with an enthusiastic hand chop.
It was at that moment that Genki came into the room, a sigh leaving his lips after closing the door behind him.
"Gokiburi-sa-I mean, Genki!" Izuku yelped, drawing everyone's attention towards him.
"Hey guys, how were your internships?"
"They sucked," Mina huffed angrily.
"Maybe. But it looks like your training earned dividends," Genki deflected.
"I know what you mean," Kaminari nodded. "I feel way cooler. Like, twenty percent cooler!"
"That's nice…" Sero hummed simply.
"Genki-kun! Genki-kun! I totally saw you on the news!" Toru squealed happily. "You totally took down that big-time Vigilante in Iga!"
"Wait, he did?" Izuku blinked.
"Yeah… The HPSC wants to give me an award or something, though I only found out this morning," Genki admitted scratching the back of his head.
"But wait… How is it that you received credit for bringing in that Vigilante when…!" Iida began before stopping.
"Hm? Oh! Well, I captured Shinobi Spider with Support Items, not my Quirk, so I couldn't technically be charged with 'Improper Quirk Use'; if you wanna split hairs over it, I just made a Citizen's Arrest while defending another person," Genki replied. "Hold on… How the hell do you not know this?! You're, what, a fifth, sixth-generation Hero? How were you not told about those loopholes?" he gawped incredulously. "I'm only a second-gen but even I know this!"
"I, er, well…" Iida began nervously, Todoroki drawn into a muted silence.
" . . . So, I heard you guys talking about Stain?" Genki said after figuring out they'd rather change the subject.
"Yeah, he was kinda scary, but he was pretty cool, too," Kaminari admitted.
"Eyes up, butts down," Aizawa said shambling into the room, everyone immediately breaking away and diving into their chairs. "Gokiburi. You look horrible," he stated bluntly. "What happened to you?"
"I waded through poison gas for around an hour last night…" Genki grumbled, rubbing at his still-baggy eyes while his class muttered in awe around him.
"Ah, well, make sure to get a good night's sleep," Aizawa waved off before turning to the blackboard.
'Are you really in any position to be giving him that kind of advice?' everyone in 1-A summarily thought in Aizawa's direction.
*AHA*
Classes went on like normal after that. Students talked animatedly about their internships with their friends, but since Genki was too-tired to engage, everyone largely gravitated toward what happened in Hosu. Sure, the capture of Shinobi Spider was big news, but it wasn't big like an entire city being attacked, and though Genki hadn't been at the USJ for the League of Villains' opening volley against hero society, from what the others were willing to divulge, Noumu could have multiple Quirks that worked incredibly-well in tandem, to the point one could hold its own against All Might, the No. 1 Hero.
Sure, it had been a brief battle, but anything that could stop "The Unstoppable Object" that was All Might, was pretty damn scary.
[Super Regeneration] and [Shock Absorption] on their own in-tandem were bad enough, but enough Heteromorph Quirk genes to make something strong enough it could snap bones like dry twigs, and Genki could understand why some of his peers would clam up at that.
It had taken Endeavor four or five tries to produce an offspring with [Hellflame] and [Subzero], and not including pregnancy, it took four years to see any sort of result; even longer to get any sort of proficiency. That someone out there could manufacture living weapons with multiple Quirks, Quirks that could be perfect counters to those of the strongest Heroes, and Genki shuddered as he realized, what happened in Naruhata years ago may as well've been a slap-fight between toddlers.
His hand went to the back of his neck at the thought of it.
He'd had his mother tell him that old Boogeyman story- "If you don't behave, All for One will steal your Quirk." -as a child, but a number of his aunts and uncles, while babysitting, implied that All for One was more than just a story used to frighten children into compliance. Although they wouldn't say definitively one way or another, while they never conclusively said he was real, they never outright said he wasn't either.
And Genki could understand why All for One's existence would be suppressed, assuming he were real. Superpowered society only held up because of two things. One was the implied societal contract that made people trust that their neighbors wouldn't vaporize them in the grocery store check-out line because they were having a bad day; the other was the existence of Heroes, the Quirk-augmented branch of the law enforcement world. If an old wife's tale about a Quirk-stealing Villain were known to be real, no-one would be able to sleep soundly.
After all, you couldn't be a Hero without a Quirk.
At least not without a ton of physical training and technical skill like Fuji Alice, or Shota Aizawa; the prior because of her sheer abundance of technique, the other because his [Erasure] didn't work on Heteromorphs which was roughly one-third of the population.
Sure, a Quirk that could steal Quirks on a permanent basis sounded like fantasy, but between the 5,600,000 or so Quirks that existed on this planet, and it wasn't like a Quirk like that couldn't exist with 100% certainty…
Genki of course pushed these musings to the back of his mind as he sat down with Shinso and Hatsume, the latter of which he began to tell about his internship as he ate.
Or at least he would've if a certain trio of schmucks hadn't started looming over him.
" . . . What do you guys want?" Genki asked as Mina, Sero, and Sato stood over him.
"Did you know I was going to get my ass kicked?!" Mina demanded.
She was aiming for "intimidating", but that little bandage across her nose and she just looked like a Sukeban wannabe.
"To be fair, you did sexually harass me on national television. Global if the internet has anything to say about it."
"H-H-Hey! Don't make it sound so dirty!" Mina cried with a purple-colored flush on her face as the nearby tables gave her weird looks. "It was a fighting tournament, so it doesn't count!"
"Yeah. Keep telling yourself that," Shinso hummed mirthfully.
Mina fumed, her lips drawn into a thin line as her cheeks puffed out, wanting oh-so-desperately to say something back, only to be deterred by the purple-haired teen's "villainous" Quirk.
"Sometimes, I really love my Quirk~" Shinso grinned broadly.
"Yeah, but you should probably keep it to yourself; the moment everyone knows how your Quirk works, it loses all strategic value," Mei hummed in her usual cute-but-callous tone. "Now, about that mask-"
"Also, to be abundantly clear, I did give you sufficient warning," Genki continued around Shinso and Mei. "There's no such thing as a free lunch; you get out of your internships whatever you put into it. Compared to how-strong you were before, can you say for certain you wouldn't do it again?"
"Well… I mean…" Mina said as Sato and Sero gave her neutral glances and a shrug. "You could've given a less vague warning…"
"Wouldn't have mattered. The day Internships started, it was too late to change things up," Genki waved off. "Kaminari, how was your internship?"
"It was great!" Kaminari grinned as he took a vacant seat. "I got to zap a couple bad guys, buy some figurines, meet some cute idol girls~" he said waggling his eyebrows. "Think he'll take me back for another Internship?"
"Maybe. Work on your control a little and I'll get back to you on that," Genki shrugged, Mina, Sato, and Sero taking some vacant seats after realizing they couldn't broker any further argument.
"So…" Sero hummed. "What do you think of Stain? Have you seen his videos? Fuji-san made me study them in case the criterion for our Provisional License Exam changes."
"Honestly…?" Genki hummed in turn. "Some of what he says has merit, but his overall message is deeply flawed."
"How so?" Mina asked, most of her anger evaporated.
"Well for one thing, in order for the Hero Industry as you know it to have even existed in the first place, a certain amount of public trust was necessary. In order for that public trust to come about when people still feared Quirks before they exceeded the 50% Quirk Saturation Threshold and paranormal sentiment started to swing the other way, commercialization was a necessity."
"Commercialization? You mean money, right?" Sato asked.
"Pretty much," Shinso hummed. "Not only did commercialization allow people to feel like they were part of their favorite heroes' lives vicariously through random crap, it also gave more Heroes the motivation to become Heroes in the first place."
"What do you mean?" Mina asked.
"Well, what sort of sane person would dive headfirst into disasters or warzones or up to a rampaging Villain to save a bunch of strangers if they weren't getting paid for it?" Mei asked like she were talking to a child. "Sure, money isn't a noble motivation, but it's an effective one all the same. I mean sure, I love making babies-"
Which caused most of the nearby boys to shift uncomfortably and/or awkwardly.
"-but if I'm not getting paid for it, I might as well lay there like a dead fish."
"Mei, do you even know how that sounds coming out of your mouth?" Shinso asked dully.
"Don't care, Purple Man!" Mei returned bluntly.
"Well… I mean, yeah, we wanna get paid, but you make it sound like that's the only motivator," Mina hummed. "Some of us genuinely do want to be Heroes to help people."
A certain explosive teenager who did not seem like an altruistic person came to mind as a stark contrast.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to be compensated for your time and effort," Genki said waving his chopsticks about. "Stain's methodology is inherently dangerous to a capitalist society because, if Heroes are expected to do their work on a charitable basis where they receive no pay, under the pretense that only charitable people are 'worthy' to be Heroes, what's to stop people from demanding that Doctors and Firefighters and Police do what they do without pay? Where do we draw the line where it is acceptable to be paid for our work, and where it isn't?"
"And let's imagine for a second that even without pay, we're still able to maintain the same amount of Heroes that we do now," Shinso said as he picked at Genki's bento. "The only times they'd be able to do Hero work is after their shitty nine-to-five job or on their day off. In our current society, Heroes getting paid for their work means they can dedicate their every waking hour to patrolling the streets, fighting Villains, and rescuing people from natural disasters. If that changes, Heroes' priorities would shift between the people they want to save to the work they have to do to sustain themselves."
"Basically, unless your bank account has billions in start-up capital like in the old comic books, you aren't going to be able to be a dedicated Hero without falling into a self-destructive spiral where your girlfriend leaves you, your landlord kicks you out, and you die penniless and alone in a gutter," Genki said very frankly causing the Hero Course students around him, and those at the nearby tables, to shift uncomfortably.
Sure, anything related to Stain was controversial, but that won't stop other people form listening in.
"Sooo… Not paying Heroes for their work… cripples their availability and effectiveness as crime-fighters…?" Sero asked.
"Got it in one," Genki snapped, going back to his food while scribbling on a survey off to the side.
"Huh…" Mina hummed. "That… actually makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah… When you put it like that, Stain kinda sounds like a headcase," Kaminari admitted.
"How're you so-insightful about all this? Does the General Course cover this sort of thing?" Mina asked.
"No. My parents and extended family all taught me about what it's like to really be a Hero, in the real world," Genki answered. "All Might can be as charitable as he wants because he's got the strength to back it up without any serious effort, but if everyone's dental gets cut, you'd have Heroes retiring in droves and looking for new jobs."
"Let's hope the Hero Public Safety Committee is smart enough to bring this up to the public, otherwise all of us are going to need new careers," Shinso hummed.
"Wait, don't you want to be a Hero no matter what?" Sato asked.
"I do, and I will… as long as I can still earn money for rent," Shinso shrugged.
"Hey, at least I won't be out of a job if the 'Cult of Stain' gets off the ground~" Mei grinned cheekily. "Stain didn't say anything about Support Companies~"
Meanwhile, off too the side, Izuku Midoriya, Iida Tenya, Shoto Todoroki, and Ochako Uraraka were all deep in thought having overheard their peers' dialogue.
*MHA*
AN:
It is… frightening how-important paychecks are in a Hero-dependent society.
Hell, in my Headcanon, Tiger & Bunny is a prequel to My Hero Academia, and with how much collateral those guys cause, you'd better hope you have corporate sponsors, otherwise you're getting sued out the ass every time you stop a bank robbery!
All that aside, the next couple chapters will be more action-packed than this, so until then...
GO BEYOND!
EXCELSIOR!