Quirks were nowhere near as powerful as he remembered. Sure, a couple of them were amazing; Endeavour could easily replicate the most powerful of fire spells, his son could do it with ice and fire, and Hawks was kind of fast. But for the most part, a lot of them didn't really compare to the various skills, perks, and magics that he had seen back in that other world. That wasn't to say that the heroes were bad.
It was that the villains were kind of easy.
And he already taken out most of the dangerous ones the first night he was back in town.
All Might shat a texas-shaped brick when Izuku showed up and told him that the job was done.
"So, Izukai," the T.V. Host, a buxom woman with red hair, used his absolutely terrible hero name that he spent all of three seconds thinking up and then a year regretting the moment it became public. She glanced at him, smiling as she looked back towards the camera. "With the Pro Hero Rankings starting up again this year, you're pretty much a shoe-in for the number one spot. Do you care to weigh in on that?"
Already with the hard questions?
Izuku scratched the back of his head and kept his eyes towards the host. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to answer that question and not sound like absolute ass?"
"Why do you think I'm asking it?"
There was a snicker from the live studio audience.
With a sigh, Izuku turned to face the camera again. "Well, if I am going to be the number one—"
"You are."
"Are you not even going to let me pretend to be modest?"
"Nope, nor should you; it's largely because of you that so many of us got our lives back. The heroes were scrambling, and we were forced to use the hero schools as emergency shelters. I don't want to diminish their efforts, but you did show up and fix everything."
That was because most villains were weak. Yeah, sure, he guessed All for One was kind of scary, but he was one-shot by a high level spell. Izuku knew some undead that could shrug that off! It was almost too easy. No, it wasn't that it was almost too easy, it was that they were in fact too easy.
Seriously, he was honestly surprised that he hadn't been put to jail, considering how that first night he was out there he killed more than half the villains he encountered. Though, given what the people had apparently gone through that month, most of them actually celebrated, and the government, heroes, and literally anybody else had far too much shit to deal with than to actually bother prosecuting him.
That, and they were probably afraid of what would happen if he said 'no'.
"I'm sure things would have been fine eventually," Izuku waved his hand and smiled. "Apparently the heroes were hours—" days "—away from taking the villains out, they just wanted to be safe about it."
The host stared at him, twirling her finger slightly for him to continue.
"But," he tapped his fingers against the chair, "as for the whole me being the number one hero thing, it's kind of a dream come true."
"I'm sure it is." The host laughed and leaned in close. "But, speaking of dreams come true and being number one, you've already been voted as Japan's number one most eligible bachelor; are there any potential partners whose dream you can make come true?"
"Nice transition,"
"Thanks."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... So, are you going to—"
"Nope."
"Alright then, you heard it here folks, Izukai is on the market!"
Well that backfired.
It wasn't that he was against being in a relationship—quite the opposite, he was more than open to it—he just hadn't had any luck in this world. Probably because he was in a weird stage where he was two years older than he should have been, and he'd been busy with being a hero and getting a highschool diploma.
The only reason why he wanted a diploma was to make his mom happy.
That, and technically heroes needed to have one to actually be heroes, but given everything he did, his almost graduating from middle school was being ignored.
Also, algebra wasn't a skill.
XXXX
There was no use hiding it.
He missed that other world.
He missed it for so many reasons. The sense of mystery, the sense of danger, the diversity, the people, his companions! Especially his companions!
He missed when going out on patrol actually felt dangerous, as goblin camps could spring out of nowhere! He missed stumbling past some ruins only to spend the next day figuring out the myriad of puzzles and locating its secrets! He missed meeting friendly nature spirits that would tell his party stories, he missed all the random encounters that just made adventuring there such a joy.
Then there was his party.
He missed all of them so much.
They were probably why he was having such a hard time getting attached to people in this world.
Merlyn was the first person he actually met in that world. With her powerful magical abilities, she was the pride of her small farming village, and someone that they were more than happy to dump onto him. Apparently she was both a pride and a living natural disaster, and he was tasked with bringing her to the capital so she could receive proper training.
She didn't, and instead continued to tag along with him, her potent magic easily reaching levels beyond what she could have at the capital.
A good year or two younger than him, she was a short girl with shoulder-length light blue hair and yellow, star-like eyes that glowed with magic. She never went anywhere without her giant wizard hat and wizard staff.
Cia was second, and the first one to join him on his quest—Merlyn joined officially when someone explained what they were actually doing—She was the bastard child of some long-dead human king and the leader of the elves, something that made her life very complicated. Were it not for her title as "Hero", she likely would have been killed long ago.
And despite being well over a hundred years older than him, she still acted like a teenager, because apparently elfs were weird.
Her skill in battle was unmatched, and Izuku could always count on her to have his back. Because of her nature as a half-elf, she was able to quickly acquire new weapon skills, which meant there was nothing she couldn't use to murder the ever living shit out of something that needed it.
Honestly, Izuku had more than a little bit of a crush on her, and how could he not? She was tall, fit, beautiful, and just really hot. He was especially fond of her long purple hair, and her piercing sky-blue eyes.
And her butt.
Then there were the other members of his party, the ones that seemed to come and go along the journey: Arlen the paladin, Ziv the thief, Ruk the druid, Wolfheilm the engineer, and so many more. And then there was Trixi, the buxom barmaid.
Trixi wasn't a part of his party or anything, but she was his first—and second, and third—time. It just kind of happened after they were celebrating for something or other; before he knew it he had somehow gotten drunk, and then, one thing led to another and he remembered everything in such vivid detail. He still wanted to go back and see her.
Cia hated Trixi. Merlyn said it was because Trixi had bigger boobs. Cia denied it so hard Izuku was sure that was at least part of it.
"Damn," he whispered, stopping his patrol to look up at the slightly cloudy day. "I really do miss them all, huh?"
It felt good saying it out loud, even as some people pointed and stared at him. Well, they were always staring at him, he was going to be the number one hero after all.
[Warning: your Ego has inflated and might burst if not deflated]
Izuku stared at the notification and tried his hardest not to get in another argument with the mysterious entity known as 'the system'. For whatever reason, the thing was just an asshole, and for whatever reason it had plenty of typos too. Still, as annoying as it was, the system was a big help roughly eighty percent of the time.
Oh well. His current life wasn't that bad; he had his own house, and if he really wanted, he could easily go out and make a lot of friends, so many friends, the friendliest friends, and he could totally get a girlfriend as well.
[Warning: you are suffering from delusions of grandeur]
He was dropping the system down to seventy percent usefulness.
Stupid thing probably didn't even know what grandeur meant.
A panicked scream didn't really break him out of his internal monologue, most villains just shat themselves the moment he showed up and then turned themselves in. A few more screams joined it, and Izuku grew interested. He ran down the road and came to a dead stop as a crowd of people rushed past him trying to get away.
He could see why.
In the middle of the road, a massive obsidian claw the size of a man and glowing with heat was tearing its way through the very fabric of reality. The sight of the tear felt like how nails on a chalkboard sounded: unnatural, lingering, and enough to make the very soul cringe away from it. A second claw joined the first, the tearing and grating growing quicker and quicker.
Izuku felt his heart sink as he stared at those claws. He had no doubt about who they belonged to. He still had a scar from where they had struck him over a year ago. The Demon Lord. What was it doing here? How did it get here? How did it survive? What was going on?
"Run!" He shouted towards pedestrians. "If you want to live, run now!"
A red eye that glowed like a dim sun appeared from beyond the tear, followed by a roar.
And everybody that didn't shit themselves or pass out started to run hard and fast.
Last time he fought the demon lord, he needed his whole party to fight on even footing. And he hadn't gotten any stronger since that encounter, but what if they brought some kind of an army? For the first time in a while, Izuku found himself shaking, in part out of fear.
But also, "I can't believe I'm fucking excited about this."
He could go all out.
He equipped his best swords, buffed with his best spells, used his best everything and prepared for the coming fight.
The tear grew, and the demon lord's massive draconic head, a mixture of black bone-like plating and pure white scales that all glowed with that same red magmatic heat that made her attacks impossible to block, forced itself through. Their eyes met, and Izuku found himself smiling.
"Long time no see! Ready for round two!?" He shouted to amp himself up.
The dragon let out a loud roar that shook the very earth.
Before it simply vanished in a poof of smoke.
Huh?
What?
Was he dreaming?
Why was there smoke?
Where was the fight?
Why did he feel like he was about to be flirted with?
"Mmmmnaah!" The echoes of that terrifying roar died down and the sound of a cute girl stretching filled the streets. A much smaller winged figure emerged from the smoke as it began to fade; this one was humanoid in shape in size. Her silhouette was striking, being that of a tall curvy woman with a pair of horns sticking out from her head that were smooth and elegant.
"Sorry it took me so long darling," the woman spoke as she strode out from the smoke, one hand up in the air as she stretched, another running through her long, lustrous silver hair that fell down past her hips and ended in a wide flare that was parted by her thick, draconian tail that was wider than her waist. And she was busty. Very busty.
Her outfit was a striking black china dress that hugged her every curve and left her long legs exposed all the way up to her hips. The only other piece of clothing she wore were the simple black shoes she had on her feet.
"It just takes so long to get into a world without magic like this one." She stood in front of him; her deep red eyes only had a thin black strip for a pupil, "But now that I'm here, I look forward to spending plenty of time with you." She pointed a finger at him, and her smile was hot enough that she could easily turn an entire church into an orgy. "Darling."
Despite the fact that he was no longer a virgin, Izuku held his sword up in front of him like he was willing to die protecting it. "You're the demon lord?"
She scoffed. "Oh please, that was just a job, you know. I do have a life outside of that."
"What?"
She pressed her finger against his sword, pushing it to the side, and ran her arm along his. "It's my job. I'm a professional Demon Lord, the best in fact, and you, you are someone I've been waiting for for a long time. Now come on Izuku, it's been forever since we went on a date."
"What are you talking about?" he stepped back away from her.
[Your weakness of incredibly forward hot women is being exploited]
Not helping!
"I never went on a date with you!" He felt his cheeks burning. This was not how he would have expected a rematch with the demon lord, and what did she mean by professional? "I don't even know your name!"
"Zivkelantrixriktroblix." Somehow she had said that in what felt like far fewer syllables than what it should have been.
Izuku stared at her for a moment, half expecting some kind of a magic spell or something. "What?"
"That's my name. You may call me Ziv though, it sounds much cuter. You said so too, if I recall correctly." She stepped in closer again, her finger pressing against his chest while she continued to close the distance between them. "Easier to moan too, but if I recall correctly, you were quite content with moaning Trixi as well."
"What?" His face burned, but he didn't back away. "You, what? How did, how?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She spun back laughing as she pulled her hair back with her hand. Her horns remained in place, but she grew a pair of short pointed ears that hid themselves in her now much shorter hair that might have barely gone past her shoulders.
Were it not for her body, she could have easily passed herself off as Ziv.
"Wait!" He felt like his entire mind was about to break. "You're Ziv?"
"Trixi too." She gave him a wink and her looks returned to the smoldering sultry look she had before. She brushed her breasts with her hand, making them bounce. "Though, if you want proof, I'd be happy to do that thing you like with you dick and my—"
"No, that's, that's fine, I'm just, I." He took a few steady breaths to calm down. Didn't work, dick was too hard. "I'm just confused. Why are you here if you're not here to kill me?"
Ziv tossed her arms out wide, her thick draconic tail slapping the down hard enough to shake the ground. "I'm on vacation!" Her smile turned sultry once more, her red eyes seeing his every desire, "And I'm hoping to turn it into a honeymoon really quick, darling."
This was so confusing. But also, kind of hot.
AN: Head to my twitter to see what Ziv looks like.
Do twitter links work here?
/Yoji19816784/status/1447651289928667138/photo/2Also hope you enjoyed this chapter! We'll get to the flirting as soon as Izuku stops pulling out his sword.