Chapter 2

Issei could still remember the day his life changed. He now knew the circumstances of his unfortunate arrival from a cult's summoning gone wrong and that the world he was now in was vastly different from the one he knew.

In spite of that, a silver lining had appeared in the form of a draconic heroine by the name of Ryukyu, or Ryuko Tatsuma. She gave him comfort at the scene when no one else had, she assuaged some of the anxiety and sadness within him. She showed concern for him when she didn't even know his name.

When she asked if he wanted to be adopted by her, he froze. The question posed to him was a stark reminder of the reality that he was unable to return to his old life, to see his family again and the two-story home he had called home for twelve years. When it came down to living under a kindly woman versus an orphanage of unknown repute, the choice was clear. There was another factor in his decision, a more selfish and hormone-driven one. He always had a liking for older women, even better if she was an onee-sama type. He couldn't really say no when the opportunity presented itself for the taking. Even then, he opted to retain his original surname when the choice presented itself, as he resolved to never forget his family or the old life he was taken from.

Two weeks had passed since then, and what a hectic two weeks it was. A lot of strings were pulled in order for him to have a paper trail and exist in the system. The adoption was finalized the day after it was submitted, but in the meantime, he underwent a series of hastily scheduled doctor's appointments, dental exams and the like, at government's expense. A quick biography was made for him, mostly to establish his birthplace and birthday, as well as the elementary school he had supposedly attended. In addition, Ryuko took the time to have him acquainted with his new life. A lot of shopping ensued, in which he got his new smartphone to replace the old, now-obsolete flip phone that came with him, a new wallet, and other necessities. Though there were a few things unneeded but Ryuko insisted that he should get it anyway.

The final hurdle to clear was the school he'd attend. He was still subject to mandatory education in spite of his unique circumstances, and his arrival had coincided with being two weeks from the start of the new academic year. The decision of where he'd attend was left in the hands of his adoptive mother, and she was quick to pick one; one she'd happily pay tuition for.

So now he stood in a long line of passengers, Pasmo card in hand, at track one of Shinjuku-sanchome Station, waiting for the westbound Marunouchi Line train during morning rush hour. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo was a sharp contrast to his old life. That wasn't to say Kuoh didn't have traffic during rush hour. It did, but it was much smaller in comparison. Kuoh was also car-centric and trains were non-existent. Here in Tokyo, however, trains crisscrossed throughout the entire metropolis, and most residents used it as their daily form of transportation. It took some adjustment to say the least.

The train soon arrived, and he managed to embark onto a crowded car just before the doors closed. He latched onto the grab handle as the train began to move. During the ride, Issei watched the in-car display across from him as it played a silent All Might public service announcement. That was another thing he had to get used to.

You couldn't take a single step without hearing or seeing All Might, number one on the Hero Billboard Chart JP, the "Symbol of Peace" venerated by the masses worldwide. A profitable news magnet, with All Might even being mentioned in stories or segments unrelated to him. Issei had to admit his fame and reputation was well-earned with the track record he had. After all, he was the one who brought the crime rate to an all-time low. Issei wouldn't, however, worship him like some of the people he observed during the past two weeks.

Endeavor was another hero people talked about to a lesser extent. He had a more divisive reputation, due to his temperamental demeanor and his aggressive style of heroism. There's a fandom and a hatedom, and only a few, like Issei, would hold a neutral opinion.

Thirteen minutes later, he alighted at Minami-asagaya Station, and joined the crowd of his future classmates, heading north on Route 427. Around the halfway point to school, Issei felt the buzz of the smartphone in his pocket, and pulled it out. At the top of the screen was an alert for an ongoing villain attack along their route. A new route was automatically calculated. He looked up to see them also checking their phones and reading the emergency alert. At the given point, they all took the detour, with Issei following suit.

They soon arrived at the gated perimeter of Kaichirou Private Academy in Suginami Ward. The cherry blossom tree-lined entrance path bisected an expansive courtyard with a grand courtyard fountain equidistant between the perimeter and the actual school building, ornate in design. Issei couldn't help but feel like he was besmirching the school with his presence, unearned of attending the school as he was waived from the entrance exam due to his extenuating circumstances.

Since it was the beginning of an academic year, Issei had to join his fellow students in standing through the school's entrance ceremony. He didn't pay attention to the principal's buzzword-laden speech, only going through the motions of seeming to pay attention. It eventually ended and Issei made his way over to his assigned homeroom.

His future classmates filtered into the classroom, taking their assigned seats. Issei's eyes wandered on them, and he found himself staring at one with quite a unique appearance. Another part of the culture shock was seeing quirks at their full extent. Some quirks affected physical appearance to varying degrees. There would be ones with minor differences, such as his adoptive mother, who had thin, inward-tilted eyes with slit pupils, and sharper-than-average teeth. Others were more noticeable and some were complete transformations. A noticeable example that came to mind was when he passed by a person with an honest-to-God brick head. How does he even see was a conundrum Issei wasn't willing to think about. Honestly, Issei wasn't sure how long it would take for him to acclimate to the changes.

He was snapped out of his train-of-thought by a slight hiss from his right. He cocked his head to see a brown-haired, blue-eyed, bespectacled boy with his eyes narrowed.

"Don't stare at him for his quirk. It's rude!" the boy said.

Issei lowered his gaze. "Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it." He quickly took his seat.

"It's alright," the boy said, "Just don't linger, or you'll create misunderstandings."

"Right."

He looked out the window until the morning bell chimed. He followed the rest of the students in looking toward the digital blackboard at the front of the room. The homeroom teacher had not showed up yet, confounding everyone. A minute passed, then two. An antsy student was about to stand up from his seat when the sliding door opened with a bang, startling everyone. The teacher walked into the room and many students tensed. Issei was confused.

Teachers in general had a certain preconceived appearance of professionalism, usually dressed in a suit, tie, and dress slacks, especially so if it's a private school. To be fair, this one did dress the part. Instead, it was the dyed blond hair, the tough mug one can only get from years of delinquency, and the strong muscles from years of brawling that had everyone astonished. In other words, a yankii was going to be their homeroom teacher at a private school.

What Issei couldn't shake, however, was the deja vu that was rolling over in waves. He had seen this before, but where?

The teacher stopped and turned to the digital blackboard. With one finger, he began to write something in large lettering. He stopped, turned on his heel, smiled at the class, and gave way to the word presented. It read "Banzai!"

And that's when it clicked into place. This teacher was aping Onizuka Eikichi, the Great Teacher himself. Perhaps this clone would also be covertly perving on girls from this school's high school department. At least that's what Issei hoped, because if this teacher was perving on middle school students...

The teacher assumed the podium. "Good morning class! My name is Enomoto Masaru, and I will be your homeroom teacher! I'm sorry that I'm late! I actually arrived at the door on time, but I spent some time thinking about how my entrance should go. I hope you guys enjoyed it!" Issei noticed the teacher's Kansai dialect as the class remained silent. "Wow, tough crowd. I'll eventually win you guys over! I'll make sure of it!"

The teacher wiped the word off the digital blackboard with his palm and turned back to the students. "Now, I'd been given this prepared speech by the school to introduce the first-years about how this school is different from the others. But I'm sure you guys don't want to hear all this gibberish for the next ten minutes, so I'll get straight to the point... This school uses a multi-age model. You will have senpais to assist you in learning and understanding the curriculum being taught. All students will have the same homeroom teacher until graduation. That's how this school does things, and don't worry if you're a bit confused or surprised because this is an interesting way of doing things. Now, are there any questions?"

Not a single student raised their hand. Enomoto sighed. "Alright, with that out of the way... We'll start with introductions. Starting from the letter A..."

From alphabetical order of their surname, the students introduced themselves.

"Hyoudou Issei. Can you please introduce yourself?"

Issei strolled to the front of the class. "The name's Hyoudou Issei. I come from Ibaraki-ken. Please be kind to me." He bowed before he resumed his seat.

Some time passed when the bespectacled boy was called to introduce himself.

"My name is Sendouin Nobuhiko. I've been living in the area for two years now." He adjusted his glasses. "I'm a bit of a nerd, especially if it's about heroes, so let me know if I get too into it. Anyway, I hope we can all get along."

Introductions were soon finished three minutes later. The teacher looked over to a single vacant desk. "That's strange... Well, it will probably be filled soon." He turned toward the class. "We'll start with history. So if you can please take out your textbooks and turn to page 387."

Issei brought out the history textbook and opened it to a random page. He halfheartedly listened to Enomoto's lecture as he skimmed through the pages. Eventually, he paused at one page which showed a detailed geopolitical map. Issei scanned over it and his eyes widened.

The first thing that caught his attention was mainland China. China was smaller than before, and the official name of the country was now "The Federation of Chinese States." Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau were independent. A unified Korea stood in place of the two Koreas. A few other continents, like Europe and North America mostly remained the same, with a few unfamiliar countries in the mix. Africa was another story altogether, looking even more of an ill-assorted patchwork of small countries with names like "Biafra" and "Ambazonia", among others.

The surprise soon faded and he continued to skim through the pages, waiting for the lunch break.

Lunch break soon arrived, and to Issei's pleasant surprise, the school was lax on where students could get their lunch. He learned that the school didn't have a cafeteria, so middle school students were free to go off-campus, which Issei took advantage of.

He navigated a few side streets before he wended onto the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, Nakusugi-dori. Heading south along the road's eastern sidewalk, he eventually turned left into the FamilyMart. He picked out the FamiChiki, a slice of chocolate cheesecake, and Asahi Wilkinson grapefruit-flavored water for ¥526, and then took a seat at the eat-in counter and began to lunch on his meal. He was somewhat surprised that it was six decades into the future and the food tasted the same.

A few minutes passed when he heard someone assuming the seat next to him. He turned to see Sendouin Nobuhiko. He also had the FamiChiki, but went with a macaroni salad and a bottle of melon-flavored milk.

"Were you following me?" Issei said.

Sendouin shook his head. "Nah, I just had the same idea. Couldn't resist the craving for the FamiChiki."

Issei nodded. "Fair point. Just seems so coincidental."

"Yeah."

Silence passed between them as the two lunched on their meals.

"Look, I want to apologize for what happened back there. I feel bad."

Sendouin waved him off. "No need to apologize twice. It was just interesting because you had that look."

"What look?"

"You looked like you couldn't believe what you were seeing with your two eyes, as if you had awoken from a long sleep."

Issei stiffened, then relaxed his shoulders, chuckling. "Was it that obvious?"

"Yes, and not only that, I noticed you tuned out of the principal's speech and were just going through the motions."

"What's it to you?"

"Nothing. The principal is pretty tedious to listen to so I can't blame you for daydreaming. What I can blame you for was your introduction. You have no strengths?"

Issei sipped on his grapefruit water. "I'd like to keep my strengths hidden."

Sendouin laughed. "Sure you do... Although keeping it simple has its charm."

"I see. A yankii teacher on the other hand is not so simple."

"Yeah, he's definitely a character! How did he even get through the interview process? He must have blackmailed them or something, especially if they let him on school grounds with his appearance intact!"

"Kinda like the Great Teacher Onizuka."

"Who's that?"

Issei's eyes widened. "You don't know that anime? Former delinquent who becomes a teacher and straightens out a class of misfits?"

"Never heard of it."

"What..." Issei then remembered the year, and relaxed. "It's pretty old-school. I can't blame you for not knowing it."

"I'll look it up when I get home I suppose."

"Yeah, you do that." Issei took a bite of his cheesecake. "Actually, I'm curious about something."

"Ask away."

"You said in your introduction that you're a hero nerd, right? So how much do you know?"

The boy adjusted his glasses. "A lot. Some people say that I'm like a walking encyclopedia of hero knowledge, and so far I haven't met anyone who can rival me in that department."

"I see. I don't want to take too much of your time, but I was wondering what are the best hero sites to go to." Issei fidgeted. "You see, I'm kinda new to heroes and..."

"I understand and that's a perfectly good question!" the boy nodded. "There's a lot of hero-dedicated communities out there, but two stand out. We call them the "Big Two." One of them is Hero Insider, distinguished for having many heroes come to the site to do community interviews, or have accounts in which they comment on posts like any regular user. The downside is that it's heavily moderated and sanitized. Controversial viewpoints can get you banned, so users walk a fine line in abiding by the many rules of the site."

Issei nodded. "So what's the other one?"

"Ah, it's my go-to site. It's called HeroChan. Unlike Insider, HeroChan is dedicated to free speech and doesn't have many rules. Most people are anonymous and controversial viewpoints and boards are prolific. Heck, there's even boards that cheer on villains. That's how dedicated the site is to their mission."

Issei nodded. He wasn't surprised this world had a 2ch equivalent.

"Now, a word of advice. If you decide to visit HeroChan, you need to spend some time lurking in order to familiarize yourself with the site's culture and lingo. Once you have a grasp on how the site works, then you can post."

"Got it." Issei glanced at the time on his smartphone. "Damn, we have to get going or we'll be late."

Sendouin nodded. "Agreed."

"Thank you for giving me a site to go to."

"Well, I am your senpai, so I'm supposed to help out."

Issei laughed. "Nice joke."

"I'm serious. I'm thirteen and in the second year."

"Thirteen?" Issei looked him over. "You look and sound like you're ten."

Nobuhiko laughed and punched him on the shoulder. "Oh, shut up! By that metric, you're nine."

Issei chuckled. "Alright, chuunibyou."

"I'm not delusional! If I ever become one, please slap me out of it."

"Sure thing."

From that day forward, Issei made a new friend in this world, and there would be many more to come.

On the third day of school, the vacant desk finally had an occupant.

Enomoto looked at the paper in front of him. "We have a new transfer student arriving at the class today. She's a returnee from Singapore." His eyes widened at the page. "Now, let's give her a warm welcome!"

The teacher turned to the doorway and nodded. The doors slid open and the transfer student swaggered into the class. She turned and surveyed her classmates. She had long, spiky blond hair, blue-eyed, and had a sharkish grin on her slightly hafu face.

"Now, if you can please introduce yourself," Enomoto said.

"The name's Kaze Ryoko, and it's an honor to be with you guys. I hope we can all get along, okay?" She bowed before the class.

The classroom erupted in pandemonium as students began to vie for her attention. Issei leaned back into his chair and looked over at Nobuhiko. "Who is she?"

Nobuhiko adjusted his glasses. "Kaze Ryoko, fourteen-year old heiress to Stellendam Industries, Japan's largest defense contractor, and one of the largest conglomerates in the country."

"Stellendam? That doesn't even sound Japanese."

Nobuhiko nodded. "There's an interesting story behind it. How a Dutch family emigrated to Japan, became naturalized citizens, and rose to the top. But that's a story for another time..."

Issei glanced at the heiress. "She's cute, though."

Nobuhiko nodded. "She is, but I don't think anybody in this entire school has a chance with her."

"Can't know for sure if you don't try."

"Have fun getting rejected, Issei!"

"Settle down, class!" Enomoto said, his voice bellowing throughout the room. The commotion stopped in its tracks, as all students turned their eyes on him. "Short homeroom period has ended, so now if you can please pay attention to the screen behind me."

Another school day passed by. The news of Kaze's arrival traveled throughout the school grounds, and when lunch break rolled around, Issei and Nobuhiko sped out onto the Suginami streets to avoid the incoming bedlam.

Even when school was dismissed, there was still recurring chatter about the new student. Issei tuned them out as he finished his part in the classroom's cleaning duties. As he picked up his satchel, he felt someone tap on his shoulder.

He turned to look at Nobuhiko. "What do you need?"

"Follow me. I got something to show you."

Issei nodded. They meandered out of the classroom into the corridors. Nobuhiko guided Issei into a room at another wing of the building. A single circular table was placed in the middle of the room.

"What's this about?" Issei said.

"For the past few days I've been submitting papers to start up my own club. I just got approval and today is the club's first day."

"I see. What are you calling it?"

"I'm calling it the HRC, or the Hero Research Club. The reason I brought you over today was because I wanted to see if you're interested in joining."

Issei mulled over the invitation. He had to admit that for the past two days, his membership in the going-home club had been a little tedious. As Ryuko would not be home until 10 or 11 PM at night, he'd spent those days endlessly wandering around Suginami or Shinjuku. Some of it was productive, as he was able to better familiarize himself with the new locale. Still, he figured if there was an opportunity to kill time, he'd better take it.

"Sure, I'll be happy to join," Issei said.

"I'm glad to hear it. Just sign these papers and you're good to go."

Issei became a member three minutes later. As Nobuhiko was about to speak, the clubroom's door slid open, startling both of them. They turned around to look at the intruder, only for Nobuhiko to become slack-jawed, and Issei was once again confused at the sudden turn of events.

Kaze slid the door shut, as a crowd of students stampeded by.

"Kaze?" Issei said.

Kaze walked over to the two of them. "I have to say, your reactions were the most unusual."

"What?"

"I was surprised by your lack of recognition towards me," she turned to Nobuhiko. "And you didn't join in among the crowd."

"I pride myself on having enough self-control, Kaze," Nobuhiko said.

"Is that so? How interesting," she turned to Issei. "Honestly, I can say the reactions you two had were the most intriguing."

Issei ran a hand through the back of his head. "Is it? I mean, I never heard of you before."

"I see," she turned to Nobuhiko. "Is this your club?"

"Yes, Kaze."

"What's it about?"

"We'll just discuss about heroes in-depth."

Ryoko was lost in thought, then she fixated her gaze on him. "Sounds interesting. I'll join."

Nobuhiko took a step back. "W-what?"

"Is there a problem with that arrangement?"

"No... I'm just surprised you expressed interest."

Ryoko shrugged. "Well, I have free time to spend, and my father insisted I become a member of a club." She shook her head. "So many sycophants were inviting me to join their clubs..."

"I see... Well, in that case, welcome to the club. I hope we don't bore you or something." Nobuhiko said.

Ryoko waved him off. "Nah, I have proper interest in the topic. You guys aren't going to bore me."

For the next two hours, the new trio bonded over heroes.

Issei disembarked the train at Akebonobashi Station and exited onto the bustling streets of Shinjuku. He satiated his appetite with a quick dinner at the Freshness Burger near the station, and was back at the apartment five minutes later.

He took a seat at the desk and booted up the computer. As it was going through the motions, Issei retrieved a box of tissues from the bathroom and placed it beside the desktop. After logging in, he opened the browser and typed in a link he had become acquainted with for two weeks now ever since his friend introduced him to the site. The HeroChan site loaded in a flash. In just a few clicks, he was on an R-18+ board and went to a thread that revolved around a certain heroine named Midnight.

Countless users in the thread salivated over the titillating photos of the aptly named "R Rated Heroine." Her supple curves, the tantalizing smile, and the snug bodysuit. That's not even accounting for her original costume some years ago, when Midnight wore a more revealing costume that showed a lot of skin. Too much, in fact, to the point where the government had to step in and mandate that costumes could only show a certain amount of skin.

The fact that heroines like her existed had done wonders for becoming part of Issei's ever-growing spank bank collection, and a libido that would become more pronounced with age. Hell, he was envious of her four male sidekicks who made up the "Midnight Boys." Did she give her sidekicks a certain kind of reward? Perhaps he should become a pro hero so he can become one of them!

Three hours had passed until Ryuko had returned home from work. The sound of the front door opening caused Issei to close out of the internet. He stood from his chair and went over to the foyer.

"Hey... er, okaa-san! How was work?" Issei called out.

"It went well. I stopped a villain's rampage in Edogawa, and signed up for a photo shoot. How was school, Ise?"

"School went well."

Ryuko's eyes gleamed. "I'm glad." She approached Issei. "I want to ask you about something."

"About what?"

Ryuko looked toward the table. "You should probably take a seat for this."

Issei nodded. "Alright." He went over and sat at the living room table.

Ryuko took the seat opposite of him. "Ise," she said, "What do you think about the possibility of becoming a pro hero?"

Afterword: Second chapter's done! I've pretty much spent the past two days drafting it, and then spent another few hours revamping the first chapter to incorporate the much-needed changes suggested by the reviewers' constructive criticism. I'd like to thank those reviewers for letting me know. I've uploaded the revamped first chapter already, and now the second chapter!

Most of the new characters have come from other works. Sendouin Nobuhiko is from Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project, a funny visual novel who serves as the protagonist's school friend. I was originally considering someone from another visual novel to serve as Issei's male friend at middle school. Sendouin was a last-minute change, and one that made more sense as he's pretty much a hero nerd in the visual novel, so he'd be a good fit for MHA.

Kaze Ryoko is half-OC/half-established character I suppose? I based her appearance off the General from Zannen-onna Kanbu Black General-san, an interesting manga so to speak. Maybe there's a hint in there.

Enomoto Masaru is mostly a copy of Eikichi Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka, although I'm going to create a somewhat unique backstory for the guy and motivations so he'll be his own guy. Expect to see more of these three in the upcoming chapters during the story.

Once again, I'd like to extend my thanks to those who have faved and followed this story. I am grateful for all of your support!