His Name Is Kaine
Many years ago, the world was 'normal'. Everybody, for the most part, was exactly the same or had the capacity to. The only thing that made one human superior to another was their will and determination to become smarter or stronger. Then, in the early 1900s, the world was introduced to a strange event when a baby in Qing Qing, China was born luminescent, shining brightly like an LED lightbulb. At least...that was the first instance something like that had been recorded. Historians still argue when these 'Quirks' or 'Mutations' first came about. But the early 1900s was the first recorded definitively. For many years these people were shunned, seen as freaks of nature. Many wanted them to be segregated from the rest of society.
It wasn't until the outbreak of the second World War that humanity had the idea to try and replicate this phenomenon. And so, the first artifical quirk, and arguably the first true hero was born. That man came to be known as Captain America, the symbol of American peace, and justice and the light that would shine brightly for the rest of the world, much like that child that was born decades prior. However, with the disappearance of Captain America near the end of the war, it seemed best to hide all knowledge of this Artifical Quirk serum so it couldn't be used by others for evil.
As years went on, the world became more dangerous. People with quirks were looked down upon more, especially with the emergence of the first Quirk Hero team, The Uncanny X-Men and their sworn enemy Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants. Plans to recreate the Quirk Serum came from all over creating modern heroes such as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man. These heroes persisted throughout the sixties, seventies and even the eighties for a few of them, until quirks started to become more and more common.
Now, nearly two hundred years later in the year 2074, the legacy of those heroes and the quirk heroes continues now that society has become only twenty percent quirkless. Meaning four-fifths of the world has some sort of quirk. And the legacy of the heroes from the golden age and silver age live on today through the current heroes. Now accepted in society, heroes have become almost like a independent police force. Gone are the days of vigilantism, and now are the requirements to have the proper paperwork and follow certain protocols as a hero. Of course, some vigilantes still persist, but many are taken care of by pro heroes.
To become a hero one must go through rigorous training and attend one of the various hero schools such as the legacy school James Howlett's School For the Excellent--formally Charles Xavier's School For the Gifted, the original home of the X-Men--in the United States; The recently established Avengers Academy, also in the United States formed by world police force SHIELD with conjunction of SWORD; Red Guardian Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Named to honor the former USSR hero, and counterpart to Captain America, Red Guardian; Wakandan Private Academy. But that's for...specific people only; The SHM Akademie or the Schultz Heiliggruppe von Morgen Akademie in Munich, named after the team of 'Mutants' that formed to hunt down fleeing Nazi's in their country; and many more. However, none is more famous or well renowned in the world than UA High School in Musutafu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Responsible for creating some of the best heroes of the modern era, including the Number 1 pro hero, All Might.
It is in this city that our tale takes place as a young man makes his daily walk to school, Aldera Junior High. Though, unlike how one may expect this story to unfold, this young man doesn't sport a messy green mop of hair. Instead the young man sticks out from his peers, being 193 centimeters in height, having a dirty blonde almost light brown hair as well as slightly lighter tone skin than many of his classmates. He had hazel eyes and a small stubble that started coming in on his chin, which lead to him teaching himself how to shave...poorly. Ostracized by many of his peers, not by being quirkless, but for being a half-blood. His mother being an American and his father...well, he assumed his father was Japanese. Truth be told he never met the man. His mother was married to him years ago and took his name, but when she got pregnant he suddenly disappeared, more concerned with his work than raising a family.
So to add fuel to the fire, he was a bastard, which some of his classmates used against him as well. Though that hardly happened as the young man was so much bigger than ninety percent of the student body, so they just outright left him alone. He never paired up with people in groups, he barely spoke to anyone in class or out. He was living his life on cruise control and he was more than happy that way.
This young man was named Kaine Yoshida. And this is the story of how he grew to honor a legacy he never knew he'd be a part of. This is how he became a hero.
On his way to school Kaine always made a habit to stop by a corner store that was on his route to school. It wasn't close to school, but it was somewhat close to his home, being a couple blocks away before he actually headed to school. See, Kaine technically lived in a different district than the school itself, but unfortunately...or fortunately if you asked him, his district didn't have any schools as it was a lower-end district. So he crossed districts to go to school which he was able to get into mostly out of luck. The walk took him maybe twenty minutes...well, fifteen normally, but again he stops at the corner store every day.
Today was no different, he walked into the store and saw a couple of people getting coffee or energy drinks, the owner of the store behind the corner sitting on a stool and looking at the paper while a young female cashier manned the register. The line wasn't too long so it didn't seem like only having one worker would impede Kaine's day, though he did notice the line was already four people deep. Kaine quickly grabbed a melon bread that was close to expiring which would give him a nice half-off discount, before grabbing a canned coffee and getting in line.
He stood in line for a bit, but noticed the cashier becoming more and more uncomfortable. Kaine looked up at the convex mirror that was in the corner of the store and saw something...rather gross. It looked as if the owners hand was stretching all the way from his seat to the cashier and groping her butt. Kaine blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. He gulped as he looked at the situation, unsure what to do. Of all the things he could have done, he decided he wanted a second opinion. In front of him was a short, darker skinned woman with rabbit ears. He tapped her shoulder and she snarled at him, "What, kid?"
Kaine gulped, not liking to make confrontations if he didn't have to. He cleared his throat and pointed at the convex mirror, "U-Um...that doesn't look right, right? Like he's doing something illegal?" The woman looked at the convex mirror and then to the cashier's uneasy face.
The woman let out a long, annoyed sigh. "Seriously, even on my days off I have to deal with crap like this." she walked up to the front counter and hopped over it, surprising Kaine and the others just standing there, unaware of the issue that was going on.
"Hey, what the hell you think you're doing. lady?" the man asked.
The woman outright ignored him as she rushed him and lifted him up by his collar, "Listen hear you pervy bastard, don't try and play coy with me. I saw you harassing you're employee here, and from the looks of it she didn't consent to it. Right, kid?" she asked as she turned to the cashier who shook her head furiously. "That's what I thought. Just wait here, the cops will have a field day with you." she warned.
"How absurd!" the owner defended, "Just what evidence do you have of me harassing my employee? You are absolutely out of your mind, lady!"
The woman smirked, "I saw it first hand, smartass. So did that kid in kine back there." she pointed at Kaine and he felt his heart beat faster as he just wanted to sink behind the shelves and not be noticed. Ooooh...I am so going to be late today. Kain thought with a groan. He then smacked his head a few times in anger, No, dumbass! A girl was straight up being groped without consent, don't make this about you. "Also I'm a pro hero, dumbass. So it's my word against yours."
"Pro hero?" some of the store goers start to whisper amongst themselves, even Kaine perks up slightly.
The woman clicks her tongue in frustration, "This is kinda annoying because it's my day off, and you're massive small fry, but I'm the Rabbit Hero: Mirko!" she shouted loud and proud for the store to hear, gaining some astonished mumbles from those that were in line, even a few people outside began to crowd and wonder what was going on. Kaine groaned as he slid his way to the front of the line while the others were distracted.
"U-Um...hi." Kaine choked out as he got the cashier's attention, "I-I know you are going through a lot right now, and I'm sorry for that. But do you think you can ring me up? I don't want to miss class." The woman cocked an eyebrow and rang Kaine up for his two items. The teen took the items and bowed, "T-Thank you, and sorry again." Kaine then quickly dashed out of the corner store and began rushing to school. Dammit, that confrontation took up so much time! Why do I have such bad luck? Why do I always notice these crimes happening? Hell, why can't I just learn to ignore them! My life would be so much easier if I just learned to not butt in!
Kaine looked down at his severely cracked phone and saw that because of the medium sized line and the sudden involvement of a hero he now only has ten minutes to get to class, and he wasn't nearly that close to school. "Ah crap." he complained. Kaine bit his lip and tapped his foot as he stood in place, contemplating if he should do the thing he's been practicing. In theory he'd be able to make it to school in a couple of minutes, however, the downside is he has never tried this technique until now and he may get in trouble if caught.
"There's no other choice." Kaine sighed. He put his melon bread and his canned coffee in his backpack and took a deep breath. Kaine began to raise his arm and he closed his middle and ring fingers so they rested on his palm, he then pointed his wrist towards the wall of a building. Taking another deep breath, Kaine began to apply pressure to his palms when...Ding. Kaine looked behind him as he saw the school bus stop for him. Apparently he had stumbled upon a pick up zone for his school. "Thank you, God!" Kaine praised as he rushed to the bus.
Now at school, Kaine promptly took his seat in the back of the class, slumping in his chair trying to make himself stand out as little as possible. As a student he wasn't bad, per se. He just didn't like to participate if he didn't have to. He didn't bother trying that hard in competitions like sports festivals, and in turn he didn't try that hard in gym class. He was smart, he knew he was, but he didn't like the idea of standing out too much in academics either. He remained a straight A student, but he was on the low A scale, getting about and 83 to an 85, never much higher or lower. This way he isn't pestered by his professors to do better in classes and at the same time not stand out too much to be recognized as being the top of the class.
It was currently the end of the year, so everyone was getting giddy, excited about what came next for them. Whether it be moving on to general studies or...well, Kaine knew everybody was going to try to get into the hero course anyways. "Alright everyone, take your seats and settle down." Kaine's homeroom teacher, an older woman with an advanced hearing quirk, called for the class as she entered. She settled at her desk and began writing something on the board. "Life Courses!" she shouted out as she slammed the board with a pointer stick, "It's time you all start thinking seriously about your futures, some of you will be moving on to illustrious careers as salary men or shop owners. Some of you--"
"Screw that, WE WANT TO BE HEROES!" a student interrupted, causing the class to erupt in cheers.
The teacher slammed the stick on the desk in frustration, making a loud smacking sound and quieting down the class, "SILENCE!' she shouted, adjusting her hearing aids so the noise wasn't as prominent. She sighed, "I know you are all excited to try and be heroes, but try and think logically. Every year, hundreds of students apply to get into the heroes course and every year only around 40 are taken unless given special consideration. some of those students don't even have to take the tests and instead get in on recommendations which takes the open poole to an even lower number. I've seen some years where there was as many as eight students who got in on recommendations, which lead to only 32 students being accepted, most of them heading into the B-Course. Everyone else who doesn't make it will be relegated to general studies courses. Now, some of you are smart, maybe try support courses, who knows you may find a new calling in life." She called the class representative to the front and asked her to hand out the 'Life Course' papers.
Kaine received his paper and he just stared at it, not really sure what to think. I mean...what will I do? he thought, I haven't put much thought into it. I mean, I kinda figured I'd be stuck doing menial work foe the rest of my life. Out of the public eye, just trying to live peacefully. For the rest of the day Kaine continued to keep on the down-low while his classmates continued to talk about how excited they were to join the hero course.
As school got out and the day was winding down, instead of going home right away Kaine felt it best to head up the thrift shop that was downtown, then probably go dumpster diving by the parts store to see if he could find anything to enhance his rig which was about fifty years obsolete. It can run some games pretty solid, but mostly old school retro shooters like Doom Eternal or Halo Infinite. Most the games he can play have to be single player only since many older online shooters lost their servers after about a decade, or their parent company went under. But, if I can find a decent card from a decade ago, and a CPU from the last five years I can play modern shooters like Crossfire Evolved. he nodded.
Kaine smiled to himself just thinking about it, of course he was getting his hopes up, he didn't have much cash on him anyways. His smile soon faded, not because of his lack of mula, but rather over screaming. Is someone in trouble? Against his better judgment, Kaine ran around the corner to see a row of buildings, stores and apartments, on fire with some sort of sludge villain at the center. The villain himself seemed to have kidnapped some kid, but Kaine couldn't make out who it was. Many heroes were already at the scene including up-and-comer Kamui Woods, as well as the firefighting hero, Backdraft among others. Kaine flinched as he saw a massive shadow loom over him, looking up he saw a gigantic foot and nearly had a heart attack at seeing another up-and-coming hero, Mount Lady.
"I can't get through," Mount Lady whined, "I need two lanes of space, there's no way I can get in without causing damage."
Kaine noticed that there was now a massive crowd watching the heroes, with him at the very front. Holy shit, why aren't they saving that kid? Like, I know there's others, but he's a hostage. The kid in question began to thrash around, trying to break free of the sludge villain's grasp, "You bastard! You think I'll subdued by some sewage trash like you!"
"Shut up kid!" the villain yelled out as he covered the kid's mouth. "I'll absorb you and use your quirk to get back at that All Might bastard!"
Kaine's eyes widened in surprise as he was able to get a glance at the kid. It was one of his classmates! He was in a different homeroom, but he remembered him from Math. Wait, was that Bakugou? Holy shit! I mean, I don't really like the guy he's too loud, but holy shit! Save him!
"Why are all the heroe's just standing still?" a civilian asked.
"I think he's got some kid as hostage." Another pointed out.
Kaine continued listening in and he seemed to get a better picture of what was going on. Apparently, All Might had already dealt with this villain earlier in the day, but somehow he gave the pro the slip. Interesting. Just what is a hero like All Might doing out here? Isn't he based in Tokyo? The crowd stood still, waiting for something to happen. The situation was getting tense, Bakugou looked as if he was losing consciousness, and nobody could move.
...
Until somebody did.
Out of nowhere a young kid burst through the crowd and ran past the civilians and the heroes, right for the monster. "You idiot, stop!" one of the heroes, Death Arms, yelled out. Kaine stared in shock, some random kid just ran out there and began confronting a villain. The boy had a mop of green hair and was wearing the same school uniform as Kaine. He looked closer and his eyes nearly popped out of his head, Wait, is that Midoriya? Kaine thought, Quirkless, hero fantatic from Social Studies class Midoriya? What the hell is he doing!? He couldn't believe it, arguably the last person you'd think of who'd jump in to save someone just rushed in head first and began tearing at the villain's body to try and get Bakugou out.
Whether it was stupidity, or bravery, Kaine wasn't sure. But he was sure that Midoriya was the only one to act, none of the heroes did that. Then, suddenly, Midoriya no longer needed to keep trying to get Bakugou out as a mighty figure appeared and grabbed the student's arm. It was the Number 1 pro hero, All Might! Kaine was dumbstruck, so much so he couldn't hear what the hero was saying, only what he shouted out as he defeated the villain, "DETROIT SMASH!" All Might sent a massive right uppercut and hit the villain in the jaw as he pulled Bakugou and Midoriya to safety. The villain shot up into the sky and disappeared with the force of the blow being so powerful that the weather seemed to change and it began to rain.
Everyone stood in shock and awe, even some of the heroes, though Kaine did hear a few grumbling that All Might stole their thunder. Kaine was both surprised, and upset. Damn villain, he burnt the thrift shop. Place is gonna be out of commission for weeks. Slumping his shoulders and sighing, Kaine began his trek back to his apartment. "Well...on the bright side, Midoriya and Bakugou are okay. Even if I don't like the hot head, it isn't right for a villain to take someone like him hostage. He's just a kid, man." he said to himself.
Heroes, villains. It's always so troublesome. But at least Kaine has a way to get away from it all, where he can truly be alone with his thoughts. And that's back home, in a rundown apartment complex, in the middle of one of the worst districts in Musutafu. Shinkuhōru, or 'The Sinkhole'. The district itself is actually called Kōgai, the name being given because the group of blocks was near the outskirts of the city, but the residents will always know it as the Sinkhole.
The buildings are rundown, poverty is high, homeless people take up in many of the abandoned buildings, prostitutes walk around the streets, drug addicts have dens but they usually leave the residents alone because they know they have less money than even themselves. A community full of misfits and losers. The outcasts of the world, and yet they all take care of each other. "Good afternoon Kaine." a woman greeted, one of the local prostitutes, "Out of classes now?"
"Hello Ms. Hatsume." Kaine greeted back nervously, "Yes. Um...working early today?" Oh god...I am so bad at small talk with people like her! What do I talk about?
The woman smiled happily, "No, I have a date today. This could be my ticket out!"
Kaine smiled nervously as he waved and continued to his trek to his apartment. Don't get your hopes up, Miss. Kaine sighed. It wasn't he thought ill of sex workers, it's just the facts. The district is called The Sinkhole for a reason. Once you fall in, there is no getting out. You can thrash, you can struggle, but eventually you'll be swallowed up. Nobody comes by choice, and nobody leaves. In Kaine's case that seems to be doubly true. He was born here, the first child to be born in The Sinkhole in the last six decades. If--IF--there was ever a chance for someone to get out, Kaine's chances are null. Bad luck just follows him where he goes. You could say he was just born with it.
As Kaine was about to walk up the stairs to get to his apartment, he was stopped by an old woman rocking back and forth while sitting in front of her apartment door, "Kaine, sweety, whenever you put your stuff away I need you to head to 3-C and work on the electrical, and after that 8-C, 8-B, and 8-A all need to have the plumbing checked."
"On it, Ōya-san." Kaine said with a thumbs up. Miss Kumonosu is the land lady of the apartment complex Kaine stays at. She allows him to stay in a room for free as long as he helps out around the apartments, fixing issues that may arise. It's mostly because she was practically blind, she too was Quirkless. Kaine had been reliable since he was a young kid, he was always tinkering with things. So much so she thought that he had a Quirk that increased his brain capacity. But no, turns out that was just his natural genius.
Kaine finally reached the door for his apartment and unlocked it. Walking inside he placed his bag on the ground near his futon matress. The inside of his apartment wasn't that appealing. It was rundown, like the rest of the complex, so at least he wasn't being left behind. The main room was dirty, having some sort of large stain on the carpet. There was a small kitchenette that made up a second smaller room, he had a small bathroom that was just the toilet and a sink. He did have a shower but for some reason it was separate from the bathroom and had no door, so it just looked like a random extension to his living room that had a shower in the middle of it. Kaine had to put a bunch of towels in the entrance so that any water that escaped him didn't soak into the carpet. Against the back wall of the main room was a small radio, an antique really, a miracle it was still functioning. The radio was made during the 'Retro Boom' of the early 2020's and included a turntable for Vinyl, a CD player (currently a dead medium), an Eight Track Player (never got the revival like Vinyl did), a cassette deck (practically worthless since many cassettes have corroded since that time, and again didn't have the massive resurgence like Vinyl), and an auxiliary output which seemed strange since many machines used bluetooth at the time. However, Kaine does have a special adaptor for his phone, so he could use the aux cord and play his digital music. Kaine's mom had told him it was a gift from her parents after she moved into her first home and that she would give it to him when he did the same...it just so happened he received the radio sooner than he would have liked.
On top of the radio was a small vase that had the name Marianne Yoshida etched into it, next to the vase was a picture of Kaine's mom. She was a beautiful woman with long brown hair and a young face. Kaine lit two candles next to the pictures and pressed his index and middle fingers against his lips before pressing them against the vase, "I'm home, mom." Kaine walked into the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove and started the element. While he was waiting for the water to heat up he went and turned on the tv, moving his digital antenna the best he could so he could get better signal. After finding an area he liked the most he tuned into the news and turned up his tv.
"...In other news, a small group of civilians rejoiced when their local corner store was saved by the Number Six ranked hero Mirko, who took time out of her day off to stop crime!" a female reporter stated as Kaine turned up the volume.
"What an absolute trooper." the male reporter laughed, "Day off and she finds the time to be a hero."
"The man in question was the shop owner who had been harassing his employees. It seems our hero had noticed something was amiss and--hopped--into action."
Kain immediately began tuning out after he heard that awful pun, "Jesus Christ." he groaned in English. Kaine walked over to his bookshelf and began looking through his collection--not of novels, mind you, his mom was a massive nerd herself growing up, as apparently was his grandpa and so on. It just runs in the family. No his bookshelf is comprised of ninety percent comic books, graphic novels and manga passed down through the family FOR YEARS. Including, his most prized possession and absolute last resort, as in, he is about to die if he doesn't have that money right away, type of last resort. His 9.2 graded and autographed Captain America #1 from 1941. Signed by the Captain himself when he was dethawed in the 60's. How this comic had been preserved for over a hundred years is nothing short of a miracle, and likely dark magic in Kaine's mind.
Kaine eventually came across an old time favorite of his, "The Amazing Spider-Man #129." he said with a smile, "The first appearance of The Punisher, what a wild ride. And to think they'd become allies later in life." The whistling of the water alerted Kaine and he walked back to his kitchen and poured the boiling water into a Cup Noodles and set it in the fridge. "Alright, work on chores, get paid, come back to nice, soggy, cold ramen."
Kaine has...an interesting taste in food.
Kaine, like a good little handy man, went from apartment to apartment fixing all the issues that persisted. He fixed a wiring problem in 3-C, fixed a toilet in 3-8, fixed a shower head in 2-8, and he spent a solid four hours trying to fix the main sink in 1-8 before he realized that it was clogged and just needed to be cleaned. Once Kaine was done, and he was given a kiss on the forehead by one of the older women that lived in the apartments, Kaine returned to his room and he pulled his Cup Noodles out of the fridge and sat on the ground in front of his tv.
While watching the night-time news, relieved he's out if school for a while he started thinking about his 'Life Course' paper. He slurped up a couple of noodles and grabbed the paper from his backpack. "I mean...I have to do something, right? I can't just be a handyman forever. I need to make actual money." he said to himself, scratching his head. "Maybe...maybe I'll be an electrician? They make pretty good money. Though I probably wouldn't make anything because I'd be too scared to ask people to pay me, heh." he chuckled. Looking back up to the news, they were playing amateur footage someone shot from their phone of the fight between the sludge villain and the pro heroes, all the way until All Might defeated him. While watching, Kaine really focused on when Midoriya just ran in head first and tried to claw Bakugou out of the villain and he realized something..."All those heroes couldn't move...and yet Midoriya bolted in there like a bat out of hell. And he was on his own for a LONG time." He hadn't realized it earlier, but Midoriya was clawing at that villain for almost a minute before All Might stepped in. It never seems like it, but a minute can feel like an eternity at times, especially when watching the events unfold again on video.
"Midoriya..." Kaine said before he turned off his tv and fell asleep.
Two Months Later...
It has been a little over two months since the end of classes, and Kaine has yet to figure out his 'Life Course,' which is a massive problem because he starts regular classes in a few weeks if he doesn't decide on anything and just chooses to go to regular high school. It's not that he doesn't want to, it's just that he's very undecisive with choices like these.
On one of his days off he decided to take a walk around the city. One thing he noticed was a new building being built downtown, seemed to be some sort of skyscraper, he wasn't exactly sure. But he wasn't just clearing his head, he was looking at people doing their jobs and seeing if any inspiration came to mind. He looked at bakers, bankers, cops, store clerks (not exactly a rest of your life career, but it was a start) he even considered being a contractor after seeing the new skyscraper being built. With all his handyman work he may actually be semi-qualified.
Eventually, he doesn't know how, he ended up by Seaside Park, a local beach that had been overrun by illegal dumping, garbage washing up on shore, it had basically become an unofficial landfill. It also, admittedly, is a place Kaine would sometimes go to dumpster dive for parts because they may be working or just need a light fix to work. However, when Kaine showed up to the infamous Seaside Park today he realized something was different. "Huh, this place is a little cleaner than usual." looking down on the beach he saw just one person cleaning up the mess.
Kaine had to squint his eyes a few times but he realized the person moving the garbage was Midoriya, his former classmate. Whoa, I didn't know he was the community service type. Kaine thought. "Hey, you need some help?" Kaine called out from the top of the steps making Midoriya drop whatever was in his hands as he jumped at the sudden voice.
Midoriya turned around and was silent for a few moments before furiously shaking his head and waving his arms, "N-N-N-No! I-I mean, it's not that I wouldn't want help, I certainly do but it's..." Midoriya looked down before looking back up to Kaine, his face seemed more confident than the initial interaction, "I have to do this on my own. See, I'm training to get into UA High, so I need to get as strong as I can before the entrance exams in eight months." he explained.
UA? Isn't Midoriya quirkless? He'll get eaten alive. "Gonna be kinda hard, don't you think? I mean, they only take the best of the best into the hero program. Are you sure that's really for you?"
Midoriya nodded, "Absolutely!" his outright enthusiasm made Kaine gasp slightly, "I know there are people who will be better than me, who will know what they are doing...but that doesn't mean I can't give it my all right? I'll never know if I don't at least try!"
Kaine began thinking back to the last time he saw the green haired kid, "You know, I saw you...when you charged that villain a couple months back." Midoriya looked like he had gone pale, as if he was expecting to be ridiculed for his actions, "That uh...that was really stupid...but, also brave." Kaine said with a slight smile, "What...what made you want to be a hero? Wouldn't it be easier to do anything else? Even be a cop?"
Midoriya looked down in thought for a few moments before looking up again, "It may be true that there are easier ways to do things, compromises that could give me a steady lifestyle, but..." he paused before looking back up at Kaine, "Has something ever happened to you where you had to make a choice, and regardless if it'd be easy for you or not, you chose to make a specific choice because it was the right thing to do?" Kaine thought back to when he was at the corner store, had he not spoke up that day to the person in front of him (who just happened to be a hero) that man would likely go on harassing his employees. "You know, like...I guess, 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility'?"
Kaine smirked at Midoriya and shook his head, "You stole that from Spider-Man!" Kaine laughed. Midoriya cocked his eyebrow in confusion. "Oh come on. You didn't know? That was something Spider-Man had told the media a bunch in the sixties. It was the title of his biography!" Kaine laughed again and nodded, "But thanks...I think I get it. Good luck Midoriya, I'll be rooting for you!" and with that Kaine started making his way home.
Midoriya stood in shock before cupping his chin with his thumb and index finger, But wait. That was something All Might told me. Did he take that line from an old hero? Midoriya then straightened up when a realization came to him, Wait a minute, he called me 'Midoriya' does he know who I am!? Ugh, I didn't even recognize him! Who was that guy?
Kaine burst through his door and dashed to his computer and waited several minutes before the webpage loaded up for him (due to being not well off, not only does the apartment complex have to share bandwidth, but they also don't have great connection to begin with). Kaine searched up when the entrance exams for UA were. "Eight months, just like Midoriya said." he nodded, "Wanting to help people...wanting to help my community. Do the right thing and get paid for it. It's exactly what I need." he smiled. Kaine looked over to the picture of his mom and lifted it up into a hug as his eyes began to tear up, "Mom I...I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to help people, I'm gonna train hard and...and I think I'm gonna be a hero!" he cried as he kneeled on the ground, "Please watch over me. I'll make you proud, I promise."
True to his word, Kaine began his intense training. Not entirely sure on what hero training entailed, Kaine figured the first thing he'd have to do was learn how to fight. Lucky for him, The Sinkhole happens to be home of one of the oldest buildings in the prefecture. Once a dojo for Judo and likely something else beforehand, it is now a boxing gym home of s couple tough guys around the district. Many of them participate in underground matches one of them has actually made it to the world stage, the Olympics specifically, but took a fall in his third match to get a big payout. Apparently bad luck follows people in The Sinkhole because the man never got his money, he was immediately figured out and a whole investigation was placed on him, eventually he was arrested.
Anyways, Kaine had gone to the owner of the gym, young latino man named Hernandez, and asked if he could train him. Hernandez seemed to have no issue with it, but also insisted that if he was going to be training Kaine for free he had to do some menial tasks around the dojo. Of course Kaine had to accept. So every day he'd wake up at the crack of dawn, train at the dojo for a couple of hours, come back to the apartment complex and do chores, go on a run around the district as per his trainer's orders focusing on using his quirk so he can get a better understanding of himself and his output (this mostly became a point when Kaine punched a sand bag and his hand went through). Finally, at the end of the day, Kaine would return to the gym to sweep, mop, disinfect and get some extra training in before he would go home, sleep and start over again the next day.
After eight grueling, seemingly sleepless months, the day had finally arrived. Kaine had noticed he had bulked up a little bit, his muscled becoming much more defined than when he first started, and he felt much more confident in his abilities especially one of his 'scary' abilities. Before heading out Kaine made sure to eat a light breakfast...meaning the last egg in his fridge. He then grabbed his earbuds and plugged them into his phone and began playing music before taking off.
Kaine rushed out the doors, backpack in hand and jumped from the second floor down to ground level, "I'm on my way!" he shouted out.
"Good luck!" one of the ladies shouted back.
"Fight well!" another shouted out.
"Show them what you're made of!" one of the chop shop owners yelled out as Kaine began rushing for UA.
After an admittedly much longer run than Kaine anticipated, he finally arrived at the gates of UA High. He stood in awe at the sight, he definitely wasn't expecting it to be this big. Well, he knew it'd be big but it was just so...BIG! I feel like an ant. This place looks bigger than any major office building downtown. Kaine gulped, practically having to hold his jaw up so it didn't hit the floor. "Now...where the hell do I go?"
"OUTTA MY WAY, LOSER!" Kaine jumped at the sudden outspoken behavior of Bakugou that came from behind. Bakugou stopped and looked up at Kaine as the half-blood teen has nearly twenty centimeters on him, "What are you looking at, huh?" Kaine just held up his hands in surrender and Bakugou grunted in annoyance, "What? Think you can just ignore me? Think you're better than me?" Kaine shook his head and eventually Bakugou left with a frustrated grunt as he walked away with a...really strange walking method with his hands in his pockets and lifting his knees really high as he stepped. Man I knew the dude was strange, but he's actually kind of a dork, huh?
Kaine followed the signs that lead him and the other examinees into large separate rooms. Each class was holding about twenty to thirty students, so Kaine imagined the whole school was pretty much in use by the examinees today. After some time of waiting in the desks, one of the teachers came walking in. For Kaine's room they were greeted by a tall, platinum blonde man wearing orange goggles and a blood red suit. Kaine recognized him as Vlad King, the blood hero. Kaine had actually spent a lot of time learning about the staff members and taking a look at their careers, that way he knew what to expect if he got accepted either in Hero course or even General Studies. "Everybody sit down and shut up." Vlad King ordered, "As you may know, there are two separate tests one must pass in order to get into UA High. First you must pass the written exam, then you must score high enough in the physical exam in order to be considered. Right now we are going to be doing the former. So get out those pencils, if you did not provide a pencil for any reason one will be provided. So...who needs a pencil?"
Kaine raised his hand slowly, he was already embarrassed enough seeing he was the only one raising his hand, but he didn't even KNOW there was a written exam. Vlad sighed and just tossed a pencil at the teen, who caught it easily, "Now, this is just a standard test, if looked at the material beforehand you should be fine." Shiiiiiiiiiiit. Kaine groaned internally. The papers were promptly handed out to the students in the room. "You have fifty minutes to complete the exam, don't cheat. Trust me...we'll know." Kaine's spine tingled as the tone in Vlad's voice deepened, sounding more menacing than earlier.
Okay Kaine, just relax. It's just a regular test. You may not have studied in any way shape or form, but you can still do this! Now get out there and kick that test's ass! Kaine let out a breath and got to work on the exam.
That blew, HARD. Kaine thought as he and the other students had just finished the written portion of the exam. I mean, how are we supposed to know any of that? I just ended up guessing or answering what I'd do. Kaine, and the rest of the examinees followed the signs for the applicants and were lead to a large auditorium with hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more students in it. Holy shit. Kaine gulped. He felt his heart beat faster and his stomach feel a bit queasy. He had to take a couple of deep breaths to try and calm down. He was lucky to find himself a seat in one of the middle rows. As he sat down he sat next to a punk girl with short purple hair and what looked like auxiliary cables on her earlobes. Oh, cool quirk. I bet she has a good time at parties. OH what if she's a part time DJ?
"Welcome one and all to my live show! Every! Body! Saaaay...HEEEEY!!" At the front of the auditorium, standing at the sole podium was one of the staff members of UA and pro hero, Present Mic, a tall, slim man with long blond hair, which he wears spiked upwards in a large tuft behind his head, and a small brown mustache. He also wore shades...which Kaine thought was strange because they were inside. He was currently wearing a black jacket with a very tall collar, upturned and complete with studs, and matching black pants and knee-high boots. He sports tan shoulder pads and a red belt and elbow pads, all studded, and black fingerless gloves. On his neck he wore a directional speaker that he used for his quirk when doing hero work. "I didn't hear you, let's get a YEAH!" despite his efforts, Present Mic still couldn't get any massive enthusiasm from the crowd, why would he? Everyone is dead nervous. "Don't worry, I've got the shivers down my spine, too, listeners!" Guy is at least a decent hype man. Kaine thought with a chuckle, "Alright, examinees, I'ma give you the low-down on how this will go down. Are you ready!? YEAH!" again, dead silence.
He clicked a button and a picture showed up on the screen behind him with several blocks labeled A-G. "Now pay close attention listeners, we'll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice session at one of our replica city-districts!" Present Mic yelled out, still keeping his chipper attitude. "You can go ahead and take whatever you like, just show up at the designated meeting area after the presentation, ya' dig?"
"Replica districts?" the girl next to Kaine asked, "How accurate are they? Where do they get their funding?"
"Maybe they have a secret oil mine under the school." Kaine mumbled, immediately regretting his uncharacteristic outburst. GAH! I replied like I was talking to myself!
Luckily for Kaine the girl seems to think it was rather funny as she let out a light snort. "Yeah, oil. Who's gonna take that when Stark Industries is planning to put an Arc Reactor in every major city over the course of the next two decades." she smirked, "Maybe they keep a stash of 'Limited Edition' comics that are autographed, sell them at, like, ¥100,000 a pop to collectors who don't know better." Now it was Kaine who let out a slight snort.
"Now we'll be sprinkling a large number of 'villains' into the battlefield." Present Mic said in quotes, "And they'll appear in three different varieties with point values scaled according to difficulty." On the board behind Present Mic, three silhouettes were shown of...something, that had the points plastered on them. "Using each of your individual quirks dispatch as many 'villains' as you can. You're overall goal? Rock up a high score! And don't even think about sabatoging other competitors or outright attacking them. Anti-hero actions are strictly prohibited!"
The room was silent for as the examinees nodded their heads. "Excuse may I ask a question!?" Kaine, the girl next to him and many other examinees turned behind them to see a young man stand up with his hand raised, he has short dark blue hair, flattened neatly down and parted on the right side of his head, a small patch completely shaved near the base of his head, and rather square eyes which match the notably pointed shape of his jaw, "On the handouts there are cleary four types of villains listed, however you only mentioned three. Such an error seems like a massive embarrassment for a top-tier national academy of UA's caliber!"
"Guy should slump his shoulders a little, he's making the stick up his ass a little obvious." the punk girl noted before turning back around.
"The reason we are seated here today is because we seek guidance on the path to becoming model heroes!" the boy continued. Oh geez. He's still going? Kaine thought with a roll of his eyes. "Moreover, what's with you? The curly haired kid!" Kaine looked to where the boy was pointing and saw Midoriya sitting next to Bakugou...for some reason. Dude has a weird taste. Is he IN to him? That has to be it right? Heh, who would willingly be friends with Bakugou? "Can't you sit still for a second, you're distracting. If you think UA is some sort of pleasure jaunt then you should leave at once." as he finished saying that a couple of the examinees began snickering at Midoriya's expense.
Present Mic let out a chuckle, "Okay, okay. Thanks for the smooth segue. Much appreciated examinee 7111." Please don't tell me that there are actually closer to ten thousand people here. Kaine thought, his heart beat increasing. "You see, the fourth type of villain you'll encounter is worth zero points. Let's just call them ehhh...'arena traps'." he explained, "Think of them as one of those invincible enemies in video games that just give you a hard time. You aren't supposed to fight them, so just try to avoid them as best you can."
"Thank you! Apologies for my rudeness!" the stuck up kid said as he sat back down.
"Well that's enough from me," Present Mic said with a bow, "I'll leave you all with a presentation of the 'School Precepts' of this academy of mine! Remember, as a certain 'hero' named Napoleon Bonaparte once said: 'A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life.' Now let's move on to the main event, may you all suffer gladly as the trials come. And remember, PLUUUUUS ULTRA!!"
The students stood up and began making their way towards their designated zones. "You know, not for nothing, but I seem to recall history class telling me Napoleon was a massive asshole, not a hero." Kaine pointed out as he began walking out the doors with the punk girl.
She gave a light laugh, "Hero is subjective in that case I guess. Like. he was a hero of his people, until he lost."
Kaine looked down at his paper and saw he was heading to 'City G'. Well, now I'm curious to what district this is a replica of. Kaine looked up as he, the punk girl, and a large group of students piled in front of the City G gate. It was then that his heart sunk and he began laughing internally as he saw City G was a replica of The Sinkhole. One day! I can't leave this place for even one day. Even in clone form it pulls me back in. "Ugh, what an ugly piece of junk." Kaine looked to his left to see a boy with spiked out silver hair and sharp teeth say, "Did they even finish this one? It looks half destroyed already. What district is this?"
"Bad side of town." Kaine said cryptically.
The silver haired boy nodded, "Ooooh. So it doesn't look bad, it's actually a really good replica!" Kaine said and nodded, Yeah. Pretty much.
"AAAAAAND START!" Kaine jumped at the sound of Present Mic's voice booming across the open area. Immediately he made a mad dash into the city, stunning everyone. "Oh, looks like we really do have a true hero out there! As for the rest of you, consider the baton tossed! Go! Go! There's no countdowns in a real battle!" With that, every other student dashed into their respective battle zones, each hoping to be one of the couple dozen accepted into the hero course.
Shit, shit, shit! Kaine thought as he ran through the replicated streets of his home district. I need to find these 'villains' bit I don't even know what they look like! Kaine's answers were soon given as he rounded a corner and he ducked to avoid getting clotheslined from one of the one-point enemies. The villains were robots, the one-point villains specifically seemed to be some sort of bipedal robots with a squared off head that had one red eye and on its right arm was a gattling gun. "HOLY SHIT!" The robot held out its arm to shoot and out of fear Kaine reacted and threw a right hook at the side of the gun, causing it to shatter on impact.
Kaine's eyes widened in surprise as he clearly still wasn't one hundred percent certain on his abilities. He looked at his fist, mouth agape. Even the robot seemed surprised as it just stared at it's now armless right side. "Yeah. YEAH, that's right you pile of recyclable materials. You just got schooled by flesh and bone. What's up!?" Kaine's celebration was short lived as the robot used its other hand to grab his face, "Now...I know what you are thinking: 'Should I crush him now and start the Cybernetic uprising' and the answer...might surprise you!" Kaine's words fell on deaf circuitry as the robot slammed him into the ground, making him groan in pain. Then it did it again, and again, and again...and again. "Okay, I'm sick of this." Kaine sent a hammer punch to the robot's arm, only this time instead of breaking it he felt nothing but intense pain in his hand. He wanted to yell, but something in him was making him stop. "Why didn't you break that time!?" Kaine had to actually stop and think, Hold on...I broke it right away before because I was scared. I probably used my full force without realizing it. He was slammed into the ground again as a lightbulb shone over his head. Coach Gonzalez said that I have to measure my enemy. I can't go all out right away because I'll tire myself out, or kill them which I don't want. So I need to keep incriminating my power until I break this robots arm. Kaine was about to be slammed again, but this time he used his quirk to prevent him from leaving the ground, "Alright rust bucket, let's see if you can handle the pressure!" Kaine slammed his hand on the robot's arm again, this time denting it, "More!" again he slammed, denting it more, "MORE!" slamming one more time Kaine was able to almost completely break the arm off, it just barely hanging on via cables. The robots grip loosened and Kaine took it off him, he then grabbed the arm with both hands before ripping it off completely, "Did I call you recycling? Sorry, I meant trash." Kaine cocked the robots arm back and smirked, "AND I'M THE GARBAGE COLLECTOR!" he swung and in one hit, knocked the robot's head off. "Yeah, one point!" Kaine fist pumped, "Oh yeah, I know what I'm doing." he dropped the arm and began running to search for more robots to smash. However, as he rounded the corner a very important thought came to him, "Ugh, 'I'm the garbage collector'? That's so lame. I should have said something like, 'It's garbage day!'" Kaine smacked his forehead and groaned, "Man, I so need to work on one liners. There's gotta be Spider-Man comics where I can just yoink one liners from...you know, until I can make my own. Aaaand I'm talking to myself...still doing it."
Kaine tried looking for another enemy to take down so he could 'Build up his high-score' but despite enemies being everywhere, so were other examinees. His eyes eventually drifted to something pink. He thought maybe it was a light or sign or something, but no, it was a person! Oh my god, that girl's pink! Yes, it seems one of the examinees had a quirk that inadvertently gave them pink skin. She's kinda cute though. Kaine slapped himself, No, focus. Don't focus on her looks, focus how she's about to get shot--SHE'S ABOUT TO GET SHOT!? Kaine quickly rushed forward, the force of his initial push cracking the ground, he then dove forward and pushed the girl out of the way as the robot shot its robo-brethren to smithereens. That was close. "Wow, thanks for the save. I didn't even realize it was there!" Kaine looked up to the girl's smiling face and realized he was still on top of her.
His face becoming red, Kaine quickly got off the girl and began running elsewhere, "Sorry for having your points go null, take that one!"
The girl blinked a few times as she looked at the robot over her. She smirked and used her quirk to throw acid in its face, giving her the points. "Like, that dude knows I was against a one-pointer right? And he just gave me a three-pointer?" she shrugged, "Thanks, guy!"
Damn, Kaine thought, I need to hurry and find more enemies. I probably should go around to places other people likely won't be. Kaine nodded and he turned down an alleyway, he quickly wall jumped between the two buildings before making it to the rooftop. When up there he saw the silver haired guy again. He seemed to be holding his own but was likely to get overwhelmed, and lucky for Kaine, he was surrounded by Three-Pointer robots. "Yo, sorry to cramp your style, man. But I need some points too! No hard feelings!?" Kaine rushed to the first robot he saw and lifted it up from its back, he then spun around a few times before throwing it at a group and sending them off the rooftop, breaking as soon as they hit the ground. And just like that, I now have myself ten points total! Kaine fist pumped.
The silver haired guy was about to get hit, but as the robot hit him its arm broke. Apparently his quirk made his body metal or something. "Oh man, you comboed? I'm kinda jealous!" he punched the robot and it fell back towards Kaine. Kaine then lifted that robot up and slammed it on top of another, the metal dude then punched through both of them and got the points. "Oh...I think I took your points."
Kaine shrugged, "Eh, maybe we'll get team points."
The other guy cocked his eyebrow, "I don't think they are doing team points, man."
Kaine straightened up, "Oh...in that case I...better go."
"What do you think?" One of the many teachers overlooking the exam asked as he and the others watched the exam in real time via a multitude of cameras in the battle zones. "Anyone stand out?"
One of the other professors shifted in their chair as an image of Bakugou destroying a multitude of robots was blown up, filling a large portion of the screen. "We have some interesting applicants this year. Strong...but perhaps a little blood thirsty."
"Yes, but," one of the female professors cut off as it switched to a video of Kaine who was still at ten points, sacrificing his chance at getting more points to helping others. "There is the opposite side of that where an applicant can be 'too nice'." The staff nodded and continued to watch, one of them straightening up as Kaine began leading the robots towards him.
"Hold on, what's he doing?" a male staff member asked as he pointed at Kaine's screen again, "Is he leading them towards others?" Eventually when Kaine finally lead the group of robots to a specific road near a decaying building, he held his hands out and something fired from his wrists. It was hard to tell from the footage, but whatever it was it stopped the robots in their place. Kaine then jumped to the opposite building and stuck to the side of the wall. Once again he held his hands out and something fired from his wrist, almost like some sort of twine. It stuck to the wall of the decaying building and Kaine began to pull, and pull and pull. His muscles looking strained even from the video. After a couple of seconds of struggling the wall of the decaying building fell and crushed the multitude of robots Kaine had lead there, giving him and added nine points from a combination of Three-Pointers, Two-Pointers and One-Pointers.
"Intuitive." a teacher mentioned, "He lead them to an area where he knew he'd cause the least property damage by using an already decaying building."
"Strong too," another female teacher noted, "That wall may have been decaying, but he'd still need a couple hundred kilos of force to pull it down like that."
"What did he use? Did anyone see?" the staff all seemed collectively puzzled, yet intrigued.
"Seems we raked in quite the crop of examinees this year." a smaller staff member had said, "Seems we should really test their mettle." he flipped open a small glass lid and pressed a red button.
Back at the exam down below, Kaine wiped sweat from his forehead. "I've never pulled something that heavy before. Really thought I was gonna tear my biceps." he chuckled. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion that nearly made Kaine fall onto his butt in surprise. Turning to his left he saw an absolutely MASSIVE robot, easily five-stories tall if not taller. "HOLY SHIT!" Kaine shouted in English. Without needing to think, Kaine immediately turned and ran away, avoiding the falling debris as the robot walked down the street. "I thought they said 'obstacle' not 'Murderous Death Machine'!"
As Kaine ran he saw the punk girl again. However, to his shock he saw she was in danger. The massive robot had slammed its hand against a building and it caused a chain reaction of knocking other buildings over. This had knocked a large neon sign, one Kaine knew well it practically lit up the whole block at night, and it was falling straight towards the punk girl. Kaine's eyes widened and he held his arm out, closing his middle and ring fingers and applied pressure to his palm. Suddenly, a white strand popped out of his wrist and shot through the air, it attached itself to the girl's back and he yanked her into his arms, saving her from getting crushed by the sign.
"Woah!" the girl looked at Kaine in surprise, "Oh, the guy from the auditorium. How'd you do that?"
"It's a part of my quirk." Kaine explained, "I call it Spider, let's me do anything a spider can. I can shoot webbing from my body, I can lift multiple times my bodyweight, and I can stick to buildings (among other things)." he mumbled the last part. "I'm gonna try to get distance from the massive death-bot, but be warned, I have never actually done this before. So...hold tight, please. I don't want to accidently drop you." The girl nodded and gripped tightly to his shirt.
Kaine held his arm up and fired a webline, he then used his strength to launch himself into the air. Kaine let go of the webline and went to shoot another...but missed the building he was aiming at completely. "Shit!" Kaine quickly shot another webline and attatched it to a window of a building and swung himself through the air, but he broke the window by the force of his swing and had to let go early. Kaine fired another webline and this time attached to a more stable part of the building and was able to sling him and the punk girl to a large crowd where he set her down and they began running with the others.
"Nice save." the girl complimented, "Maybe work on web placement so the ride isn't as bumpy."
"Noted." Kaine replied.
"And loosen your grip next time you save someone. Felt like i was wearing a corset."
"Right."
"THAT'S THE TEST, IT'S ALL OVER FOLKS!" Present Mic shouted out. As he said that all the robots stopped moving, even the large robot shut down. All the students stopped running and they looked around st each other. Some nodding and congratulating, others staying completely silent. "Thank you all for coming, you'll have your results in the next week!"
The students began to walk off to go home, the punk girl patted Kaine on the shoulder, "Thank you, again." she said before giving a light bow, "That'd be pretty lame to get hurt like that."
Kaine shook his head, "Nothing you can do about it. I mean, not like people have a danger sense on them. He chuckled."
After the exams, Kaine limped himself home, still feeling sore from the couple times he was slammed by the first robot he fought. "Think of the positives, Kaine," he said to himself while walking through the streets, "Despite never fighting against someone or something before, you really did alright." he winced, "Though, you may be a little too kind-hearted. Sure you helped a lot of people from getting overrun, but you gave them a couple of freebies. And helped them from falling off somewhere dangerous. At the end of the day, I don't think those 19 total points will help you out." The more Kaine thought about it, the more he realized he may have screwed himself at getting into the Hero Program.
Now finally at home, Kaine didn't even bother to do chores, he just made himself a Cup Noodles an put it in the fridge to cool down and soak up the juices. While he waited for his food to get ready he went and sat on his futon, just to relax. He turned on the news and heard something about Stark Industries, sounded like that Arc Reactor thing the punk girl was telling him earlier in the day. Kaine wasn't really paying attention, however, as he just instantly passed out the moment he decided to lie his head down.
One Week Later...
Finally, a week had past. Kaine got more and more nervous with each day that past. He and the other examinees were told 'About a week' but that could mean anything from five days to like ten days. So Kaine waited, continuing his chores around the complex while also continuing to go the gym from time to time. He looked at the time and saw it was already two o'clock. "Better go check with Ōya-san, see if she has any jobs for me." Kaine walked downstairs to where Miss Kumonosu always sits in her chair. "Ōya-san, I'm here for work. What's going on today? Broken toilets? Pipes clogged..." Kaine shuddered, "Cleaning duty?"
Kumonosu rocked back and forth in her chair before she pulled out a small envelope, "No work for you today, deary. But this came for you. Sounds important." Kaine could see the UA seal on the letter already. Kaine took the envelope and took a deep breath. "Sweety," Kumonosu stopped Kaine before he walked up stairs, "Whether you make it or not, as long as you gave your all and left it all out on the table...'she' will be proud if you. I'm sure of it."
Kaine gulped and he tapped the envelope against his hand as his heart rate increased, "Thanks, Ōya-san."
Kaine walked back into his room and locked his door. He turned off his tv and got comfortable on the floor, just staring at the ledger on the envelope. Taking one final deep breath, Kain ripped open the top of the envelope and dumped out the contents which included a small device of some kind and a folded piece of paper. Kaine began to open the paper when the device turned on and began projecting a video onto his wall. "Hello young...Kaine Yoshida!" Kaine blinked in surprise. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, it was All Might! He was dressed all snazzy too in a golden suit with a striped tie. "I have to congratulate you, boy. You did fairly well on the written exam. Though it seems as though you had sloppy mistakes, as if you didn't study." Kaine gulped. "And then there was the physical exam. You raked up 19 points, which is fine. However, it also looked as though you could have had much more had you not gotten constantly distracted."
Kaine looked down, "Ah...I guess I screwed myself over after all, huh." Kaine's eyes began to tear up and he began to crumple the paper in his hand.
"However," Kaine's eyes darted back up to the projection of All Might, "It should be known the judges were looking for more than just smashing robots! Every time you saw someone in need of assistance, you took your time to help them. Even going as far as to save a fellow examinee from being crushed by a sign!" All Might laughed, "That is why the judges may also award Rescue Points! For when you do acts that are truly deemed to be that of a hero. And to you the judges have awarded you 50 rescue points, for your focus on putting others lives first, even if it means you miss out on the opportunity to score high!" Kaine's eyes widened.
"The information is in the folded paper that came with the recording. Now, I want to let you know that you did make it to the Hero Course, however, you were placed in Class B instead of Class A because of your poor written exam grade. Hm...what's that? I'm not allowed to say that? Whoops. Um...we can fix that later, right?" Kaine couldn't help but let out a laugh at the slip-up, "Well, anyway. Welcome and congratulations young Kaine to UA High, your hero academia!" and with that the video cut off.
Kaine sat in shock for a few moments before looking at the sheet of paper that told him his next steps before they start up classes in the next couple of months. Kaine then looked back to the picture of his mom and the memories of the past began to come back to him.
"Mom." a young Kaine asked as he tugged at his mom's shirt who was in the kitchen cooking up what she could.
Kaine's mom stopped what she was doing, moved her hair out of her face and kneeled so that she was eye level with her son, "What is it sweety?"
Kaine held up a comic of Spider-Man, "He has the same quirk as me."
Marianne let out a slight laugh, "Yes, that's right. He was a great hero a long-long-long time ago. He was from where mommy was born, Queens." she smiled as she pet her son's head.
"Could I be like him too?" Kaine asked.
Marianne frowned, "Why do you want to be a hero? Don't you think it'd be dangerous?"
Kaine shook his head, "That doesn't matter. I want to be strong so that I can help mommy!"
Kaine's young determined face made Marianne's lip quiver as she couldn't let her smile be contained. She quickly grabbed her son and began rubbing his face against his, "Ooooh sweety, if you want to be a hero. Then you be the best darn hero ever! I'll follow your dreams, no matter what. No matter what it is, a hero, an athlete or even a historian, I'll be right by your side to cheer you on!"
The tears in Kaine's eyes welled up so much that they began to drip on the paper in his hands. His lip quivered before giving a smile and standing triumphantly, "LEEEEET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!!!" Kaine yelled in English. "I did it mom! I'M GONNA BE A HERO!" Kaine opened up his door and stood on the walkway before yelling out to the neighborhood, "I'M GOING TO BE A HERO! I'M GOING TO UA!!!" in response the people along the street cheered Kaine on, he even gained cheers and congratulations from his apartment neighbors.
From this point forward, Kaine was making his first strides towards becoming a professional hero.
To be continued...A/N: Hey, guess who has writer's block? This guy! That and I've been mulling over this idea for awhile, so I thought I'd knock out a chapter. I kinda like it, I may write another one soon. Won't be as long mind you, this is just the "pilot" also if he's in 1-B, then I'm like...making up a lot of this. So this could be fun, see how it works out.Not much to say right now, so...see you guys next time!