"You'll have to forgive me, Shimon-kun," The nice lady sitting in front of him said, a warm smile across her face as Shimon took a seat across from her. The raven-haired boy knew better, though, she'd probably practiced this smile a bunch of times for occasions such as these. "Shinsei University does not normally accept students based on recommendations, so in rare cases like yourself, the procedure is to conduct a student interview, one that will be reviewed by the admissions office and Shinsei's benefactors."
Shimon let out a sigh, still questioning why he had even bothered to show up in the first place, a disinterested look burning in his green eyes. The woman's words were pleasantries at best, hiding the school's intent to ensure that a student in himself wouldn't wind up souring the oh-so-great name of Shinsei.
It wasn't hard to see why, in their eyes he was probably just a spoiled rich kid, taking a precious slot in their hero course just because his old man, the wealthy Issei Watanabe, willed it. In addition, his scores on the hero assessment were abysmal, and he hadn't even the slightest bit of interest in becoming a hero the first time around.
'Speaking of which, I didn't even attend this meeting the first time around,' Shimon recalled in his head, scratching the back of his head as he tried to look the least bit interested in what the lady had to say.
As it turned out, being smack dab in the middle of the end of the world and gaining the resolve to prevent it and actually go about doing so were two very different things for Shimon. Being back in the past like this, back when his father had cast him out, back when he didn't give much of a shit about becoming a hero... It was pretty hard for the raven-haired boy not to simply just slip back into his old ways and go about being the way he had been the first time around.
Maybe it was the adrenaline that had made Shimon take those actions and say those things to the white-haired time traveller, or maybe it had been a fever dream that his heat-addled mind cooked up after one too many hours working under the sun. Both were of the nature of cop-outs, though, simply being Shimon placing the blame on external circumstances and avoiding what was probably the truth of the matter.
That truth was that... deep down, Shimon hadn't changed one bit. That not even the end of the world could serve as a catalyst for him to change, that after witnessing such a sight and summoning the resolve to go through with this crazy plan... Shimon was still the same old lazy slacker who had no interest in bettering his own life.
'... I'm nothing if not self-aware, huh?' Shimon thought to himself wryly as the woman in front of him began to ask him questions. Even though he hadn't actually gone through with the interview the first time around, Shimon still found himself answering questions the way he'd have done so if he had, his interviewer jotting them all down on an open pad.
His father was actually one of the upper-class benefactors, so it was far too easy for Shimon to simply rationalize these decisions as being a way to not draw his father's attention if he decided to review his interview. Not that he cared what that man thought of him, but having him get involved in his life once more was... less than a desirable outcome.
Still, the way he answered those questions did nothing to soothe Shimon's doubts as he continued to answer the questions. He could tell by the strained smile on the interviewer's face that her already low expectations of him were plummeting more and more with each answer he gave.
"S-So, you're just in this for the ride, is that right?" Shimon almost felt sorry for the lady. He doubted she'd had to deal with a case as bad as his before. Insecurities and egos were probably the only real negative aspects she'd had to deal with in her profession, given the usual high requirements to get into Shinsei.
'And that just shows how much sway dear old dad carries,' Shimon found himself thinking rather spitefully. He'd had similar thoughts the first time around, rejecting the notion of even attending this interview out of anger at his old man for disowning him and attempting to retain some sway over his life. He'd never gotten the chance to ask, but Shimon could only assume that this whole business was some screwed-up way of his father offering him one last chance to get back into his good graces.
The only reason he'd ever wound up deciding to attend was... Shimon frowned as he remembered long days and nights of deliberating, split over what decision he would make. When he'd begrudgingly decided to attend Shinsei University, Shimon had told himself all kinds of reasons to justify his decision; the dorms would be better than living in his current apartment, he was only attending to get his father off of his back, things like that. He hated the hero society that had become so heavily dependent on Quirks and status, there was no real reason for him to ever be okay with going to a prestigious school like Shinsei.
But ever since he'd come back to the past, Shimon often found himself oddly reflective on the steps he'd taken. His first time around, he had been lazy and a chronic slacker, never actually applying himself and putting in the effort to become a hero. He was a bit of an asshole to those that tried to encourage him, as well as a class clown that indiscriminately mocked everyone and their dreams to become a hero.
Those feelings of rebellion and resentment towards his situation hadn't simply gone away, that was for sure, but given the new situation he found himself in, Shimon had tried to take another look at all of it. Feelings of bitter regret welled up in the raven-haired boy's heart as he thought about the actions he'd taken prior. Not necessarily out of regret for the way he acted, but over the opportunity he'd wasted during his time in Shinsei.
Because, deep down, the reason he'd wound up accepting Shinsei's offer was...
"...I want to become a hero," Shimon muttered, or at least he'd thought he had. Evidently, by the shocked look on his interviewer's face, he'd said it a bit louder than he would've liked.
The interview had gone significantly better after that point, with both the interviewer and Shimon feeling better about him going to Shinsei. The raven-haired boy left the interview with a slightly better outlook on this whole thing, his mind drifting back to what he'd uttered as he walked back to his apartment.
It was a simple thing, his dream to become a hero. One that wasn't by any means special in this society, tons of kids wanted to be heroes when they grew up. That was the cynical, bitter part of Shimon thinking, and that part of him wasn't at all afraid to chuckle at how few of those kids actually got the chance to become pro heroes.
And yet, Shimon's own want to become a hero was something he himself didn't normally acknowledge. Due to the fact that it had been his mother that had ignited that small desire within him, it tended to be too painful for him to think about.
Admittedly, Shimon didn't remember much of his mother, but he could at the very least acknowledge that the parts that he could remember were far happier than anything he'd experienced while simply living with his father. From what he knew, his father and mother's marriage was a common thing in this society that treasured Quirks, a Quirk marriage. With Quirk Alteration technology growing by the day, Shimon supposed it would start to be less common, but that had been the relationship between his two parents, Issei Watanabe and Sayaka Hino.
His father's quirk was simple, one that allowed him to rotate things in close vicinity around him. His mother, on the other hand, was a pro hero fresh off of getting her license. It was easy to think about why her Quirk had caught his father's eye, she possessed a fire Quirk with potential rivaling that of the famed fire hero, Endeavor. For a man who continued to seek wealth and power in this world, going into a Quirk marriage with her was simple.
His terms for the marriage were simple as well, she would quit her life as a pro and spend it training their child to become an even better pro-hero. In return, she'd be rewarded handsomely, and taken care of financially. Shimon's mother had agreed since, as Shimon learned through other means afterward, she'd gone into the hero business to successfully take care of her family. Soon after that, Shimon was born.
His mother had resigned from being a hero shortly after she realized she was pregnant, and stayed by her son's side until his Quirk manifested when he was 7. Up until that time, Shimon's father had remained distant from the child, only waiting to see how his Quirk would manifest, leaving Sayaka to be the one to raise Shimon in his early childhood.
Having spent most of his time with his mother, Shimon grew to admire her passions and work. Though she'd spent little time as a pro hero and had wanted to primarily support her family, Sayaka Hino still had a good heart, one that granted her a firm belief in the good that heroes could perform in the world. Shimon's desire to be a hero was as simple as that, to become a person just like his mother.
Unfortunately, when Shimon manifested his Quirk, those dreams were dashed and shattered. He remembered that day oh so vividly; his mother looking at him with nothing but joy in her eyes, elated that her son would be able to pursue his own dreams. And yet the disdain in his father's eyes was so striking, his father's look had stuck with Shimon to this day.
Shortly after that day, it seemed his father had grown dissatisfied with keeping Sayaka around, seeing as one day Shimon came home from school, only to find that his mother was nowhere to be found. She never went back to being a pro hero, either, so Shimon would never see her again, not even having gotten the chance to say goodbye. Shimon never learned the exact reasoning behind why his mother was sent away, or why he had been allowed to stay, but from that day on, he had been given a rude awakening to just how much Issei Watanabe, and by extension this society, valued Quirks.
His father had made it very clear from the start, Shimon's was a weak Quirk that had severely disappointed his expectations. A mere Transformation Quirk that allowed him to rotate parts of his body, nowhere near the realm of his mother's firepower, or even his father's simple telekinesis.
With how much his father expressed such thoughts to him, it wasn't hard to see how Shimon had wound up despising Quirks and heroes as a whole, burying his own hopes of becoming a hero with every discouragement from his father. His old man quickly got into further Quirk marriages, keeping two wives by the time Shimon was at the age of 17. If Shimon didn't know any better, he'd think that his mother hadn't been the only woman his father had been entertaining at the time. (He didn't feel any better when he found out that had been the case.)
Shimon had gotten two more siblings by that point, an older sister and a brother around his age, not that he would've gotten to know them due to the fact that his father prohibited him from interacting with them. Still, both of them had gotten ideal Quirks for hero work, leaving Shimon as the black sheep of the family.
The hero assessment that he'd bombed had been the last time Shimon had seen his family, before his father decided to treat him like his mom and sent him away, keeping him out of the spotlight that being in a prestigious family like the Watanabe family entailed.
"The least he could've done was send me where he'd sent Mom..." Shimon lamented aloud, cursing under his breath as he jiggled the knob to his apartment, opening the door after a few minutes. The apartment was admittedly of shitty quality, especially compared to where he used to live, but it was far more liberating than living with his family had been.
Plus, the fact that he lived alone made it an ideal situation to work out his game plan to prevent... well, the literal end of the world. In reflecting over his past, Shimon had neglected to think about the entire World End situation much until now.
Letting out a sigh, Shimon took a seat on the beat-up couch he'd had some of his construction buddies bring in, staring out one of his windows up at the sky. It was currently colored in a warm array of orange and yellow hues, signifying the end of the day with a sunset. It was crazy to think that in just a little over a year, that same sky would be splotched red, signifying the end of all days with the destruction of the world.
It was then that Shimon had to admit something to himself. In going back to the past, Shimon had taken on something bigger than he could've ever imagined. A task that would probably be challenging for most pro heroes, much less impossible for him. But there was something else to his task that he hadn't quite grasped yet, something that he was starting to understand now.
There was a reason that the World's End Organization was taken so lightly up until the day that they attacked the school. Public opinion of the group was dismissive at best and ignorant at worst, purely because of their theatric nature. World End, their leader, would constantly tap into media displays around the world, reciting numerous manifestos about how diseased and corrupt the world had become, always ending it with that ridiculous promise of being able to destroy the world and create it anew.
If they made any outward moves, they did so in the shadows, not entering public conflict with pro heroes as so many other villains did. Because of this, even the likes of pro heroes took World End and his group lightly, which left Shimon with the dilemma of picking the right people to divulge information. If he messed up, he'd look like a fanatical conspiracy theorist at best, and a lunatic at worst. Of course, he had no clue how World End would respond if the public actually started taking him seriously, the villain could wind up moving up his plans in response, destroying the world as he so pleased...
"Ugh..." Shimon groaned, breaking off his thoughts as he brought a hand to his head. As someone who had merely gone with the flow and coasted his way through Shinsei, having to think this much was admittedly stressful on his brain.
Getting up to get some ice cream from his fridge, Shimon realized he'd come to a conclusion after thinking about his past and the horrible future ahead of him. Although he hadn't expected it, this entire situation had rekindled his desires to become a hero. Whether or not he'd actually be able to pull this off was one thing, but at least for now, one thing was certain.
To be sure that he wouldn't screw up this new timeline (he wasn't too much of a time travel expert), Shimon would have to be careful about who he would tell about all of this, which meant for the most part... he was on his own.
Didn't tweak this chapter as much, but still moving forward with this story. Unfortunately, I had an accident at my job where I burned my arms and hands and haven't been able to reply to potential submissions and submission ideas as much as I'd like. In light of that, I'm going to set a hard deadline for January 15th for this story.
The tentative deadline I'd sent for the last time was today, after all, so I'll be posting the first wave of acceptances up on my profile shortly!
For future submissions, at least for students, I'm looking for either ones that are more on the earnest and optimistic side, or ones that would be more introverted. Passionate is a trait that I'd like to see as well, both in students and teachers. Any gender is fine, I have a decent balance right about now.
For villains, I'd just say to not worry too much about how strong their Quirks may get to be.
With that, I'll hopefully be back with another chapter on the 15th, one that'll get to introduce some of the OCs already accepted.