Not-very-serious warning.
This chapter still contains extremely biased hero commentary written from a biased point of view without the true picture. If any BNHA fans that are blind fans of heroes still remain in the reader base of this fic, be warned. If any people that thought somewhere around ten minutes about how BNHA society is very messed up are still here, be warned of changing impressions in these upcoming chapters.
Obviously, this fic is all about different perspectives, and Hans… is a very limited, very biased lens to view this world from.
…All the more fun to write…. :D
-SpiritOfErebus
What is a name?
Hans knew.
It was the symbol of your being. It may not be unique. It may repeat with countless figures in history, or even contemporaries. It may not be extravagant, but it would still mean a lot to you.
But whatever this is… it was not naming. It was trend riding.
Looking at the market analytics for hero names and what types garnered more attention, Hans gritted his teeth. This wasn't making a pen name for authorship, where the whole goal was to sell more books by making a more appealing and memorable name. It wasn't for a goal of secrecy or anonymity, like for secret agents or fictional vigilantes.
Ultimately, there was no purpose for hero names. It merely ingrained the old fantasies of said fictional vigilantes into the impressionable teenagers that would make these names part of their identity for the rest of their lives.
Or… well… the naming scheme created abominations such as Midnight.
Hans looked at the teacher distracting half the population of the class, before rolling his eyes. Being used to attacks like this from another pair of dangerous, fast, and unpredictable objects, Hans was immune to the promises of the tan-colored skinsuit. He was a virgin, and nobody would underestimate him.
But that woman was a walking censorship warning. Even Kiara, being the incarnation of lust that she was, walked around in a nun outfit. To be fair, Chaldea was filled with other more… suspicious female wear that looked like it came out of a Japanese lightnovel that Hans had read when planning his own money grabs by writing out EMIYA's story, but Hans suspected that it was because the mages that summoned the servants were closet perverts.
This… human? Person? Being with no social awareness? She walked around like an advertisement on a pirating website. And felt absolutely no shame.
There was no underlying cause for this. There was no possible explanation other than fanservice.
So, despite Hans marking the struggle of most as remarkable, as admirable and respectable to witness… this was clearly just a degradation of morality.
His summons, however, were not so perceptive to the socioeconomic implications of a marketable hero name. Instead, they were behaving like most sane people would: trying to have fun with the situation instead of going on tangents about inappropriate teachers in this crazy, wacky world.
"What name should we go with?" The Ice Queen said uncharacteristically,like she had walked straight out of a fairytale and was now interacting with the real world for the first time.
"I think Treeman sounds nice." The Elder Tree Mother said. "It's a very strong name. Very nice in tree culture."
"That… doesn't exist." The Ice Queen muttered.
The little mermaid burbled.
Hans didn't think that the Little Match Girl could speak.
As the summons whispered up a storm in his head, so too did his classmates. Whispering to each other, expressing various degrees of 'this is so cool', or 'this is the ultimate cool', or 'Ryonuske, I will fulfill my promise to you!'.
…Maybe not that last one. No gigantic squids would be summoned today in response to what they thought was the greatest cool.
But anyways, as Hans remained dead to the world, with Iida's glasses glinting ominously at him, he was filled with… dread.
He was vice president. Was Iida going to make him go first, or something? Would he have to present a hero name that fulfilled the assignment?
But then? Looking at himself, Hans shrugged.
His impression was already at rock bottom with most of his classmates. What more was a little embarrassment?
"You know what, guys?" Hans thought. "I'll go with whatever name you all come up with."
It wouldn't hurt to let his summons play for a bit.
Their tales were already tragedies, just like the girl that had given Hans life advice. The same advice that he had told Todoroki.
If Todoroki knew that girl committed suicide, what would he think?
Sometimes, it was better to not know. And just live in the now. To let his summons come up with whatever embarrassing entrance that they wanted to come up with.
…
The lights shut off.
Midnight looked on curiously as Hans stood behind what seemed like a curtain of wood that had sprouted from behind a potted plant. The lights were off, and everything was in pitch black, save for Midnight's laptop glowing with an incandescent light… and Tokoyami's emotional support flashlight.
Hans closed his eyes and shrugged behind the wooden curtain, just when fires abruptly sprang up in the corners of the room. From those fires, an ice covering branched out, casting flickering shadows all across the classroom.
While Aizawa adjusted his sleep mask, a deep, female voice began to echo.
"As the old saying goes, when the world doesn't go their way, the author turns to the pen."
Slowly, Hans felt his body ascend as the wooden growth beneath his feet slowly swelled upwards. Wooden branches tied themselves around his arms, forcing him to point towards the ceiling.
"But what if the world could truly be shifted by nothing but words?"
Swans appeared out of midair and flew across the room's ceiling silently, sending feathers cascading from the ceiling, only to disappear into blue sparks before they came close to any of the students. Two flames abruptly burst into existence beside the throne of trees as the formation deformed, the lump of wood beneath Hans's feet began to morph into what looked like books.
"In order to return fairytale innocence to this world, he picks up his pen, gatherers his notes, and announces himself to the world."
Hans looked at the miniature crystalline staircase that led down to the floor, made completely out of ice, and decided to humor his summons.
Slowly and daintily, he walked down the stairs, acting as if his shoes were not running shoes, but expensive, leather ones. As the throne of books dissipated and rippled into what seemed like the shadow of a castle, Hans stopped, summoned his blue tablet, and spoke.
"I am Hans Christian Andersen, the literary observer…"
Under Midnight's gaze, amidst the flamboyance, amidst the shattered crystal shards and the receding tree branches, he said that last word.
"...Hero."
For a moment, the class remained silent. Hans snapped his fingers, and all of the arbitrary constructs disappeared. The roots and the ice behind him exploded into a series of blue sparks that faded out almost immediately. The flames went into nonexistence, like the nonexistent fire alarms in the hero class rooms.
"...Are we supposed to clap, or something?" Kaminari said, breaking the silence. "I mean, that was impressive and all, but isn't it a bit unnecessary?"
"So, you did all of this just to go with your name as your hero name?" Midnight said, flipping on the light switch and raising an eyebrow.
Hans shrugged. "It's not just my name. It's also m-the name of a fairytale author that lived in the 19th century.
"I guess it does work with your particular quirk." Midnight said, her arms in a rather unfortunate thinker pose. It distorted the… orbs… on her body a little too much. "But I like the flashy introduction! This will be very helpful for your debut video in the future."
"Debut… video?" Hans muttered. "There's more of this?"
"Of course." Midnight said, snapping her whip. "Publicity is half of being a hero! And you all are just starting down that journey!"
…
Unsurprisingly, with the heavy lack of special effects for literally everyone else's name presentation, Hans's name was obviously the most memorable.
Ojiro's name sounded like it wouldn't see the light of day. Tailman. Tailman. Kirishima went for a homage to another hero, while Yaoyorozu went with a name that sounded like she ripped the word straight out of latin, but only just sounded like. It was actually more akin to a name to an amino acid.
But Hans honestly didn't care.
Those were just frivolous affairs.
Because there were two blades dangling above his head, threatening to drop at any moment.
The first one? His inevitable talk with Izuku Midoriya.
Perhaps, Midoriya's loss had been ordained to the plot. Perhaps it was something that advanced Midoriya instead of hindered him. Maybe his fight had inspired Midoriya in some way? Given him one or two more techniques or ideas for powerups?
But what mattered in this case, instead of the protagonist's powerups, was his ideals.
Undeniably, Hans's words had seeded doubt into Midoriya's heart. That doubt could prove fatal to the whole world.
And that would have to be resolved, lest more sacrifices be made on society's part when Midoriya was indecisive, or unable to act when the plot demanded him to.
But that… could wait. After all, what was coming up next was a controlled excursion into the crime-fighting experience. No student would be dragged into anything too crazy, right? Of course, crime didn't wait for anybody, but with how controlling the UA staff were about literally everything, from having walls around the school to both keep the outside out and the inside in… to mandating that his classmates change hero names on the whim of the one teacher that Hans didn't want to take fashion lessons from.
However, that was also the second sword of Damocles hanging over his head. The internships themselves.
Hans knew he was probably despised by the hero community. He went against basically everything they stood for, other than the part about not committing crimes and endangering the public.
…He may have committed a crime while defrauding UA out of common housing appliances when filing a costume order, but UA approved the form and said that those appliances were "applicable in combat", so was that even really fraud in the first place?
Anyways, the upcoming internships would be a struggle. Who knows whether or not some mysterious organization would try to do him in again when he participated in some form of civil service? Last time, he was attacked during his duty to testify.
He did not want to tempt fate this time.
…
Looking down at the sheet of paper in his hands, Hans… was confused.
No, this wasn't math homework.
This was the list of people that wanted him for an internship in the hero industry. It was very understandable that it was one, singular sheet of paper.
So, Hans looked down the list alphabetically to assess his very limited options. Obviously, the UA school-sponsored application was on top, being a 'U'. The hero whose life he had saved, Iceblade, sent him an offer… very reluctantly, Hans would have assumed.
And that should have been the entire list… if not for the fact that there was a name below Iceblade's offer.
It was incredibly confusing. There was no way that this was right.
"This has to be a mistake, right?" Hans whispered to Iida.
It wasn't because Iida was class president. It wasn't because Iida had passed out these sheets.
It was because the name on the list… was Ingenium.
…
"So, Tenya, do you recommend any other students from your year to intern with us?" Tensei said, thumbing his way through the forty students that were in the hero classes. Looking past an irate face, the face of a bird, and an oddly frog-like face, Ingenium quickly flipped back two pages to look at the crow-raven creature staring at him through the photo.
Was this actually a student, or just a mistake by UA? Upon further inspection, there was an entire quirk listing and an explanation for the feature, which mean that it was actually a student.
"There is no issue with this." Tensei thought, taking a sip of orange juice. "You've seen weirder."
"Well, brother, there is one person that I can think of which would need your aid in establishing a firmer understanding of the hero industry." Iida proclaimed, his arms flailing about robotically. It was always odd to Tensei, given the fact that he was the one with the arm-related engine quirk, not Iida.
"And who is this?" Tensei said, flipping through the papers and trying to identify potential mobility quirks. Maybe… this person with tape dispensers on his elbows?
"I believe you know of him already. He is Hans Christian Andersen, the vice president of our class!"
"...Oh… Him…" Tensei said.
Which hero didn't know about the kid that was dissing their whole career? About the court case that knocked Hawks's hero rank from three to five?
Looking at the slightly surly expression on the sheet of paper, Tensei considered the words of a teenager that were just lashing out.
He had requested financial aid to attend UA, according to the paperwork, and had saved a hero's life to get in. Which meant that this Hans Christian Andersen wasn't a bad person, just an unfortunate one. Given the amount of heroes out there that honestly were… a bit too engrossed in the celebrity life, there was no doubt that somebody of Andersen's background would not have a great outlook on the modern hero.
But maybe, if Tensei could show how a modern hero worked, well… maybe some of Andersen's extreme cynicism would be alleviated.
And if there were any problems with his agency, given what Tenya had been complaining about, this Anderson had a sharp enough tongue and an observant enough eye that Hans would be able to spot them anyways.
…
"You simply have to accept this opportunity!" Iida said, smiling broadly and staring into Hans's soul fervently. Taking a small step back, Hans looked at the person that seemed like he was double his height, was physically advantaged, and was over-enthusiastic with arm movements.
Narrowly dodging one swing, Hans's glasses almost suffered a critical existence failure as he tilted his head back, a finger missing his nose by less than an inch.
"Okay, okay. I'll take it." Hans sighed, raising a pen and signing a form, before quickly writing Ingenium on the mentor request form.
It would be interesting to see things from a different lens.
…
Late at night, when her creator fell asleep, the little mermaid slipped out of his consciousness and floated away into the night.
Despite the fact that she could not speak, she was more powerful than the others. She had fame. She came with her own mana source.
In other words, she was secretly… independent.
Hans didn't know that. Hans didn't need to know that. All he needed to know was that the little mermaid was capable of moving further away than the other summons, minus the ducks, of course.
What Hans also didn't need to know was that… there was something festering inside of the little mermaid. A blob of black energy that threatened to overtake her every day.
What was it caused by? Her limited mind couldn't exactly comprehend it. She was a summon, not an intellectual. Her decisions were not mandated by rationality in her story, anyways, so could she even comprehend these thoughts?
Ultimately, the little mermaid needed fixing.
And Hans was completely ignorant to it. After all, he wasn't a very good mage, despite everything else he was trying to do.
She had chanced upon her the first time the corruption came to root upon her, changing her scales from green to dark blue, and increasing her bestial features until she was slowly growing to be more akin to a siren than a mermaid.
She was crying. Bandages were constantly wrapped around her arms, and a single horn that jutted out at a weird angle from her forehead almost made her seem like a fairytale character.
Her situation? She was entombed in a concrete bunker underground, while a mad scientist used her DNA to perform terrible experiments.
It almost sounded like science fiction, but it was, indeed, happening.
But the little mermaid could sense something that she needed within the broken girl. For there was a power that could eliminate the corruption at its root.
Rewind. The power to wind a living being's body back to a previous state. Neither of the parties involved knew what was involved in the process, however, and quirks were never tested by mysteries from the other side of the world.
Because it certainly did not work on concepts. The little mermaid, being a crystallized conceptualization of a tale, was immune to the quirk. What wasn't immune was the cursed aberration living inside of the little mermaid.
The fish had swam through the earth and arrived at its savior's side with a whimper and a wail, struggling with the foreign invasion. And with the glowing white power of her quirk, the child saved what seemed to be just another animal to her extremely sheltered mind.
But no matter how impossibly, though one spoke Japanese, and the other only murmured, they had begun to communicate.
There was a lot of time to learn what mermaids spoke when you did nothing but sit in a white room all day.
…
"Eri." Chisaki said raspily, pushing open the door into a pitch dark room.
Quickly, the child turned in her covers, sat up, and looked at the man in a bird beak mask.
"Soon, you'll be moved to a different room, in a larger district." Chisaki said, before raising an eyebrow.
The child didn't look… sad. Instead, they looked scared? Not that the kid wasn't scared normally, but she usually was only scared when they were obtaining her DNA.
A light switch was flipped. An incredibly bare room was revealed, with no corners and no furniture to hide anything. The sheets were replaced daily and the mattress was reconstructed by Chisaki himself to make sure no implements of self-harm would make it into the room.
Chisaki walked towards the bed, which was really just a mattress on the ground, only to see a patch suspiciously similar to tears staining the white sheets.
But the child didn't look like she had been crying. Her eyes weren't red at all.
…Maybe she had learned to use her quirk on herself?
"Don't use your quirk anymore, Eri." Chisaki said. "Remember, it is a curse. It only brings pain and misery to others. Think about… what happened to your parents."
The girl nodded dully.
Slowly, Chisaki backed out of the room and closed the doors.
They would be moving to a new district. the district where labor strikes had destroyed a local mafia group.
…That would give them more of a population to test phase two on.
The drug was almost ready. And Eri… had to be ready.
…
Within the pitch black darkness of the room, a rainbow emerged from Eri's hands. The little mermaid sat in the palm of her hand, spraying out a damp mist of water and using what control over her own glistening she had to show what her summoner had been doing that day.
Eri's eyes had glinted, focused, and observed as Hans Christian Andersen complained about things, wrote his novels, fought in the sports festival, and battled villains in the court.
She looked at the screen, looked at the fantastical tales completely foreign to her, and thought…
Could she ever live like that?
…
AN: The next arc begins. Only time will tell what Eri does now…
BTW: Fate Lore explanations because everybody will ask.
Q: Hans is cursed too, right? Why isn't he feeling the corruption?
Hans is a non-canonical being in the BNHA universe, so, like EMIYA, he heavily resists corruption. He is, however, influenced by fame bonuses, as are his creations.
Q: Then why are his creations influenced? Aren't they non-canonical too?
Hans's creations have many varied interpretations. There is no concrete answer as to "what is the little mermaid". Just look at the remakes lol. Different generations and people will have a different impression of the little mermaid, making their form difficult to nail down. As a story that also exists in the BNHA universe, the little mermaid thus can also be influenced by external factors such as fame and, in this case, Kiara's curses and smearing campaign.
Q: Why hasn't Hans noticed?
We can view their relationship as one like Sakatmoto Ryoma and Oryou. Just like those two, Hans and all his summons are theoretically partners, since we don't get any other explanations for them in fate lore, I think. My interpretation of them will show that It's just that his partners source their mana from his spirit origin, and that they're weak without Hans's influence. The Little Mermaid, being more famous (along with the little match girl), has more mana from their own fame bonus and thus can move around more independently.
Discord link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV
-SpiritOfErebus