So… It's been a while. Not that long. But I'm on a road trip.
Small fate lore thing: Some skills… do not take mana! I knew this, considering Kojiro's skills and my previous fic, but apparently Hans's skills (maybe minus his innocent monster skill? I'm not sure) don't.
I mentioned that his skills took mana, especially human observation. Let's just chalk it up to "he needs to enhance his human body to keep up with the flow of information" and ignore it. But that IS a fate lore inaccuracy that my discord server pointed out.
Anyways, enjoy. There was too much content to write before the Bakugo fight, so I… uh… couldn't fit it in with my timetable.
I'll still grind it out, though.
-SpiritOfErebus
The explosion caused by Hans's matches were nowhere near big enough to jeopardize the whole arena. Instead, as Hans looked out from the cracked ice shell, coated in soot and fragments of twigs, his limbs shaking from the small shock that the expanded air had caused, he saw Todoroki out of the arena.
The gigantic glacier that he had created had caused such an excess of ice that even Todoroki himself had been pushed out of the arena. Hans was still within the arena, though very high up.
And thus, a half-frozen Midnight declared Hans the winner.
Hans looked down from his golem-like creation, contemplated his 10% of remaining mana, and closed his eyes, and thought…
How the fuck am I going to get down?
…
After Hans bit his lip and spent an additional two percent of his mana to let the Elder Tree Mother lower him to the ground, he was immediately ushered onto a stretcher, and just as Todoroki was freed from his own icy prison and delivered to Recovery Girl, Hans saw a greatly disappointed crowd and and a severely disappointed plume of flame.
Looking at Todoroki, who was being carried by robots right next to him, Hans adjusted his chilled skin into a more comfortable position and began to ask.
"Why… were you convinced?" Hans said. "I've never actually had somebody that accepted some of the points I make at first. I mean, just accepting the fact that you didn't want to be a hero as a potentially idealistic teenager in a hero school is kind of weird, you know?"
Todoroki's slightly dizzy face looked back at him. The blank, empty expression was honestly kind of unnerving. But then… Todoroki smiled.
"Nobody had ever tried to give me direction before." Todoroki said. "It was always 'do this' and 'do that', people saying I should be a hero because of my father… School counselors saying that I'd make a great hero… But nobody's ever talked about what I wanted."
"Isn't that… kind of fucked up?" Hans said. "I mean, it's oddly convenient for me that whatever I said managed to work, but this society literally tried to reduce your identity down to nothing but a generic hero template. Isn't that… kind of terrifying?"
"Honestly?" Todoorki said, "Yeah. It is."
For a moment, they rode the stretchers in relative silence, only punctuated by the constant squeaking of the wheel, the incessant chirping of the robots, and the-
"Why are these things so goddamn loud!" Hans shouted. "I can barely hear myself think!"
Todoroki smiled again.
…
They arrived at the infirmary mildly traumatized by the beeping.
"Were these stretchers meant for unconscious people?" Hans complained. "I swear, the robots were communicating with each other or something in morse code."
"As a matter of fact, they were." Recovery Girl said, looking down at Hans's sullen expression. Todoroki's mildly frosted over body was already defrosting, with his left side working to slowly jumpstart his own body without getting it sick via rapid temperature changes.
"It looks like you're already fine, then." Recovery Girl said. "Why didn't you use that part of your quirk during the match, young man?"
Todoroki smiled and said nothing.
"Yeah, Todoroki-san." Midoriya said, reaching out with a heavily bandaged arm and peeling back the curtains. "Doesn't it also injure your body when you use too much ice? Besides, if you had just restored your body temperature with fire, you could have… won? I'm sorry, Andersen-san, I didn't mean to demean you, but-"
"It's fine." Hans said, shrugging. "I knew that if Todoroki didn't hold back, he would have destroyed me."
"Sometimes." Todoroki said, "Winning isn't the goal."
"But what about your dreams?" Deku said, a bit tearfully. "All of us here are working really hard to be heroes. I'm sure that you're no exception."
"...Maybe some dreams are meant to die." Todoroki said, sighing.
Looking at the slightly dejected expression on Todoroki's face, Hans began to slowly reconsider. Was what he had said in the moment… really correct?
It didn't matter in the end anyways. Todoroki wasn't his responsibility.
"I mean, I told you about-" Todoroki said, before checking around for Recovery Girl. She was currently getting a hot beverage. "Quirk marriages, right, Midoriya? And everything that came with it?"
"...Yes?" Midoriya said.
"Wait, what?" Hans said, raising an eyebrow. "When was this a thing?"
"I think that if being a hero is just too much pressure, maybe I'm not fit for the career." Todoroki said. "Or, rather, I can be a hero, it just wouldn't be a good personal investment. That job would destroy me."
The three remained silent.
"Okay, well, I don't really want or need to know about the quirk marriage thing." Hans said, shrugging and sitting up on the stretcher. "But seriously, up your situational awareness, all right, Midoriya? He obviously talked to you and was looking for direction. Did you just give him another typical teenage challenge back?"
"...About that, Andersen-san."
"Yes?" Hans said, raising an eyebrow.
"For the speeches… and what I said… and what everybody thinks." Midoriya began tentatively. "What you said during our match… I hope that I seriously haven't been giving off that impression, that I'm doing all of this just to get social acceptance. My dream is to save people with a smile. To at least try to become the next symbol of peace."
"Just like All Might." Hans said.
"Yeah. Exactly." Midoriya said, looking up at the ceiling with a vaguely positive expression. Hans suspected he was high on painkillers, but it was highly unlikely given the fact that they were in a school environment. "Exactly like All Might."
"And how old is All Might?" Hans said, scratching his chin. "Fifty? Fourty five?"
"Forty nine." Midoriya said automatically.
"Now, how long do you expect somebody as old as that to stick around? I mean, All Might is approaching the average age of retirement for a hero." Hans said. "What happens after All Might? Will you take up his mantle? Do you really think that you can match up to him?"
"I… I'll try. And no matter how I get there, either for shallow reasons or out of my own sense of justice, I'll try to keep the torch aloft. But honestly, I'm not sure…"
Midoriya looked down at his hands.
"Am I doing all of this for the desire to be accepted?"
Hans paused. Midoriya was the protagonist after all, and if his resolve wavered… whatever narrative still remained would be distorted completely. And for Hans's own safety, he would have to ensure that Midoriya, at least, continued as he was… for the sake of the plot.
Oh, god. For the sake of the plot.
Todoroki also noticed his "imperceptible" change in emotion, but ignoring the failure of his normally stoic look, Hans decided that he had to do something to restore the protagonist to his former glory, ensuring that they wouldn't be completely destroyed by whatever final villain inevitably arose.
Hans got down from his stretcher and tested his legs. They could work, though they were very, very cold. Slowly, he ambled towards Midoriya's bed… and patted him on the shoulder gently.
"No matter what your problem is, or if it even exists, as long as you start to think about their possibility, you have my respect."
As Hans slowly staggered out of the room to head back to the stands, he walked slowly past Todoroki's bunk.
"You know… I think Midoriya is All Might's secret love child." Todoroki whispered extremely seriously.
Hans looked at Todoroki, who nodded solemnly… well, as solemnly as somebody steaming on a bed could.
Todoroki, despite his changes, was still a protagonist. One of the trio. What he said, though sounding comedic, might actually be a way for an author to use humor and disguise it as foreshadowing.
Then again, it was probably a gag.
Hans thought about it casually. If this was some kind of plot twist that the author was trying to pull, he was doing it badly, in a more cliche manner than literal fairy tales.
The strength quirk… him being the protagonist… All Might suddenly joining UA as a teacher, All Might's attention on Midoriya… And the fact Midoriya looked up to All Might did support this theory a lot.
"Do you know his mother's hair color?" Hans asked. "Because if it's blue… suddenly, a lot of things make sense."
Then, the door in front of him closed.
"Get back in bed, young man." Recovery Girl said sternly. "And drink this."
A cup of hot cocoa was shoved into his hands. The burning porcelain almost added another burn to his collection, if not for the fact that he was exaggerating.
Taking a sip, he felt the searing pain and numbing sweetness slowly tear down his throat.
"Come to think of it." Hans rasped, "You've never been this talkative before, Todoroki."
"I just… never saw the reason." Todoroki shrugged. "I mean, you all are very different compared to me. You rejoice in your powers. I… am burdened by them."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Hans sighed, shrugging his shoulder and looking up at the screen showing UA trying to melt the tangled mess of trees and ice.
"Can I ask you… about your burns?" Todoroki said delicately. "If it's something that's also related to-"
"Oh, no." Hans said. "This is just a side effect of my quirk."
"A… side effect?" Todoroki said. Midoriya opened his curtain to hear better.
Hans gave Midoriya a little side eye, but since he was the protagonist, Midoriya understanding his quirk better would probably aid in sudden bursts of inspiration to defeat an unreasonably powerful foe.
Thus, he explained.
"My quirk is very weird." Hans said, trying to explain as much of his quirk without magic being a factor as possible. "I have… contracts… with various fairy tales, and after accepting their power or something, I get cursed by an ironic twist in the way that they either die or get greatly inconvenienced. I don't know how it works exactly."
"That's cruel and oddly aware for a quirk." Midoriya said pensively.
"Who knows?" Hans said. "Maybe my quirk gave itself sentience. It certainly wouldn't be the weirdest thing a Quirk has done, hell it's not even the weirdest Quirk in our class."
As Hans slowly recanted the tale of his most commonly used summons (minus The Red Shoes), Recovery Girl smiled.
It was nice to see young people get along.
Meanwhile, Hans shot another glare at Midoriya as he lamented about the fact that there were no heroes around to save the little match girl.
He really wasn't getting the point of the fairytale.
Because how the fuck did somebody get "if only there was a hero" from a tale about poverty?
…
On the stands, the three cheered, before two of them realized that they had to fight each other in the same round.
"Kirishima-kun, are you confident against Monoma?" Yaoyorozu said, trying to ignore the uncomfortable topic of elimination.
"I mean, sure." Kirishima said, shrugging. "He's pretty difficult to deal with in a minute, but looking at all of his matches, he finishes them fast and goes on the attack really quickly, which means that his copy quirk definitely has a time limit."
"But then he'll have your quirk, and the exact capabilities that you have." Ojiro said, scratching his head. "Do you think you really can-"
"Nobody knows my quirk like I do." Kirishima said, clenching his fist. "And besides, the month we spent was not in vain."
"Heh. That month of doing pushups in front of a concrete pillar while the midget sat on top of you?"
"No." Kirishima declared. "It was a-"
Ojiro clapped him on the shoulder.
"Do you want to add even more work on him during the internships?" he hissed. "It's already going to be a hassle to write another month for us three."
"What the fuck are you all talking about? Are you getting training from that scrub?" Bakugo said, sneering.
"..." The trio remained silent.
"Half and half held back against him and lost." Bakugo smirked. "I guess that makes him an extra too, if he really was that much of a pushover."
"Your match is next, Bakugo. You best prepare." Yaoyorozu said coldly.
"Against… splitty girl?" Bakugo said, looking at the brackets. "Heh. They shuffled the brackets so you two losers are going to fight each other. I guess your little team is breaking up. Anyways, she's going to be even less of a challenge than round face."
Yaoyorozu looked at Ojiro. A decision had to be made between the two.
Who was going to advance and beat this guy up?
That would be decided in the match.
…
Setsuna Tokage was blasted out of the arena, her face an expression of agony.
Honestly, it didn't seem like the match would have ended any other way.
…
"On one side, we have Monoma Neito!" Present Mic announced. "With a strong showing in the past two rounds, we've seen him utilize his classmate's quirks to devastating effects."
The crowd cheered. Clearly, Monoma's diverse and flashy powers, combining long range with short range and strength with small tricks was quickly becoming a favorite.
"On the other, we have Kirishima Ejiro! After defeating somebody with a redundant quirk, can he prove his hardening to be superior to a whole class of quirks?"
The crowd clapped politely. They were definitely expecting the fight to go one way.
As they settled in their respective stances and Present Mic wrapped up his hype speeches, Kirishima took a deep breath, before beginning to analyze his opponent.
An opponent that basically had all the options.
Though he probably didn't have the splitting ability, commonly used quirks were big hands and vine hair. Testsutetsu was probably out of the infirmary after Kirishima left some surface level damage on his arm, so Monoma probably also had durability.
Along with some degree of telekinesis, size manipulation, and many other miscellaneous offensive or binding quirks, this was going to be a tough one.
He gritted his teeth. He wasn't the best at it, but he would have to focus on-
The flogger descended. Midnight announced the fight.
And vines flew across the air, arching from atop Monoma's previously blonde head. They surged across the battlefield like a pack of angry snakes, while Monoma approached from the center, big hands extending, his telekinetic control already amassing a lot of the debris that the destruction of the arena had produced.
Kirishima sidestepped some of the debris and hardened his hand, producing a relatively sharp edge. Then, he attempted to shear through the vines to test their durability.
They cut through. So he wasn't completely helpless against them. But the vines around the cut one reacted violently, shooting upwards at Kirishima's arms.
He knew that once he was grabbed, he was helpless. Thus, he ran backwards, out of the range of Monoma's hair.
However, Monoma himself was also approaching, big hands waving menacingly. A storm of rubble announced his arrival, and Kirishima hardened a thin shell around him to keep durability up and mobility high. The concrete stung, but only a bit.
He was all about endurance. Monoma? He was literally the opposite.
The problem was getting to the point where Monoma's endurance ended. The arena constraint was honestly a big one, considering the fact that a lot of Monoma's kit involved grappling.
Kirishima punched an approaching big hand on the wrist, causing Monoma to recoil in pain. Yet another failed grappling attempt.
So, what was Monoma's weakness, other than endurance?
It was obvious. The fact that he, like all the other hero course students, hadn't really been training professionally. Because when the hands moved, the vines stopped twitching. Which meant that Monoma could only perform simplistic acts when concentrating on something else, such as high-pressure fighting.
But getting close to Monoma was a risk factor as well, considering the vines. Thus, close combat was out. Kirishima could perpetually defend at mid-range, but that wouldn't do any good, considering the fact that it was only defending.
Thus, he just had to keep cycling between mid range and short range combat.
It wasn't easy, but easy wasn't what heroes did.
Spiraling out of the way of another volley of vines and using his hardened skin to deflect some barbs (because obviously vines could do that), between Kirishima's mental gymnastics and his literal gymnastics, only one minute had passed.
"What's wrong, Kirishima?" Monoma laughed. "Can't stand up to the supreme power of Class B? I'll have you know-"
Kirishima stepped into Monoma's guard. Monoma laughed maniacally, seeing that Kirishima had stepped into his trap. A planned action occurred, and both vines and fists moved in swift conjunction.
"I'll have you know that even though you think you're concentrating, talking distracts you." Kirishima said. "Why am I talking, then, you may ask?"
"Why?" Monoma said, the vines circling around the twin grips of his palm.
Kirishima didn't answer. Hardening his leg this time, he brought it upwards in a roundhouse towards the sky. Every tendon in his body was pushed to the limit, but the flexibility training had paid off.
He could now use one hand to touch the other behind his back, unlike most bodybuilders.
And with that basic unexpected flexibility, and most importantly, strength, he was able to shear past the vines with a sharpened edge on his shin. Before he kicked off the two hardened palms… and twisted his body out of the gap between the two gigantic hands's fingertips.
In a high jump towards the sky.
As Monoma growled in frustration, Kirishima fell out of the sky, out of the range of the hands and the vines intertwined together, a grotesque yet defined mass of power.
"I talk to draw out a response, and to distract you, Monoma." Kirishima said, bringing his two fists forward.
"Ready for round two?"
The vines rippled once more.
"Sixty." Kirishima thought.
…
One hundred twenty.
Kirishima rolled out of the wave of vines.
…
One hundred eighty.
Kirishima exhaled rapidly, before sucking in another breath and pushing off two gigantic fists before vines circled around his ankles. "Slow, even breaths, just like Master Li taught you."
…
Two hundred.
Abruptly, the vines disappeared. Monoma's hair went blonde once more, and his hands shrunk down.
"My time's up, I guess." Monoma said, sighing. He looked at his arms. Despite being enlarged, some small bruises and cuts carried over, though they were only surface level. "But don't think that I'm giving up now!"
"I wouldn't dream of it." Kirishima said, grinning. "Let's finish this."
Hardening his arms with Kirishima's hardening quirk, Monoma took a slightly clumsy judo stance and leaned backwards, clearly planning for Kirishima's superior strength.
"I haven't practiced in a while, but this is my best effort. 1-A bastard… you've won my respect." Monoma said.
"Your power is formidable." Kirishima said, nodding. "We are both constrained by the very venue of this event."
"But how did you survive the vines and the hands?" Monoma said, slightly incredulous. "With your slightly average and unflashy quirk, how did you break free so many times?"
"It's not that difficult." Kirishima said, stepping forwards with a flash. As Monoma adjusted his stance to face him, Kirishima stomped on the ground and fractured the concrete. As Kirishima punched forwards, Monoma reached out to catch the hand and tried to recreate a judo throw.
The punch was a feint. Instead, Kirishima's other hand came up and flicked both of Monoma's hands out of the way.
"Don't feel too bad about this." Kirishima said, punching forwards again, barely a few inches away from Monoma. Monoma felt a regular fist impact his sternum, before the hand abruptly hardened.
The sudden acceleration caused by the hardening caused Monoma to soar out of the ring, amidst a gust of wind and a swirl of force.
Kirishima had won.
…
Yaoyorozu and Ojiro stood opposite to each other. Ojiro's tail flicked anxiously, while Yaoyorozu clenched and unclenched her fist, almost as if she was fidgeting.
The very first move of the battle was important. Very important.
Thus, Yaoyorozu chose the simplest modern option that would allow her to attack with the most force at the longest distance.
As Midnight's flogger came down, two machine guns fell out of the length of her arm, with a string of bullets connected from the magazine to her arm, where more and more rubber bullets were being produced.
Ojiro, however, wasn't idle either. While Yaoyorozu was preparing her ranged options, he had slammed his tail against the concrete as the match began, bringing up a big chunk of concrete, before hiding behind it.
The rubber bullets slowly chafed away at Ojiro's shield as Yaoyorozu contemplated her next move, even while continuously using her rapidly dwindling lipids to create rubber bullets.
Caltrops were inefficient. They were sharp, dangerous projectiles that Ojiro could take care of via attacking the ground and using said impact to send them away.
Gasses were ineffective, considering the fact that Ojiro could use his tail to clear the air.
Melee weapons were ineffective, considering the fact that Ojiro was superior to her in hand-to-hand. Though their combat aptitude were similar, and Yaoyorozu could hold her own against Ojiro in a pure skill contest, Ojiro's tail made for an advantage that could not be bridged.
An elemental advantage could theoretically work, but Ojiro had his concrete shield. Making a tesla coil depended on tagging metal onto Ojiro, which wouldn't work. Fire could be blocked. Any other methods of making elements such as ice were inefficient, and she wasn't Todoroki, who could create glaciers instantly. Not taking into account the chance for accidental self harm when creating substances that could work like liquid nitrogen.
Therefore, she had to first eliminate his visual advantage. A smoke grenade popped out of her leg, rolling out of her pant leg and staying close to her foot, spewing thick black smoke. An infrared vision mask grew from her face. Looking across the field and ignoring the heat signatures of the judges and the crowd, Ojiro's general area was still seen clearly, despite him hiding behind the chunk of cement.
After all, he still radiated heat.
Yaoyorozu kept up her gunfire, continuing to try and suppress Ojiro from coming out from behind the rock. If he did, then he would be hit by her bullets. If he didn't, then the smoke would be able to overtake the arena.
Either scenario was a tactical advantage.
Of course, Ojiro chose to nullify both advantages by roaring and running towards the sound of gunfire with a gigantic rock.
As Yaoyorozu was forced to dodge, the speed at which Ojiro dashed and the size of the object that he was carrying cleaved through the smoke like a knife through butter. The smoke was instantly sent sideways, and the dodge that Ojiro forced Yaoyorozu through was sufficient to break her concentration. Her guns sputtered and eventually went out due to lack of information.
Looking at the two very overheated and simplistic multi-shot guns, Yaoyorozu sighed and threw them out of the ring. They would be useless from now on.
But that was okay. She still had a fighting chance.
She was still in the smoke. Sending yet another smoke grenade towards the center of the arena, she began to move around where Ojiro was, setting down audio lures such as inefficient perpetual motion machines with bells tied to their ends.
Thus, she was still at a sensory advantage. And there was only so many times somebody could run through smoke with a rock, since Yaoyorozu's threat of gunfire was still present.
Slowly, another gun clicked into her hands, and a syringe fell into her hands as well.
A narcotic agent with mild effects but fast-acting properties, it would be able to neutralize Ojiro if it penetrated his skin. Another syringe shot out into her hand as a short range option, while she continued to drop smoke grenades.
Ojiro, of course, knew that something was up. Yaoyorzu needed stealth, and from the month of combat simulations and training in Hans's literal simulation, Ojiro was no newbie at combat anymore.
He slammed his tail into the ground, and out sprang even more boulders for him to hide behind.
Yaoyorozu gritted her teeth. This match was now a waiting game.
…
Present Mic sat in his announcer booth for three minutes, looking at a smoke cloud slowly growing larger.
"Well, as you can see… this match is very exciting."
The audience laughed.
"They can't all be as exciting, though, folks." He said, to try and fill in the holes in the action. "Some quirks depend on stealth, and that just isn't as interesting to watch. Well, as we can see in the infrared vision screen, the two are currently searching for each other in the cloud of mist that Yaoyorozu has created. Ojiro has cleared the mist before, but this time, he's obviously not doing it because not being seen is important for him, too!"
"...Just wait for the match to finish." Aizawa groaned, looking up from the corner of the announcement booth.
…
Was Yaoyorozu the hunter, or the hunted?
She contemplated this as she scanned the arena for the signature red glow of Ojiro's heat signature while her sound lures slowly grew fainter and fainter, their perpetual motion slowly degrading. Lying flat on the ground so as to avoid Ojiro's potential sweeping attacks, she waited. And crawled.
Ojiro's tail would have made him an easy target, but his last strike was rather impressive, using an already broken section of the concrete and exploiting the fault lines within the damaged structure to create more and greater cover.
There was a flash of red, and she pulled the trigger on her tranquilizer. The dart flew into the mist soundlessly save for a small zip, and Yaoyorozu knew that she had to relocate. That noise may have been an indicator. Loading her tranquilizer gun, she began to crawl for another area to wait.
Then, she saw Ojiro's leg flash past her vision.
Instantly, she stood up, metal rods sprouting from her body. Ojiro's surprised yelp indicated his direction, and she fired her tranquilizer dart low, so as not to hit somewhere like an eye.
There was a soft impact of flesh on stone, and Yaoyorozu sighed in relief. It was over.
Then, a rock moved right behind her. She whirled around to see Ojiro standing behind her, clutching the tranquilizer dart and preparing to stab it into her shoulder.
Quickly, more metal rods protrude from her body, pushing Ojiro away. She felt her limbs weaken from the sudden outflix of lipids, but there was no other choice. Yaoyorozu ran after where Ojiro was, produced another gun, and as Ojiro was recovering from his sudden fall onto the uneven terrain, she pointed it to the back of his neck.
"Okay…" Ojiro panted. "I surrender. For real, this time."
…
It was the semifinals, finally.
Hans stood in that same hallway for the fourth time. It was honestly getting a little repetitive. After the staff had finally cleared up all the smoke grenade remnants and broken bell things, Bakugo and Hans were ushered down to start their fight once Hans was deemed physically fit.
He was not going to win. And he felt… tired. Even releasing spite could get draining, especially since there was a nagging feeling constantly talking at him in the back of his mind.
Literally.
"Aren't you being a little too harsh or vindictive on them?" The Elder Tree Mother said.
"Am I?" Hans said, muttering back. "What I said could be the truth. Midoriya could be incredibly shallow and looking for popularity and acceptance. Todoroki is… well… he doesn't have the best mindset to keep being a hero. Both of what they're doing is stupid and reckless, and stopping now might honestly be better for them."
"But they're students. They're teenagers." The Elder Tree Mother insisted. "They're still learning. Besides, you are a cynic. Your view of them will inevitably be tinted."
Hans thought back to his speeches. Although they were intended as psychological tactics, they maybe had weighed a little too heavily on those students.
Maybe the students weren't used to being analyzed like this. Maybe they haven't heard a biased, but thorough investigation into their character. Even his talk during the first round had begun to wear on Midoriya's hardline protagonist mentality, not to mention Todoroki's drastic change in future planning.
Hans shook the thoughts from his mind. He still had something to prove.
That everything he said about the hero system not working wasn't said in spite of him not succeeding in it, but despite him succeeding in it.
But was proving hypocrisy wrong with obviously biased influences on his fellow classmates… really worth it?
His mind was that of a demon which loved bad endings. His gaze was eternally cynical and judging. He could see all the sins humanity wished to hide and so he knew what they were like.
Now, however, he was living as a human. And didn't that preclude change?
No. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Hans shook his head and tried to center his focus, just like Midoriya had powered through most of his speech.
This next person deserves no sympathy. There was no reason to be light on the spite in this next one.
So, feeling some emotion clawing at his back and dragging him down, he walked forwards anyways.
He was going to lose this match, but he would try his best anyways.
"Heh. Hypocrisy upon hypocrisy. Bias upon bias." Hans muttered. "In the end? Me and this rotten society… we're both broken in our own way."
"I wonder though…sometimes, I wonder. Which one is worse?"
AN
Hans begins to question his initial motivation and all his actions. Not something wrong to do, considering he did give very biased, pessimistic, and one-sided life advice to emotionally vulnerable teenagers. He's not doing anything good by a long shot.
But he did win those matches.
I also have to admit, that while trying to write this fic, I tried a little too hard to make the fic come to life.
I… may have influenced myself with pessimism while writing this fic, leading to the drastic tone shift during the roasts. And I understand that, after yet more discord conversations.
Did you know that Truman Capote descended into alcoholism and never finished another book after he wrote In Cold Blood? It's kind of like that, but instead of depression, it's cynicism for me.
I need a break from this fic. After the sports festival is done in this narrative, though, so I don't leave anything hanging. Perhaps I'll go write something lighthearted.
Discord link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV
-SpiritOfErebus
Another point of contention: Monoma can't use multiple quirks at a time. However, since the vine hair girl's quirk is a heteromorphic quirk, I think that my current thing makes sense. As Monoma uses big hands, his usage of his hair is slowing. The transition from a mutant quirk to his regular body is probably not instantaneous, so it's still feasible that his hair could move, though being much slower than before.. All he has to do is to stop using big hands for his hair to be restored to full function.