Chapter 1: Bottom of the Barrel

I enter my apartment with a bag of groceries before closing and locking the door behind me. I make my way to the kitchen before I pull the perishables out and store them in the refrigerator. I take my time checking the dates on the food to organize everything so that the items at the front of the shelf will be closer to the expiration date. I am just through sorting the milk gallons when I finally decide to stop playing with the visitor who was waiting patiently on me. "Why are you here, Nezu?" I ask with a bored drawl to my voice. "One of your precious pupils get kidnapped in the States? You usually make it a point not to cross the pond."

"Oh, you know how it is," the rodent says cheerfully from the other room. "It is always good to get out and about to see the world. What a boring life it would be to stay stuck in the same office every day. Not that you would know much about that."

"I truly doubt you flew all the way to New York to try the pizza and see the sights," I reply as I check the cold cuts. "Stop beating around the bush or I will throw you out of my apartment. If you want to see something cool, the alley next to the building is pretty nice. How about I toss you out the window so you get a good view?"

"You didn't used to be quite so brutal, Ian-kun," Nezu says. "I was planning on chatting for a little bit longer, but it seems your patience is shorter than my list of topics. It is time to come back to UA."

"Why would I ever go to Japan?" I ask. "That island has more than enough heroes for whatever crisis comes up. The only reason I would bother stepping onto Japanese soil is if it was a shortcut to somewhere I actually care about."

"So cold, Ian-kun," Nezu admonishes. "I thought you would have at least a little affection for Japan. After all, isn't it the land your mother and father loved so much?"

"That's why they are buried there and why I never bothered to have their remains shipped to the US," I say as I trash an old packet of cheese. "Japan can go to hell for all I care. Find some other schmuck who is willing to listen to whatever you have to say."

"So this is really how far you have fallen," Nezu says with an exaggerated sigh. "If only everyone knew how little you care."

"They never will," I say as I stalk out of the kitchen to see the rodent sitting on my couch. He was still wearing his miniature tailored suits and even sipping his usual cup of tea supplied by a thermos on my coffee table. "That was the deal, right? You leave me the fuck alone so I can live my life without having to look over my shoulder for some misguided idiot trying to make me see sense. I moved on from Japan, but you don't seem to understand that, do you?"

"People can't always run from your past, Ian," Nezu says. "Even when they are as fast as you. You will have to face it eventually."

"Eventually is called the afterlife," I reply. "I will get chewed out by Mom and Dad, we will make up, and that's that. I will face it when I want to face it."

"There are people who care about you in Japan still," Nezu says as he attempts a new avenue of persuasion. "Don't you want to rekindle all of those old bonds?"

"They cut them of their own volition," I spit out. "Why dredge up grudges that can just stay dead? Bringing me back to life will just open old wounds that closed a long time ago."

"What about Eri?" Nezu continues. "You don't think she would want to see you again? Weren't you going to adopt her before everything fell apart?"

"She is better off without me in her life," I state simply. "Do you really think I had any place taking care of a child when I could barely take care of myself? You will need more than that.

"We already got Hal to agree," Nezu says, his new statement making me pause. "He signed on to start as the 1-B homeroom teacher for the incoming freshman of UA. Don't you want to support your friend in his new endeavor?"

"Good for him," I say. "He will be happy being surrounded by a bunch of naive brats who fail to understand how the world works. I wish him the best."

"I expected more from you," Nezu replies. "I mean, you didn't even reach out to him once his fiancée, one Carol Ferris, broke up with him last year. I guess the man who used to grace UA's halls is as dead as you say he is."

"He didn't tell me they broke off the engagement," I say. "We don't pry into each other's lives."

"Correction, you won't let him pry into your life," Nezu says. "He respects you too much to try and force himself back into your life, especially after what happened."

Nezu is unable to say his next words because I already had him pinned against the wall, his body lifted up above the ground as my hand gripped his neck. "Don't you dare speak," I growl, my voice harsh and filled with static. "Know your place."

"He blames himself, you know," Nezu says, undeterred despite the restriction on his airflow. "He believes that if you had been there instead of him, you would have saved the day instead of failing like he did. It broke him just as much as it broke you."

I snarl before I release the small principal from my grip. I walk over to a recliner chair nearby before dumping myself into its seat. "Just say what you are going to say and go," I say through gritted teeth.

"I need you to teach class 1-A at UA this year," Nezu says. "There is no one else who is better for the job."

"I truly doubt your best choice for a new teacher is one with a body count," I snark.

"Most heroes nowadays don't understand what it means to fail," Nezu says. "To fall. To be broken down until there is nothing left of who they used to be. Any hero that I have met who faced that darkness always either retired or fell into the bottle, typically both. The one exception is you. You have lost everything more than once and you still keep on fighting as a hero."

"I am not a hero," I reply. "Sure, I stop villains. But I am no hero. Heroes mean something. They stand for the greatness at the height of human potential. They are symbols of hope and peace. I am a killer. A symbol of fear and death. To see me coming is to know you will either die or wish that you had. I don't belong in front of a class teaching them how to fight the good fight."

"You know what it is like to dream of becoming a hero," Nezu says. "To see them as paragons of what people can be if they put their heart and soul on the line. Don't you want to protect that spark in the heroes of tomorrow? So that they can surpass the heroes of yesterday?"

"I think killing the spark early is the way to go," I admit. "It makes them stronger in the long run because they lose the rose-tinted glasses that cause them to make fatal mistakes. I would bet that more heroes who really understand the world survive than idealistic fools. I should know since I was one."

"Mitsuki and Reina are almost definitely going to be in this year's freshman class," Nezu says. "With the training from their hero parents, they are practically shoe-ins."

"It's not like they are my kids," I say bitterly. "Congrats for making it in or whatever, but that doesn't mean I feel like I have an obligation to watch out for them. That is all in my past."

"How could it be in the past when you personally saved Ochako when she almost died?" Nezu needles. "One would think you actually still care."

"What will it take to get you to leave!?" I shout, my patience finally snapping. "I want to live my life alone! I want to suffer every goddamn day by my fucking self! Why can't you understand that!?"

"So many students come through the halls of UA," Nezu says as his eyes seem to look out at something in the distance. "I try and watch out for them when they are within my school, but I can only ever do so much. They must one day leave and go out into world while I wonder if I did enough to prepare them. Sometimes they live long happy lives and have children of their own who come to my school like their parents. Other times they die tragic deaths with entire lives left unlived. It is a rare opportunity for me to be able to help a student who has died come back to life. I have considered every possibility and processed all of the data with my quirk. The only way you will ever be happy is if you were to come back to UA."

"I don't want to be happy," I say. "I want to be buried in so much pain and suffering that I can pay for my mistakes even if in such a small way. I don't deserve the happy ending that you want to give me."

"Did you know that I met her once?" Nezu says. My eyes snap up to look at him after his admission. "She was at the hospital for a standard medical checkup. I introduced myself and I wanted to hear what she thought of you. There is no way in the world that she would want you to hurt yourself like this."

"I know that," I admit. "But the other part of me knows that I still deserve the pain because she isn't around to tell me herself."

"If you want to put yourself through the wringer and put something good into the world as a result, you should accept the teaching job," Nezu says. "I remember Aizawa saying that there was nothing as mentally traumatizing as having to control twenty teenage superhumans."

"That sounds like something he would say," I agree. "You really won't take no for an answer, will you?"

"Of course not," he says with a chuckle. "It is high time that Ian Miller returns to Japan, even if Izuku Midoriya has to stay in the grave."

--

I ram my hand deep into Shigaraki's chest, my fingers piercing through flesh and bone until I feel my hand grab his heart. I look into his eyes as I crush it in my grasp.

He doesn't let the pain defeat him as he relies on his regeneration to help him survive long enough to shove a hand empowered with Decay into my chest in return. My ribcage and organs turn to dust in moments now that I am caught by the attack. I could almost feel my own heart dissolve. Shigaraki grins at me in victory as I am on death's door with moments to spare before I finally die.

Knowing that this was my last chance before I died from the damage, I channel every last shred of One For All that I can manage into the fist that is still outside of Shigaraki's chest.

"United States of Smash!" I shout as I throw what will be the last punch of my life.

Lashing out with everything I have left, my fist connects with Shigaraki's head and obliterates it completely, much like All Might did with All For One. However, I make sure that there is nothing left as I force Blackwhip throughout his body and tear it to shreds.

I collapse to my knees as everything finally begins to go dark. The sounds of the battlefield fade into a quiet hum as my vision slowly drifts to black. I absently feel my body land on the hard ground until I realize I can't feel much of anything anymore either.

If this is how I am going out, then it isn't so bad. At least I could protect everyone else in my last moments. Maybe I wasn't such a useless Deku after all.

I wake up from the dream and take a deep breath. It has been a while since I thought of that fight. I thought I had moved past it, but it seems like Japan is already dragging up old memories before I even get off the plane.

"Ian-kun," Nezu says as he rests in a seat across from me. "It appears we have finally arrived."

"I thought the flight would take longer," I say. "I only closed my eyes for a couple of hours."

"That's the beauty of having a plane designed by the impressive Melissa Shield with an engine created by the groundbreaking Hatsume Mei," Nezu replies. "All travel time is cut down into a fraction of what it used to. Once these designs are commercially produced, they will revolutionize the aerospace industry."

"Hmph," I grunt as I glance out the plane's window to see a limo pulling up to the side of the plane.

"This is where I leave you," Nezu says, his voice chipper even when ditching me at the airport. "I have meetings for the rest of the day to catch up on everything after my excursion to the States, so you will have to make your way to UA on your own. Taking a car would probably just slow you down."

"Really feeling the love," I drawl. "Totally not regretting coming back."

"Too late now!" Nezu cackles before hopping off of his chair and cheerfully skipping down the steps of the plane. I am skinning that rat one of these days, I swear to God.

As I look out the window at the skyscrapers beyond the flat fields of the airport. A feeling of nostalgia that I never expected wells up within me as I am back in Musutafu after all these years. I pull out a small disk from my pocket and press the button in the center. A screen lights up before I scroll through the list projected and select the name I was looking for.

The Teacher Talk

Instantly, a video begins to play as I watch my dad leap into the screen in his inflated form. "I am here! As a hologram!" he shouts. He promptly coughs up blood as he deflates to his skeletal form. I just chuckle at his antics even after being gone for so long.

"If you are watching this, then that means I am no longer around to talk to you myself," Toshinori says. "I wanted to record this if you needed some advice on whether or not to become a teacher at UA."

"When I decided to become a teacher, I was searching for my successor," he continued. "I was afraid of leaving this world without a Symbol of Peace after my fight with All For One. However, I am lucky because that gave me the chance to meet you. I remember talking with you for the first time and seeing myself in you. I saw this kid without a quirk who desperately wanted to be a hero. It was so eerily similar to when I met Nana that it almost brought a shiver down my spine. The reason I told you that you couldn't be a hero is because, in that moment, I wanted to spare you the pain of a hero's path."

"I have suffered through more tragedy than most people could ever understand to live the life of a hero," he admits with a look of regret. "I have had to bury too many friends and face death too many times to place that burden on another. Despite my attempts, your heroic heart burned too brightly for me to extinguish. That is when I decided to do whatever I could to prepare you instead. If I couldn't dissuade you from this life, then I could at give you the chance to survive it."

"Every moment I watched you filled me with more pride than I could have ever dreamed of," Toshinori says with a smile. "You overcame every challenge no matter how dire the situation appeared. Out of every villain I have defeated and every life I have saved, you were my greatest success. It was the honor of a lifetime to watch you grow into the man that I see today. Not just a great hero, but a good man."

I feel a tear work its way out of my eye as I watch the video. I try not to watch any of the recordings most of the time because it is too hard to see him again. It is like he is alive again for a brief moment before he disappears once more.

"I know that the years might be hard on you after I am gone," he says, his expression now solemn. "You might lose your way and struggle to remain a hero. You might question being a hero at all. I just want to tell you one thing. Even if the whole world no longer believes in you, even if you don't believe in yourself, I will always believe in you, Izuku. I see the same thing as your mom whenever I look at you. I see a man with the kindest heart in the world and a strength which puts One For All to shame. I know that you can take anything the world throws at you because you will stop at nothing to protect those who can't protect themselves."

"That's why I say you should become a teacher at UA if Nezu ends up offering it to you," he finishes saying. "If you ever feel like you can't figure out which way is up or down and need something to help anchor you, then you should say yes. I think you could teach those kids how to handle life as a hero while fighting a dozen All For Ones at the same time. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I want you to know how much I believe in you. You can help those kids in a way I could never manage."

"I know you are still hurting after everything that's happened," Toshinori says as the video begins to reach its end. "I know it is hard to trust in others especially after you have been hurt by people you considered family. Don't let that close you off from being a teacher. There are a lot of kids in the world who are lost and need someone they can depend on. Some of them might have never had someone like you had your mom or like I had Nana. They need you to show them that there is someone on their side. They need a hero. They need you."

"Oh, I think that the recording is reaching its maximum length," my dad says as he reaches for a couple of cue cards he had written prompts on. I laugh as I had almost forgotten how he could never remember a speech to save his life. After struggling with them for a moment, he just tosses them to the side before focusing on the camera again. "I just want you to know that I am proud to have been your dad, even if it was only for a short time. I never had any kids of my own, but if I did, I would have been proud if they were even half the man that you are. You probably don't really need any of this advice, so I will tell you one last thing. Follow your heart. Even if it hurts, even if you might regret it at times, always listen to your heart. It will tell you everything you are to afraid to admit. You just have to listen. Now, I am out of time with this one, so I think I will leave it here. I love you, Izuku."

With a final smile, the video ends and the disk shuts off. I slip it back into my pocket as I think. Maybe it is time to start something new after all.

--

I slow to a stop in the cemetery as I arrive at my destination. Seeing that there are already people nearby, I immediately break away and step behind a tree off to the side. I glance around the trunk of the tree to see a woman placing flowers at a series of graves. She was wearing a black hoodie that obscured her face, but I caught sight of the white hair that spilled out of the hood and the dark skin of her hands. I didn't expect to run into her so quickly. To be honest, I thought I could manage to stay out of eyesight until at least the end of the year.

As I watch her clean off a couple of leaves that had settled on top of one of the gravestones, I hear someone clear their voice behind me. Turning around, I see what amounts to a younger clone of the other woman at the graves standing in front of me. She was dressed in a white hoodie and jeans, but her hood was pulled down to give me a good view of her features. While the other woman had hair as white as snow, the girl in front of me had blond hair more comparable to gold. Her crimson eyes narrowed at me while her rabbit ears twitched with tension.

"Why are you staring at my mom?" she asks, a snarl crossing what was otherwise a beautiful face. "You some kind of stalker?"

"Given this is my first time in Japan in almost two decades, I really doubt I would bother to check in with any old stalking targets," I snark. "You realize that cemeteries are for mourning right? You typically do that with some privacy. I am just waiting my turn until she leaves."

"Who are you here to see?" she presses, suspicion filling every word. "If you are really here to visit someone, you should be able to tell me their name."

"Do you accost every cemetery visitor you meet or am I just special?" I ask, sarcasm practically dripping off of my words. "I think I am a little old for you, unless you are one of those girls with daddy issues. Want to take me to bed and call you a good girl?"

Her scowl turns into a look of disgust. "God no," she says. "Even if I was into older guys, I doubt I would settle for a dude who looks like a sleep deprived hobo."

I glance down at my clothes to see if they really look hobo-level unclean. I mean, I don't think I have shaved in a couple of days. Am I really turning into Aizawa already? Shit, I just took this job and the change has already started. Next, I am going to be threatening expulsion and sustaining myself on energy drink pouches and the despair of children.

"Oh, I am so heartbroken," I say with the most disinterested tone I can manage. "Here I was hoping to finally find a girl willing to call me Daddy. I guess I will just have to cry myself to sleep tonight. Woe is me."

"I can't tell if you are really a perv or just an asshole," she says with a scoff. "You never did answer my question. Who are you here to see?"

"Dead family," I answer simply. "Why else do you come to a cemetery in the middle of the day? Grave robbers and freaks only come here at night."

"How did they die?" the girl asks again, her eyes focused on discerning any lie I could try to tell.

Finding lies to be more effort than I care to expend, I decide to tell the truth. Or at least, a version of it. "Parents and little brother," I say. "Mom died of cancer. Little brother died like an idiot while trying to be a hero. Dad died of a broken heart right after. They are all dead and buried right over there." I jerk my thumb over in the same direction as the girl's mom.

"I am sorry," the girl says, her earlier confidence washed away by awkwardness and uncertainty at the realization that she was pressuring a stranger for details about his dead family. "I should have been a little more considerate than that. I didn't mean to force you to talk about it."

"I don't really give a shit, to be honest," I say. "They are dead and gone. Mom went peacefully in the end. Dad was going to die sooner or later anyway. Little bro should have known better than to play around at being a hero. Dumbasses like him are always going to get killed."

"Hey!" the girl shouts, her awkwardness disappearing as soon as it appeared. "I don't know your brother, but I am not going to stand here listening to you insult someone trying to be a hero!"

"Oh, get off your high horse, bunny girl!" I shout back. "Some people just don't have the drive to be a hero without someone holding their hand the whole way. Did you know he used to go on and on about going to UA when he grew up without doing a damn thing? He didn't exercise and train up his body. He didn't practice martial arts to help level the playing field. He just dreamed without conviction and cried whenever anyone said anything to pop his bubble of delusion."

"Shut the fuck up!" the girl growls. "At least he doesn't sound like a piece of shit like you!"

"He practically killed himself!" I roar at her. "It was suicide by villain! If it wasn't for that selfish fuck, then my dad wouldn't have died! He can rot in hell for all I care!"

"How can you say that about your own brother?" she asks. "What special kind of asshole do you have to be to talk about your family like that?"

"If you met him, you would understand why," I say. "When life kept going to shit for him, he shut down and pushed everyone else out. He hurt the few people who actually still gave a shit about him without a second thought because he was too busy crying about his own bullshit instead of manning the fuck up. He chose to ruin what was left of his life by his own free will and he deserves every bit of loathing I have in my cold black heart for him."

"You don't sound any better," she scoffs. "If anything, you are worse."

"You are damn right I am," I say. "But at least I don't pretend to be anything else. Some things are better left in the past. Anyway, you should probably be heading off now that your mom is walking over. I'll be seeing you, Reina."

--

(Reina Usagiyami POV)

She had turned to see her mom walking closer only to whip her head back upon hearing the man's words. There is no way he should have known her name. She had never said it during their conversation. However, when she had turned back to where he had been standing, he had disappeared in an instant. The only thing she saw was a flicker of red out of the corner of her eye as her head was moving. As she looks around in an attempt to see where he went, her mom finally reaches her.

"Reina, what's the matter?" her mother asks. "I thought I heard you shouting a minute ago. Was there someone here?"

"Yeah," Reina replies. "Just some asshole here to talk to graves. Nothing to worry about. You finish talking to everyone."

"Got the whole set," her mom says with a smile to try and hide her sadness. "Talked to Uncle Toshi and Aunt Inko. Then I talked to Izu."

"Why do you always get so quiet when you talk about Izuku?" Reina asks. "I know he was your best friend when you were kids, but you never talk about how he died or anything. Why don't you want to talk about him at all?"

"Some things are better left in the past, Reina," her mom replies with a sigh.

Reina relents, but she doesn't ignore how her mom said the same thing that the man in black said moments before. She liked to think that she knew her mom better than anyone after spending 18 years with her. That's how she knows there are very few things that truly scare her mother. After all, what can really make Rumi Usagiyami, the number 3 hero in Japan, scared?

However, when Reina had mentioned Izuku to her mom, she thought she saw the briefest moment of panic in her mom's eyes before it was crushed down. She didn't know what that meant, but she was damn sure she was going to find out.

--

(Ian Miller POV)

I stand in front of the trio of gravestones as I consider what to say.

Inko Yagi-Midoriya

Toshinori Yagi

Izuku Midoriya

I hadn't stood here in over a decade, so I wasn't sure what would be the right thing to start off with. Eventually, I decide to start talking.

"Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad," I say. "I'm finally back in Japan. Believe it or not, I am actually going to be teaching at UA just like Dad. He even recorded a motivational speech for me and everything. I miss you guys a lot. Every day is a struggle to not risk the world to bring you guys back, but I get through it alright."

"What else is there to say?" I ask. "Dad might have told you already, Mom, but my plan to give you grandkids was a swing and a miss. Sorry I messed that up. I also became a hero in the US like Dad, albeit with a bit of a body count. You guys will probably lecture me a bunch when I see you. Well, if I see you. I don't imagine I am going to the same place as you guys. I just hope you can forgive me. I will make sure to come by more since I am going to be sticking around for a while. Expect me back sooner than last time."

With those words, I narrow my focus onto the last gravestone with my old name on it.

"Hey, Izuku," I say. "It's been a while since I cut you out of me and killed you off. I finally got rid of your hero compulsion and your blind trust in the virtue of the average person. Now, I kill people without a second thought and see people as traitors in the making. I know you would just love to see that. You would probably even make a whole little speech about how I can change my ways, redeem myself, and become a hero. Your belief that there is always a shred of good in even the most twisted people is probably why you died and I walked away. Maybe if you tore that piece of yourself out sooner you would have seen Katsuki for who he was a long time ago."

"Anyway, I will be doing my best to erase any trace of you that might still infect me," I freely admit. "Your weakness is something I will root out and purge until I am all that is left. Maybe, finally, I will be completely empty inside instead of just a gaping wound. Here's hoping."

"I will see you guys around," I say, taking a step back and turning around. "Better not leave in the meantime."

Chuckling to myself, I disappear from the cemetery in a flicker of red lightning.

--

Days Later

(Class POV)

"Alright, students," Nezu says cheerfully. "Now, you might have heard about Class 1-B's teacher being the American hero, Green Lantern."

This prompts the entirety of Class 1-A to immediately break out into whispers despite the seriousness of the situation. The thought that seemed to be shared by all of them was, 'If 1-B got Green Lantern, who will we get?"

"We at UA always try and find teachers who will bring out the potential of their students to create the next great generation of heroes every year," Nezu explains. "To that end, I have deliberated over tens of thousands of possibilities, domestic and abroad. Out of those choices, I found one which was truly perfect for shaping you into the heroes of tomorrow."

The entire class was on the edge of their seats. They gazed expectantly at their tiny principal in open eagerness that he couldn't help but love to crush. While Nezu tried to avoid indulging his sadistic sensibilities on his students, he felt that he had earned a brief moment of personal fulfillment.

"I found him on a recent trip to New York," Nezu describes. "There he was, this scruffy stray who looked like he would bite anyone that got too close. However, with some kindness and more than a few treats, I was able to bring him back here to Japan for all of you. Don't worry about him attacking any of you. I utilized a training regimen that helps to curb his more violent tendencies. I also got him up to date on his vaccinations, got him a name tag, and cleaned him up so he is a scrappy runaway no longer! I even got him a snazzy new outfit to go with his own food bowl and water cup!"

The hopeful gazes were completely dead as they had finished cycling through confusion to emotional emptiness. There is a single thought going through the entire class' minds.

'Is our teacher going to be a literal dog?'

"Hey, Nezu," a man says as he walks in. He was tall with unruly black hair, sharp dark eyes, and wearing a red strapped lanyard over an expensive tailored suit that accentuated the muscular form beneath. His hands were full with a cereal bowl and a mug steaming with coffee. Both had a black outer layer with red text on the side that said, 'Ian.' "Thanks for putting my name on the bowl and mug. You have no idea how annoying it is to find someone using my mug by accident when I left it in a break room. Also, wasn't this cereal banned back when I was a kid? I remember hearing that it was super bad for you."

"I remembered that it was your favorite cereal from my extensive background research," Nezu replies, pleased that his hard work with perfecting the little things was finally being appreciated for once. "It was simple enough to recreate the formulation process with some Hatsume tech. More to the point, if that cereal can actually do anything to you, I must have made a mistake with my choice."

The man chuckles before taking a sip of his coffee, a blend imported from Brazil and costing upwards of a thousand dollars per cup. "Oh, we all know you made a mistake," he says with a chuckle. "It is going to be so much fun to grind that fact into these impressionable little idiots."

"Alright!" Nezu says before turning to the students. "Any questions before I leave to prepare orientation?"

"Umm, who is our teacher?" one guy asks as he raises his hand. "You never really said."

"My apologies," Nezu says, completely unapologetically. "This is the homeroom teacher for Class 1-A, Ian Miller. He is an American that I believe is the perfect teacher to craft you all into true heroes."

"What's his quirk?" a girl asks. "It must be something super impressive to teach at the hero course at UA."

"Oh, I believe there has been a touch of confusion," Nezu says, shaking his head. "Miller-san is completely quirkless."

"HUUHHHH?!" the entire class screams in shock.

"Wait a second!" a voice rings out before a girl with golden blonde hair and rabbit ears stands up from her desk. "You were the guy at the cemetery the other day!"

"Oh, yeah," Ian replied. "You were that girl who kept coming onto me. Free piece of advice, guys don't like girls who are so desperate. Although, I don't know how much the advice is going to do for you. After all, the average IQ in the room dropped the moment Bun-Bun entered."

The entire room tensed as the girl seemed ready to lunge at their newly introduced teacher. Then again, they weren't really surprised when he is so casually an asshole.

"On that note, I must be off," Nezu cheerfully says. "Miller-san, please avoid any permanent damage on the first day. I still want them to complete their baseline tests today."

"Yeah, yeah," the man replies, gesturing with his coffee mug. "Stick to mental trauma for right now. Heard loud and clear."

"Good to hear," the rodent says before he walks out of the classroom, humming the entire way. He blatantly ignored the potent animosity filling the classroom and continued on with his day with a little extra pep in his step.

--

Author's note:

Hello everybody! I finally finished this first chapter to yet another new story. I really have been churning them out recently. Apologies for taking so long to finish this. I was partway through writing this when I decided to pivot and finish Spartan: Son of Themiscyra in time for the Fourth of July. By the time I got back around to this, I had lost my rhythm with the story and I had to get back in my groove. Hopefully you all enjoyed what I cam up with.

Some of you are probably disappointed that I haven't explained much about how Izuku Midoriya, an aspiring hero trained by the Symbol of Peace himself, became Ian Miller, a man who does not shy away from killing and is known as the Black Flash. I will reveal it all in time, so I ask you to stay patient for now.

Also sorry for not showing Ian doing much speedster stuff except a couple of little hints here and there. I will be doing more in later chapters, but I wanted to set the groundwork a little more before I got to that point.

Feel free to write a review and tell me what you think about the story. Was my characterization good? Did the story seem coherent? Every review helps power me through my writing and has a definite boost in my update speed. I try to always take reviews to heart and address them at the beginning of each update chapter.

If you enjoyed the story and would like to keep up to date, favorite and follow to know when a new chapter drops.

If you want to get more of my writing, I have multiple stories you can reach through my profile. I like to think that they are also pretty good.

A pleasure as always,

Titan900