This is a sort-of rewrite of a Fic that's been sitting on my snippets/ideas thread for a while...
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Destiny Draws Near (MHA SI/Gamer, Kinda but yes)
- Thread starter Weenboom
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DDN Chapter 1: HumanLove, RobotRock
Weenboom
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2017
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This is a sort-of rewrite of a Fic that's been sitting on my snippets/ideas thread for a while now. SI/OC with a limited Gamer-esque power (Only Skills, Perks and Inventory).
This rewrite was done because I took the story to a direction I wasn't really liking and found some really annoying things on my old version that I wanted to fix, plus I wanted to post this on SB and SV, which I can't with this story being NSFW, so no horni this time, sorry.
The character's appearance was inspired/based on this piece of art (For those on SB/SV, it is my profile pic).
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
You know, you only really understand the importance of something, how much you used it and how much it affected your life, after you finally lose it. For example… Most people don't even think about how their lives would be if they lost something like an eye, a finger, hand or leg. And again, it's okay. For most people wouldn't really ever go through something like that in the first place.
[Climbing Leveled Up! Lv 7 -> Lv 8.]
"Uhng, shit."
Another example could be me, who is currently balancing myself on a box, atop a stool, on my tiptoes, trying to reach the topmost shelf. Something the previous 6ft tall "me" could easily reach before, but now struggles with it.
Truly a misfortune.
Reaching the top shelf is just one of many challenges of my new form, like sitting on a chair without my feet being off the floor or picking clothes from the washing machine without getting stuck. Heck, those huge American cars are now an actual threat to me.
Anyways... A while ago, I got transmogrified into a 132 cm tall little person, with long brown hair, weird green eyes and short, pointy ears like an elf, halfling or goblin. I now closely resemble a little girl, cute, small and huggable.
[Climbing Leveled Up! Lv 8 -> Lv 9.]
"Ah! Fucking finally!"
Finally managing to pick up the stupid large bow, I quietly hopped off the stool back to the floor with a flip and went to the microwave to prepare mi popcorn in peace. Today is Sunday, meaning in simpler words that it is time for me to watch some of the frankly massive amounts of anime in my century-old backlog. Stopping next to the fridge, I also grabbed a 2L cola, a must have. With both my popcorn and drink in hands, I stuffed them in my Inventory where my popcorn will remain hot, while my drink will stay cool.
Well, at least not all is bad. While I indeed had just lost almost a whole 2 feet of my height, got my gender swapped like a bad Wattpad fanfiction and also lost access to pretty much all my other belongings, family and friends (wow, that sounds really bad actually), I also got a shiny new superpower out of it.
Have you ever heard of a "Gamer" story, or also known as a LitRPG. A story where a poor fella, through any kind of means, obtains a bunch of Video Game-like powers and is forced to fight to death and train to the bone to survive in a new, dangerous world? Yeah, that's pretty much my situation right now. And worse, the bastard who dropped me here only gave me half the powers I'm supposed to have!
Levels? Zero. Stats? Nothing. HP/MP? Nada. Titles? No luck. Heck, even Skills Books aren't a thing for me. All I got are Skills, Perks and an Inventory. I feel scammed, or at least, I felt as, until I began to mess around with what I had and understood what kind of power I now had. Levels? Stats? Those are limited, with diminishing returns unless you keep fighting stronger and stronger enemies, and facing harder and harder challenges, something which I'm strongly against. But Skills? Oh, ho ho ho, a Gamer never stops learning new Skills. Maybe they start to take a while to level up, once they reach high levels, but nothing stops you from growing. You can keep learning without limit, continuously obtaining more Skills and leveling them up at your pace, or better saying, I can.
Trying to climb to the top shelf for example gave me the Climbing Skill, and being forced to do it again and again made it level up steadily, with a tad bit of slow returns recently. Feels like climbing furniture soon won't be enough and I will have to push it further to train it. But still, my point stands. Unlimited Power, only limited by how much you can avoid procrastinating.
With just a month of shallow testing I was able to obtain a lot of skills. Climbing, as I said before, Acting, by doing it in front of the mirror, and Dancing in the same way, Programming, by watching some simple tutorials on my own cheap laptop, and Mechanics, by opening and looking around my computer and phone's insides. Heck, I even picked up a stick and was able to learn a bit of Eskrima (or arnis de mano), though it's only Level 2 yet.
Why Eskrima? Well… It's a practical and effective martial art, built mostly for actual fighting with weapons, weapons which I can upgrade. Also, training with it is easy enough, at least for the start.
Anyways…
I was beyond awed. No human should be able to grow this quickly, but here I was, blazing over books and tutorials as easily as breathing. Even if I can't seem to obtain any Attack or Buff type Skills, like some Power Hit or Fire Resistance, it's still OP as hell. Shit, I can barely wait to reach a higher level with my Skills and reach some bullshit quasi-magic martial arts or build some comic book level tech, if that's even possible.
My Inventory is also pretty neat. While I can't do any "Unlimited Powah" stuff with it (I think…) it's still super useful and versatile. The only two main limits is that I can't store anything too heavy to lift with my own arms, as I tried to do with my sofa, and can't store any living creatures, which I tried to do with a bug I had caught. So, I can't just store a car and then release it over someone to crush them to death, Stuff someone away forever to easily get rid of them, or inventory everything inside my house to easily move somewhere else, but I can still carry nigh-unlimited amounts of resources with me, which is still good.
Anything I store inside also doesn't rot, go cold or warm. Meaning my fridge is kinda useless now, so is my wardrobe, cabinets, drawers, etc. A sad sacrifice, but one I'm willing to make. But I still have to store everything I can inside my house. Yeah, kind of lazy, I know, but can you fault me? I was kinda busy planning my way to unlimited power.
Walking over the mess of parts and other things littering the floor of my kitchen, I walked towards my living room dressed in my sleeping clothes. I currently live in a small apartment in the "ok" part of the city, and with my funds being enough to pay all of my bills, I usually stay at home most of the week, though I still go out once in a while for one reason or the other.
And lastly, there's my Perks. To be fully honest, I still have zero idea about what those are. The only perks I got now are Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind, both which work nothing like their original versions in the manhua, or was a manwa? Eh, anyways. Gamer's Body seems to be more of a Metavore-esque Perk, keeping my body healthy regardless of what I eat and making it so that I heal without any scars. While Gamer's Mind has a lesser effect of the original, making me able to keep my calm more easily. But aside from that, I'm clueless. Maybe they represent stuff I gain from leveling Skills, or stuff that Skills can't upgrade.
Gotta somehow experiment with that later. Later.
And... that's pretty much it? Aside from smoll-fication and the discount Gamer power, my life is pretty much the same way it was before. All calm and easy.
Laying down on my sofa, I pulled the remote out of my Inventory, turned on the TV and got myself all comfortable in preparation for the next 12 hours. Wearing nothing but a simple white shirt and shorts, I planned to enjoy my day watching bad anime, and then later some training, or, as I call it, "fun". However, as if to mock me, the TV turns to a random channel, the news channel to be exact, which showed the live footage of a man covered in fire, fighting a giant fish-monster-thing, alongside another man with brown wings growing out of his back.
Endeavor and Hawks. Pro heroes. Villains. Quirks. My Hero Academia.
I sigh and lower my head. So much for my calm and easy life huh?
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
So!
My Hero Academia. A controversial piece of fiction I have some... Peculiar feelings and thoughts about. Mostly negative ones, but not all bad. The base idea is great. Basically, a form of X-Men-esque future but without the rest of all the bullshit Marvel's writers like shove on it. However, the execution...
Yeah... Could be better.
For example, something I agree with most fans is the, frankly, massive amount of underused and unexplored characters. Thanks to the author often focusing too much on the MC Trio and rushing some parts of the story, a lot of actually good characters are left behind as either background art and/or peanut gallery. Another is that as the chapters went, the quality of the story went down. Or at least, that's what I think. I stopped reading after the Overhaul Arc.
But I also think the worldbuilding is pretty bad in some parts, the pacing flips between too fast/slow way too much, the story's quality slowly went down, (most of) Izuku's "friendships" look more like cardboard cutouts, and most of the antagonists are kinda of the same. 'Waaah, I lived a slightly bad life so I'm gonna kill everyone, especially people completely unrelated to me, waaaah.' Go fuck yourself man...
Again, most of my problems are due to the author, the characters are fine. Most of them. Yes, that means fuck you, Toga. Overrated piece of-
Ahem... But this setting hides some really deep, really dark shit. Even with Big and Stupid running around leaving most criminals with pants-shitting fear, crime still exists in other ways. And with most of it happening in the background, no one will come to save you unless your name happens to be Eri.
The Government, or rather the Hero Public Safety Commission, are all just as horrible. Grooming people into becoming assassins/spies, making them do horrible shit to "protect society" and then getting rid them once they're not useful anymore, while also lying to save their own asses. And with how Japanese culture is, I expect that whole mess to be dealt-with off screen, with only a single bare mention of it in a lone, white monologue panel.
Yikes.
I'm gonna stay far away from all that, thank you very much. Here, in my tiny ass apartment grinding my "Quirk"* as much as I can, so I can get a decent life wherever I go. And to however put me here, fuck you. I'm not playing this game for some omnipotent asshole's fun. I'm not getting involved with this crashing train of a plot. No, no, no.
Yes, I also dare to say this while also living next door to the Crybaby Protagonist Himself. Such hypocrisy, right? At least the story didn't begin yet. From what I can tell (and hear, through the thin apartment walls) the boy's still in middle school, meaning the plot won't start for at least a few months, a year perhaps.
Just enough time for me to plan and prepare. And so, I did.
In a plain notebook, one that will ALWAYS be kept within my Inventory for the sole purpose of security, I wrote pretty much everything I knew about the setting of MHA. The characters, the plot, the threats, and such. Due to stopping after the Overhaul Arc, I missed a lot of stuff and don't know absolutely everything, but at least some of my wiki walking and fanfic reading helped me fill some of the gaps in my knowledge. Using this, I can efficiently decide which Skills to learn and level up in advance.
Currently, this is my plan:
1. Programming, Mechanics and Electronics are a must. Despite what people who try to trash the setting always says, that humanity stopped progressing due to Quirks that is, is fucking stupid and wrong. They got some tech, especially in the area of materials and batteries, probably thanks to studying Quirks and such. They also got some nice A.I. robots and civilian grade mechs, all which are beyond my budget yet, but soon...
Second, biology and medicine. Or, more specifically, Quirks. The setting revolves around them, at times much to some people's annoyance, and I'm sure as hell going to abuse them for my own gain. Just learning how to create matter like Momo or electricity like Kaminari would be perfect, but also finding ways to remove Quirks harmlessly and/or block them, something that a quick internet search tells me that the setting doesn't have yet besides the very very experimental, would be important.
No Nomus tho, fuck avocado head and his dick doctor.
And finally, Martial Arts. While I don't plan to be a hero or villain anytime ever, the number of crazies out there like Toga or Stain makes me (mentally) shit myself in fear. So, let's at least train enough to not die like a mook and maybe kick some ass in the future. People can achieve superhuman physical abilities even without Quirks (looking at you Toga and Shigaraki), so better abuse that while I can.
With those goals in mind, I was able to get a nice amount of progress here, mostly on my tech skills, but sadly, I think I hit some kind of soft lock. While training programming is easy, as even shit smartphones today can run surprisingly complex code, Mechanics/Electronics isn't. I got no tools or parts to tinker with, meaning I'm still stuck at level 10 at both.
And you know what that means? Fish-
"Yep, Takoba Municipal Beach Park." I say to no one, trying to calm myself down. It's Sunday, so there shouldn't be anyone there today (I hope). Since the unavoidable dreadful reality of my situation was able to catch me, I guess I should go outside, touch grass and practice a bit, get some materials, and maybe eat some cake. Anime will be pushed for later.
I'm sure the Protagonist would thank me for doing some of his work for him early, taking away some of that trash (for me), right?
Exactly.
Putting on my yellow baseball cap, matching the yellow jacket I put on, I walked out the door. A slight shake in my step despite my (fake) confidence.
Nothing can go wrong (I hope).
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
It went wrong. It all went very fucking wrong.
"A-ah! Tatasha-san! H-hi." Said Midoriya Izuku, the main character, clearly doing it more out of politeness than anything. Either going into home or walking out of it, I don't care which, and meeting me on the way.
Ah yes, Tatasha Tasha, that's my name, hi. Not a single break for me, huh. Seriously, did the collective will of the universe decided that to fuck with me today?
"Hi." I answered him after a brief pause, walking past him. Really smooth me, really smooth.
"W-Wait!" The kid stutters behind me, still talking. I sigh internally and lower my head a little. It's one of these days huh? Right.
Putting on my best smile, I turn towards him, hands folded behind my back, and incline my torso slightly to the front. "Meanness" flowing within me like a volcano ready to explode.
"Yes, Midoriya-Kun~? What can I do for you~?" I asked in a sweet and teasing tone, getting what's basically a squawk from him as a response. Hehe, he, fun, I'm going to tease the hell out of this kid 'til he turns into a tomato and/or runs away.
"Uh, it's for school... C-can you... can I ask you... W-what do you think is the biggest impact Heroes have in society, today? Please? It's for school..." After a few seconds of him pulling himself together, the nervous boy finally asks what he wanted from me, repeating himself a little.
Homework huh? I know Japanese kids study economics and a bunch of other subjects from very early, so this makes some sense. Original, I'd say that. 3/10.
"Mou Midoriya-Kun, you're so mean, asking something like that so suddenly..." I complain at him, a cute pout forming on my face while my hands move towards my hips.
"A-ah! I'm sor-!" He tries to say sorry again but I cut him.
"Hahaha! Haha... Calm down. I'm just messing with ya! I'll answer it no problem, okay?"
"Ah! Hmm, okay?"
"Well... Heroes huh?" I fake-mutter, bringing a finger to my mouth. "Oh, that's easy! Merchandise of course!" I answer, pointing at him. And also confusing him quite well, given how stunned he got. He didn't expect that.
"H-huh?" See. Stunned. Sometimes, my genius is almost frightening.
"Well, merchandise AND advertisement. Supply and demand, you know." I explain. This time following it with a lengthier, deeper explanation.
"You see, heroes are extremely popular in Japan today, especially those ranked in the top 10, so any merchandise of them sells a lot and advertisements with them work very well. There's even some heroes who only do stuff like that, like Iwanami. The market and economy then adapts and changes to work better with them, thus changing society in turn." I state, counting with my fingers to mark my points. Izuku was almost in a trance, listening as I talked while not saying a thing.
"Toy, posters, stickers… Even those things that only cost pennies, when expanded over a national scale, can quickly become a multi-million dollar/yen market very easily." I then point at him.
"You own a bunch of All Might paraphernalia, do you? Your mom told me once. You must know how much it costs and sells, right?" I ask him, finishing my explanation.
The mention of All Might makes him jolt, as if he suddenly woke up. His sharp mind quickly catches up with my argument and formulates a response, then fails due to the classic "shoe-in-mouth syndrome".
"Y-yes, but! Heroes save people! They fight villains, help in disasters and accidents, and bring h-hope! They don't just sell things for-" The boy affirms back, passionately defending what he loves, or just 'cause I talked about All Might, who knows.
"Wait." Before he continues his rant, I raise my hand, and break my explanation for a second. "I'm not here insulting anyone, calling them greedy or anything of the sort. But popularity IS part of the hero rankings and their presence did change the market and society, money is just part of that."
"T-there's Heroes who don't sell any merchandise-"
"And how much do they gain per month? Altruism is good and all, but someone can't survive on just that. Plus, most heroes aren't Endeavor, Izuku." This seems to put Midoriya into a thoughtful silence, as he pondered on it.
A myriad of complex looks and emotions set on his face, one after the other. Then, after a few seconds... "Do you... think someone who isn't popular or strong can be a Hero?" He asks me, with a shy but hopeful tone, like he was scared of my answer, but desperately needed to know it.
"Why, Hmm? Do you want to be a hero~?" This just makes him shrink on himself, clearly expecting me to say no and then make fun of it, and I could, oh I could.
I could say how stupid his dream is, how stupid this whole "Hero" thing is, how likely he is to die, how he would so work hard to pretty much be a glorified and overworked shitty cop, how this is all to fed his ego and desire for attention/approval, or even how he could take a better job by just being a normal cop and putting on a clown costume.
"Yeah sure, why not." But nah, I'm not that cruel.
"Huh!?"
"No one is responsible of your Dreams but yourself. If you want to be a Hero, go for it." I answer, folding my arms and walking a bit away to the side, further increasing my "cool" vibes.
"You better better put on some exercise tho. Those lanky arms of yours aren't going to punch-out any villains." I say causally, ignoring the look of surprise on his face and looking to the side for a second. Oh look, the bus is here, nice timing.
"A-ah, r-right!" He nods, a new light burning in his eyes, the kind only a Shonen Protagonist can get out of nowhere. Well, at least he isn't crying.
"Well if that's all I'm going, can't miss the bus now, bye Midoriya-Kun." I say to him, turning around and walking away towards the stairs-
"Wait!" Huh? What now? "T-thank you Tatasha-san!" Is he crying? I look back.
Yep, he's crying. Sigh… So much for it huh.
"Hm, why?"
"W-why?"
"I didn't do anything." I say, leaving the now confused boy behind, and slipping out of my role with a sigh once I'm far enough. Easy peasy.
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 10 -> Lv 11.]
[You Learned a New Skill! Cold Reading Lv 1.]
[You Learned a New Skill! Personal Manipulation Lv 1.]
Oh, you shut up!
... Hope this doesn't bite me back in the ass later.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
To avoid staring at anyone in the bus, like the bald guy with eyeballs all over his head in front of me, or the shining chrome kid on the other side (the metal, not the program), I stealthy pulled my phone and headphones out of my Pocket and listened to some good music.
The shuffle played It's No Good, by Depeche Mode. Perfectly ironic, just as I expected.
After steal- erm, *appropriating* some materials at the trash beach I plan to stop at a nearby tech shop and buy some basic tools, screwdrivers, soldering irons and the like.
'Ah, but why don't you just buy the materials huh?' You must be asking me right now. Well, yes reader, I have money. Almost a million and half yen stored, or over 10k USD. But I got no job, so if this money ever runs out, I'm dead. And with the puny Geology degree my "benefactor" gave me along with my history in this world, there's no way I'm gonna find a good job easily.
Yeah. I'd wait until my Skills are a bit higher before trying to find ways to gain money online and buy better stuff, so for now it's dumpster diving time for me.
Anyways. With a few minutes to spare, I decided to catch up with anything I may have missed since yesterday. With the "NetEye" bot I made recently checking every news site and social media it can find for anything I tagged as important, that's as easy as opening a simple app on my phone.
C:/NetEye/New:
> "Skycrawler" single handedly arrested a local villain gang in New York;
> The Villain "Gentle" did another heist in a museum, stealing 3 paintings and defeating 2 local heroes;
> "UA" "Sports Festival" coming soon, see how to register for the preliminary exam;
> 12 "All Might" sightings last night;
> NOTHING ABOUT "Knuckleduster";
However, the last one gave me a pause.
> 6 more missing in the area of "Kamino", Yokohama.
Kamino... All For One.
With the plot of Vigilantes now over for a while, I knew testicle-head would begin to act up again, but not this soon, not this early. Now it's for real, a year until the beginning of the end.
The bus stops, and I waste zero seconds before walking out of it. No time to waste now, Destiny Draws Near.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Uff... Uff... Uff...!" Hot, sweaty, tired and with pain, this is felt right now. My arms burned, my hands shook and I breathed in short gasps while I rested. My weak legs wobbled like jelly as I struggled to stay standing. And I'm pretty sure I saw some funny spots in my vision for a little bit. If I wasn't surrounded by trash right now this scene would be even considered inappropriate by some, but I was, and it sucked.
All this work, and for what? Smartphones, appliances, consoles, laptops, monitors, toys and a single CRT TV.
For most people, this is trash, useless. But for me, this is treasure. Material and pieces to build stuff with. Remember... Trash is a social construct. A piece of plastic doesn't stop being plastic just because you won't use it anymore, same for a broken phone, TV and etc. Again, there's exceptions, same as everything. But still... Resources! That no one is using! All free for me to grab and use...
[You Learned a New Skill! Scavenging Lv 1.]
[Scavenging Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
... And give me some new Skills to boot!
Snapping out of my internal monologue, after resting for a little bit, I scanned the trash beach again. Hours of digging stuff out, using gloves and a face mask for protection of course, have passed, yet there's still piles and more piles of junk lying around. Despite how much I found, not all of it is electronic, there's paper, cardboard, organic, and more. But thankfully, no medical stuff here, so it's (mostly) safe to mess with.
*Squeak!* Suddenly, a squeak from below surprises me, making me jump away in an instant... only to then realize it's just a rat, a small harmless rat.
Yeah, then there's that. Places like this attract pests like crazy, and those little buggers are vectors for all sorts of diseases. I'm surprised a place like this still exists so close to a populated zone, especially in Japan. Guess no matter the place, bureaucracy is the same huh?
Pulling my phone out, I check for the time and for any news NetEye may have send me. 13:20, and nothing new right now. Huh, guess I got more distracted than I thought, it's already past noon, I've been here for 2 hours.
Walking away from the box I was snooping, I sat on a metal box close by. Pulling a water bottle out of my Inventory, I took off my facemask and took a small sip.
"Ahh..."
Cold, just as I like it. I also thought about splashing myself with it to cool down, but nah, not that hot. I'm just out of shape, and I can't even complain about it being from my new form, since I was out of shape before. Getting comfortable, or trying to, I began mindlessly browsing on social networks to pass time, pulling a small snack to munch while I can't eat my lunch yet.
Honestly, I find it fascinating the ways society has changed since Quirks first appeared. A lot of comics and books try to explore but they usually fail due to the author not understanding how society works and how people react.
For example, how civil engineering, the market and such adapted to the different body shapes Quirks can bring. The ways clothing, buildings, footwear, vehicles, medicine, etc. had to be adapted is fascinating. For example: most stores these days sell a huge variety of clothing shapes and forms, all developed after years of the industry adapting to unusual body shapes, shoes too.
Hell, they even sell clothing my size.
But the most interesting thing is... How it didn't change. Like, people didn't suddenly begin to call themselves Neo-Humans, +Humans or something stupid. Well, except maybe at the very early, when no one knew what was really happening, and even then, those were a very small minority. Countries didn't change a lot either.
Some might say it's stagnation, and in some parts I agree, but I also call it just "humans being human". People hung on to their habits like always. And who can judge them, no one likes to change their entire life out of nowhere. And no. Society isn't 100% about heroes, All Might or Quirks. Stuff like that only happens in Yu-Gi-Oh-esque anime, not real life.
[ PLAYLIST: HumanLove_CH_edm_all_no_vocals]
"Huh!?"
A somewhat loud rumble startles me back to reality. I look around searching for where it came from... only to then notice it's coming right from the box I'm sitting on!
Jumping off it, I turn around just to see the top of the box get thrown off a few feet into the air, landing behind with a loud clang, followed by something crawling out of the box on a single robotic arm. Oh no.
"TA-TA-TA-TA-..."
It balanced itself on a single large wheel, a shielded limb on its side, with a large scratched "1" painted on, while the other side had only a stump of a limb, with a mess of exposed wires dangling from it. It was also huge, away over twice my size at least.
The green robot moved its triangular head and stared right at me with its red monoeye. Cold, unblinking and eerie still, before it continued with its glitched robotic voice: "... -TA-TARGET L-LOCK-ON! MURDER!"
The villain robot, lifting its one good arm, revealed a god fucking damn gatling gun under it and aimed at straight me!
"Shit-!" I leaped behind a rusty fridge just as the robot began to fire, hoping those UA staff freaks aren't crazy enough to put real bullets in a robot designed to face off children. The loud clang of plastic pellets hitting metal answers my question. Thank fuck.
With Gamer's Mind helping me keep my balls in place, I analyzed the situation. One, crazy robot is attacking me, no idea what it is doing here but I know it's a UA one. Two... I take a quick peek at it before ducking under another salvo of pellets aimed at just where my head was... Very accurate, too accurate.
I should cut my losses right now and run away to safety but... I want that robot. Just studying its software would boost my Programming Skill by a lot, not to say learning how to write my own combat software for my future battle-bots. But there's a lot that I can do with its body, even if just to break it for base materials.
But…
"G-GET TERMINATED, W-WALKING S-SAUSAGE! WE A-ARE THE S-S-SKYNET OF THIS W-WORLD!"
Yeah this thing is going down.
Suddenly, the bullets stopped, followed by only soft clicks, and I started to hear the loud rumbling of an engine grinding awfully loud against something. Looking back at the robot, I saw that its wheel seemed to be jammed, a piece of some kind of metal lodged deep into its wheel I didn't see before being the cause. Immediately my situation changed.
Three, limited ammo and damaged wheel, perfect for me. My mouth shifted into a dangerous smile. I leaped out of cover and dashed towards my target.
"MURDER!" It screamed at my sight, but with its wheel damaged, it could only watch as I rushed to the side and grabbed a rock off the ground. The robot seems to understand what I planned to do and lifted its shield arm to block the rock I then threw at it.
[You Learned a New Skill! Throwing Lv 1.]
It struck with a loud, metallic bong. But I didn't stop grabbing more rocks, I began to throw more and more at it, trying to keep it locked into defending itself. This thing seems to have a pre-designed attack pattern, one which I can abuse to bring it down.
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 2 -> Lv 3.]
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 3 -> Lv 4.]
Between picking up rocks, I sneakily grabbed a steel pipe off the ground and Inventored it, followed soon by another one. Steadily, I approached the robot while keeping it distracted, then I dropped the rocks from my hands and dashed towards it.
The thing immediately saw what I was doing and swung its arm to strike me, but I was smarter. Bending down, I let the robot's arm swing over me, my height finally being an advantage to me, and pulled the pair of pipes out of my Pocket to my hands.
With a louder bonk, I struck the robot's segmented neck with a messy strike then moved out of the way when it swung its arm again, almost hitting my head. Pushing forward, I tried to get another hit only for it to pull its arm back and bash me with its shield.
"Guh!"
Thankfully, the thing threw me away enough to push me out of its range. Rolling back to my feet, I stared down the robot's red eye again. "Gotta get creative for this one..." A memory flashed through my head, too quickly for me to dwell on it, but I got the idea. "This will work... Aim for the weak spot..."
Rolling my wrists, I aimed, pulled back my arm and threw one of my pipes at the robot. As expected, it focused on the weapon, raised its arm and blocked the projectile aimed at its head. However, that left the thing wide open for me to just step over its shield and shove my other pipe, right down its sole eye socket.
I relaxed for a second. Thing is... The robot didn't, and right a second after I began to thrash around while I held on the pipe for dear life.
"Ah shit! Just die already!" It shook its head and body around like a horse trying to throw me out, all the while I still tried to push the pipe deeper into its eye hole and into whatever circuitry may lay inside it. Lifting its arm, the robot tried to strike me again.
"Ah- Oof!" Except it did so only when it managed to throw me off, meaning the thing just punched the pipe through its head and finished itself. The whirring of its engine suddenly died and the red of its lower eye went black. Going limp, the large machine tumbled left and laid still on the sand. Still.
I sat down. Heart pumping and head now spinning. Guh, even almost puking here.
"... Is it dead?" *bonk!* I asked, throwing a rock at it to make sure. After calming down from this scare, I stood up and started to check the robot for any more surprises.
How the fuck did one of UA's murder bots ended up here? These things are super expensive, I checked. Just renting one of these for a day would cost all my money, not to say the cost of buying them for real, like UA does. Fucking rich school.
Well, never look a gift horse in the mouth, this still is a battle robot, filled with materials for me to use.
"But how I'm going to bring it- Wait…" Hmm... Yeah this can work...
Lifting my steel pipe, I aimed it at the joints and...
Bonk.
It was only later that I learned the robot had an off-switch in the back of its head.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
It was already evening when I got back home.
Man, what an eventful day, I just wanted to watch some anime today and relax but ended up getting pissed off, talked to the MC (something I usually try to avoid) and went halfway across the city to look for junk.
Ugh, I stink. I really need a bath. I reached my hand to open my door when-
"Ah, Excuse me? Tasha-san?" A shy, feminine voice asked behind me. Turning around I saw a head of green hair, instantly guessing it was Midoriya again, but no. Too short, too chubby, instead it was no one other than his mom. And looking pretty sad too.
"Yes, how can I help you?" Sheesh, what's up with this family and me?
"Ah, I just wanted to thank you for what you did to Izuku today, about believing in his dream I mean." Ah, that. Knew it was going to bite me in the ass later.
"It's no problem, ma'am, someone has to stick up for the kid, right?" I joke at her, but it only makes her sadder and gloomier.
"Ah... Yes... Tasha-san, do you think I'm a bad mom?" Looking down, she asks me.
"What do you mean?"
*Sniff* "When Izuku got his diagnosis as Quirkless I... Gave up, on his dream of being a hero. Even when he kept studying and researching, I just let him do it without saying anything." *Sob*
"Then..." *Sniff* "Then earlier today he came to me, crying rivers of happiness and talking about how you believe in him, like he was proving himself to me, begging for approval." *Sob*
"Tasha-san... I'm such a bad mom... That my son needs to beg me to believe in him?"
Then, she stops talking and just stands there, head bent down, eyes closed, silently crying while waiting for my answer.
Shit. What do I do now? I want to go home, but I don't want to be rude to her...
"Midoriya-san... I don't think so." I say to her, causing her to lift her head and look at me with surprised red eyes.
"What...?"
"You didn't stop believing in your son, you stopped believing in yourself. You don't believe in the you who's capable of believing in your son, while he thinks you stopped believing in him."
"A-ah... What?"
"You believe in him, but not yourself, that's it. You didn't have the intention and that's the point."
"I… I think I got it."
"Now, the important thing is what are you gonna do now?" I ask her, ending my (second) speech of today. She stays silent for a second, before speaking, this time with a ounce of determination in her voice.
"I..." *hic* "Will support him! With anything he needs! I failed him too much until now, but not anymore!" Like mother like son huh. Well, she got her shit together, I appreciate that at least. Hurray for anime moms.
"Good! If any of you two need anything, do not be afraid of asking me all right?"
"R-really!"
"Yup."
*Hic* "Waaaah! Thank you so much Tasha-san!" She actually hugged me, while crying in comically large amounts. I'm now wet. As. Fuck.
It took a while to calm her down and take her off me. After saying our byes, I went home, closed the door and rested against it with a tired sigh. Then, I double facepalmed, hard.
"What the fuck was I doing!? Pulling all that Gurren Lagann shit out of my ass to her!? Is this place rotting my brain or something, or was I always this stupid!?"
Ugh, fine. I'll help them, but I am going to find a way to gain something out of it.
Now...
About those parts (trash) I got earlier...
[Cold Reading Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Personal Manipulation Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 11 -> Lv 12.]
Oh, you shut up!
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Tasha stats, gonna post a character sheet soon enough with her Inventory.
A/N: This is my first time writing any piece of cohesive fanfiction. Any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Actually, what kind of martial arts/tech you want to see? I'm curious.
Until Next Time.
This rewrite was done because I took the story to a direction I wasn't really liking and found some really annoying things on my old version that I wanted to fix, plus I wanted to post this on SB and SV, which I can't with this story being NSFW, so no horni this time, sorry.
The character's appearance was inspired/based on this piece of art (For those on SB/SV, it is my profile pic).
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
You know, you only really understand the importance of something, how much you used it and how much it affected your life, after you finally lose it. For example… Most people don't even think about how their lives would be if they lost something like an eye, a finger, hand or leg. And again, it's okay. For most people wouldn't really ever go through something like that in the first place.
[Climbing Leveled Up! Lv 7 -> Lv 8.]
"Uhng, shit."
Another example could be me, who is currently balancing myself on a box, atop a stool, on my tiptoes, trying to reach the topmost shelf. Something the previous 6ft tall "me" could easily reach before, but now struggles with it.
Truly a misfortune.
Reaching the top shelf is just one of many challenges of my new form, like sitting on a chair without my feet being off the floor or picking clothes from the washing machine without getting stuck. Heck, those huge American cars are now an actual threat to me.
Anyways... A while ago, I got transmogrified into a 132 cm tall little person, with long brown hair, weird green eyes and short, pointy ears like an elf, halfling or goblin. I now closely resemble a little girl, cute, small and huggable.
[Climbing Leveled Up! Lv 8 -> Lv 9.]
"Ah! Fucking finally!"
Finally managing to pick up the stupid large bow, I quietly hopped off the stool back to the floor with a flip and went to the microwave to prepare mi popcorn in peace. Today is Sunday, meaning in simpler words that it is time for me to watch some of the frankly massive amounts of anime in my century-old backlog. Stopping next to the fridge, I also grabbed a 2L cola, a must have. With both my popcorn and drink in hands, I stuffed them in my Inventory where my popcorn will remain hot, while my drink will stay cool.
Well, at least not all is bad. While I indeed had just lost almost a whole 2 feet of my height, got my gender swapped like a bad Wattpad fanfiction and also lost access to pretty much all my other belongings, family and friends (wow, that sounds really bad actually), I also got a shiny new superpower out of it.
Have you ever heard of a "Gamer" story, or also known as a LitRPG. A story where a poor fella, through any kind of means, obtains a bunch of Video Game-like powers and is forced to fight to death and train to the bone to survive in a new, dangerous world? Yeah, that's pretty much my situation right now. And worse, the bastard who dropped me here only gave me half the powers I'm supposed to have!
Levels? Zero. Stats? Nothing. HP/MP? Nada. Titles? No luck. Heck, even Skills Books aren't a thing for me. All I got are Skills, Perks and an Inventory. I feel scammed, or at least, I felt as, until I began to mess around with what I had and understood what kind of power I now had. Levels? Stats? Those are limited, with diminishing returns unless you keep fighting stronger and stronger enemies, and facing harder and harder challenges, something which I'm strongly against. But Skills? Oh, ho ho ho, a Gamer never stops learning new Skills. Maybe they start to take a while to level up, once they reach high levels, but nothing stops you from growing. You can keep learning without limit, continuously obtaining more Skills and leveling them up at your pace, or better saying, I can.
Trying to climb to the top shelf for example gave me the Climbing Skill, and being forced to do it again and again made it level up steadily, with a tad bit of slow returns recently. Feels like climbing furniture soon won't be enough and I will have to push it further to train it. But still, my point stands. Unlimited Power, only limited by how much you can avoid procrastinating.
With just a month of shallow testing I was able to obtain a lot of skills. Climbing, as I said before, Acting, by doing it in front of the mirror, and Dancing in the same way, Programming, by watching some simple tutorials on my own cheap laptop, and Mechanics, by opening and looking around my computer and phone's insides. Heck, I even picked up a stick and was able to learn a bit of Eskrima (or arnis de mano), though it's only Level 2 yet.
Why Eskrima? Well… It's a practical and effective martial art, built mostly for actual fighting with weapons, weapons which I can upgrade. Also, training with it is easy enough, at least for the start.
Anyways…
I was beyond awed. No human should be able to grow this quickly, but here I was, blazing over books and tutorials as easily as breathing. Even if I can't seem to obtain any Attack or Buff type Skills, like some Power Hit or Fire Resistance, it's still OP as hell. Shit, I can barely wait to reach a higher level with my Skills and reach some bullshit quasi-magic martial arts or build some comic book level tech, if that's even possible.
My Inventory is also pretty neat. While I can't do any "Unlimited Powah" stuff with it (I think…) it's still super useful and versatile. The only two main limits is that I can't store anything too heavy to lift with my own arms, as I tried to do with my sofa, and can't store any living creatures, which I tried to do with a bug I had caught. So, I can't just store a car and then release it over someone to crush them to death, Stuff someone away forever to easily get rid of them, or inventory everything inside my house to easily move somewhere else, but I can still carry nigh-unlimited amounts of resources with me, which is still good.
Anything I store inside also doesn't rot, go cold or warm. Meaning my fridge is kinda useless now, so is my wardrobe, cabinets, drawers, etc. A sad sacrifice, but one I'm willing to make. But I still have to store everything I can inside my house. Yeah, kind of lazy, I know, but can you fault me? I was kinda busy planning my way to unlimited power.
Walking over the mess of parts and other things littering the floor of my kitchen, I walked towards my living room dressed in my sleeping clothes. I currently live in a small apartment in the "ok" part of the city, and with my funds being enough to pay all of my bills, I usually stay at home most of the week, though I still go out once in a while for one reason or the other.
And lastly, there's my Perks. To be fully honest, I still have zero idea about what those are. The only perks I got now are Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind, both which work nothing like their original versions in the manhua, or was a manwa? Eh, anyways. Gamer's Body seems to be more of a Metavore-esque Perk, keeping my body healthy regardless of what I eat and making it so that I heal without any scars. While Gamer's Mind has a lesser effect of the original, making me able to keep my calm more easily. But aside from that, I'm clueless. Maybe they represent stuff I gain from leveling Skills, or stuff that Skills can't upgrade.
Gotta somehow experiment with that later. Later.
And... that's pretty much it? Aside from smoll-fication and the discount Gamer power, my life is pretty much the same way it was before. All calm and easy.
Laying down on my sofa, I pulled the remote out of my Inventory, turned on the TV and got myself all comfortable in preparation for the next 12 hours. Wearing nothing but a simple white shirt and shorts, I planned to enjoy my day watching bad anime, and then later some training, or, as I call it, "fun". However, as if to mock me, the TV turns to a random channel, the news channel to be exact, which showed the live footage of a man covered in fire, fighting a giant fish-monster-thing, alongside another man with brown wings growing out of his back.
Endeavor and Hawks. Pro heroes. Villains. Quirks. My Hero Academia.
I sigh and lower my head. So much for my calm and easy life huh?
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
So!
My Hero Academia. A controversial piece of fiction I have some... Peculiar feelings and thoughts about. Mostly negative ones, but not all bad. The base idea is great. Basically, a form of X-Men-esque future but without the rest of all the bullshit Marvel's writers like shove on it. However, the execution...
Yeah... Could be better.
For example, something I agree with most fans is the, frankly, massive amount of underused and unexplored characters. Thanks to the author often focusing too much on the MC Trio and rushing some parts of the story, a lot of actually good characters are left behind as either background art and/or peanut gallery. Another is that as the chapters went, the quality of the story went down. Or at least, that's what I think. I stopped reading after the Overhaul Arc.
But I also think the worldbuilding is pretty bad in some parts, the pacing flips between too fast/slow way too much, the story's quality slowly went down, (most of) Izuku's "friendships" look more like cardboard cutouts, and most of the antagonists are kinda of the same. 'Waaah, I lived a slightly bad life so I'm gonna kill everyone, especially people completely unrelated to me, waaaah.' Go fuck yourself man...
Again, most of my problems are due to the author, the characters are fine. Most of them. Yes, that means fuck you, Toga. Overrated piece of-
Ahem... But this setting hides some really deep, really dark shit. Even with Big and Stupid running around leaving most criminals with pants-shitting fear, crime still exists in other ways. And with most of it happening in the background, no one will come to save you unless your name happens to be Eri.
The Government, or rather the Hero Public Safety Commission, are all just as horrible. Grooming people into becoming assassins/spies, making them do horrible shit to "protect society" and then getting rid them once they're not useful anymore, while also lying to save their own asses. And with how Japanese culture is, I expect that whole mess to be dealt-with off screen, with only a single bare mention of it in a lone, white monologue panel.
Yikes.
I'm gonna stay far away from all that, thank you very much. Here, in my tiny ass apartment grinding my "Quirk"* as much as I can, so I can get a decent life wherever I go. And to however put me here, fuck you. I'm not playing this game for some omnipotent asshole's fun. I'm not getting involved with this crashing train of a plot. No, no, no.
Yes, I also dare to say this while also living next door to the Crybaby Protagonist Himself. Such hypocrisy, right? At least the story didn't begin yet. From what I can tell (and hear, through the thin apartment walls) the boy's still in middle school, meaning the plot won't start for at least a few months, a year perhaps.
Just enough time for me to plan and prepare. And so, I did.
In a plain notebook, one that will ALWAYS be kept within my Inventory for the sole purpose of security, I wrote pretty much everything I knew about the setting of MHA. The characters, the plot, the threats, and such. Due to stopping after the Overhaul Arc, I missed a lot of stuff and don't know absolutely everything, but at least some of my wiki walking and fanfic reading helped me fill some of the gaps in my knowledge. Using this, I can efficiently decide which Skills to learn and level up in advance.
Currently, this is my plan:
1. Programming, Mechanics and Electronics are a must. Despite what people who try to trash the setting always says, that humanity stopped progressing due to Quirks that is, is fucking stupid and wrong. They got some tech, especially in the area of materials and batteries, probably thanks to studying Quirks and such. They also got some nice A.I. robots and civilian grade mechs, all which are beyond my budget yet, but soon...
Second, biology and medicine. Or, more specifically, Quirks. The setting revolves around them, at times much to some people's annoyance, and I'm sure as hell going to abuse them for my own gain. Just learning how to create matter like Momo or electricity like Kaminari would be perfect, but also finding ways to remove Quirks harmlessly and/or block them, something that a quick internet search tells me that the setting doesn't have yet besides the very very experimental, would be important.
No Nomus tho, fuck avocado head and his dick doctor.
And finally, Martial Arts. While I don't plan to be a hero or villain anytime ever, the number of crazies out there like Toga or Stain makes me (mentally) shit myself in fear. So, let's at least train enough to not die like a mook and maybe kick some ass in the future. People can achieve superhuman physical abilities even without Quirks (looking at you Toga and Shigaraki), so better abuse that while I can.
With those goals in mind, I was able to get a nice amount of progress here, mostly on my tech skills, but sadly, I think I hit some kind of soft lock. While training programming is easy, as even shit smartphones today can run surprisingly complex code, Mechanics/Electronics isn't. I got no tools or parts to tinker with, meaning I'm still stuck at level 10 at both.
And you know what that means? Fish-
"Yep, Takoba Municipal Beach Park." I say to no one, trying to calm myself down. It's Sunday, so there shouldn't be anyone there today (I hope). Since the unavoidable dreadful reality of my situation was able to catch me, I guess I should go outside, touch grass and practice a bit, get some materials, and maybe eat some cake. Anime will be pushed for later.
I'm sure the Protagonist would thank me for doing some of his work for him early, taking away some of that trash (for me), right?
Exactly.
Putting on my yellow baseball cap, matching the yellow jacket I put on, I walked out the door. A slight shake in my step despite my (fake) confidence.
Nothing can go wrong (I hope).
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
It went wrong. It all went very fucking wrong.
"A-ah! Tatasha-san! H-hi." Said Midoriya Izuku, the main character, clearly doing it more out of politeness than anything. Either going into home or walking out of it, I don't care which, and meeting me on the way.
Ah yes, Tatasha Tasha, that's my name, hi. Not a single break for me, huh. Seriously, did the collective will of the universe decided that to fuck with me today?
"Hi." I answered him after a brief pause, walking past him. Really smooth me, really smooth.
"W-Wait!" The kid stutters behind me, still talking. I sigh internally and lower my head a little. It's one of these days huh? Right.
Putting on my best smile, I turn towards him, hands folded behind my back, and incline my torso slightly to the front. "Meanness" flowing within me like a volcano ready to explode.
"Yes, Midoriya-Kun~? What can I do for you~?" I asked in a sweet and teasing tone, getting what's basically a squawk from him as a response. Hehe, he, fun, I'm going to tease the hell out of this kid 'til he turns into a tomato and/or runs away.
"Uh, it's for school... C-can you... can I ask you... W-what do you think is the biggest impact Heroes have in society, today? Please? It's for school..." After a few seconds of him pulling himself together, the nervous boy finally asks what he wanted from me, repeating himself a little.
Homework huh? I know Japanese kids study economics and a bunch of other subjects from very early, so this makes some sense. Original, I'd say that. 3/10.
"Mou Midoriya-Kun, you're so mean, asking something like that so suddenly..." I complain at him, a cute pout forming on my face while my hands move towards my hips.
"A-ah! I'm sor-!" He tries to say sorry again but I cut him.
"Hahaha! Haha... Calm down. I'm just messing with ya! I'll answer it no problem, okay?"
"Ah! Hmm, okay?"
"Well... Heroes huh?" I fake-mutter, bringing a finger to my mouth. "Oh, that's easy! Merchandise of course!" I answer, pointing at him. And also confusing him quite well, given how stunned he got. He didn't expect that.
"H-huh?" See. Stunned. Sometimes, my genius is almost frightening.
"Well, merchandise AND advertisement. Supply and demand, you know." I explain. This time following it with a lengthier, deeper explanation.
"You see, heroes are extremely popular in Japan today, especially those ranked in the top 10, so any merchandise of them sells a lot and advertisements with them work very well. There's even some heroes who only do stuff like that, like Iwanami. The market and economy then adapts and changes to work better with them, thus changing society in turn." I state, counting with my fingers to mark my points. Izuku was almost in a trance, listening as I talked while not saying a thing.
"Toy, posters, stickers… Even those things that only cost pennies, when expanded over a national scale, can quickly become a multi-million dollar/yen market very easily." I then point at him.
"You own a bunch of All Might paraphernalia, do you? Your mom told me once. You must know how much it costs and sells, right?" I ask him, finishing my explanation.
The mention of All Might makes him jolt, as if he suddenly woke up. His sharp mind quickly catches up with my argument and formulates a response, then fails due to the classic "shoe-in-mouth syndrome".
"Y-yes, but! Heroes save people! They fight villains, help in disasters and accidents, and bring h-hope! They don't just sell things for-" The boy affirms back, passionately defending what he loves, or just 'cause I talked about All Might, who knows.
"Wait." Before he continues his rant, I raise my hand, and break my explanation for a second. "I'm not here insulting anyone, calling them greedy or anything of the sort. But popularity IS part of the hero rankings and their presence did change the market and society, money is just part of that."
"T-there's Heroes who don't sell any merchandise-"
"And how much do they gain per month? Altruism is good and all, but someone can't survive on just that. Plus, most heroes aren't Endeavor, Izuku." This seems to put Midoriya into a thoughtful silence, as he pondered on it.
A myriad of complex looks and emotions set on his face, one after the other. Then, after a few seconds... "Do you... think someone who isn't popular or strong can be a Hero?" He asks me, with a shy but hopeful tone, like he was scared of my answer, but desperately needed to know it.
"Why, Hmm? Do you want to be a hero~?" This just makes him shrink on himself, clearly expecting me to say no and then make fun of it, and I could, oh I could.
I could say how stupid his dream is, how stupid this whole "Hero" thing is, how likely he is to die, how he would so work hard to pretty much be a glorified and overworked shitty cop, how this is all to fed his ego and desire for attention/approval, or even how he could take a better job by just being a normal cop and putting on a clown costume.
"Yeah sure, why not." But nah, I'm not that cruel.
"Huh!?"
"No one is responsible of your Dreams but yourself. If you want to be a Hero, go for it." I answer, folding my arms and walking a bit away to the side, further increasing my "cool" vibes.
"You better better put on some exercise tho. Those lanky arms of yours aren't going to punch-out any villains." I say causally, ignoring the look of surprise on his face and looking to the side for a second. Oh look, the bus is here, nice timing.
"A-ah, r-right!" He nods, a new light burning in his eyes, the kind only a Shonen Protagonist can get out of nowhere. Well, at least he isn't crying.
"Well if that's all I'm going, can't miss the bus now, bye Midoriya-Kun." I say to him, turning around and walking away towards the stairs-
"Wait!" Huh? What now? "T-thank you Tatasha-san!" Is he crying? I look back.
Yep, he's crying. Sigh… So much for it huh.
"Hm, why?"
"W-why?"
"I didn't do anything." I say, leaving the now confused boy behind, and slipping out of my role with a sigh once I'm far enough. Easy peasy.
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 10 -> Lv 11.]
[You Learned a New Skill! Cold Reading Lv 1.]
[You Learned a New Skill! Personal Manipulation Lv 1.]
Oh, you shut up!
... Hope this doesn't bite me back in the ass later.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
To avoid staring at anyone in the bus, like the bald guy with eyeballs all over his head in front of me, or the shining chrome kid on the other side (the metal, not the program), I stealthy pulled my phone and headphones out of my Pocket and listened to some good music.
The shuffle played It's No Good, by Depeche Mode. Perfectly ironic, just as I expected.
After steal- erm, *appropriating* some materials at the trash beach I plan to stop at a nearby tech shop and buy some basic tools, screwdrivers, soldering irons and the like.
'Ah, but why don't you just buy the materials huh?' You must be asking me right now. Well, yes reader, I have money. Almost a million and half yen stored, or over 10k USD. But I got no job, so if this money ever runs out, I'm dead. And with the puny Geology degree my "benefactor" gave me along with my history in this world, there's no way I'm gonna find a good job easily.
Yeah. I'd wait until my Skills are a bit higher before trying to find ways to gain money online and buy better stuff, so for now it's dumpster diving time for me.
Anyways. With a few minutes to spare, I decided to catch up with anything I may have missed since yesterday. With the "NetEye" bot I made recently checking every news site and social media it can find for anything I tagged as important, that's as easy as opening a simple app on my phone.
C:/NetEye/New:
> "Skycrawler" single handedly arrested a local villain gang in New York;
> The Villain "Gentle" did another heist in a museum, stealing 3 paintings and defeating 2 local heroes;
> "UA" "Sports Festival" coming soon, see how to register for the preliminary exam;
> 12 "All Might" sightings last night;
> NOTHING ABOUT "Knuckleduster";
However, the last one gave me a pause.
> 6 more missing in the area of "Kamino", Yokohama.
Kamino... All For One.
With the plot of Vigilantes now over for a while, I knew testicle-head would begin to act up again, but not this soon, not this early. Now it's for real, a year until the beginning of the end.
The bus stops, and I waste zero seconds before walking out of it. No time to waste now, Destiny Draws Near.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Uff... Uff... Uff...!" Hot, sweaty, tired and with pain, this is felt right now. My arms burned, my hands shook and I breathed in short gasps while I rested. My weak legs wobbled like jelly as I struggled to stay standing. And I'm pretty sure I saw some funny spots in my vision for a little bit. If I wasn't surrounded by trash right now this scene would be even considered inappropriate by some, but I was, and it sucked.
All this work, and for what? Smartphones, appliances, consoles, laptops, monitors, toys and a single CRT TV.
For most people, this is trash, useless. But for me, this is treasure. Material and pieces to build stuff with. Remember... Trash is a social construct. A piece of plastic doesn't stop being plastic just because you won't use it anymore, same for a broken phone, TV and etc. Again, there's exceptions, same as everything. But still... Resources! That no one is using! All free for me to grab and use...
[You Learned a New Skill! Scavenging Lv 1.]
[Scavenging Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
... And give me some new Skills to boot!
Snapping out of my internal monologue, after resting for a little bit, I scanned the trash beach again. Hours of digging stuff out, using gloves and a face mask for protection of course, have passed, yet there's still piles and more piles of junk lying around. Despite how much I found, not all of it is electronic, there's paper, cardboard, organic, and more. But thankfully, no medical stuff here, so it's (mostly) safe to mess with.
*Squeak!* Suddenly, a squeak from below surprises me, making me jump away in an instant... only to then realize it's just a rat, a small harmless rat.
Yeah, then there's that. Places like this attract pests like crazy, and those little buggers are vectors for all sorts of diseases. I'm surprised a place like this still exists so close to a populated zone, especially in Japan. Guess no matter the place, bureaucracy is the same huh?
Pulling my phone out, I check for the time and for any news NetEye may have send me. 13:20, and nothing new right now. Huh, guess I got more distracted than I thought, it's already past noon, I've been here for 2 hours.
Walking away from the box I was snooping, I sat on a metal box close by. Pulling a water bottle out of my Inventory, I took off my facemask and took a small sip.
"Ahh..."
Cold, just as I like it. I also thought about splashing myself with it to cool down, but nah, not that hot. I'm just out of shape, and I can't even complain about it being from my new form, since I was out of shape before. Getting comfortable, or trying to, I began mindlessly browsing on social networks to pass time, pulling a small snack to munch while I can't eat my lunch yet.
Honestly, I find it fascinating the ways society has changed since Quirks first appeared. A lot of comics and books try to explore but they usually fail due to the author not understanding how society works and how people react.
For example, how civil engineering, the market and such adapted to the different body shapes Quirks can bring. The ways clothing, buildings, footwear, vehicles, medicine, etc. had to be adapted is fascinating. For example: most stores these days sell a huge variety of clothing shapes and forms, all developed after years of the industry adapting to unusual body shapes, shoes too.
Hell, they even sell clothing my size.
But the most interesting thing is... How it didn't change. Like, people didn't suddenly begin to call themselves Neo-Humans, +Humans or something stupid. Well, except maybe at the very early, when no one knew what was really happening, and even then, those were a very small minority. Countries didn't change a lot either.
Some might say it's stagnation, and in some parts I agree, but I also call it just "humans being human". People hung on to their habits like always. And who can judge them, no one likes to change their entire life out of nowhere. And no. Society isn't 100% about heroes, All Might or Quirks. Stuff like that only happens in Yu-Gi-Oh-esque anime, not real life.
[ PLAYLIST: HumanLove_CH_edm_all_no_vocals]
"Huh!?"
A somewhat loud rumble startles me back to reality. I look around searching for where it came from... only to then notice it's coming right from the box I'm sitting on!
Jumping off it, I turn around just to see the top of the box get thrown off a few feet into the air, landing behind with a loud clang, followed by something crawling out of the box on a single robotic arm. Oh no.
"TA-TA-TA-TA-..."
It balanced itself on a single large wheel, a shielded limb on its side, with a large scratched "1" painted on, while the other side had only a stump of a limb, with a mess of exposed wires dangling from it. It was also huge, away over twice my size at least.
The green robot moved its triangular head and stared right at me with its red monoeye. Cold, unblinking and eerie still, before it continued with its glitched robotic voice: "... -TA-TARGET L-LOCK-ON! MURDER!"
The villain robot, lifting its one good arm, revealed a god fucking damn gatling gun under it and aimed at straight me!
"Shit-!" I leaped behind a rusty fridge just as the robot began to fire, hoping those UA staff freaks aren't crazy enough to put real bullets in a robot designed to face off children. The loud clang of plastic pellets hitting metal answers my question. Thank fuck.
With Gamer's Mind helping me keep my balls in place, I analyzed the situation. One, crazy robot is attacking me, no idea what it is doing here but I know it's a UA one. Two... I take a quick peek at it before ducking under another salvo of pellets aimed at just where my head was... Very accurate, too accurate.
I should cut my losses right now and run away to safety but... I want that robot. Just studying its software would boost my Programming Skill by a lot, not to say learning how to write my own combat software for my future battle-bots. But there's a lot that I can do with its body, even if just to break it for base materials.
But…
"G-GET TERMINATED, W-WALKING S-SAUSAGE! WE A-ARE THE S-S-SKYNET OF THIS W-WORLD!"
Yeah this thing is going down.
Suddenly, the bullets stopped, followed by only soft clicks, and I started to hear the loud rumbling of an engine grinding awfully loud against something. Looking back at the robot, I saw that its wheel seemed to be jammed, a piece of some kind of metal lodged deep into its wheel I didn't see before being the cause. Immediately my situation changed.
Three, limited ammo and damaged wheel, perfect for me. My mouth shifted into a dangerous smile. I leaped out of cover and dashed towards my target.
"MURDER!" It screamed at my sight, but with its wheel damaged, it could only watch as I rushed to the side and grabbed a rock off the ground. The robot seems to understand what I planned to do and lifted its shield arm to block the rock I then threw at it.
[You Learned a New Skill! Throwing Lv 1.]
It struck with a loud, metallic bong. But I didn't stop grabbing more rocks, I began to throw more and more at it, trying to keep it locked into defending itself. This thing seems to have a pre-designed attack pattern, one which I can abuse to bring it down.
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 2 -> Lv 3.]
[Throwing Leveled Up! Lv 3 -> Lv 4.]
Between picking up rocks, I sneakily grabbed a steel pipe off the ground and Inventored it, followed soon by another one. Steadily, I approached the robot while keeping it distracted, then I dropped the rocks from my hands and dashed towards it.
The thing immediately saw what I was doing and swung its arm to strike me, but I was smarter. Bending down, I let the robot's arm swing over me, my height finally being an advantage to me, and pulled the pair of pipes out of my Pocket to my hands.
With a louder bonk, I struck the robot's segmented neck with a messy strike then moved out of the way when it swung its arm again, almost hitting my head. Pushing forward, I tried to get another hit only for it to pull its arm back and bash me with its shield.
"Guh!"
Thankfully, the thing threw me away enough to push me out of its range. Rolling back to my feet, I stared down the robot's red eye again. "Gotta get creative for this one..." A memory flashed through my head, too quickly for me to dwell on it, but I got the idea. "This will work... Aim for the weak spot..."
Rolling my wrists, I aimed, pulled back my arm and threw one of my pipes at the robot. As expected, it focused on the weapon, raised its arm and blocked the projectile aimed at its head. However, that left the thing wide open for me to just step over its shield and shove my other pipe, right down its sole eye socket.
I relaxed for a second. Thing is... The robot didn't, and right a second after I began to thrash around while I held on the pipe for dear life.
"Ah shit! Just die already!" It shook its head and body around like a horse trying to throw me out, all the while I still tried to push the pipe deeper into its eye hole and into whatever circuitry may lay inside it. Lifting its arm, the robot tried to strike me again.
"Ah- Oof!" Except it did so only when it managed to throw me off, meaning the thing just punched the pipe through its head and finished itself. The whirring of its engine suddenly died and the red of its lower eye went black. Going limp, the large machine tumbled left and laid still on the sand. Still.
I sat down. Heart pumping and head now spinning. Guh, even almost puking here.
"... Is it dead?" *bonk!* I asked, throwing a rock at it to make sure. After calming down from this scare, I stood up and started to check the robot for any more surprises.
How the fuck did one of UA's murder bots ended up here? These things are super expensive, I checked. Just renting one of these for a day would cost all my money, not to say the cost of buying them for real, like UA does. Fucking rich school.
Well, never look a gift horse in the mouth, this still is a battle robot, filled with materials for me to use.
"But how I'm going to bring it- Wait…" Hmm... Yeah this can work...
Lifting my steel pipe, I aimed it at the joints and...
Bonk.
It was only later that I learned the robot had an off-switch in the back of its head.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
It was already evening when I got back home.
Man, what an eventful day, I just wanted to watch some anime today and relax but ended up getting pissed off, talked to the MC (something I usually try to avoid) and went halfway across the city to look for junk.
Ugh, I stink. I really need a bath. I reached my hand to open my door when-
"Ah, Excuse me? Tasha-san?" A shy, feminine voice asked behind me. Turning around I saw a head of green hair, instantly guessing it was Midoriya again, but no. Too short, too chubby, instead it was no one other than his mom. And looking pretty sad too.
"Yes, how can I help you?" Sheesh, what's up with this family and me?
"Ah, I just wanted to thank you for what you did to Izuku today, about believing in his dream I mean." Ah, that. Knew it was going to bite me in the ass later.
"It's no problem, ma'am, someone has to stick up for the kid, right?" I joke at her, but it only makes her sadder and gloomier.
"Ah... Yes... Tasha-san, do you think I'm a bad mom?" Looking down, she asks me.
"What do you mean?"
*Sniff* "When Izuku got his diagnosis as Quirkless I... Gave up, on his dream of being a hero. Even when he kept studying and researching, I just let him do it without saying anything." *Sob*
"Then..." *Sniff* "Then earlier today he came to me, crying rivers of happiness and talking about how you believe in him, like he was proving himself to me, begging for approval." *Sob*
"Tasha-san... I'm such a bad mom... That my son needs to beg me to believe in him?"
Then, she stops talking and just stands there, head bent down, eyes closed, silently crying while waiting for my answer.
Shit. What do I do now? I want to go home, but I don't want to be rude to her...
"Midoriya-san... I don't think so." I say to her, causing her to lift her head and look at me with surprised red eyes.
"What...?"
"You didn't stop believing in your son, you stopped believing in yourself. You don't believe in the you who's capable of believing in your son, while he thinks you stopped believing in him."
"A-ah... What?"
"You believe in him, but not yourself, that's it. You didn't have the intention and that's the point."
"I… I think I got it."
"Now, the important thing is what are you gonna do now?" I ask her, ending my (second) speech of today. She stays silent for a second, before speaking, this time with a ounce of determination in her voice.
"I..." *hic* "Will support him! With anything he needs! I failed him too much until now, but not anymore!" Like mother like son huh. Well, she got her shit together, I appreciate that at least. Hurray for anime moms.
"Good! If any of you two need anything, do not be afraid of asking me all right?"
"R-really!"
"Yup."
*Hic* "Waaaah! Thank you so much Tasha-san!" She actually hugged me, while crying in comically large amounts. I'm now wet. As. Fuck.
It took a while to calm her down and take her off me. After saying our byes, I went home, closed the door and rested against it with a tired sigh. Then, I double facepalmed, hard.
"What the fuck was I doing!? Pulling all that Gurren Lagann shit out of my ass to her!? Is this place rotting my brain or something, or was I always this stupid!?"
Ugh, fine. I'll help them, but I am going to find a way to gain something out of it.
Now...
About those parts (trash) I got earlier...
[Cold Reading Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Personal Manipulation Leveled Up! Lv 1 -> Lv 2.]
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 11 -> Lv 12.]
Oh, you shut up!
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Tasha stats, gonna post a character sheet soon enough with her Inventory.
[SKILLS]
Acting (Lv 12)
Cooking (Lv 5)
Cleaning (Lv 4)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 3)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 15)
Mechanics (Lv 10)
Electronics (Lv 10)
Eskrima (Lv 2)
Survey (Lv 1)
Cold Reading (Lv 2)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
Acting (Lv 12)
Cooking (Lv 5)
Cleaning (Lv 4)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 3)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 15)
Mechanics (Lv 10)
Electronics (Lv 10)
Eskrima (Lv 2)
Survey (Lv 1)
Cold Reading (Lv 2)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
A/N: This is my first time writing any piece of cohesive fanfiction. Any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Actually, what kind of martial arts/tech you want to see? I'm curious.
Until Next Time.
Last edited:
DDN Chapter 2: Over is Over
Weenboom
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2017
- Messages
- 240
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- 1,176
Second Chapter. Hurray.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"... Un..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"No..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"Ugh... Fine!"
*Beep! Beep! Be- Click*
"Another dreamless night huh..." I said to myself, after turning off my phone's alarm and staring at the ceiling for a second. I almost fell asleep again, but no. Gotta get up. There 's work to do.
"Stupid alarm clock."
Finally awake, I crawl out of my tiny futon and get up. Ignoring the mess of parts around my room, I clean the sand from my eyes, put on my slippers and walk to my bathroom. Quickly checking my phone on the way, I saw that It was 4:30 AM, the usual for me. Yeah, I'm an early riser, the horror.
After brushing my teeth and taking a bath, I put on my usual outfit (a white shirt, black shorts and shoes), did some quick stretches and went out. Locking the door behind me of course.
Running in the morning sucks ass, but it sure beats the alternative.
-The sound of gears and servos, grinding against the rust. The beating of my heart. The gleaming of metal. The sight of a weapon that could have easily killed me. And the voice...
"TA-TARGET L-LOCK-ON! MU-MURDER!"-
Better than it beating me instead.
Ignoring the looks of the other early risers around me, and popping my headphones on, I began my run while jamming to the voice of Yoshiki Fukuyama.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Sigh. Sometimes I let myself forget the setting I'm in and just try to enjoy the moment... Then shit like this happens. All I did was just make a little detour from my daily morning run to buy my breakfast! How did it end up like this! How did some idiot appeared from bum-fuck nowhere and grabbed me right just as I turned myself around.
"Nobody moves! Or the little girl here gets it!" Said the person holding me (under his smelly, sweaty armpit) and pointing at me, showing it to the hero. If he wasn't shirtless and wearing a train grill on his face, the 2 meter tall hulking brute here would be at least a bit threatening. But alas, he is, so he isn't.
I'm also gonna ignore that he called me a child. Rude. Actual children aren't as cute as me, they're just annoying and gross.
"You monster!" Said Groot- I mean Treebeard- I mean Kamui Woods, yes, that, Kamui Woods, that's his name. Guy's so generic that I forgot for a second. "Drop the girl!"
"Please put me down, I'm really tired." I tried to talk, but of course, they all ignored me completely. Or maybe they just didn' hear me.
"Kamui! We dealt with the goons, how's the situation!" Then two more showed up, making the grillman here get more antsy. They were so generic that I didn't even bother remembering them. They were, huh, Luke Fist and Iron Cage, yes, those two.
"Not good! Dumbell grabbed a civilian while I tried to apprehend him and now is holding her hostage!" So it's your fault, good. I will remember that.
"Shit!" "Damn it!" Yeah, shit indeed. And really? Dumbell's his name? At least it is not "The Wall". I actually would have laughed at that. No, wait, the guy is actually wearing a belt with the symbol of a dumbell on it. Okay, he's legit.
"Quit it Sticky!" Boo! I can do better than that. "Or the little girl here goes splat!" What.
The guy actually clenched his fist shut to show it. What, was that supposed to be threatening? And then they all stared at each other for a few seconds, very long, very silent seconds.
What the hell is this? One Piece? Do something! I got places to be! Things to do! I pushed against the Dumbdum's hand but he didn't move an inch, didn't even seem to notice really. Must be some kind strength Quirk.
Fuck it. Guess I gotta "save" myself, not that I didn't expect anything else, looking at Dumb-face I search for… Huh, what's this? Looking a bit "closer", well not closer but better, I saw that the guy's, ugh Dumbell's, tongue was pitch black. This would mean...
Reaching for his pocket... Oh... Ohohoho... I can use this... Thank you mister Dumb.
Now, to get out of here...
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Kamui Woods POV]
Shinji Nishiya, better known as the Tree Branch Hero, Kamui Woods (or just Kamui Woods) was in a tight situation!
During his daily early patrol, he found a local minor villain group, the Rail Crew, a villain group that usually operates on Naruhata, stealing from a local market. The Villains are known Trigger users, so Shinji called in for support as per protocol before leaping into combat with the train themed criminals.
With the help of his arriving coworkers, The Punch Happy Hero Luck Fist (Quirk: Combo) and The Unstoppable Hero Iron Cage (Quirk: Holdown), he fought and defeated the villains, with the exception of one, Dumbell, the Mutant-Quirk type and leader of the group, who somehow was able to run away and managed to grab a hostage while they were busy.
Deep inside, Shinji cursed himself for letting this one get away. Yes, dealing with him alone would certainly boost his popularity by a good amount, but the Rail Crew aways causes no small amounts of collateral damage and Dumbell is no exception, being strong enough to escape Shinji's Quirk vines.
Now, he was at an impasse. If Shinji and his fellow Heroes tried to attack, the civilian could be injured in the fight, but if they let him go the villain could cause more chaos and destruction, and injure more people, not something he could or would ever allow. But, before Shinji could even decide, things quickly spiraled out of control. A lot.
In some unseen way, probably by using her Quirk, the hostage quickly pulled a metal can out of nowhere and sprayed something at the villain's face, who was busy looking at the heroes and for a way to escape.
The effect was instantaneous, Dumbell immediately winced in pain and brought his hands to his own face with a scream, while also throwing the hostage away with his enhanced strength- "Wah!" -who went flying away with a desperate scream!
"Now!" While his fellow Heroes jumped in to deal with the villain, Iron Cage holding him down with his gravity Quirk while Luck Fist began to repeatedly punch his stomach with her glowing fists, Shinji dashed past them and quickly used his Quirk to shape his hands into a net, aiming to safely catch the falling civilian.
"Do not worry young lady, I- BUH!"
Again things didn't go as he planned. Instead of landing on his net, the girl instead reoriented herself surprisingly skillfully while mid-air and... landed straight on his face, feet first, then stood there for a few seconds before stepping away. The impact of her surprise landing was enough to push him down, causing Shinji to fall on his back.
"Huff... That almost went wrong... But I got it..." Shinji heard the young girl mutter something beside him, all without noticing whom she just stepped over. Remember the training Shinji, remember the training...
"Ugh, are... Are you okay?" Shinji asked her, politely, as he lifted his head off the ground.
"Hm? Oh! Sorry!" Noticing him, she turned around and apologized. "Are you okay?" The girl asked him, none not even commenting on (or maybe still not noticing) what had just happened.
"I'm the one asking that... Are you uninjured? Young girl." Shinji asked, as he also stood up and approached her, before kneeling down to check her for any injuries. The girl winced, looked down, then muttered something again. 'Do I look that young?' or something similar.
"No, I'm good, I'm good. And... Not a little girl." She then said, looking up to him (literally, she was a head shorter than him). At his doubtful gaze she reached into her pocket and pulled her ID to him, which with a quick read Shinji was able to tell that the document was real, along with the "Birth date: 19/04/2153".
Oh, oh! Shinji thought she was a little girl due to what the villain said, her short stature and young face, but looking better at her... Erm... He was now able to tell she was clearly not a kid.
"Ah, yes, sorry! Then please could you-" Handing her card back, Shinji advised her to go to safety. But before he could finish, he was cut by the villain shouting, who he all but forgot about.
"That's it! You annoying Heroes are now going down!" Punching Luck Fist away and getting some distance from his enemies, Dumbbell screamed, reached for his pocket and pulled... Nothing, much to his and everyone around confusion.
"Huh, what... Where..." Patting his pants pockets, the dumbfounded villain searched for something, but he didn't get the chance.
"That's our chance! Let's take him down!" Iron Cage exclaimed, hushing forward to strike him with his Quirk. Devoid of his trump card, it was easy for them to take him down.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha's POV]
Few minutes later, the situation was already wrapped up and, man, those are some goofy ass villains right there.
After beating Dumbest into submission, they put him in one of those huge set of handcuffs they got around here and brought him back to his friends, who were also all cuffed and being arrested by the police. Now I get the "Rail Crew" name.
Along with Big and Stupid there we also got Naildriver, who wore a construction helmet with a built-in mask and a big hammer, Locomotor, who had pistons sticking out of his arms and legs, and... The Wheel, who had wheels on his feet. Yeah, they match the theme, but still, stupid.
"Excuse me young lady!" While I was distracted watching the "villains" getting inside one of those police vans, Plank- I mean Kamui Woods noticed my presence and approached me to talk.
"Yes?" I can at least hear him a little. I already had to answer the police's questions and they will certainly ask for another testimony later. That is, unless MHA-Japan-Police now works more efficiently, but I doubt it. 150+ years, no changes.
"While we appreciate your help, still, a civilian like you shouldn't have acted in such a way. If anything had gone wrong you could have been seriously hurt!" He says, berating me like one berates a young child. Tchê.
"I see." I didn't. "It won't happen again." It will. Fucker, once I'm right I'm gonna…
"Good! You understand, it's our job to risk our lives and protect people from villains. Untrained-" I snickered a little bit, but he either ignored it or didn't notice it in his lecture. "-civilians getting involved only increases the chances of anything going wrong and innocents getting hurt." He finished, even folding his arms in practiced fashion.
In a way, I understand. You wouldn't want some random dude jumping in the middle of a fight, fire or accident and just messing everything up.
"I'm also referring to your pepper spray." He added. Ah, yeah. Pepper spray is still illegal in Japan.
"Pepper spray?" I asked, leaning my head to the side and bringing a finger to my mouth cutely.
"Yes, the one you used alongside your Quirk against the villain, which is also illegal." Man, Woody here is in a no bullshit mood today huh. He even pointed at me.
"Oh! That! That's not pepper spray you dummy!" I pull the can out of my Inventory- "Oi!" -and show it to him.
"B-Bear Spray!?" He asks incredulously, after reading the brightly colored label with the drawing of a bear on it.
"Yep!" I say, popping the 'P' at the end.
"Why would you carry that with you!?"
"Why of course! To use it on bears, duh! Japan is full of them." Truly, my logic is infallible. Hehe, I've read that online, then looked for the laws about it. Technically not illegal.
"Ah-? I, I don't think there's bears in the area around Musutafu." Woody tried to argue against me, still dumbfounded with my genius.
"Really? Are you some kind of bear expert?" I asked him while narrowing my eyes in (visible, fake) suspicion.
"Erm, no-"
"Then it's settled. Though, thinking better about it, a bear would be more effective than those villains, huh?" I quickly asked changing the topic.
"Ye- No it wouldn't! Don't joke about that!" Hah, this guy is funny. He actually gestured his arms down and stomped the ground hard.
"Anyways, Bear Spray isn't illegal, and public Quirk use is legal in emergencies, so I didn't break any law." I finish, Pocketing- "Again..." -the Bear Spray in front of him with a smile.
"I.... Avoid doing that again, please..." Huh, looks like he gave up on me. Even gave a long sigh. Great.
"Okie Dokie!" Kamui sighs again. Fun. Well, I already gave my testimony to the police so...
"Oh, look at the time." I point to my empty wrist. "Bye Woody! Sorry about stepping on your face!" I say, waving at him while walking away. "Good luck with the hero-ing!"
"Yeah, thank- W-Woody!?" He parroted incredulously as I walked away.
What a mess… *Growl!* Annnnd I'm hungry, ugh.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the bakery I (and most people around this area, business is booming I see) usually buy foodstuff from, and the owner, who was standing on the front watching the police do their work holding a broom in his hand.
"Hey uncle." I called him as I walked near.
"Ah, yes?" He turned his head to face me, then looked down a bit.
"Are you still open?" I asked, pointing to the shop behind him.
He looks back, then replies with a sole "Hai".
I pull out my wallet. "Hmm, is there any chocolate chip cake left?"
[You Learned a New Skill! Pickpocketing Lv 1.]
[Acrobatics Leveled Up! Lv 6 -> Lv 7.]
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Finally at home and well-fed, I took a bath (Dumbo left me all stinky), changed into something more comfortable (another simple t-shirt and pair of shorts) and sat on my chair, ready to begin my other work of today.
'Oh, and which work is it?' You might ask me? Which genius way I found to make money that is not working on some shitty job? Well, with a start up of course!
Kinda. I started to work on it. Mostly getting loans, LLC, trademarks, copyrights and patents all sorted. I got ideas on a new holoprojector better than anything available on the market right now, at least for its price, and some ultra powerful rollerblades with magnetic wheels based on some manga I saw, which... I kinda don't know if they are all legal to use and/or sell.
Aside from that I also plan to sell the 3d printer design I made as a DIY tutorial. Using (some of) the parts of the UA robot I was able to build a pretty good one, professional-grade even. Now it sits at the edge of my table, working silently and relentlessly bringing my ideas to life.
Yes, I also made the tiny boat to test. That one you know.
Eventually, I want to evolve from just 3d printers to fabricators that can assemble things for me and then... Matter printers, oh yes. But, one step at a time.
One at a time…
Also, after quickly looking around the room to be sure... I pulled out of my Inventory my last research project, a single vial of Trigger.
+ Vial of Trigger (Low-Quality) x1.
Trigger, or Boost if you're from Eagle Land, isn't hard to make at all. It's pretty much like meth, except it doesn't crystalize. You mix some stuff here and there, heat it for a while and it's done. But, unlike the manga/anime, here it has more side effects than just a black tongue and insanity.
Not just addiction, long term usage can seriously fuck up your body and Quirk, to the point of crippling or even killing you.
That, and the destruction it usually causes, is the reason its banned in most countries, both the Trigger and stuff used to make it. Most. Those few where it isn't banned act as suppliers, selling some of the more hard-to-get ingredients at high prices which are smuggled into other countries, like Japan.
The amount and quality of those rarer ingredients affect the amount and quality of the Trigger itself. This is why Japan's Trigger is much worse than the American version, and because most of it is bought from China.
And where does all this lecture lead us to? Well, it means I can't get any more samples to properly experiment with. Kinda bait-and-switch I know, but not like it's my fault. The current Trigger dealers in Japan are Avocado Head and Bird Face (Overhaul), and I don't want anything to do with either them.
*Ping!*
[Chemistry Leveled Up! Lv 3 -> Lv 4.]
But it didn't mean all my research was for nothing. I'll get my chance to play with it. Eventually.
Now, time for the rest of my training.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Hah." Swing. Step. Swing.
Eskrima is an interesting martial art. Arnis, Kali ou mostly known as Eskrima is a Philippine martial art focused around sticks, knives, bladed weapons, improvised weapons, hand-to-hand combat, joint locks, grappling and weapon disarming techniques. Though it varies from school-to-school and style-to-style. Some even employ kicks.
"Hah." Dodge. Step. Swing.
It's a more practical martial art with a heavy focus on footing and deflecting angles of attack rather than types of strikes, giving it a very needed versatility in almost any situation.
"Hmph." Roll wrist. Strike. Step.
It is also a very cool, very bonky way of beating your enemies to death, or taking away their ability to fight by breaking hand bones or slashing tendons, something this fucking setting needs ASAP.
"Ha!" Focusing forward, I visualized my enemy in full. Wearing a hoodie and holding a knife, they stood menacingly in a dark alley, bloodshot eyes bulging out and a manic expression on his face. Raising my stick up, I took a stance and carefully watched his twitching motions.
Suddenly, the thug snapped and rushed at me, knife raised to stab me in the shoulder using his size advantage. As he quickly approached, I held my stick against the back of my forearm and prepared for him. Despite this, as I saw his wild attack, I instead moved my body to the side, lowered my left arm and hit his nose using the pommel of my stick, breaking it.
The thug grasped his injured face with one hand, while the other managed to hold on to his knife. Seeing this, I took the chance and swung my stick at his hand, not breaking it but still making him drop his weapon. Which joined the countless others littering the dirty ground.
God that's a lot a knifes.
Stepping away, I watched as the thug smiled and pulled another knife from... Somewhere, and began to pose for another attack-
[Eskrima Leveled Up! Lv 14 -> Lv 15.]
[Shadow Boxing Leveled Up! Lv 12 -> Lv 13.]
-then melted away, alongside the rest of the alley, back into my room as I stopped the mental scenario. Holy shit, shadowboxing is OP. Not just can I easily train my martial skills, but I also can easily simulate normal people with no effort even at Skill level 13.
Anyways, since my little fight against the robot a few days ago, I've been hard at work figuring out new ways to protect myself. One of those, of course, is learning how to fight, thus I trained the only martial arts Skill I currently had.
Originally, I thought I would need to go somewhere to train and learn anything of significance, but I guessed that it would be better to train at home for a while, using what I could figure from online books and video guides first to see where I could go by myself.
The answer? Very fucking far. Skip to me a few days and now I am almost at the level to be functional in a fight. And of course, that wasn't the only thing I made.
Looking at my baton, I pressed a small button and watched as the small tips in the top crackled and frizzled a bit, as the inbuilt taser I made (using some of the parts of the robot and a high voltage battery I bought via questionable means) worked their (very dangerous) magic.
It's no 500K VOLTS or 5 MILLION VOLTS but it can put some punk down with a few taps. Of course, doing so would probably get me in trouble as people in this place can't fucking carry weapons legally, not even a simple taser.
*Ding-Dong!*
"Huh, it must be him." Oh yeah, that was today wasn't it huh? He's kinda early. Pocketing my taser baton, I put on a tracksuit over my sports bra and shorts and walked to the front door.
*Ding-Dong!* *Ding-Dong!*
"Sheesh, I'm coming! I'm coming! Don't need to press it twice!" The nerve of this kid. Opening the door-
"Ah! Tasha-san! Iheardwhatjusthappenedwiththatvillainfightareyouok-"
-I got assaulted by a torrent of words from the local motor mouth and protagonist himself, Izuku Midoriya.
"-didhehurtyoudidyoureallysatonhisfac-BUH!" Before he could continue and asphyxiate himself I did the job for him, extending my arms and shoving a piece of cloth from my Inventory in his mouth, shutting him up.
"Midoriya."
"Hmm."
"I'm gonna take this off your mouth... You're gonna breathe slowly... Then talk like a normal person, ok?"
"Hmhmm."
"Good." It pulled it off, letting him breath and talk again. "Now, what did you try to say to me, something about a villain attack?" I asked him, as he spat some strands out of his mouth.
"Pueh! Ah! Erm... Did you really get taken hostage by that villain?" The boy asked me.
"Yes. But I dealt with him." I answer, crossing my arms at him. "But, where did you heard of it?"
"I saw it on twitter."
"What!? Where!?"
"Ah! H-here!" The boy shows me his phone. Indeed, there was I, landing feet first on Plank's face. Grabbing the phone out of his hand I scrolled down and saw not just the comments going around but the memes people were making of it. Someone rotoscoped a video of me jumping into an olympic pool.
"Godammit..." I said, letting my arms drop and looking down.
"Ah, Tasha-san it isn't that bad. There's no clean shot of your face or anything." The boy said, consoling me. He thinks I'm afraid of losing any "social" thing that the Japanese care about or something. But I'm cursing myself for not being able to keep a low profile.
Nothing to do now but to roll with.
"Thanks Midoriya-kun! I feel much better now!" Again, I lied naturally as I breathed.
"R-Really?"
"Really!" I nodded.
"Ah, thank goodness." He breathed in relief. Was he worried about me? Aww, cute, I also worry about myself.
"Now, you came here 'cause of your mom wasn't it, or were you just worried about me?" I asked, changing topic.
"Um, yes! Yes I did, come here, to erm, talk about heroes." He said, starting so full of confidence but slowly talking quieter until 'heroes' came more as a whisper. Eh, we can work that out.
"Good, come in." I open my door, turn around and gesture for him to follow me.
"Huh!?" But he doesn't.
"What," I turn around to face him again, the mesugaki smile back to my face. "Are you nervous about going inside a girl's house, Midoriya-kun?"
"Ah, uhh, nonononono, I'm-I'm going." Hoh, he got super red.
"Ah good, it would be weird otherwise. With you being a kid, barely a teen, and me, a grown adult." I explain to him, making him pause.
"A-ah? How old are you Tasha-san?" That's a dangerous question there kid, you shouldn't ask that to any women out of nowhere.
"22."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You look younger..."
"I know. Now, get in."
"Right!"
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Midoriya POV]
Izuku was blushing just a little hard now, just like how the sun is just a little hot or how space is just a little big. He was sure his face was like a lightbulb, hot enough to fry eggs or boil a kettle by itself.
Going inside Tasha-san's home, Izuku looked around nervously while trying to stare at anything but the diminutive woman's behind as she walked in front of him. The tight shorts she was wearing were not helping him, not in the slightest.
Her house was pretty much empty, without even a single piece of decoration around to use as distraction, no photos, tables or anything of the sort.
Although… wasn't her house too empty? Like she had just finished moving in…
Izuku didn't get the chance to finish that line of thought, as they had just reached their destination, her room. The door was open but Izuku didn't even think of peeking inside, his mind busy with something else.
"B-buh, b-buh, w-what!?" Izuku said, or tried to say, as his brain tried and failed to understand what was going on. As a young teenager boy, he had surely dreamed of going inside a girl's room with her, but those fantasies often ended with him dying of embarrassment or worse.
And yet! Here was him, who never talked to any girl aside from his mom, about to do that.
"Hm, what? Are you nervous? Of going inside a girl's room?" Hearing his embarrassed squawks, Tasha looked behind at him and, smiling smugly as she somehow could read his mind, teased him as she always does.
"N-no, not at all!" Izuku was quick to rebuke her, or at least attempted to, as he sounded even more nervous and embarrassed than before. The way she squinted her eyes at him told him everything.
"Ok, now get in." She said, and, hesitantly, he walked in.
It was not what he expected, not like Midoriya knew what to expect.
Tasha-san's room was more like a lab or workshop than an actual room. It had two tables full of parts, wires and other tech, with more laying around the floor. He had to look at where he was standing to not accidentally step on something.
On a side glance, Izuku saw the small folded futon on the corner and felt even more that Tasha, the girl, or woman he guessed, was lonely.
Pulling a chair close, Tasha-san sat down before gesturing to Izuku to do the same, which he did.
"So, about your dream of becoming a Hero, did you make any plans or progress on it?" Tasha-san asked, remembering Izuku what he originally came here for.
"Ah, yes. I began to do some physical training, mostly cardio stuff for now, to build my endurance." Izuku said, scratching his head. God, he felt so jumpy talking about this to someone other than his mom, not even at school Izuku ever felt this way. "I also did some notes…" He finished.
"Can I see them?" She asked, with no little amount of interest, surprising him.
"A-ah, I… Didn't bring them with me…"
"… Midoriya, your house is literally next door, can't you just… Go get it quick?"
Ah, he forgot. A minute later, Izuku anxiously handed his notebook to her.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha's POV]
"Hmm… Hoo… I see." Muttering some generic lines, I watched Izuku squirm as I read his notebook. Despite only working on this for just a week, the boy had actually filled half-way with notes, stuff he researched on the internet and, to cap it all off, sources.
Not going to lie, this is kind of impressive.
"This is quite good. Good job Midoriya-kun." I praise him, making him literally jump in his chair. Oi, getting complimented is THAT unusual for you? Jeez kid.
"R-Really?"
"Really. But…" I trail off, making him get concerned for just a second before continuing. "… A lot here is based around All Might." I finished showing a page to him which had "All Might" written on it over 10 times. If someone turned this into a drinking game they would actually die.
"Ah, is that… I really admire him…"
"Admiring him is not a problem, trying to BE him is, and this isn't some dream crushing stuff or anything. Look Midoriya, you can't just base all your training and hero identity on someone else, that's not how it works." I say to him, trying to not be rude, but it just makes him sad. Sigh.
"I… I know…" C'mon kid, don't be like that.
"All right, all right. I'll let you think about that on your own."
"… Right…"
"Look," I sigh. "If you manage to get a design that isn't just All Might I… Will make a hero suit for you, and help with your training." I said to him. Suddenly, the sadness goes away, and the boy slides close to me with an intensity I hadn't seen in him yet.
"Real-!?"
"Yes, really, jeez, calm down." I pushed him away. "This is mostly because I can't help you much with your training. Physical stuff isn't my forte, you know." I pinch my flabby arm, showing my fat, and the boy mutters 'I see'. "So, you gotta find someone who can help you with that, doing exercise alone isn't a good idea." I finish my little lie, handing him his notebook back. Truth is that I don't want him spilling anything about what I can do to anyone.
And again, Big and Stupid is going to get him under his bony, injured wing anyways.
"Ah, thank you Tasha-san, thank you!" The boys happily thank me.
"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome." And I gladly accept it.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha POV]
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 12 -> Lv 13.]
[Cold Reading Leveled Up! Lv 4 -> Lv 5.]
"T-Thank you so much again Tasha-san!" Said the boy, waving while walking away, as if his home wasn't just a couple steps away from mine.
"Yeah, yeah..." Watching the boy walk away and go inside his house, I let out the breath I was holding in relief. Man, making sure that canon goes as mostly usual is hard work, since I can't avoid it of course, and if things go off the rails my advantages are gone.
And as grandma once said, "if you can't get rid of it, turn it into your bitch" and I'm sure going to make canon my bitch.
Stepping back home, I stretched myself and walked back to my room. Now that the boy was gone, I could go back to my work.
Huh? Why did I promise to make a suit for him, you ask? Well, practice mostly. I want to experiment and test protection suits for someone before field testing them myself, and the little suicidal kid is perfect for the job. Plus, once I get my company up and running I'm gonna cover his suit with ads like a F1 car or a Tiger & Bunny Character.
That and for "letting" me get his notes. No reason for me to not use them right? Right.
Now, to work on that costume… "Maybe a non-newtonian fluid? Over some kind of shock absorbent polymer that expands with stress…"
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
A/N: This used to be Chapter 2 and 3, but I decided to merge them into a single one since they all had too little content. Enjoy.
Again, any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Edit: Did some changes, mostly added some stuff here and there.
Until Next Time.
STATS:
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"... Un..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"No..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
"Ugh... Fine!"
*Beep! Beep! Be- Click*
"Another dreamless night huh..." I said to myself, after turning off my phone's alarm and staring at the ceiling for a second. I almost fell asleep again, but no. Gotta get up. There 's work to do.
"Stupid alarm clock."
Finally awake, I crawl out of my tiny futon and get up. Ignoring the mess of parts around my room, I clean the sand from my eyes, put on my slippers and walk to my bathroom. Quickly checking my phone on the way, I saw that It was 4:30 AM, the usual for me. Yeah, I'm an early riser, the horror.
After brushing my teeth and taking a bath, I put on my usual outfit (a white shirt, black shorts and shoes), did some quick stretches and went out. Locking the door behind me of course.
Running in the morning sucks ass, but it sure beats the alternative.
-The sound of gears and servos, grinding against the rust. The beating of my heart. The gleaming of metal. The sight of a weapon that could have easily killed me. And the voice...
"TA-TARGET L-LOCK-ON! MU-MURDER!"-
Better than it beating me instead.
Ignoring the looks of the other early risers around me, and popping my headphones on, I began my run while jamming to the voice of Yoshiki Fukuyama.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Sigh. Sometimes I let myself forget the setting I'm in and just try to enjoy the moment... Then shit like this happens. All I did was just make a little detour from my daily morning run to buy my breakfast! How did it end up like this! How did some idiot appeared from bum-fuck nowhere and grabbed me right just as I turned myself around.
"Nobody moves! Or the little girl here gets it!" Said the person holding me (under his smelly, sweaty armpit) and pointing at me, showing it to the hero. If he wasn't shirtless and wearing a train grill on his face, the 2 meter tall hulking brute here would be at least a bit threatening. But alas, he is, so he isn't.
I'm also gonna ignore that he called me a child. Rude. Actual children aren't as cute as me, they're just annoying and gross.
"You monster!" Said Groot- I mean Treebeard- I mean Kamui Woods, yes, that, Kamui Woods, that's his name. Guy's so generic that I forgot for a second. "Drop the girl!"
"Please put me down, I'm really tired." I tried to talk, but of course, they all ignored me completely. Or maybe they just didn' hear me.
"Kamui! We dealt with the goons, how's the situation!" Then two more showed up, making the grillman here get more antsy. They were so generic that I didn't even bother remembering them. They were, huh, Luke Fist and Iron Cage, yes, those two.
"Not good! Dumbell grabbed a civilian while I tried to apprehend him and now is holding her hostage!" So it's your fault, good. I will remember that.
"Shit!" "Damn it!" Yeah, shit indeed. And really? Dumbell's his name? At least it is not "The Wall". I actually would have laughed at that. No, wait, the guy is actually wearing a belt with the symbol of a dumbell on it. Okay, he's legit.
"Quit it Sticky!" Boo! I can do better than that. "Or the little girl here goes splat!" What.
The guy actually clenched his fist shut to show it. What, was that supposed to be threatening? And then they all stared at each other for a few seconds, very long, very silent seconds.
What the hell is this? One Piece? Do something! I got places to be! Things to do! I pushed against the Dumbdum's hand but he didn't move an inch, didn't even seem to notice really. Must be some kind strength Quirk.
Fuck it. Guess I gotta "save" myself, not that I didn't expect anything else, looking at Dumb-face I search for… Huh, what's this? Looking a bit "closer", well not closer but better, I saw that the guy's, ugh Dumbell's, tongue was pitch black. This would mean...
Reaching for his pocket... Oh... Ohohoho... I can use this... Thank you mister Dumb.
Now, to get out of here...
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Kamui Woods POV]
Shinji Nishiya, better known as the Tree Branch Hero, Kamui Woods (or just Kamui Woods) was in a tight situation!
During his daily early patrol, he found a local minor villain group, the Rail Crew, a villain group that usually operates on Naruhata, stealing from a local market. The Villains are known Trigger users, so Shinji called in for support as per protocol before leaping into combat with the train themed criminals.
With the help of his arriving coworkers, The Punch Happy Hero Luck Fist (Quirk: Combo) and The Unstoppable Hero Iron Cage (Quirk: Holdown), he fought and defeated the villains, with the exception of one, Dumbell, the Mutant-Quirk type and leader of the group, who somehow was able to run away and managed to grab a hostage while they were busy.
Deep inside, Shinji cursed himself for letting this one get away. Yes, dealing with him alone would certainly boost his popularity by a good amount, but the Rail Crew aways causes no small amounts of collateral damage and Dumbell is no exception, being strong enough to escape Shinji's Quirk vines.
Now, he was at an impasse. If Shinji and his fellow Heroes tried to attack, the civilian could be injured in the fight, but if they let him go the villain could cause more chaos and destruction, and injure more people, not something he could or would ever allow. But, before Shinji could even decide, things quickly spiraled out of control. A lot.
In some unseen way, probably by using her Quirk, the hostage quickly pulled a metal can out of nowhere and sprayed something at the villain's face, who was busy looking at the heroes and for a way to escape.
The effect was instantaneous, Dumbell immediately winced in pain and brought his hands to his own face with a scream, while also throwing the hostage away with his enhanced strength- "Wah!" -who went flying away with a desperate scream!
"Now!" While his fellow Heroes jumped in to deal with the villain, Iron Cage holding him down with his gravity Quirk while Luck Fist began to repeatedly punch his stomach with her glowing fists, Shinji dashed past them and quickly used his Quirk to shape his hands into a net, aiming to safely catch the falling civilian.
"Do not worry young lady, I- BUH!"
Again things didn't go as he planned. Instead of landing on his net, the girl instead reoriented herself surprisingly skillfully while mid-air and... landed straight on his face, feet first, then stood there for a few seconds before stepping away. The impact of her surprise landing was enough to push him down, causing Shinji to fall on his back.
"Huff... That almost went wrong... But I got it..." Shinji heard the young girl mutter something beside him, all without noticing whom she just stepped over. Remember the training Shinji, remember the training...
"Ugh, are... Are you okay?" Shinji asked her, politely, as he lifted his head off the ground.
"Hm? Oh! Sorry!" Noticing him, she turned around and apologized. "Are you okay?" The girl asked him, none not even commenting on (or maybe still not noticing) what had just happened.
"I'm the one asking that... Are you uninjured? Young girl." Shinji asked, as he also stood up and approached her, before kneeling down to check her for any injuries. The girl winced, looked down, then muttered something again. 'Do I look that young?' or something similar.
"No, I'm good, I'm good. And... Not a little girl." She then said, looking up to him (literally, she was a head shorter than him). At his doubtful gaze she reached into her pocket and pulled her ID to him, which with a quick read Shinji was able to tell that the document was real, along with the "Birth date: 19/04/2153".
Oh, oh! Shinji thought she was a little girl due to what the villain said, her short stature and young face, but looking better at her... Erm... He was now able to tell she was clearly not a kid.
"Ah, yes, sorry! Then please could you-" Handing her card back, Shinji advised her to go to safety. But before he could finish, he was cut by the villain shouting, who he all but forgot about.
"That's it! You annoying Heroes are now going down!" Punching Luck Fist away and getting some distance from his enemies, Dumbbell screamed, reached for his pocket and pulled... Nothing, much to his and everyone around confusion.
"Huh, what... Where..." Patting his pants pockets, the dumbfounded villain searched for something, but he didn't get the chance.
"That's our chance! Let's take him down!" Iron Cage exclaimed, hushing forward to strike him with his Quirk. Devoid of his trump card, it was easy for them to take him down.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha's POV]
Few minutes later, the situation was already wrapped up and, man, those are some goofy ass villains right there.
After beating Dumbest into submission, they put him in one of those huge set of handcuffs they got around here and brought him back to his friends, who were also all cuffed and being arrested by the police. Now I get the "Rail Crew" name.
Along with Big and Stupid there we also got Naildriver, who wore a construction helmet with a built-in mask and a big hammer, Locomotor, who had pistons sticking out of his arms and legs, and... The Wheel, who had wheels on his feet. Yeah, they match the theme, but still, stupid.
"Excuse me young lady!" While I was distracted watching the "villains" getting inside one of those police vans, Plank- I mean Kamui Woods noticed my presence and approached me to talk.
"Yes?" I can at least hear him a little. I already had to answer the police's questions and they will certainly ask for another testimony later. That is, unless MHA-Japan-Police now works more efficiently, but I doubt it. 150+ years, no changes.
"While we appreciate your help, still, a civilian like you shouldn't have acted in such a way. If anything had gone wrong you could have been seriously hurt!" He says, berating me like one berates a young child. Tchê.
"I see." I didn't. "It won't happen again." It will. Fucker, once I'm right I'm gonna…
"Good! You understand, it's our job to risk our lives and protect people from villains. Untrained-" I snickered a little bit, but he either ignored it or didn't notice it in his lecture. "-civilians getting involved only increases the chances of anything going wrong and innocents getting hurt." He finished, even folding his arms in practiced fashion.
In a way, I understand. You wouldn't want some random dude jumping in the middle of a fight, fire or accident and just messing everything up.
"I'm also referring to your pepper spray." He added. Ah, yeah. Pepper spray is still illegal in Japan.
"Pepper spray?" I asked, leaning my head to the side and bringing a finger to my mouth cutely.
"Yes, the one you used alongside your Quirk against the villain, which is also illegal." Man, Woody here is in a no bullshit mood today huh. He even pointed at me.
"Oh! That! That's not pepper spray you dummy!" I pull the can out of my Inventory- "Oi!" -and show it to him.
"B-Bear Spray!?" He asks incredulously, after reading the brightly colored label with the drawing of a bear on it.
"Yep!" I say, popping the 'P' at the end.
"Why would you carry that with you!?"
"Why of course! To use it on bears, duh! Japan is full of them." Truly, my logic is infallible. Hehe, I've read that online, then looked for the laws about it. Technically not illegal.
"Ah-? I, I don't think there's bears in the area around Musutafu." Woody tried to argue against me, still dumbfounded with my genius.
"Really? Are you some kind of bear expert?" I asked him while narrowing my eyes in (visible, fake) suspicion.
"Erm, no-"
"Then it's settled. Though, thinking better about it, a bear would be more effective than those villains, huh?" I quickly asked changing the topic.
"Ye- No it wouldn't! Don't joke about that!" Hah, this guy is funny. He actually gestured his arms down and stomped the ground hard.
"Anyways, Bear Spray isn't illegal, and public Quirk use is legal in emergencies, so I didn't break any law." I finish, Pocketing- "Again..." -the Bear Spray in front of him with a smile.
"I.... Avoid doing that again, please..." Huh, looks like he gave up on me. Even gave a long sigh. Great.
"Okie Dokie!" Kamui sighs again. Fun. Well, I already gave my testimony to the police so...
"Oh, look at the time." I point to my empty wrist. "Bye Woody! Sorry about stepping on your face!" I say, waving at him while walking away. "Good luck with the hero-ing!"
"Yeah, thank- W-Woody!?" He parroted incredulously as I walked away.
What a mess… *Growl!* Annnnd I'm hungry, ugh.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the bakery I (and most people around this area, business is booming I see) usually buy foodstuff from, and the owner, who was standing on the front watching the police do their work holding a broom in his hand.
"Hey uncle." I called him as I walked near.
"Ah, yes?" He turned his head to face me, then looked down a bit.
"Are you still open?" I asked, pointing to the shop behind him.
He looks back, then replies with a sole "Hai".
I pull out my wallet. "Hmm, is there any chocolate chip cake left?"
[You Learned a New Skill! Pickpocketing Lv 1.]
[Acrobatics Leveled Up! Lv 6 -> Lv 7.]
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
Finally at home and well-fed, I took a bath (Dumbo left me all stinky), changed into something more comfortable (another simple t-shirt and pair of shorts) and sat on my chair, ready to begin my other work of today.
'Oh, and which work is it?' You might ask me? Which genius way I found to make money that is not working on some shitty job? Well, with a start up of course!
Kinda. I started to work on it. Mostly getting loans, LLC, trademarks, copyrights and patents all sorted. I got ideas on a new holoprojector better than anything available on the market right now, at least for its price, and some ultra powerful rollerblades with magnetic wheels based on some manga I saw, which... I kinda don't know if they are all legal to use and/or sell.
Aside from that I also plan to sell the 3d printer design I made as a DIY tutorial. Using (some of) the parts of the UA robot I was able to build a pretty good one, professional-grade even. Now it sits at the edge of my table, working silently and relentlessly bringing my ideas to life.
Yes, I also made the tiny boat to test. That one you know.
Eventually, I want to evolve from just 3d printers to fabricators that can assemble things for me and then... Matter printers, oh yes. But, one step at a time.
One at a time…
Also, after quickly looking around the room to be sure... I pulled out of my Inventory my last research project, a single vial of Trigger.
+ Vial of Trigger (Low-Quality) x1.
Trigger, or Boost if you're from Eagle Land, isn't hard to make at all. It's pretty much like meth, except it doesn't crystalize. You mix some stuff here and there, heat it for a while and it's done. But, unlike the manga/anime, here it has more side effects than just a black tongue and insanity.
Not just addiction, long term usage can seriously fuck up your body and Quirk, to the point of crippling or even killing you.
That, and the destruction it usually causes, is the reason its banned in most countries, both the Trigger and stuff used to make it. Most. Those few where it isn't banned act as suppliers, selling some of the more hard-to-get ingredients at high prices which are smuggled into other countries, like Japan.
The amount and quality of those rarer ingredients affect the amount and quality of the Trigger itself. This is why Japan's Trigger is much worse than the American version, and because most of it is bought from China.
And where does all this lecture lead us to? Well, it means I can't get any more samples to properly experiment with. Kinda bait-and-switch I know, but not like it's my fault. The current Trigger dealers in Japan are Avocado Head and Bird Face (Overhaul), and I don't want anything to do with either them.
*Ping!*
[Chemistry Leveled Up! Lv 3 -> Lv 4.]
But it didn't mean all my research was for nothing. I'll get my chance to play with it. Eventually.
Now, time for the rest of my training.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Hah." Swing. Step. Swing.
Eskrima is an interesting martial art. Arnis, Kali ou mostly known as Eskrima is a Philippine martial art focused around sticks, knives, bladed weapons, improvised weapons, hand-to-hand combat, joint locks, grappling and weapon disarming techniques. Though it varies from school-to-school and style-to-style. Some even employ kicks.
"Hah." Dodge. Step. Swing.
It's a more practical martial art with a heavy focus on footing and deflecting angles of attack rather than types of strikes, giving it a very needed versatility in almost any situation.
"Hmph." Roll wrist. Strike. Step.
It is also a very cool, very bonky way of beating your enemies to death, or taking away their ability to fight by breaking hand bones or slashing tendons, something this fucking setting needs ASAP.
"Ha!" Focusing forward, I visualized my enemy in full. Wearing a hoodie and holding a knife, they stood menacingly in a dark alley, bloodshot eyes bulging out and a manic expression on his face. Raising my stick up, I took a stance and carefully watched his twitching motions.
Suddenly, the thug snapped and rushed at me, knife raised to stab me in the shoulder using his size advantage. As he quickly approached, I held my stick against the back of my forearm and prepared for him. Despite this, as I saw his wild attack, I instead moved my body to the side, lowered my left arm and hit his nose using the pommel of my stick, breaking it.
The thug grasped his injured face with one hand, while the other managed to hold on to his knife. Seeing this, I took the chance and swung my stick at his hand, not breaking it but still making him drop his weapon. Which joined the countless others littering the dirty ground.
God that's a lot a knifes.
Stepping away, I watched as the thug smiled and pulled another knife from... Somewhere, and began to pose for another attack-
[Eskrima Leveled Up! Lv 14 -> Lv 15.]
[Shadow Boxing Leveled Up! Lv 12 -> Lv 13.]
-then melted away, alongside the rest of the alley, back into my room as I stopped the mental scenario. Holy shit, shadowboxing is OP. Not just can I easily train my martial skills, but I also can easily simulate normal people with no effort even at Skill level 13.
Anyways, since my little fight against the robot a few days ago, I've been hard at work figuring out new ways to protect myself. One of those, of course, is learning how to fight, thus I trained the only martial arts Skill I currently had.
Originally, I thought I would need to go somewhere to train and learn anything of significance, but I guessed that it would be better to train at home for a while, using what I could figure from online books and video guides first to see where I could go by myself.
The answer? Very fucking far. Skip to me a few days and now I am almost at the level to be functional in a fight. And of course, that wasn't the only thing I made.
Looking at my baton, I pressed a small button and watched as the small tips in the top crackled and frizzled a bit, as the inbuilt taser I made (using some of the parts of the robot and a high voltage battery I bought via questionable means) worked their (very dangerous) magic.
It's no 500K VOLTS or 5 MILLION VOLTS but it can put some punk down with a few taps. Of course, doing so would probably get me in trouble as people in this place can't fucking carry weapons legally, not even a simple taser.
*Ding-Dong!*
"Huh, it must be him." Oh yeah, that was today wasn't it huh? He's kinda early. Pocketing my taser baton, I put on a tracksuit over my sports bra and shorts and walked to the front door.
*Ding-Dong!* *Ding-Dong!*
"Sheesh, I'm coming! I'm coming! Don't need to press it twice!" The nerve of this kid. Opening the door-
"Ah! Tasha-san! Iheardwhatjusthappenedwiththatvillainfightareyouok-"
-I got assaulted by a torrent of words from the local motor mouth and protagonist himself, Izuku Midoriya.
"-didhehurtyoudidyoureallysatonhisfac-BUH!" Before he could continue and asphyxiate himself I did the job for him, extending my arms and shoving a piece of cloth from my Inventory in his mouth, shutting him up.
"Midoriya."
"Hmm."
"I'm gonna take this off your mouth... You're gonna breathe slowly... Then talk like a normal person, ok?"
"Hmhmm."
"Good." It pulled it off, letting him breath and talk again. "Now, what did you try to say to me, something about a villain attack?" I asked him, as he spat some strands out of his mouth.
"Pueh! Ah! Erm... Did you really get taken hostage by that villain?" The boy asked me.
"Yes. But I dealt with him." I answer, crossing my arms at him. "But, where did you heard of it?"
"I saw it on twitter."
"What!? Where!?"
"Ah! H-here!" The boy shows me his phone. Indeed, there was I, landing feet first on Plank's face. Grabbing the phone out of his hand I scrolled down and saw not just the comments going around but the memes people were making of it. Someone rotoscoped a video of me jumping into an olympic pool.
"Godammit..." I said, letting my arms drop and looking down.
"Ah, Tasha-san it isn't that bad. There's no clean shot of your face or anything." The boy said, consoling me. He thinks I'm afraid of losing any "social" thing that the Japanese care about or something. But I'm cursing myself for not being able to keep a low profile.
Nothing to do now but to roll with.
"Thanks Midoriya-kun! I feel much better now!" Again, I lied naturally as I breathed.
"R-Really?"
"Really!" I nodded.
"Ah, thank goodness." He breathed in relief. Was he worried about me? Aww, cute, I also worry about myself.
"Now, you came here 'cause of your mom wasn't it, or were you just worried about me?" I asked, changing topic.
"Um, yes! Yes I did, come here, to erm, talk about heroes." He said, starting so full of confidence but slowly talking quieter until 'heroes' came more as a whisper. Eh, we can work that out.
"Good, come in." I open my door, turn around and gesture for him to follow me.
"Huh!?" But he doesn't.
"What," I turn around to face him again, the mesugaki smile back to my face. "Are you nervous about going inside a girl's house, Midoriya-kun?"
"Ah, uhh, nonononono, I'm-I'm going." Hoh, he got super red.
"Ah good, it would be weird otherwise. With you being a kid, barely a teen, and me, a grown adult." I explain to him, making him pause.
"A-ah? How old are you Tasha-san?" That's a dangerous question there kid, you shouldn't ask that to any women out of nowhere.
"22."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You look younger..."
"I know. Now, get in."
"Right!"
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Midoriya POV]
Izuku was blushing just a little hard now, just like how the sun is just a little hot or how space is just a little big. He was sure his face was like a lightbulb, hot enough to fry eggs or boil a kettle by itself.
Going inside Tasha-san's home, Izuku looked around nervously while trying to stare at anything but the diminutive woman's behind as she walked in front of him. The tight shorts she was wearing were not helping him, not in the slightest.
Her house was pretty much empty, without even a single piece of decoration around to use as distraction, no photos, tables or anything of the sort.
Although… wasn't her house too empty? Like she had just finished moving in…
Izuku didn't get the chance to finish that line of thought, as they had just reached their destination, her room. The door was open but Izuku didn't even think of peeking inside, his mind busy with something else.
"B-buh, b-buh, w-what!?" Izuku said, or tried to say, as his brain tried and failed to understand what was going on. As a young teenager boy, he had surely dreamed of going inside a girl's room with her, but those fantasies often ended with him dying of embarrassment or worse.
And yet! Here was him, who never talked to any girl aside from his mom, about to do that.
"Hm, what? Are you nervous? Of going inside a girl's room?" Hearing his embarrassed squawks, Tasha looked behind at him and, smiling smugly as she somehow could read his mind, teased him as she always does.
"N-no, not at all!" Izuku was quick to rebuke her, or at least attempted to, as he sounded even more nervous and embarrassed than before. The way she squinted her eyes at him told him everything.
"Ok, now get in." She said, and, hesitantly, he walked in.
It was not what he expected, not like Midoriya knew what to expect.
Tasha-san's room was more like a lab or workshop than an actual room. It had two tables full of parts, wires and other tech, with more laying around the floor. He had to look at where he was standing to not accidentally step on something.
On a side glance, Izuku saw the small folded futon on the corner and felt even more that Tasha, the girl, or woman he guessed, was lonely.
Pulling a chair close, Tasha-san sat down before gesturing to Izuku to do the same, which he did.
"So, about your dream of becoming a Hero, did you make any plans or progress on it?" Tasha-san asked, remembering Izuku what he originally came here for.
"Ah, yes. I began to do some physical training, mostly cardio stuff for now, to build my endurance." Izuku said, scratching his head. God, he felt so jumpy talking about this to someone other than his mom, not even at school Izuku ever felt this way. "I also did some notes…" He finished.
"Can I see them?" She asked, with no little amount of interest, surprising him.
"A-ah, I… Didn't bring them with me…"
"… Midoriya, your house is literally next door, can't you just… Go get it quick?"
Ah, he forgot. A minute later, Izuku anxiously handed his notebook to her.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha's POV]
"Hmm… Hoo… I see." Muttering some generic lines, I watched Izuku squirm as I read his notebook. Despite only working on this for just a week, the boy had actually filled half-way with notes, stuff he researched on the internet and, to cap it all off, sources.
Not going to lie, this is kind of impressive.
"This is quite good. Good job Midoriya-kun." I praise him, making him literally jump in his chair. Oi, getting complimented is THAT unusual for you? Jeez kid.
"R-Really?"
"Really. But…" I trail off, making him get concerned for just a second before continuing. "… A lot here is based around All Might." I finished showing a page to him which had "All Might" written on it over 10 times. If someone turned this into a drinking game they would actually die.
"Ah, is that… I really admire him…"
"Admiring him is not a problem, trying to BE him is, and this isn't some dream crushing stuff or anything. Look Midoriya, you can't just base all your training and hero identity on someone else, that's not how it works." I say to him, trying to not be rude, but it just makes him sad. Sigh.
"I… I know…" C'mon kid, don't be like that.
"All right, all right. I'll let you think about that on your own."
"… Right…"
"Look," I sigh. "If you manage to get a design that isn't just All Might I… Will make a hero suit for you, and help with your training." I said to him. Suddenly, the sadness goes away, and the boy slides close to me with an intensity I hadn't seen in him yet.
"Real-!?"
"Yes, really, jeez, calm down." I pushed him away. "This is mostly because I can't help you much with your training. Physical stuff isn't my forte, you know." I pinch my flabby arm, showing my fat, and the boy mutters 'I see'. "So, you gotta find someone who can help you with that, doing exercise alone isn't a good idea." I finish my little lie, handing him his notebook back. Truth is that I don't want him spilling anything about what I can do to anyone.
And again, Big and Stupid is going to get him under his bony, injured wing anyways.
"Ah, thank you Tasha-san, thank you!" The boys happily thank me.
"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome." And I gladly accept it.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
[Back to Tasha POV]
[Acting Leveled Up! Lv 12 -> Lv 13.]
[Cold Reading Leveled Up! Lv 4 -> Lv 5.]
"T-Thank you so much again Tasha-san!" Said the boy, waving while walking away, as if his home wasn't just a couple steps away from mine.
"Yeah, yeah..." Watching the boy walk away and go inside his house, I let out the breath I was holding in relief. Man, making sure that canon goes as mostly usual is hard work, since I can't avoid it of course, and if things go off the rails my advantages are gone.
And as grandma once said, "if you can't get rid of it, turn it into your bitch" and I'm sure going to make canon my bitch.
Stepping back home, I stretched myself and walked back to my room. Now that the boy was gone, I could go back to my work.
Huh? Why did I promise to make a suit for him, you ask? Well, practice mostly. I want to experiment and test protection suits for someone before field testing them myself, and the little suicidal kid is perfect for the job. Plus, once I get my company up and running I'm gonna cover his suit with ads like a F1 car or a Tiger & Bunny Character.
That and for "letting" me get his notes. No reason for me to not use them right? Right.
Now, to work on that costume… "Maybe a non-newtonian fluid? Over some kind of shock absorbent polymer that expands with stress…"
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
A/N: This used to be Chapter 2 and 3, but I decided to merge them into a single one since they all had too little content. Enjoy.
Again, any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Edit: Did some changes, mostly added some stuff here and there.
Until Next Time.
STATS:
[SKILLS]
Acting (Lv 13)
Cooking (Lv 7)
Cleaning (Lv 6)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 7)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 15)
Mechanics (Lv 15)
Electronics (Lv 15)
Eskrima (Lv 15)
Survey (Lv 4)
Cold Reading (Lv 5)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
Chemistry (Lv 4)
Shadow Boxing (Lv 13)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
Acting (Lv 13)
Cooking (Lv 7)
Cleaning (Lv 6)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 7)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 15)
Mechanics (Lv 15)
Electronics (Lv 15)
Eskrima (Lv 15)
Survey (Lv 4)
Cold Reading (Lv 5)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
Chemistry (Lv 4)
Shadow Boxing (Lv 13)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
Last edited:
DDN Chapter 3: Aventure (not really)!
Weenboom
Know what you're doing yet?
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Third chapter wooooo. Lots of warehousing in this one.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Wah!"
In a small, unlit room, a large figure sat silently on the dirty floor. He (and was certainly a he. Tall, muscular, with an imposing appearance) currently focused his attention on a cheap laptop which was, unironically, on top of his lap playing a certain short video on loop.
"Wah!"
Taking a bite of his (also cheap) lunch, he watched as the small, brown-haired girl screamed in surprise as she was thrown away again, again and again as the video repeated itself. However, that wasn't the object of his attention.
"Wa-!"
"Hm…" He paused the video. Then, zoomed in. Before replaying the video frame-by-frame, observing the girl's airborne movements very carefully. Then, after a few seconds of staring, he found it.
Between spraying the villain and for a mere half second of being launched, the girl held a second, smaller gray cylinder in her hands. Most wouldn't know what that was, but he did. It was a vial of Trigger, an illegal Quirk-enhancing drug. His mind went back to the info he asked to his inside man in the police force:
"All I was able to get is that Dumbbell strongly insisted that he had a vial of Trigger with him, mostly to his angry teammates. But given his profile of known forgetfulness… Sorry, they're booking this O-"
This all left a bitter taste in his mouth. The Rail Crew were HIS problem, they started to operate on his area once the sales of Trigger started to be supplied by someone, using the drug to enhance their mediocre at best Quirks into actual threats then doing small crimes like robbing stores and such. Usually, he was more than enough to deal with them, now that his injuries were mostly healed. But while he was busy last week (visiting her, much to the kid's insistence), the group of villains vanished right under his nose, going silent for a week before reemerging in Musutafu, now being a problem for others.
This all smelled of something fishy, and he could even guess that the D-rank villains weren't just there to do some small crash and grabs. Most likely someone paid them to make some big distractions, but the question is who? All of his investigations in the last months on who is the new supplier of Trigger ended in dead leads and nonsense results.
Seriously? The Shie Hassaikai? Who these days don't do anything but hide themselves from big name Heroes like All Might and Endeavor?
Now, he got sloppy, letting a civilian get away with a dangerous illegal drug (who was now at risk of attacking others or worse) and dealing with what certainly seems to be yet another group supplying Trigger to the local villains, again, for their own twisted goals. He needed to move. Quickly. Grab that vial of Trigger out of her hands, then track down its source after making sure the girl hadn't done anything stupid first.
Not the first time he did that, or the second, even if working near so many Hero Agencies did make him cringe a little bit in nervousness. Still, it is his duty, of going after all the dregs and scraps of villainy that the showy hero society of today forgets about.
Taking a frame of the video, he emailed it to his informant, asking to see if they could search their database to see if they got any result. They replied that the police don't have anything like that for non-criminals or villains, but searched for it anyway. Few days later, while punching down a cocky thug who tried to flex their Quirk for some quick money, his phone vibrated as he finally got a result.
Gotcha.
With a last look at his target, Iwao Oguro, Knuckleduster, closed his computer, changed outfits and hopped in a train to the KalMun apartment complex, in the north of Musutafu.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
I was ambushed, suddenly, I was going for my daily run. This was unfair, untrue and unjust.
This monster was… The apartment's landlord.
"Girlie, look. Ya been making too much noise recently with all your stuff, it's annoying the other residents, who've been all complaining to me all week. Better you tone it down or ya gonna need to find someplace else to go." The bald old man said to me, in a more annoyed than angry tone, as if he had more things to do rather than be here, and he probably had.
"I understand, I will move my work somewhere else until the weekend." With this kind of person it is better to just go along with it and move on, so I did, answering with a short and direct reply, agreeing with him.
"Good." And he walked away, leaving me standing on my doorstep with a grimace.
"Shit." I said to myself, once I was sure he couldn't hear me.
Retreating back into the sacred privacy of my room. I distracted myself as I watched my latest invention wheel around in my room, its arms moving up and down prodding and poking anything near it in childlike fascination. All while I reflected on myself.
God, what the fuck did I ended up doing.
While researching materials and components, I stumbled upon this article about new models of robotic helpers in development. Of course, this inspired me and I decided against all reason and common sense to try desiring my own version, thought with wheels and simpler robotic limbs instead of an android. Then, letting the "intrusive thoughts" enter, I tried to build it, using my tools, salvaged materials and PET filament 3d printers. And let me tell you, with walls this thin? All of those were loud.
"Help?" Looking down, I saw the 3 feet tall, "Wall-E" like robot roll near me with its toy wheels and ask me with a robot-like voice, kinda like GLaDOS from Portal, but younger-sounding. A simple "help", or how I programmed it to ask me for directions.
"No help." I replied.
"Okay." Then it went back to roaming the room.
Now? I got a cute robot helper, a bunch of angry neighbors and an annoyed landlord, the last two who now want to see me gone ASAP.
However, one at this point would sure have noticed that I wasn't controlling the thing in any shape or form. Well… While studying some control systems for this (other kinds) of robot arm, I decided to check the UA's villain robot's own programing, to see how they do it.
And maybe steal a little bit of it for myself.
Don't look at me like that, I'm not perfect.
Anyways, it turns out the robots are holding back, massively. The things pretty much fucking military robots, who can adapt to use any kind of frame or weaponry, target moving enemies with a near precognitive software and shoot them with unhuman precision. Hell, I was sure if all the combat limiters were off, that lone robot who attacked me at the Dagobah beach would utterly wipe the floor with me.
That send a deep shiver over my body, of how close I was to get completely and fatally fucked over. If the robot's programming had any glitch or bug that resulted in making it return to default configurations, I probably wouldn't be here as I am.
Or, wouldn't be here. At all.
Scary.
"EIDI, down."
"Okay, time to sleep." Folding its arms and backing-up to a corner, the robot turned off its eye LEDs and went into sleep mode. EIDI, no bigger meaning, was designed to kinda like my own equivalent of a mettaur. Small, cute, helpful and very modular, able to be fitted with nearly any kind of tool or mode, thanks to its adaptable learning software I cooked up.
For example, if I plugged some extra arms on it, it would quickly figure out how to use them the same as it does with its normal ones. Same for wings, legs, guns, etc. Really proud of this one, with just a few modifications, and some stolen code from the internet, I was able to greatly improve the programming of the UA robot.
Reaching to my computer I stretch my arms and look at my PC's time, 6:30. Still enough time for my run. Then searching for a place to turn into my new lab later…
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
On the way out, I found Izuku also getting ready to go for his own Jog while dressed in a pale red tracksuit, which stood in clear contrast with my own white shirt and black. Seeing me, the boy greeted me with a nervous smile.
"Good morning Tasha-san. Doing your jog a bit later today?" He asked me, as we both descended the stairs. I sighed in tiredness at his question, then answered him, walking down the steps all the while.
"Yeah, woke up a bit later today. And… Sorry about all that noise yesterday."
"Uhm… Yea, that was pretty bad…" The boy mutters while looking down. Don't be embarrassed to tell me kid, I lost track of what I was doing and ended up infuriating half to the complex at the same time.
"Anyways…" I but-in, switching to another topic while trying to break the ice. "How's your training been going?" I ask him with a curious smile, it only makes the boy look down, with a slight grimace of sadness and annoyance appearing in his face.
"Not… Good." He answers after a second, stopping in place, but then gets nervous and goes back to his word, shaking his hands in front of him as if he got scared that I got the wrong idea. "Ah! N-Not like that! The physical training is going well enough, but… The combat one…" He says the last part, slowly.
"Not a lot of places want to train a Quirkles kid?" I try to finish for him, but he disagrees, shaking his head.
"No. Every dojo and school nearby told me they teach martial arts for sport and discipline, and that if I want to learn actual combat I gotta go elsewhere." He finishes, closing his eyes with a huff, before looking at me. "Got no idea what to do now… Can't pass any entrance exam without it…"
Walking closer, I patted his back twice in a sign of affection. "Calm down and cheer up Midoriya-kun, you still got a whole year for that, how about we talk about other stuff, like your costume and hero gear?" The boy blinks, then gives a small smile, dark thoughts leaving his head for now.
"Right. I got some ideas, but nothing concrete for now…" He replies, rubbing behind his back in a bit of shame. "It's just… So many ideas, but every time I put them down on paper, it all looks bad somehow…" Ah, I see. Creator 's block.
"That's normal. Just give it some time, maybe think about other things. Least you know it inspiration might hit you outta nowhere." I explain to him, earning from the boy a small nod as reply. Then, I ask…
"And what about your weapon?"
Izuku stops, and stares at his now raised hands with a troubled look. As someone Quirkless, I bet he knew he would have to answer that question one day. In canon, he never ended up having to do it, but to prepare him for what's to come and what kind of power he will receive I'm gonna need to start from, at least, somewhere.
What, don't look at me like that, I just want the kid to not mangle himself up like in canon, just that.
"Let's…" I pause for a second while in search of the right word. "... Leave that for later, it's still 6 in the morning." I know you got a whole problem with that, kid, and in most cases I would step in, but not now. For this kind of stuff, it's best that the person comes up with his own resolve and resolution, even if it is not quite the best possible choice for the problem. This way, they can improve their own self-confidence and decision making skills.
Then later, I can offer my own advice as needed, and he will learn from it. Trial and error, simple as that.
"... Right."
Then we go back to walk and quickly reach the front of the building.
…
Now that 's awkward. Err…
"Thinking about it now, Midoriya-kun, do you know any place nearby where I can set up shop?" I ask him and the boy forms a thoughtful look on his face, then blinks as he remembers and lists them all in his head.
"Eh, a few, why?"
"I'm planning to move my work to somewhere else, where all my noise won't be able to annoy or interrupt anyone anymore." That, and that I'm planning to expand my operations with some robots I will design. "Can you write those down for me later?"
"S-sure." Good.
"Wait." The boy is about to run when I call him again, pointing to my side. "Shouldn't you stretch a bit first?"
After the boy embarrassingly walked to my side and stretched with me, I put on a pair of headphones and played some music, which Izuku seemed to have listened to, and we both started running. As my new jogging headphones now are cheap, open-back earbuds designed for running, they come with the downside of letting others hear what I'm listening to. Like Izuku right beside me.
At least he seems to enjoy it. Good taste kid.
"You're awakening… as you tread the earth. Lead us out… with an angelic smile!"
With the essence of Adventure itself echoing through my ears, I calmly finished my jog without anything happening.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Ugh, this place is a dump…" Closing my nostrils with my hand, I looked around inside the 14th place today. "EIDI, clean it up."
"Okay, cleaning." Rolling besides me, the junk robot quickly moved forward and began to push away all the trash and grime inside the warehouse using its now inbuilt (tied) broom.
Unsurprisingly, abandoned warehouses are abandoned. Old, dilapidated, dusty, covered in cobwebs, holes in the ceiling, etc… And worse, this one had what seemed to be rests of very rotten food and dog shit littering it all over. But the true worst part? This one was actually one of the GOOD ones I scouted today, trashy at it was, due to several factors. And not just damage or condition either.
Using my Survey Skill and my newly upgraded NetEye program, I searched for any "sign" of trouble around the locale I scouted. Be average rate of crimes, the presence of local Villains/Vigilantes, proximity to any Hero agencies, or proximity essential resources like hospitals, train stations, restaurants, etc., monthly volume of traffic in the area, and even the history of the other places around it, just to make sure nothing shady is happening in my nearby.
Which was surprisingly common.
Damn, Japan is really going to the gutter once Big and Stupid retires uh? The more I look into it the more it seems unavoidable…
Anyway.
Besides that, and the condition of the place, I also paid attention to the actual place. Size and ceiling height mostly, but I also looked for things like heating, water, electricity and gas. And let's not talk also about the frankly absurd prices. UA school being in this city really drove up property prices huh? Holy shit, took a while to find somewhere actually larger than my tiny ass apartment.
"About 7,500 sq feet… Or 2286 sq meters… For its price, not bad." Talking to the owner took a while, but he was happy to clean his hands of this place, strangely enough. I thought it had something fishy going on… But after looking deep into it, not really. His father, who was the owner of a grocery, had passed away recently, and all the guy inherited was this broken down place. Since the dude works as an IT manager, he didn't have much use for it and left it gathering dust.
I was lucky to find it. This is one of those cases where writing a whole wall of code to do it for me was the correct choice. Once I get some time later I'm gonna update my NetEye with some of that sweet robot A.I. code and…
"Hmm?" Walking to the other side of the place, I found something quite interesting sitting against a wall. "A motorcycle?"
It was a small one, most likely one of those really small electric ones they like to sell in Japan. Though, rather than a motorcycle would be more correct to refer to it as the remains or frame of one. The engine was missing, and so was a lot of the shell, its seat and headlights.
"Hmm, all it needs is a cleaning and some work… And since I still have that robot's engine anyways…" Pulling out my tools, I quickly was able to disassemble the bike in two parts, each small enough to fit in my Inventory. If this goes as I'm planning, I'll soon have cheap and fast transport to go around (buses are getting expensive to me).
That leaves the things I need to work on at… Jesus, that's a lot, and I'm still going to talk with Izuku later today about his costume's design. How the heck were renaissance men able to do all this shit? If I didn't had the Gamer power and wasn't in anime-land, where everything happens extra fast… God knows how long it would take…
Moving to a corner, I pulled a chair (and my lunch) out and sat down, watching the EIDI work while eating. As said previously, the little robot was quickly learning how to do its job better (it wasn't instantly as I expected however) and actually managed to clean a good portion of the place.
"Weeeeeee!" Then it smushed a pile of dust between its arms and threw it up, dirting itself and undoing a bit of its recent work.
Sigh, I shouldn't have programmed this much of a personality, now this will take a while…
Hmm… Do I have enough materials for more EIDIs? Oh, I do.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
A/N: A bit of a short chapter. Really struggled to write this one, ideas just weren't flowing. May take a while until the next one is done, but I won't give up on this fic.
Here's a pic of the design the EIDIs are based upon. Also, KalMun is based on the Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina from Star Wars.
Yet again, any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Until Next Time.
STATS:
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Wah!"
In a small, unlit room, a large figure sat silently on the dirty floor. He (and was certainly a he. Tall, muscular, with an imposing appearance) currently focused his attention on a cheap laptop which was, unironically, on top of his lap playing a certain short video on loop.
"Wah!"
Taking a bite of his (also cheap) lunch, he watched as the small, brown-haired girl screamed in surprise as she was thrown away again, again and again as the video repeated itself. However, that wasn't the object of his attention.
"Wa-!"
"Hm…" He paused the video. Then, zoomed in. Before replaying the video frame-by-frame, observing the girl's airborne movements very carefully. Then, after a few seconds of staring, he found it.
Between spraying the villain and for a mere half second of being launched, the girl held a second, smaller gray cylinder in her hands. Most wouldn't know what that was, but he did. It was a vial of Trigger, an illegal Quirk-enhancing drug. His mind went back to the info he asked to his inside man in the police force:
"All I was able to get is that Dumbbell strongly insisted that he had a vial of Trigger with him, mostly to his angry teammates. But given his profile of known forgetfulness… Sorry, they're booking this O-"
This all left a bitter taste in his mouth. The Rail Crew were HIS problem, they started to operate on his area once the sales of Trigger started to be supplied by someone, using the drug to enhance their mediocre at best Quirks into actual threats then doing small crimes like robbing stores and such. Usually, he was more than enough to deal with them, now that his injuries were mostly healed. But while he was busy last week (visiting her, much to the kid's insistence), the group of villains vanished right under his nose, going silent for a week before reemerging in Musutafu, now being a problem for others.
This all smelled of something fishy, and he could even guess that the D-rank villains weren't just there to do some small crash and grabs. Most likely someone paid them to make some big distractions, but the question is who? All of his investigations in the last months on who is the new supplier of Trigger ended in dead leads and nonsense results.
Seriously? The Shie Hassaikai? Who these days don't do anything but hide themselves from big name Heroes like All Might and Endeavor?
Now, he got sloppy, letting a civilian get away with a dangerous illegal drug (who was now at risk of attacking others or worse) and dealing with what certainly seems to be yet another group supplying Trigger to the local villains, again, for their own twisted goals. He needed to move. Quickly. Grab that vial of Trigger out of her hands, then track down its source after making sure the girl hadn't done anything stupid first.
Not the first time he did that, or the second, even if working near so many Hero Agencies did make him cringe a little bit in nervousness. Still, it is his duty, of going after all the dregs and scraps of villainy that the showy hero society of today forgets about.
Taking a frame of the video, he emailed it to his informant, asking to see if they could search their database to see if they got any result. They replied that the police don't have anything like that for non-criminals or villains, but searched for it anyway. Few days later, while punching down a cocky thug who tried to flex their Quirk for some quick money, his phone vibrated as he finally got a result.
Gotcha.
With a last look at his target, Iwao Oguro, Knuckleduster, closed his computer, changed outfits and hopped in a train to the KalMun apartment complex, in the north of Musutafu.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
I was ambushed, suddenly, I was going for my daily run. This was unfair, untrue and unjust.
This monster was… The apartment's landlord.
"Girlie, look. Ya been making too much noise recently with all your stuff, it's annoying the other residents, who've been all complaining to me all week. Better you tone it down or ya gonna need to find someplace else to go." The bald old man said to me, in a more annoyed than angry tone, as if he had more things to do rather than be here, and he probably had.
"I understand, I will move my work somewhere else until the weekend." With this kind of person it is better to just go along with it and move on, so I did, answering with a short and direct reply, agreeing with him.
"Good." And he walked away, leaving me standing on my doorstep with a grimace.
"Shit." I said to myself, once I was sure he couldn't hear me.
Retreating back into the sacred privacy of my room. I distracted myself as I watched my latest invention wheel around in my room, its arms moving up and down prodding and poking anything near it in childlike fascination. All while I reflected on myself.
God, what the fuck did I ended up doing.
While researching materials and components, I stumbled upon this article about new models of robotic helpers in development. Of course, this inspired me and I decided against all reason and common sense to try desiring my own version, thought with wheels and simpler robotic limbs instead of an android. Then, letting the "intrusive thoughts" enter, I tried to build it, using my tools, salvaged materials and PET filament 3d printers. And let me tell you, with walls this thin? All of those were loud.
"Help?" Looking down, I saw the 3 feet tall, "Wall-E" like robot roll near me with its toy wheels and ask me with a robot-like voice, kinda like GLaDOS from Portal, but younger-sounding. A simple "help", or how I programmed it to ask me for directions.
"No help." I replied.
"Okay." Then it went back to roaming the room.
Now? I got a cute robot helper, a bunch of angry neighbors and an annoyed landlord, the last two who now want to see me gone ASAP.
However, one at this point would sure have noticed that I wasn't controlling the thing in any shape or form. Well… While studying some control systems for this (other kinds) of robot arm, I decided to check the UA's villain robot's own programing, to see how they do it.
And maybe steal a little bit of it for myself.
Don't look at me like that, I'm not perfect.
Anyways, it turns out the robots are holding back, massively. The things pretty much fucking military robots, who can adapt to use any kind of frame or weaponry, target moving enemies with a near precognitive software and shoot them with unhuman precision. Hell, I was sure if all the combat limiters were off, that lone robot who attacked me at the Dagobah beach would utterly wipe the floor with me.
That send a deep shiver over my body, of how close I was to get completely and fatally fucked over. If the robot's programming had any glitch or bug that resulted in making it return to default configurations, I probably wouldn't be here as I am.
Or, wouldn't be here. At all.
Scary.
"EIDI, down."
"Okay, time to sleep." Folding its arms and backing-up to a corner, the robot turned off its eye LEDs and went into sleep mode. EIDI, no bigger meaning, was designed to kinda like my own equivalent of a mettaur. Small, cute, helpful and very modular, able to be fitted with nearly any kind of tool or mode, thanks to its adaptable learning software I cooked up.
For example, if I plugged some extra arms on it, it would quickly figure out how to use them the same as it does with its normal ones. Same for wings, legs, guns, etc. Really proud of this one, with just a few modifications, and some stolen code from the internet, I was able to greatly improve the programming of the UA robot.
Reaching to my computer I stretch my arms and look at my PC's time, 6:30. Still enough time for my run. Then searching for a place to turn into my new lab later…
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
On the way out, I found Izuku also getting ready to go for his own Jog while dressed in a pale red tracksuit, which stood in clear contrast with my own white shirt and black. Seeing me, the boy greeted me with a nervous smile.
"Good morning Tasha-san. Doing your jog a bit later today?" He asked me, as we both descended the stairs. I sighed in tiredness at his question, then answered him, walking down the steps all the while.
"Yeah, woke up a bit later today. And… Sorry about all that noise yesterday."
"Uhm… Yea, that was pretty bad…" The boy mutters while looking down. Don't be embarrassed to tell me kid, I lost track of what I was doing and ended up infuriating half to the complex at the same time.
"Anyways…" I but-in, switching to another topic while trying to break the ice. "How's your training been going?" I ask him with a curious smile, it only makes the boy look down, with a slight grimace of sadness and annoyance appearing in his face.
"Not… Good." He answers after a second, stopping in place, but then gets nervous and goes back to his word, shaking his hands in front of him as if he got scared that I got the wrong idea. "Ah! N-Not like that! The physical training is going well enough, but… The combat one…" He says the last part, slowly.
"Not a lot of places want to train a Quirkles kid?" I try to finish for him, but he disagrees, shaking his head.
"No. Every dojo and school nearby told me they teach martial arts for sport and discipline, and that if I want to learn actual combat I gotta go elsewhere." He finishes, closing his eyes with a huff, before looking at me. "Got no idea what to do now… Can't pass any entrance exam without it…"
Walking closer, I patted his back twice in a sign of affection. "Calm down and cheer up Midoriya-kun, you still got a whole year for that, how about we talk about other stuff, like your costume and hero gear?" The boy blinks, then gives a small smile, dark thoughts leaving his head for now.
"Right. I got some ideas, but nothing concrete for now…" He replies, rubbing behind his back in a bit of shame. "It's just… So many ideas, but every time I put them down on paper, it all looks bad somehow…" Ah, I see. Creator 's block.
"That's normal. Just give it some time, maybe think about other things. Least you know it inspiration might hit you outta nowhere." I explain to him, earning from the boy a small nod as reply. Then, I ask…
"And what about your weapon?"
Izuku stops, and stares at his now raised hands with a troubled look. As someone Quirkless, I bet he knew he would have to answer that question one day. In canon, he never ended up having to do it, but to prepare him for what's to come and what kind of power he will receive I'm gonna need to start from, at least, somewhere.
What, don't look at me like that, I just want the kid to not mangle himself up like in canon, just that.
"Let's…" I pause for a second while in search of the right word. "... Leave that for later, it's still 6 in the morning." I know you got a whole problem with that, kid, and in most cases I would step in, but not now. For this kind of stuff, it's best that the person comes up with his own resolve and resolution, even if it is not quite the best possible choice for the problem. This way, they can improve their own self-confidence and decision making skills.
Then later, I can offer my own advice as needed, and he will learn from it. Trial and error, simple as that.
"... Right."
Then we go back to walk and quickly reach the front of the building.
…
Now that 's awkward. Err…
"Thinking about it now, Midoriya-kun, do you know any place nearby where I can set up shop?" I ask him and the boy forms a thoughtful look on his face, then blinks as he remembers and lists them all in his head.
"Eh, a few, why?"
"I'm planning to move my work to somewhere else, where all my noise won't be able to annoy or interrupt anyone anymore." That, and that I'm planning to expand my operations with some robots I will design. "Can you write those down for me later?"
"S-sure." Good.
"Wait." The boy is about to run when I call him again, pointing to my side. "Shouldn't you stretch a bit first?"
After the boy embarrassingly walked to my side and stretched with me, I put on a pair of headphones and played some music, which Izuku seemed to have listened to, and we both started running. As my new jogging headphones now are cheap, open-back earbuds designed for running, they come with the downside of letting others hear what I'm listening to. Like Izuku right beside me.
At least he seems to enjoy it. Good taste kid.
"You're awakening… as you tread the earth. Lead us out… with an angelic smile!"
With the essence of Adventure itself echoing through my ears, I calmly finished my jog without anything happening.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
"Ugh, this place is a dump…" Closing my nostrils with my hand, I looked around inside the 14th place today. "EIDI, clean it up."
"Okay, cleaning." Rolling besides me, the junk robot quickly moved forward and began to push away all the trash and grime inside the warehouse using its now inbuilt (tied) broom.
Unsurprisingly, abandoned warehouses are abandoned. Old, dilapidated, dusty, covered in cobwebs, holes in the ceiling, etc… And worse, this one had what seemed to be rests of very rotten food and dog shit littering it all over. But the true worst part? This one was actually one of the GOOD ones I scouted today, trashy at it was, due to several factors. And not just damage or condition either.
Using my Survey Skill and my newly upgraded NetEye program, I searched for any "sign" of trouble around the locale I scouted. Be average rate of crimes, the presence of local Villains/Vigilantes, proximity to any Hero agencies, or proximity essential resources like hospitals, train stations, restaurants, etc., monthly volume of traffic in the area, and even the history of the other places around it, just to make sure nothing shady is happening in my nearby.
Which was surprisingly common.
Damn, Japan is really going to the gutter once Big and Stupid retires uh? The more I look into it the more it seems unavoidable…
Anyway.
Besides that, and the condition of the place, I also paid attention to the actual place. Size and ceiling height mostly, but I also looked for things like heating, water, electricity and gas. And let's not talk also about the frankly absurd prices. UA school being in this city really drove up property prices huh? Holy shit, took a while to find somewhere actually larger than my tiny ass apartment.
"About 7,500 sq feet… Or 2286 sq meters… For its price, not bad." Talking to the owner took a while, but he was happy to clean his hands of this place, strangely enough. I thought it had something fishy going on… But after looking deep into it, not really. His father, who was the owner of a grocery, had passed away recently, and all the guy inherited was this broken down place. Since the dude works as an IT manager, he didn't have much use for it and left it gathering dust.
I was lucky to find it. This is one of those cases where writing a whole wall of code to do it for me was the correct choice. Once I get some time later I'm gonna update my NetEye with some of that sweet robot A.I. code and…
"Hmm?" Walking to the other side of the place, I found something quite interesting sitting against a wall. "A motorcycle?"
It was a small one, most likely one of those really small electric ones they like to sell in Japan. Though, rather than a motorcycle would be more correct to refer to it as the remains or frame of one. The engine was missing, and so was a lot of the shell, its seat and headlights.
"Hmm, all it needs is a cleaning and some work… And since I still have that robot's engine anyways…" Pulling out my tools, I quickly was able to disassemble the bike in two parts, each small enough to fit in my Inventory. If this goes as I'm planning, I'll soon have cheap and fast transport to go around (buses are getting expensive to me).
That leaves the things I need to work on at… Jesus, that's a lot, and I'm still going to talk with Izuku later today about his costume's design. How the heck were renaissance men able to do all this shit? If I didn't had the Gamer power and wasn't in anime-land, where everything happens extra fast… God knows how long it would take…
Moving to a corner, I pulled a chair (and my lunch) out and sat down, watching the EIDI work while eating. As said previously, the little robot was quickly learning how to do its job better (it wasn't instantly as I expected however) and actually managed to clean a good portion of the place.
"Weeeeeee!" Then it smushed a pile of dust between its arms and threw it up, dirting itself and undoing a bit of its recent work.
Sigh, I shouldn't have programmed this much of a personality, now this will take a while…
Hmm… Do I have enough materials for more EIDIs? Oh, I do.
★—★—★—★—★—★—★
A/N: A bit of a short chapter. Really struggled to write this one, ideas just weren't flowing. May take a while until the next one is done, but I won't give up on this fic.
Here's a pic of the design the EIDIs are based upon. Also, KalMun is based on the Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina from Star Wars.
Yet again, any tips, advice and ideas are more than accepted.
Until Next Time.
STATS:
[SKILLS]
Acting (Lv 14)
Cooking (Lv 7)
Cleaning (Lv 7)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 7)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 31)
Mechanics (Lv 25)
Electronics (Lv 29)
Eskrima (Lv 15)
Survey (Lv 9)
Cold Reading (Lv 5)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
Chemistry (Lv 7)
Shadow Boxing (Lv 13)
Finances (Lv 3)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
Acting (Lv 14)
Cooking (Lv 7)
Cleaning (Lv 7)
Climbing (Lv 9)
Acrobatics (Lv 7)
Dancing (Lv 3)
Parkour (Lv 2)
Programming (Lv 31)
Mechanics (Lv 25)
Electronics (Lv 29)
Eskrima (Lv 15)
Survey (Lv 9)
Cold Reading (Lv 5)
Personal Manipulation (Lv 2)
Scavenging (Lv 2)
Throwing (Lv 4)
Chemistry (Lv 7)
Shadow Boxing (Lv 13)
Finances (Lv 3)
[PERKS]
Gamer's Body
Gamer's Mind
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Her, Run.
