42 Goodbye Aldera!

"Huh." I blink blankly at the building in front of me, Himi at my side switching between looking at me then the building every few seconds. A bit behind me is One, who has a relieved expression on his face, probably happy that things aren't going to go how he thought they would.

Sure, he accepted the invitation to join the League, but despite his first crime being murder, he's not really set on the whole villain schiit. That's fine though, he took the first step- now we just have to find what it takes for him to take the plunge.

Of course, that doesn't really fix the problem in front of me. See, I had hoped that I would be burning down a building full of people. Instead?

Instead I'm staring at a gate that's been chained shut, detritus littering the grounds beyond it. And resting prime of place is a school building: specifically Aldera Junior High. With only a week from the entrance exams for highschool, I was going to hide gasoline cans all over the building, then create a flaming wall around the school grounds. Then when someone eventually managed to escape? Or maybe had more than a single brain cell work for once in their lives and called for help?

We'd be waiting, ready to cut the ever-so-thin string of hope they'd managed to pinch between their fingers and watch it turn into despair knowing that hope is a lie.

There is only the harsh reality of the living world.

And really, that's something too many people take for granted! The fact that reality exists. Most of the time they live in their own little worlds where they're convinced that nothing too bad will happen to them.

Sure, they know that bad things happen all the time. That at any moment they can lose their life in any number of ways. But knowing is not the same as understanding.

That's not why I planned to burn down a school of nearly highschoolers though. I just hate basically everyone who I went to school with. Sure, there were a few people who weren't horrible, and a couple of teachers who actually tried to stop the abuse.

Eh. Whatever. It's a moot point now since there's nobody here!!!

And judging by the graffiti and broken windows, not to mention how filthy it is, I'd say that it's been closed down for a long while.

"Haaa," I sigh. "One, can you just take the containers inside? Concentrate some of them specifically in classroom two-ten," I say. He nods, using his power to create a super long piece of gum that he wraps around the cans, then he makes another that he sticks to the first one and starts to drag them.

Obviously he needs to get through the locked gate though, and I'm curious how he'll manage that. After staring at it for a few seconds he smiles, snaps his fingers, and gum in the shape of a key protrudes from the lock! With a quick turn he's trudging his way towards his destination and I can't help but muse on his quirk.

He can make gum, as has already been established. But, while seemingly limitless, there are, in fact, limits. For one, he has to actually think that what he's summoning is gum, which means it needs to be edible, chewable, and must contain the ability to be blown into bubbles.

Furthermore, it's not made out of nothing. It actually pulls in certain aspects of the air, or maybe oxygen, in order to manifest. So no summoning gum into a solid brick for whatever reason. It also limits whether or not he can summon gum inside a person. Basically if their mouth is closed, not enough of whatever his quirk needs enters the body for him to manifest the gum. So if his uncle hadn't been shouting at him, he wouldn't have died!

On the plus side though, other than it needing to be classified as gum, he can customize it however he sees fit! Taste, texture, elasticity, chewability, stickiness, moist, dry. The limit for what kinds of gum he can summon are, in fact, nearly limitless!

Of course, that still doesn't fix the issue of me not having jerks to burn! "Seriously! What happened!?" I shout.

"You use ta go here?" The sudden voice causes me to whirl around, a knife flickering into hand. But nobody's there. "Up here," I hear it again, and I gasp, staring straight up at the clear blue sky above.

"God?" I gasp.

"Yes. I'm God." The voice deadpans and I nod.

"Well you kind of suck, you know that? All the war, famine, and discrimination is a bit much. Don't you think?"

"Yep! But that's more of humanity's problem. Don't blame the maker, blame the user. Y'know who said that?" The voice continues before I can answer. "A drug dealer who was gettin arrested."

"Fair," I concede. "So Himi, you got 'em yet?"

"Huh? Who's-" The voice's confused question is abruptly cut off, presumably by a knife, but hopefully not somewhere lethal. I still have questions!

"Yeppers~! And she's cute too!"

I chuckle, finally looking over at the lightpost the voice had been coming from. There I see Himi precariously balanced behind a girl a couple years younger than us. Maybe going on to her second year? If she went to middle school that is.

But judging by how tattered, mismatched, and ragged her clothes are, and the fact that anyone who goes to school would be there given the time, it's safe to assume that she doesn't have an education. A formal one, I mean.

"So, little probably homeless girl, care to explain why Aldera's abandoned?" She shifts uncomfortably, which is fair considering the knife at her throat. Or it could be because for two people to balance on a single lamppost, Himi has one of her legs between both of the girl's. And to make it even more awkward the girl is shorter than her, so she's practically sitting on Himi's leg with her own on either side.

"School got closed down cuz of discrimination. Parrantly the principal of UA took offense to that an' went on a war. Way I heard it, most of the teachers got arrested, sum of the students too."

"Huh." I blink at her as a bead of sweat rolls down her face. "How'd something like that happen? It's not like the school was all that noteworthy."

She swallows as Himi adjusts her footing, the knife nicking her throat and drawing a droplet of blood. "I-It was somethin 'bout a death. Kid died, caused a commotion. Don't know nuthin more than that!"

"Huh." So… it had something to do with me? I guess that makes sense, what with All Might being my sperm donor. Not to mention that I applied with Izumi and Kachan.

"Darn," I mutter, kicking at the floor while hanging my head in dejection. "I was really looking forward to burning them alive." I sigh before looking back up, signaling Himi that she can put the knife away. She does so as the girl lets outs a relieved sigh while holding a hand to her neck, smearing the blood from the small cut.

"So kid, why ya' homeless?" Himi asks in a cute voice without getting off the post.

She snorts, her earlier sass quickly reasserting itself now that she's not being held at knifepoint. "Born quirkless," she says with her chin raised in challenge. "Parents tossed me out on my ass not a week after we foun' out."

"Hmm," I hum in thought, rubbing my chin. "You seem awfully calm for someone standing so far off the ground. Especially when you're quirkless and don't have any way to catch yourself."

She scowls. "Just cuz I'm quirkless doesn't mean I'm fragile! I ain't never been hurt by a fall and that's not changing today!"

"Reeeaaally… You spend a lot of time up high, pretending to be God?" I ask, curious, to which she shrugs.

"I like it. Relaxing, safe. Feels like I'm above all the problems I'm stuck with. Don't have ta deal with coppers, thugs, other homeless. All'a them are just as much to screw me over as the other, just'n different ways. But when I'm up high?" She gets a distant look in her eyes as she stares ahead, not seeing the dilapidated building in front of her, but something else.

"Up high I leave my worries down below, and can pretend that they're someone else's worries. Just me and the wind rushing past." She smiles. "No better feeling than that."

I nod. "I can understand a bit of that. Though the wind rushing past is an interesting feeling to enjoy. Sounds almost like you enjoy… falling."

She twitches, her years on the streets having taught her to hold information close to her chest, but evidently still thrown by Himi still being behind her. Not by much, but enough that Himi has no issue pushing her off the lamppost. And judging by the scream that sounds off from the direction of the school, apparently I'm not the only One watching. Heh.

But despite One's belief that he just watched Himi push a girl to her death, my own belief proves correct. She twists in the air, almost cat-like to land with her feet firmly planted on the ground. Seeing the angry expression on her face as she storms up to me I smile. Quickly pulling out my phone I type out two coordinates for Kurogiri, hitting send just as the girl's fist makes contact with my jaw.

It doesn't hurt though, being this close the signs of malnutrition are clear to see. She's too weak to put any real effort into the blow. Of course that's not even counting how I'm incapable of feeling pain.

Either way she's unable to resist as I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight against me. As she squirm in a futile attempt to get away I look at Himi, who has a smile, and One, who's returned and looks worried. "Light the fuse and take a video. I want to see how it burns when I come back."

Just as I finish speaking one of Kurogiri's portals opens up in front of me, establishing a connection with the location. Then a second opens, leading to the second pair of coordinates I sent him. The destination I'll be taking little miss orphan to. Or rather, where Two will be going to.

I step forward, letting us drop through. Immediately the school building and the apartment blocks across from it are replaced by clear blue skies, the only clouds far in the distance. Then the rushing wind starts up as we fall through the sky, our clothes getting torn from the air pressure the longer we fall.

It doesn't bother me though, and from her previous words I didn't think that Two would care much either. Guess there's a big difference between falling from something along the lines of two or three stories tall and falling from high up in the sky. But that's just semantics.

As we fall I consider the risk that I'm taking. Sure, if I'm right then we won't have to do random tests on every quirkless person we find! I'm sure that One would have appreciated it if we did focused testing instead of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at him.

See, I think that for a 'quirkless' person, their personalities are shaped by their quirks. Or maybe it's the other way around, personalities shaping quirks. It's not like people understand everything about quirks anyways, so my guess is as good as any!

It takes a few minutes, but eventually we see a flash of light, one that steadily grows larger the closer we get. Though… I seem to have made a miscalculation. Instead of falling straight down, the wind's direction has changed, which redirects our course. We're heading straight to the blaze as it works to consume the school.

I can tell that I'm going to hit the floor first, and I feel a sharp stab of disappointment that I won't be able to observe the effects in person. Oh well, Himi knows what to do.

And the next thing I know is that I'm in front of Receptionist, not even having felt the impact. I smile at her, crossing one leg above the other. "So… I think I've found a new recruit! One immune to fall damage!"

She just looks at me for a moment before sighing, leaning back in her chair as she steeples her fingers. "Go on, then," she says with much put upon airs. "Tell me all about your new friend."