Bus ride.
Wednesday came and it was time for the monumental class that would push the students further beyond.
"For today's hero basic training, it's turned into a class with three instructors, All Might and me, and one other person." Aizawa-sensei said.
"Excuse me, but what'll we be doing today?" Sero asked, raising his hand.
Aizawa-sensei pulled out a card that read "RESCUE!" in big blue letters.
"Disasters, shipwrecks and everything in between. It's rescue training."
"Rescue.." Kaminari muttered with an awkward smile, thinking that his quirk had no real use in a rescue situation.
"Looks like it'll be a lot of work this time too." He added.
"Right?" Mina said.
"Idiot, this is the duty of a hero." Kirishima remarked.
"My arms are ready to rumble!"
"No one can beat me in water, ribbit." Tsuyu said.
"Hey, I'm not done." Aizawa-sensei interrupted.
"You can decide whether or not to wear your costume or not this time. Because there are costumes that probably limit your abilities too.
The training will take place off campus, so we're taking a bus. That is all. Get ready."
As we got ready, I put on my costume and tied the coat around my waist for ease of movement.
Deku rolled up his cape too, detaching it and slinging it over his back.
As everyone exited the changing room, Iida guided everyone with a whistle, waving his hands about overenthusiastically.
"Clas 1-A gather round. Form two lines by your student numbers to make boarding the bus go smoothly."
But boarding the bus, a whole different reality hit him. It was a bus with open seating and his efforts were unnecessary.
"Shoot. I didn't think it'd be this kind of a bus. There was no point huh?" Iida said, downcast.
I sent him a mocking smile. There we go. First day of president duty and I'm already proven right. Committee jobs are fucking useless.
Iida saw my smile and his face scrunched up like foil as he grumbled away.
"I tend to say whatever's on my mind so don't take this the wrong way, but, Midoriya, isn't your quirk like All Might's?" Tsuyu asked.
"T-t-tsuyu-s-san ..." Deku stuttered.
"Call me Tsu." She requested.
"A-alright."
"So? Is it true?"
"Huh?! Y-y-you think so?" Deku said, trying to circumvent the conversation.
"B-but I'm uh.." Deku said, trying to think up an answer.
He'd been so busy with training the past month, he hadn't had the time for his usual overpreparedness. Hence he had no answer for her.
"Wait a second. All Might is way stronger than Midoriya though. They probably just look similar." Kirishima said.
"But it's nice to have a simple augmenting type quirk. You can do lots of flashy quirks. My hardening's strong against others, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like much."
"I think it's really cool!" Deku assured.
"I think it's a quirk that can definitely pass as a pros!"
"A pros huh? But you have to think about popularity as a ..." he stopped mid sentence, remembering the conversation we had had yesterday, as the class recalled it too.
"No." Kirishima said, "You're right, Deku. It's definitely a good quirk for a pro."
This annoyed me. Just because I said that yesterday doesn't mean these dumbasses have to stop themselves from even thinking about popularity.
After all, once I defeat AFO, change society to my liking and yeet off back to my farm, I'll need these guys to make sure I have a nice and cozy retirement.
I'll have to correct them now, before they become ideological monsters like stain.
"Goodness, you don't have to beat yourself up over yesterday guys!" I said.
"But we were wrong! And those heroes who look only at being popular, they're what's wrong with society today. How can we be better if we act the same?" Kirishima argued.
"Kirishima, there's a difference between thinking something and actually doing it. Just because you help people doesn't mean you can't also be popular as a hero. It just means you should do the right thing even if it'll hurt your popularity or even just not yield any news coverage. It doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your dreams for the greater good." I explained.
Everyone looked at me as if I was a fish out of water.
"What? I'm not going to call you evil just because you don't believe the same things as me! We live in a free society after all. Everyone has the right to think and talk freely." I said.
"Really? That's...unexpected. I thought you said.." Kirishima mumbled.
"Hey, I don't know everything. And even after all the research, I can still be completely wrong. Isn't that why we have free speech? So that when I'm wrong someone can point out my mistakes. And the same goes for you. It doesn't mean you need to blindly believe everything someone says as the absolute gospel truth. Just look at things rationally and make your own judgements." I said.
"And popularity can be useful in some ways too. Using it to bring attention to issues that are generally ignored.
Mt.Lady for example, tries to use her gigantification quirk to spread awareness about the unique problems faced by people with giant or inhuman quirks." I added.
"You sure know a lot." Tsuyu said.
"It's what Deku specializes in. I just learnt by reading his notes. He has complete psychological profiles for all pro heroes. It's a miracle he's not a villain, cuz then we'd be screwed." I said.
Deku punched me in the shoulder in anger.
"I would never be a villain!" He said.
"Really? If I wasn't here. If Bakugo continued to bully you and if All Might told you that you could never be a hero without a quirk, that wouldn't push you over the edge?" I asked.
Deku fell silent.
"Look maybe...but I overcame it once and I think I would have overcome it either way." He said.
"Believe what you want, all it takes is .." I said as Deku completed my sentence.
"One bad day. Yes. I have read all your batman novels Haru-chan. I know that by heart. And maybe you're right. No. You're probably right. As always. But what matters is that I'm not a villain now." He said gripping his fist in front of his chest.
"Wait! You wrote the batman novels?!" Mineta asked.
"Yeah. Why?" I said.
"I am a big fan!" Mineta said, "I even have autographed copies."
"Really? I read the first set. That ending was awesome." Kaminari said.
"I really like Jason Todd as the Red Hood. He was so cool!" Sato said.
"Hehe. Thanks for reading it. Glad you like the stuff. I based it on Deku actually." I said.
"What? You told me that you wrote those to motivate me though?" Deku asked.
"Well, I don't tell you everything, now do I? And I did write them as motivation for quirkless folk. I mean seeing what happened to Deku, I figured he wasn't the only one suffering like that. So why not? You know..." I said.
"Alright. That's enough. We're here." Aizawa-sensei said.