15 Rejection.
I woke up with a dull throbbing pain, pounding at my insides. My mouth tasted of iron, and my limbs felt like they were made of jelly, and not even the good kind of jelly, oh no no, it was the offbrand sort, apricot preserve even. I mean who the fuck even eats apricot preserves?
But I digress. All in all, I was knee deep in shit.
Muscle pains, bruises and broken bones lined my body.
I guess reckless use of tactile telekinesis wasn't good for a normal body. Who could have known?
Regardless, every situation has a silver lining, and in this case it was the gorgeous little broad that kept watch over me.
And she was mad! I mean she was mad before but now she was really mad!
"How can they do this to my darling?! I'll kill them. I'll kill them all!" She muttered beneath her breath.
Who was she going to kill? Why the Hero Public Safety bureau of course.
That was the first thing I'd hinted at when I first woke up from my overexertion.
And now the whole crew was on target. And more importantly, I now had my shapeshifting assassin.
As for my parents, well, it took a couple of calls from the school and Soga pretending to be a university scout to convince them that I was in genius prep camp and couldn't come back until next week.
Man it's nice to have gullible parents.
Over the course of the week, or what was left of it, and a very generous use of healing rise, I slowly recovered.
Now, with my powers tested in combat, all my pieces on the board, Deku under control and a whole crew of badasses at hand, it was finally coming together.
All that was left was to get a couple more pointers checked, and I'd be set to save Eri.
But first, it was time for the famed Deku-All Might meeting that set the plot if HeroAca into motion. And I was going to orchestrate every last bit of it.
First, I began to subtly changing our route to match the sludge villains. The new route had 51 manholes and 83 alleyways on it compared to the previous route that travelled past the mainroad.
Deku would miss Mount Lady's debut but he would have a greater chance at meeting All Might and the sludge villain.
I even calculated the exact time to match the same as he would have taken in the original timeline so that if all goes to shit, he would still meet the sludge villain at least twice in the exact same two places.
Second, I had Deku craft a mouthpiece to accompany the taser as well improving the taser into a defibrillator knuckle sandwich.
Third, I began training with him on using first aid and emergency medical measures.
As the days flew by, I waited in anticipation. Soon. it would be time to get a one for all user in the palm of my hand.
On that fateful day, I left the school with Deku, I made sure to lead him right by the planned route.
"Say, Deku, what would you do if you met All Might?"
He thought for a moment, before answering.
"To be honest, I don't know."
What? I thought. This is not how it's supposed to go right?
A small seed of worry began to sprout in me.
"Why don't you ask him if quirkless people can be heroes too?" I nudged.
"Why would I? You already showed me that I can be a hero, even without a quirk!" he replied.
No. Oh no. Oh nononono.
What the fuck happened? Where did I go wrong?
"You know, maybe just as a curiousity?" I asked.
"No need." he answered.
Fuck!
"Listen. Deku. If you meet All Might just ask him that. For me. Please. Okay?" I pushed.
"Okay. sure. I will. But it's not like I will meet him anyways." He said.
Fucking finally.
Despite my best efforts, the sludge villain was a npshow. Not in one fucking manhole or shady alley did he even bump into us. And so at last, slowly but surely, I led him to the fated underpass.
"You want some juice?" I asked.
"Sure." Deku said.
"Wait here. I'll be back in a jiffy. I saw a machine over by the crossroad." I said.
"I'll come too." he replied.
"NO. No. I mean, just wait here. I'll be back in a minute. Besides, it's hot out. Wait here in the shade. Okay?" I insisted.
"I don't know what you're on about, but fine." he replied, finally sitting down by the grass, in the shade.
Phew! Almost lost the track.
I rushed over to the vending machine and back with rise, and waited.
Not three minutes later, the manhole blew open, and the sludge villain rusbed out swallowing Deku.
Only this time, Deku was prepared. In one swift motion, he unzipped his bag and pulled out the taser, shocking the villain and himself into oblivion.
Then came All Might, stuffing the villain into cola bottles, signing Deku's notes and slapping him silly.
"Ugh! Wha..." He muttered, beforw seeing the man, the myth, the legend, right before his eyes.
"A-a-all Might!" He cried with joy, pinching himself to see if it was a dream.
The rest of the conversation went the same as the manga, as I confirmed with an eye that I projected on his back as they leapt away.
As I reached the market district, to see the rest unfold, an explosion rang out.
Yup. Here we go!
Seeing Kacchan in distress, Deku ran straight at the villain, only except this time he didn't just claw away like a doofus.
He dashed past the heroes, zigzagging through the fire and rubble created by Bakugo's resistance.
"Hey! Kid! Stop. You can't be going there!" Death Arms shouted. Deku ignored him but DeathArms made no attempt to actually stop Deku.
With one smooth move he reached into his backpack, equipping his stun gloves and grabbing the rubber mouthpiece, before he swung his backpack around with a twirl of his heel, and threw it right at the villain's eyes.
Now in his blind spot, Deku ran over to Bakugo and shoved the mouthpiece into his open screaming mouth and shocked the villain into submission.
The canon was once again changed. This time the sludge villain was defeated not by All Might, but by the quirkless Deku. A great point of shame for the heroes. One that I was recording and would put to use in my videos.
Once the villain was captured, the scolding began. Only this time, I interfered. From within the crowd, out of sight of Deku, I shouted in a modded voice.
"You should feel ashamed that a quirkless brat like him could deal with the villain while heroes like you stood and watched like cowards." I said, as the crowd stood shocked at first and then booed the heroes down, reducing the backlash on Deku. The subsequent media attention painting him as a hero didn't help their cause either.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw small might leave dejectedly in shame.
Canon fucked sufficiently, I moved onto the next location and began my wait.
As the sun began to set, Deku arrived and almost on purpose, All Might, too arrived on the opposite end of the street.
"Wait! Shounen!" He said.
"What is it?" he asked, clearly not pleased to meet his idol.
"I just wanted to apologize for saying what I did." The beanstalk said.
"I used to be quirkless too....." he added, continuing the whole spiel. Chosen power, passed through generations, great evil, great responsibility, yada yada.
I almost wanted him to do it already. I had to consciously stop myself from yelling.
Make him the offer already you dinosaur!
"So what I wanted to say was. Young man, you can be a hero too!" He said with gusto.
Finally! I thought.
"Yeah, I know that already." Deku said, deflating small might.
"What? But you asked.. earlier?"
"That was because my friend asked me to do that?" he replied.
"But I can help you, let you inherit my quirk, so that you too can be a great hero!" he said.
"No thanks!" Deku replied.
What?
"What?" small might said, mirroring my emotions.
"A friend once told me, that I could be a hero, even without my quirk. He believed in me. Worked with me, trained me even. If I took your quirk, I'd be betraying the trust he placed in me, when even you denied my abilities. So no thanks, but I'll do without your pity and charity!" Deku replied with colossal conviction.
Fuuuuuck!
