One

7.7K 184 52
                                    

Heroes. 

They were what every child wanted to be from the moment they saw one in action. When the child is young, they only see the heroes beating up bad guys and looking cool. As they get older, they start to realize some of the most obvious risks. And once they finally mature, some move on from the obsession of their adolescence.

Most by the end of junior high, however, did not.

This was Kimura Kazue's only thought as he glanced up from the paperback he was hiding behind his desk, seeing a sheet of paper being haphazardly dropped on its wooden surface from the girl in front of him. The school application form for Yūei High, the only school he'd submitted a request for. And after a quick scan around the room and some eagle-eyed reading, Kazue could only roll his green eyes.

Practically every single student in his class had the application forms for several hero schools, the one they were taking great care to fill out first all being from the same one. Yūei.

Specifically, the hero course.

Kazue, on the other hand, had an application for the support course. He had no doubts that his application would be accepted, even if his grades were just average. As for whatever test the examiners would throw at him, well, the brunet would willingly ace the first test in his life. After all, this was his future. He had to have at least a little motivation for something as substantial as that.

Maybe. He'd first have to see if the test was difficult enough to be considered a little more than child's play. If it was, then Kazue would be looking forward to the next three years of his education.

Well, not the education part. He already knew all that crap to a 'T'. More of the fact that support course students had pretty much free reign to use the workshops and all the materials in them, as long as they knew what they were doing. Explosions were perfectly normal occurrences and you wouldn't get expelled for damage as long as you cleaned up after yourself and didn't kill anyone.

Kazue had done his research. He knew everything about the school. He liked to be prepared for any situation imaginable.

Which was also why the brunet knew that entering the support course was impossible, even if he filled out the application and passed the exam with flying colors. Kazue's father wouldn't let him leave the house if he got into anything but the hero course, especially with the recommendation he'd already sent in for his son.

The teen sighed in annoyance, resting his forehead on top of the blank sheet of paper and closing his eyes.

The whole situation was a pain in his ass. Hell, taking the support course exam instead and lying about wasn't an option to begin with, as the recommendation exams for the hero course took place months before. So there Kazue was, sulking with a form he'd requested just to look at.

Pathetic.

He sat back up like he had back problems, folding the sheet into a crisp paper airplane and drawing back his arm. With quick mental calculations on trajectory, launch speed, and an extensive list of other variables, Kazue flicked his wrist and sent the plane into the wastebasket hidden behind the teacher's desk.

The man sitting behind it, on the shorter side and looking like he hated his daily job of wrangling teenagers, only spared the precision shot a single glance. "If you're going to request a form only to throw it away..." he sighed, trailing off and leaving the unfinished statement hanging ominously in the air.

"Sorry," Kazue mumbled, hiding his face behind his manga. The few of his fellow classmates that looked over at the interaction blinked in unison, staring at the reading material that had suddenly appeared in his hands.

Ah, the wonders of a bit of sleight of hand and long sleeves.

He buried himself in the panels, knowing his teacher couldn't care less if he was doing his work or not. Why would the man care when Kazue scored exactly the class average on every assignment and test regardless of whether he paid attention or not? Hell, he wouldn't care what his students did as long as they stuck to the 'no Quirks in school' rule and weren't obnoxiously loud.

Which was exactly why he was Kazue's favorite teacher. In what other class was he able to sleep, read manga, or read random textbooks he'd checked out from the library without punishment? None of them.

And if he was being honest, hearing lectures about topics he'd learned back when he was eight was boring beyond belief.

~-~-~-~

"Hey," Kazue greeted bluntly, walking along the sidewalk with his hands in the pockets of his school uniform.

"No homework?" Tecton asked, glancing down at the teen. If the hero was being honest, the kid kinda scared him with how he could appear out of nowhere, looking like he'd rather be in bed than anywhere else. But hey, at least he didn't cause a minor earthquake like the first time it had happened, an A in his book.

"Nah. I requested all this month's work early and did it yesterday," the brunet replied boredly, noting that his father's sidekick had altered his costume. He'd added wrist braces. That was good. The last time he'd had to go all out fighting an annoyingly persistent villain, the man had shattered his wrists with his own Quirk. And all it had taken was an 'anonymous' sketch appearing on his hospital bed when he woke up from surgery.

"Cool," Tecton nodded like that was normal, blue eyes expertly scanning the street for any inkling of crime. For the most part the civilians ignored the routine patrol, only a few sneaking glances to try and figure out why a random teenager was talking to a pro. "Oh, and be prepared. Aerogale took in two interns this morning."

Kazue grimaced at the mere thought of the notion, making a mental note to experiment more with his homemade energy drinks. Interns. And Aerogale's interns, at that. The hero, despite being a sidekick, frequently requested internships randomly throughout the year from a specific type after watching Yūei's Sports Festival.

The kids with the flashiest Quirks, biggest attitude, or both combined into some... concoction of arrogance and a superiority complex.

Which meant that it was Kazue's job to make sure their week on the job went by without a hitch, like maybe... them spamming their Quirks without caring about their own limits to look cool.

In short, Aerogale's interns were a pain in the ass and Kazue hated them.

"Fun," he grumbled, wondering how completely and utterly spent he was going to be that week. If he was being completely honest, Kazue's Quirk was the only reason why those idiots ever made it through their internships. And his Quirk wasn't even that powerful, only good for-

"Is that smoke?" Tecton suddenly asked, faltering in his confident stride to stare with concern off in the distance. "Explosions, too..."

Without hesitation and in the true nature of a hero, the dark-haired man sprang forward in a sprint. Kazue followed after a momentary pause, backpack bouncing annoyingly on his back as he ran.

The hero skidded to a stop on the pavement at an intersection a few streets down, instantly muttering out a few colorful curses upon the sight in front of them.


A/N: In short, Kazue's got a lotta room for character development and is a lazy genius, Tecton (whose pic will be in the next chap) is gonna be bae, we don't like Aerogale or his interns cuz they're dumbasses, and we're on episode 2 of the anime.

Questions/comments/things to change?

Motivation - SPORADIC UPDATESWhere stories live. Discover now