My Hero Academia: Supernova

Chapter 0.1: Light

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"Heroes are so lame."

That isn't a sentence you'd hear in a society like this, where those who hold the title of "Hero" are often automatically praised for the title alone. Heroes and villains, they're all the same. Just people, in a constant loop of trying to kill each other. The only real difference between them was one side was completely excused from any wrong doing, because every action they take was all in the name of Justice. At least, that's what Alleana thought anyway. With a mother like hers, she'd seen her fair share of what villains were capable of, Heroes too. In her eyes, they were one and the same, only one was rewarded while the other was exiled.

Behind the school building, a shadow loomed over the group of three middle school students. Mid August in Japan, it would have been the perfect place for a group of friends to sit and chat during their lunch hour. You know, if this would have been a pleasant meeting among friends.

Laughter pierced her ears, "What? Not gonna say anything Maris?" Takeshi shoved Alleana's shoulder while the other student, a girl named Hanako, giggled mockingly at her. But she remained silent as he continued, "Or are you just gonna run to that Hero mommy of yours? You know, even she probably wouldn't waste her time on some future villain like you."

Alleana looked up, "If you're what the future of heroism has to offer," she smirked, "Then yes, I would rather be the villain."

The annoying grin on his face turned into an even more annoying frown. He grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks between his thumb and his fingers, he scoffed, "Then maybe I ought to put you in your place, like a proper hero." He said, leaning closer to her. She looked at him, Takeshi was as plain as they come. He was tall, and skinny. Brown hair that fell in his dark brown eyes. Maybe he'd make a good extra in a movie, or even a protagonist in some boring romance drama, but not a hero.

Takeshi had seemed to make it his life's mission to bring Alleana down since they'd met in their first year of middle school. She'd openly had a distaste for heroes and he thought she was ridiculous. He was the type, like most kids his age, to think that they can be a Hero on the simple basis of just having a quirk. No one really understood like she did what actually went into being a Hero. No one understood that having the quirk was the bare minimum. No one understood that heroism came with sacrifice. In their eyes, they believed that having a quirk would mean success. But they were unaware of the time and dedication that went into becoming a star in the eyes of the youth. Except for those who were already in the industry, who knew the days, months, years that they spent enhancing their abilities to be able to become the strongest versions of themselves. The relationships they risked to become a hero. The sacrifices they made on the battlefield in the moment of a quick decision. Nobody could understand the pain of choosing between saving one person and saving millions, unless they were Heroes themselves.

Everyone wanted to be a Hero, everyone wanted to stake their claim to the title of number one. To be at the top is to be the greatest, after all. Being number one is something most only dream about, few have ever actually had the opportunity to call themselves that. With the amount of canon fodder the hero schools were pushing out these days, most were even lucky to be ranked higher than a thousand.

But Takeshi, like everyone else, had convinced himself from an early age that he had what it took to be a Hero, that he could someday claim the title of number one. In Alleana's eyes, to claim to be a hero is to claim to protect those in need. She scoffed at the thought of someone like him as a hero, the same with most of the other Heroes she'd met through her mother's status. Most were only Heroes for fame and riches. She'd noticed a pattern of Heroes who, when the cameras were off, barely acknowledged the existence of someone who truly needed them.