Scumbag Hero Academia Chapter 22

A/N: This chapter is both shorter than I'd like and late. There's reasons for that, one of which being there was more to it I was writing that took me past the deadline... Only to realise it was a horrible idea and pulled back. So this is what we have for now. Sorry about that.

-(-)-

“Hey guys! The rankings are out!”

Those six words from Kirishima are a call to action for every student in Class 1-A. But none more so than one Katsumi Bakugo who shoves the redheaded boy out of the door way to get past him, a toothy grin across her face. She doesn’t care in the slightest that the rest of the class trails after her. That isn’t important. She also doesn’t care that most of 1-B are crowding around the bulletin board between their classrooms trying to see their own scores. 

“Well look at that! Class 1-A arriving late to the moment. It’s quite disappointing how you fail to keep up with what’s going on around you. Class 1-B have already seen all of our scores so you’re just– Mphmhmphuph?!”

She definitely doesn’t care about whatever that blond twerp is trying to say as she grabs him by the face and shoves him out of the way. “Out of the way, side characters!” she growls as she pushes her way through the chatting crowd, scanning the rankings from the top down. “Stripper president at number one, of course,” she mutters under her breath, “Iida, whoever that is...” Her grin turns manic. “Yes...” The fat student from that other class scampers away from her in fear. “Hell yes!” She looks around, spies a head of cobalt blue hair. “You!” She tackles him with her full weight, “I FINALLY BEAT YOU!” knocking the unsuspecting boy to the ground and straddling him. “I finally beat you, Saiki Saisei! You know what that means?! It means you’re my bitch! Say it!”

“Can I look at my score first–?”

“Say it!”

He sighs, rolls his eyes. “I’m your bitch.”

“You’re god damn right you are!”

Kaminari looks at the two, the explosive, ill-tempered and frankly terrifying girl dominantly straddling what was effectively a human tank. Strangely the image takes root in his mind, Saiki as a tank and Katsumi the cannon on top. It doesn’t make the sight any less terrifying. “Do I wanna know what that’s all about?” he asks.

“Dude, I don’t think anyone does,” Kirishima shakes his head in dismay. He and Katsumi might be friends even if she wouldn’t admit it, but sometimes she has an intensity he just can’t match. If it weren’t for the tits and skirt he’d call it manly, so instead he chooses to think of it as awesome. Poor Saisei though. Whatever’s going on there, it probably won’t be fun for him.

-(-)-

“Thanks for coming, Izuku,” says All Might, speaking in that same tired way he always does when he isn’t in his buff form. The teenage hero in training can’t avoid the suspicion that even when taking his heroic shape he’s putting on the voice, making a show of still being the hero he once was.

“No, of course! I was happy to!” she insists as she sits across from him with her lunch. A not-quite-ritual that has developed every few days in which they would eat together, able to talk privately. She watches as she opens her own lunch box, how careful he is as his atrophied limbs open his own, his own box containing soft, easily consumed foods.

Seeing him like this always causes her a pain that’s hard to describe. Seeing her idol so worn down. It proves to her just how near the end was for the greatest hero the world has ever seen. But the light, the fight in his eyes hasn’t gone out. He devotes that inner strength to teaching her, to building her into his true successor. And while the pain is inescapable, the pride she feels at being seen as worthy of that effort will get her through. It doesn’t matter that he can’t be the strongest hero most of the time. This in front of her, this man who gave up everything to protect the world from evil, this too is All Might.

“So, congrats on passing your finals,” the emaciated man offered, gesturing with his fork before digging in. “The staff wanted to make the practical tougher this year after what happened at USJ. If the school is getting targeted, they want to make sure you students are able to handle yourselves. You might’ve managed then, and don’t get me wrong you acquitted yourselves well, but with Stain and the League, things are getting... Rougher,” he admits, his brow furrows out of frustration.

She knows why he’s frustrated. He wishes he could do more, like he used to. She wants to apologise, for inheriting One for All now when the world needs All Might the most. But... That wouldn’t have changed anything. If she hadn’t inherited the power the symbol of peace was still on his last legs. If not her, it would’ve been someone else. “I’ll be ready!” she promises with the same conviction that impressed him most of a year ago. “When the time comes, I’ll make you proud, All Might.”

He laughs. A low, light, rasping chuckle. “I appreciate that, but don’t count us out just yet!” he grins in that strange angular way, his sunken cheeks making it look like it wraps around the entirety of his face. Odd as it looks, it’s inarguably still a comfort. “You just focus on your training and let us old timers take care of things. We can hold the line just fine until you’re ready to truly take your place as the next symbol of peace.”

“R-Right...” She tries to say it with confidence but, “I can still only pull out such a small amount of One for All without hurting myself. It doesn’t feel like enough.”

“Trust me,” he assures her, “Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was any hero worthy of the name. You’re smart,” he begins counting on his fingers, “You’re skilled, you’re observant, and now that you’ve got the basics of One for All down, you’re strong. If I was any other hero, I’d be eyeing you as a potential sidekick already. You just have to be patient and keep at it. You’ll get there soon enough. I mean you beat me, didn’t you?” he shrugs with a smile.

Her face flushes, a little embarrassed at taking on her mentor like that. “I didn’t really. We won because Saiki got away.”

“Yeah? And that was the point!” he argues back. “You did what you had to do for the sake of carrying the day, no matter how much you didn’t want to. I was honestly impressed you two managed to pull it off. Even more that you decided you’d be the distraction. Making me think he was the distraction only to swoop in after I thought he was done.” He scoops some mashed potato on his fork, “A double fake-out. It was clever,” and shovels it into his mouth.

“That wasn’t the plan,” she admits, not willing to take praise for something she didn’t do. “The plan was for Saiki to fight you and for me to run away. Because he knew I didn’t want to fight you?”

“Sounds kind of disrespectful to me,” All Might shrugs, having gained perhaps the slightest bias against the boy recently for some reason. “You’re here to grow and overcome the things that hold you back, same as he is. It might not seem like it, but you learned something during the exam because you were willing to face me no matter how hard it might have been. Sometimes being a hero is like that, so I’m glad you learned that lesson despite young Saise’s efforts.”

She frowns down at her lunch, not comfortable with that praise either. It wasn’t despite Saiki. He knew. He knew all along. He knew she was angry at him, didn’t want him to do anything to protect her. And he knew she wouldn’t want to fight All Might, the hero who inspired her more than any other. So he used her hurt feelings and her affection for him to push her into doing something she wouldn’t have otherwise. It was scheming, it was manipulative, it was everything she now believes Saiki to be. The real him that she had never realised was there, despite how little he did to hide it. And yet... At the same time, it wasn’t something he did for himself. He did it for her.

And once again, she finds herself in turmoil from the actions of that boy she can’t help but hold affection for.

“All Might,” she spoke finally, a question that has been on her mind for a while. “What are hero relationships like?”

“Uhh...” The question catches the pro flat-footed. “Kind of an out of nowhere question. Not sure I’m the best person to ask. I haven’t exactly been on the dating scene recently and when I was younger–”

“You had confirmed flings with twelve women, eight of them celebrities or models,” the girl rattled off, “As well as nine unconfirmed relationships, one of which with the daughter of US President Lombard–”

“Okay!” the hero holds his hands up in defense against the lecture on his misspent youth, as blood rushes to his face and also out of his mouth. “Wow,” he wipes at his chin with a tissue, “I know you’re kind of a fangirl nerd about heroes but I didn’t think you’d go that far!”

She just stares at him expectantly. Of course she wanted to know that. He’s her idol and growing up she wanted to know everything about him.

The emaciated man sighs. “Like I said, I’m not the best person to ask. I don’t think I carried myself well when I was young. Got in a lot of regrettable relationships, maybe played the field a little. I just... Couldn’t bring myself to get serious about anyone. But that’s me. A lot of heroes do settle down, get married, have kids and all that.” He rubs the back of his neck as he looks off to the side. “And for the record the thing with Miss Lombard didn’t happen. She was a little too young at the time and heroes definitely don’t do that. No matter how much she wanted to.” Looking back at his student, he sits up straight, eyes agog. “DON’T WRITE THAT DOWN!”

Izuku looks up from her notebook. “You said it was for the record.”

“It’s a figure of–!” The pro sighs in defeat. “You know what? It’s fine. It was a long time ago anyway,” he waves off whatever she wants to do with that information. Really he’s only getting antsy and only brought it up in the first place because there was something else he really didn’t want to mention. For a promise not to and for being afraid of telling his student something deeply regrettable about the life of a wielder of One for All.

“It’s just,” she starts, putting her notebook to one side, “I’ve been thinking. About secrets, I guess. When things went bad with Saiki, when I confronted him he told me without hesitation everything he had been doing the moment I asked. He said he never lied to me and... Well.. He’s right. He never did.”

“A lie of omission is still a lie, Izuku,” All Might reminds her.

“Sure,” she agrees in a non-committal fashion, “But... He never lied to my face. He never said anything to me that wasn’t true and I can’t say the same. The very first time he talked to me,” she blushes, remembering how nervous and babbly she was back then, “He guessed at how my quirk worked, at why I never trained with it. He assumed it was because it was too dangerous to use when I was little and... I agreed with him. I went along with it because I had to keep One for All a secret.”

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Her hands clench into fists. “I know that. I know I have to keep it secret, to protect myself, protect you, but,” her eyes squeeze shut, an image of Saiki so happy to bond with her over a lie she told him, “Can I ever have a real relationship with someone if I can’t even be honest about the most basic things about myself? I was born quirkless. It’s a part of who I am, growing up with people looking down on me is part of what made me who I am now but no one can ever know that!” She looks up, her tear-rimmed eyes pleading with her mentor for an answer she wants to hear. “Can I ever have anything real if it’ll always be built on a lie?”

The answer she wants to hear isn’t something he can give her. All Might looks at his successor with an expression filled with regret. Not just for what he has to tell her, but for a promise he has to break. But he believes Nana would understand. “Some heroes marry and settle down. It isn’t always easy. The job is rough on personal lives, but some make it work. Some find partners in other heroes, people who understand the hardship and make it work.” He pauses, looks her in the eye. “My mentor, Nana Shimura, she was an amazing hero. She was the one who taught me to always smile. To protect people’s lives but also their hearts. To show them that everything will be alright because I am here.”

He appreciates his protege’s soft smile as she learns the true origin of his signature phrase as he continues. “She was a fine hero and she had what you’re talking about. She had a husband and son she loved dearly. She never stopped loving them, even after her husband was taken from her by a villain targeting her family. Even after, for fear of what might happen to her son, she put him up for adoption to keep him safe.”

“She gave away her–?!” Izuku asked, eyes wide in horror, fingers covering her mouth.

Her idol grimaces. “It was the only way she could be certain he’d be safe from her enemies and after losing her husband, she couldn’t bear to outlive her child. So... She made sure he’d be safe. She swore me and Gran Torino to secrecy and told us to never contact him or even look for him.”

“That’s... I can’t even imagine how that must have...” Izuku tries to speak but comes out with only half-formed sentences, then falls silent as she realises why All Might is telling her this.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” the hero tries to head that line of thinking off. “That isn’t to say that’s how things would go for you, but you should know how it can go. Like I said before, finding someone else who’s in the life would make it easier and harder in different ways. And it’s not like you can’t ever tell anyone your secret. My mentor had Gran Torino and therefore so both of us. I have Tsukauchi, Recovery Girl, Principal Nezu.”

“And Sir Nighteye?” Izuku asks.

“Uh, yeah,” he answers, caught off guard by the mention of his old sidekick. “People I know I can trust without question,” he quickly moves on, not wanting to open two old wounds in the span of a few minutes. “Soon enough, One for All won’t be a secret that protects both of us. It’ll be all yours, and so it’ll be up to you to decide who’s worthy of that level of trust.”

“I didn’t want to form anything meaningful,” he admits. “That was the choice I made after what happened to Nana. It was more important to me that I become the unshakable symbol of peace. But even if you follow in my footsteps that doesn’t mean you have to make the same choices I do. You’re your own hero who can do things her own way and you have your own life to live how you choose. So,” he awkwardly picks up his fork again, “Do what feels right to you. That’s the best advice I can give. After all, it’s what got you this far.”

Do what she feels is right. If only she were certain of what that is.