Thorny Path of a Pro-Hero

Author's Note 1:

Did you spot the mention of Himiko Toga during the exam? :)

I've moved the answer about where she was implied to the end of this chapter, so you can either guess the answer yourself or scroll straight down.

Upon opening my eyes, for several seconds, I couldn't figure out where I was.

An unfamiliar white ceiling… some plastic curtains… white walls with a greenish tint… and for some reason, a blue floor. I was lying down. A bed. Metal. Okay… not restrained, that's good. Clean. A white sheet over my body. Okay… not covered over my head - also good! I'm not naked. And not cold. So, not a morgue. Very good!

Finally, the neighboring bed was occupied by someone, but exactly who it was remained hidden behind a nightstand and a half-drawn curtain. Well, “curtain”… it was more of a white, semi-transparent screen, barely reaching the chest of a lying person. Essentially pointless.

Japanese people, generally, are highly considerate of personal space due to being extremely limited in living space, and always strive to maintain even the smallest aspects of it. However, this often takes absurd forms, like paper walls where you can hear and sometimes even see everything. Or the complete disregard of any improper things if a person is “in their personal space,” even though everyone sees and hears everything.

Then I remembered I had been injured.

I jerked up, felt myself over, examined - everything was intact, ribs and arm were fine, and my charisma and charm were still present. No pain. The thigh was intact. Checked the ribs again - still intact! And as for my privates, there's no need to check - after defeating such a robot, I now know for sure that they’re made of steel, nothing can damage them.

Joked. Cheered myself up. Began to recall.

I remember the blue sky. Uh… I was lying on a roof, it seems. And someone was babbling loudly… It seemed the exam was still going on… wait. I had already remembered the robot. And the victory… oh, right! Robots! Lots of robots! And buildings! Walls! Students! And despite all these obstacles, full of courage and swagger, I survived!

I looked around the room with a new perspective. So, this means I’m in the U.A. infirmary?

Someone rustled behind the screen on the left.

Could it be a cute girl?

Then there was a loud but incomprehensible yell about something related to Almighty-something and zero points on the exam, and a green-haired boy tried to jump out of his bed, ending up tangled in the sheets.

Ah, the protago… I mean, Izuku Midoriya (Izuku is his first name, by the way).

Well, it makes sense; we were in the same arena at the end and even got hurt in a similar way. Only I still have ringing in my ear, but that's thanks to you, brother.

I looked at him sympathetically. I understand, I was just remembering where I was and what happened myself.

Izuku finally noticed he wasn’t alone in the infirmary, and instantly stopped his outburst, blushing. Looking away, he continued to weakly tug at the end of the sheet, trying to free himself from the white prison.

"You're sitting on it," I extended a metaphorical hand to help.

"E-ex-excuse me?"

"You. Are sitting. On the sheet. And that's why…"

"Oh! Oh, oh, thank you, sorry…"

The kid untangled himself.

We continued to sit in silence.

I checked the time with my "spatial" perception. Two in the afternoon. Aha, it means we were out for almost three hours. And rightly so, both the body and the mind needed rest after such injuries and impressions.

Then, noticing that the humidity in the room was starting to rise, I decided not to wait until the guy started crying in front of me and took matters into my own hands.

No matter how it looked, it was vital for me to establish contact with this oddball. The sooner, the better. I know that right now he doesn't make anyp̶o̶s̶i̶t̶i̶v̶e impression, but later…

After all, I have to fight alongside him in the future.

Even if I've failed years of preparation and the entrance exam due to my detour to another Training Ground and end up not getting into U.A.

Right. Let’s not think about that for now.

“Hey… I’m Niren. What’s your name?”

I extended my real hand this time, slightly leaning over the bed, and he, hesitating, cautiously shook it. Apparently, he was afraid of breaking my limb with his newfound strength. Or he was afraid of social interaction with somebody that awesome. Or just was afraid.

And yeah… screw the honorifics.

“I-Izuku. M-m-midoriya.”

“Why are you looking so down, Izuku Midoriya? I saw your jump; it was very, very cool. And truly heroic.” I gave him a broad smile, feeling like some sort of therapist-teacher at school. “You didn’t do it for the points, did you? You did it to save that girl?”

The boy blushed, nodded, looked down, and started poking his fingers together.

“The t-thing is… I didn’t score, well, a single point… a big fat zero. And thanks to the trial tests, I know I was b-b-barely p-passing on theory…”

Wow. I didn’t think he hadn’t beaten a single robot. They’re… well, quite beatable.

And what should I say to him?

Okay, let’s start by cheering him up.

"Let's start with the fact that you picked a cute girl. You’ve got good taste, Izuku! Want to ask her out on a date?"

I grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

And started counting the moments.

At first, he looked at me with confusion. Then he froze. His eyes widened in shock, he blushed again, tried to say something, but stuttered so badly he couldn’t say anything at all, flailed his arms around, and nearly fell off the bed.

There he is, the greatest hero of the land, ladies and gentlemen. Struck down by the mere suggestion that he could spend his time not with villains (here I should arch my brows meaningfully, but I can't quite manage that).

“…no, no, I… it’s not that… how could I… I mean…”

“All right, sorry,” I raised my empty hands, trying not to laugh, “just joking. I didn’t mean to offend or embarrass you, just, well… lighten the mood.”

“Really? O-oh… actually…,” the boy pondered for a second, nodded, and with cheerful surprise remarked, “I didn’t know you could start a conversation like that… hmm… a psychological jolt to ‘lift’ the victim of emotional trauma… yeah, but it’s suitable only for heroes with a certain, rather free-spirited image…. let’s say, if we assume that Niren-san…”

He paused again, filling the room with his muttering. I watched this with a frozen smile.

Honestly, it's quite fascinating to watch him! You throw in some stimulus, and he responds in a certain way. Like a neural network learning in real time, haha.

However, everything takes on a much darker tone when you remember that this is a real fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy who is so socially unadapted that he completely forgets his own behavior if he gets distracted by some detail. What kind of life did he lead, for crying out loud, if he’s this disconnected from his own social image? Did everyone really not care about him this much?

“Oh, sorry, I was lost in thought! Again…”

“No worries. Does this happen to you often?”

“Uh…” he scratched his head innocently and laughed awkwardly, “sometimes. Do you, Niren-san… I mean, do you, Niren… do you know if we can leave already? I wouldn’t want to be a bother… and my mom is probably worried…”

I shook my head. I need you here right now.

“I think we should stay put until a certified medical professional confirms we can go. You broke every bone in your body a few hours ago, as I understand.”

“That’s true… I’m not quite used to situations like this.”

“Don’t worry, there’s more to come. Can you imagine how often heroes get injured and end up at the doctor’s? Especially with a power like yours.”

“Oh… well, yeah… but I failed the exam…”

Midoriya turned towards the window, clearly swallowing a lump in his throat.

Aha, it’s time.

“You know, when you have free time… google ‘rescue points’ for the U.A. exam,” I casually said, pulling out my smartphone and scrolling through missed calls.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izuku sharply turn. The gleam of hope was blinding, even though I wasn’t directly looking at him.

“But the Present Mic didn’t say anything about such points…”

Interesting, how could he have missed this in the first place? Unless he was so busy with training and studying that he never even opened the forums. Yes, yes, officially they don't talk about it. But if you pretend your head is for more than just stuffing food into...

I put the phone aside.

“Look. You acted, from every angle, one hundred percent correctly if you consider your actions as those of a hero. And do you really think that All Might, as well as all the other teachers of the best hero academy in the country, would reject the only guy from his entire Training Ground who acted heroically correctly?”

“O-oh…” Izuku muttered. It seemed that only his manners, shyness, and a desire to first grab his phone and call the one we were discussing prevented him from pulling out a notebook and frantically writing down my improvised conclusions.

Then he frowned.

“And how does Niren-san know that All Might will be teaching at the Academy?”

Oops.

Mentally, I was banging my head on the table. Fifteen damn years living in this reality, and I still haven’t learned to keep my mouth shut when necessary.

“They wrote about it online,” the non-mental me put on a poker face, “speculating on forums that he’d been seen in this city several times. And in general - he graduated from here, probably any day now there will be a press conference announcing it.”

The boy got lost in thought again while I caught my breath.

Then Izuku timidly spoke up again:

“But you, Niren-san…”

“Ahem-ahem.”

“..y-you, Niren..?”

“We’re the same age,” yeah, right, “and to be honest, I can’t stand all these honorifics and formalities. I’ve been waiting to get into an international school where we can just call each other by last names.”

“Well, alright… so… you’re wrong, Niren-kun… Niren. You’re wrong in saying I was the only one who acted correctly at the Ground! Because you did the same! No, even better… I saw…”

By the end of his speech, Izuku had gotten all fired up, almost jumping out of bed, radiating intense admiration for heroism in all its manifes… wait a minute.

Oh.

As I realized after half a minute, I had changed the canon after all. I mean, its main storyline. While I was running around punching the robot in the face, it looks like Midoriya was healed and caught earlier - “that cute girl with gravity” had some help. Apparently, this happened because the second robot was out of control, and the teachers came “out into the light” earlier to be safe.

As a result, he saw what I did. I don’t know if this is good or bad… I’ll have to live with it either way. Although maybe, for my goal of establishing a relationship with him, this is excellent… but if he now starts looking up to me with adoration in his eyes before every phrase I say, I’ll just kill him. And bury him. And become the protagonist myself, hahaha!!!

Still joking, guys. Haven’t you gotten used to it already?

Meanwhile, Midoriya, blushing (I need to do something about that. Should I take him to a brothel? Arrange a late-night porn marathon?), shared that my actions had served as an example for him of how he should have acted himself. Apparently, I retained my ability to act and managed to survive on my own, whereas he was caught by the whole crowd after just one hit.

Before responding to him, I tried to adopt a nonchalant demeanor… but it probably didn’t work very well. After all, I’m not made of steel myself.

“You didn’t quite get it right. The thing is… maybe I did everything efficiently - though it took me more than ten hits where you managed with one - but I was originally assigned to another Training Ground. ‘C,’ to be precise. And, um… I ran away from it to join you. That’s the story. So… haha… it’s more likely that I won’t be accepted into U.A.”

Well, to hell with it. I certainly won’t brood over this... too much. Anyway, I’ll know the results in a week.

“But why?..” Midoriya’s huge eyes widened in sincere sympathetic confusion. Damn, he should have been born a girl. “It’s, well… the U.A. Academy entrance exam! Why would anyone risk so much?!”

I sighed. Why not share?

“You see, seeing through the wall of my Ground a robot that was growing, I immediately knew whose quirk could be the cause. My school friend was also taking the exam with you. Her quirk can make things smaller. Or bigger. Or, as it turns out now, much bigger. It so happened that we studied her quirk together several times…”

By the end of the story, Midoriya’s head was exhausted from nodding in agreement, his mouth was tired from muttering all sorts of theories, and his eyes once again looked like they were worth five yen (honestly, there wasn’t a single Japanese feature in his appearance). I swear, this kid cracks me up.

“But you acted correctly!” he exclaimed, having regained his composure. “Just as correctly as I did! Even better!”

Amazing. Now he’s consoling me. This kid learns quickly…

Overall, conversations with Midoriya have a specific feel. On the surface, he seems like a total nerd, a weakling, a wimp, and other unflattering terms. But scratch just a little deeper during a dialogue - and suddenly there’s a sharp, perceptive, I would even say, dangerously inventive mind.

Add to this his unyielding heroic ideals, as well as an unreasonably high pain threshold and strong will, which I knew from the future - and it becomes clear why he will become the next All Might. It's already becoming evident.

As we continued talking further, I was surprised to discover that we have something in common, despite all of Izuku’s overall… schoolboyish… sappy constitution. He felt like… like my younger, awkward, and somewhat naive brother, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. But we used to live next to each other a long time ago. Curious.

And if you think about it, I also had—and still have, though not to the same extent—a habit of getting lost in deep thoughts, pondering over things that don't seem all that relevant...

At that moment, our dialogue was interrupted:

“Ho-ho… you’re already awake, kiddos?”

A small, gray-haired, hunched-over old lady slowly appeared on the scene. Midoriya paused mid-sentence, staring at her like… I don’t know, like a rabbit at a wolf.

“Well, well… come closer, I have something for you,” this sweet old woman hobbled over to us, leaning on a cane shaped like a large… toy… syringe? Wut.

She set the cane aside. Stuck her hand in her pocket. And held out her palm to each of us.

There were candies. In bright wrappers.

I stared at them, raising an eyebrow.

Midoriya, muttering his thanks, grabbed the colorful wrappers but didn’t hurry to unwrap them either.

“Hm… I see you’re both little distrustful tsunderes, hehe… well, well. My name is Chiyo Shuzenji, although I’m often called the Recovery Girl. I’m the school nurse at the Academy! The head nurse, mind you, hehe… and it was me who treated you after the exam. You need sweets to replenish your cell energy reserves. So eat, eat, don’t be shy. Both of you were tried to be awakened on the Ground’s… well, grounds, but both of you needed sleep so much that we decided to let you rest here with me. Eat up!”

Midoriya scattered into dozens of little Midoriyas in gratitude and started eating.

I thanked her politely and pocketed the candies. I don’t like sweets.

The Chinese-looking granny slowly reached her chair by a desk piled high with documents, which I hadn’t noticed before behind the curtain, and, sitting down, began to watch adoringly as Midoriya diligently choked on caramels.

And then I felt some kind of… deceit, I don’t know.

You see, in the years I’ve lived in this world, I’ve gotten used to its, mm, you could say, constant, stable madness. It can be absurd, it can be strange, bright, and psychedelic, and that’s the only constant. Look, a cane shaped like a toy syringe - that I get, that’s just how things are here.

The only thing this world isn’t is calm and ordinary. There’s always something inadequate and still provoking a rush of mixed emotions in me.

However, this Chiyo looked like the most stereotypical, textbook-wise, wise with years and life, slightly grumpy but still kind grandmother you could find in any legend, in any anime, in any story, really. And it looked so normal, calm, and ordinary that it made my hair stand on end. Because it looked too… artificial. Unnatural. It doesn’t happen like this. And these candies…

Honestly, it feels like someone meticulously, step-by-step constructed the image of a kind grandma from a drama. And now is carefully adhering to it.

But why would anyone create such an image? And why maintain it in the society that has formed? Especially in the Academy?

To make it easier to interact with children? But we’re no longer school kids… I mean, not elementary schoolers.

And who would consciously choose such a lifestyle?...

That’s when chills ran down my spine.

Only someone with something to hide.

I tried to recall everything I had read about her online. She had worked at U.A. for forty years… a highly respected person among the entire staff… a nurse, meaning she had only a basic professional medical education… that was all.

The information was extremely scarce, and when I say "extremely," I mean there were far more details about Eraser Head—Shota Aizawa—on the internet, even though he had never worked publicly and was generally more paranoid than I was, hiding as many facts about his biography as possible.

And her professional hero name, "Recovery Girl," wasn’t mentioned anywhere except on U.A.'s official website. No newspaper articles, no old photos or hero teams… nothing.

I managed to dig up at least some information about every U.A. teacher except the headmaster, Nezu—and her.

But, if you think about it, even in these tiny bits of information, there’s something to latch onto. A small contradiction, or rather, a simple question: why, if she worked here for over forty years, didn’t Chiyo obtain a higher nursing degree? Or even a medical one—surely the Academy could arrange that. Does she rely solely on her quirk? Well, we’re in an educational institution right now, one that's supposed to teach future heroes NOT to do that.

And yes, the biggest mystery: why “Recovery Girl”? Not grandmother, not woman, not lady, like Lady Mountain, but specifically girl?

I find it hard to believe that she could have been using this pro-hero name forty years ago and simply kept it, because if that were the case, there would be some information about her! So, either the hero name was adopted recently, or it wasn’t used at all.

But, in that case, what could prompt an elderly woman to take on the nickname “Girl”? Again, it’s unlikely that U.A. would keep an employee who wasn’t right in the head, even despite such an amazing quirk. After all, there are other healers and medics—they are extremely rare, yes, but they exist.

Unless it’s a joke. A completely harmless one. And I’ve just made up a conspiracy theory out of thin air...

Lost in thought, I completely drifted out of the conversation and was caught off guard when Recovery Girl started asking me about my well-being. I felt great, accepted a second serving of candies and again put them in my pocket (I’ll feed them to Setsuna later), so soon both Izuku and I, along with our things, were humorously but sternly kicked out of the nurse’s domain.

And there, as it turned out, I was awaited.

Let’s leave aside the next five minutes, which were filled with awkwardness so concentrated it could be cut into cubes.

We’ll skip over Setsuna rushing at me with hugs, exclaiming how she “missed everything.”

We’ll skip over the dozens of bows from our resident samurai, Yui, who, out of a rational sense of gratitude and an irrational sense of guilt, suppressed her emotions and hid behind a facade of utmost respect. Nervously tugging at the hem of her skirt all the while, yeah. I hope I managed to convey to her that everything was truly fine and that I just did what any normal friend would do in my place.

And we’ll skip over the suffering of the unfortunate Izuku Midoriya, feeling utterly out of place in this celebration of life and trying to quietly slip away. But the evil me didn’t let him. So the guy just tried to find a darker, less noticeable corner in the fully open, well-lit, and long hallway where we stood, right in the middle.

Teens around me can be so exhausting sometimes…

Finally, with the preliminaries over, we headed for the exit, fortunately guided by Setsuna, who sometimes proves very useful. She had already divided, scouted the way and come back together. I didn’t particularly flaunt my ability to navigate. Though, frankly, I didn’t really hide it either.

And yes, during my inevitable recounting of events, I tried every trick in the book to shake that stiffness out of Midoriya by praising his actions. Justifiably so, really. By the end of my monologue and our journey through the Academy corridors, he even dared to insert a few words into my story.

I actually got a bit worried: wouldn’t the virgin soul of this nerd ascend to the next world from such close contact with girls?

“Niren Shoda, don’t keep us waiting! What happened next?!”

At this point, the boy recoiled and stared at me in shock:

“W-w-wait, N-n-niren is your n-n-name?! Oh, I-I’m s-so s-sorry for the f-familiarity, I j-just thought…”

“Forget it. I like it better that way.”

“Oh-oh…” The boy’s world had been turned upside down so many times in the last few hours that it seemed it was threatening to spin like a top.

Anyway, I stubbornly continued the story despite all these obstacles.

Most of them were named Setsuna.

The aforementioned Setsuna, as usual, ignored all my comments—she's like that; until the shit hits the fan, she will be like the grasshopper that “sang all summer long.” But I did notice Yui’s attentive, appraising look. Girls can be so different sometimes…

At the end of my speech, Setsundere couldn’t hold it anymore. She started yelling at the top of her lungs and darting around us in pieces, forcing me to facepalm, nearly making Yui drop her nutritional shake, which she had been strictly instructed to drink due to exhaustion, and triggering Midoriya to have a panic attack:

“Why is it always like this?! Why do I always miss all the most interesting and cool stuff?! Damn it, I missed everything, how could I?!”

“Don’t worry, my dear,” I replied and reached into my pocket, “here, have some candy. Eat up, eat up!”

“Where did you get candies… m-m…”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But wait, Ni-i-ren! I want to…”

“Eat your candy, dear, don’t get distracted,” I managed to slip a candy into her mouth as she flew past, still in the wrapper.

“Bleh…”

Author's Note 2:

Toga was mentioned by me in the events of Episode Eight in two cases.

First, Niren observed a blonde girl in a kimono (why a kimono? Stay tuned for the next chapters) who, with incredible grace, ran right across the robots. That’s her, yes (remember how in the canonical events, Toga easily runs across Gigantomachia or through crowds of heroes\villains).

Second, at the end of the chapter, Aizawa’s attention was drawn to a recording from Training Ground “C,” which was Niren’s original center, where “someone” passed the test without using a quirk. And indeed, throughout the original anime and manga storyline, Toga demonstrated impressive combat skills (where did she get them? Stay tuned for the next chapters), considering that her own quirk wouldn’t have helped her pass the practical exam at U.A. (aside from a minor boost to her flexibility and agility due to the quirk factor), and might have even hindered her.

Illustrations:

The office, curtains, and the cleric.

The willpower of the original protagonist, which you’re, of course, aware of.

And this is the frustrated, sad protagonist to whom Niren saved a whole week’s worth of nerve cells.

The healing by the Healing, err, Recovery Girl herself, with a completely correct statement about her significance to the Academy.