"Move."
I said it to Midoriya as he ran toward me.
"B-but Kacchan—!"
"Get lost. Unless you want to burn to death with him."
Midoriya, who had been running over in desperation, froze in an instant.
If I let the civilians get caught in this too, the cleanup would become a pain.
Overhaul was uncertain, and [Rewind] was too valuable to waste.
Burning only the Villain would be enough.
"[Hell Flame], [Strong Wings]."
A clone with red wings spread out behind me, and the flame clone that shimmered like heat haze over my arms grew even wilder.
"H-Hawks and Endeavor’s Quirks are similar. Why does Tenma have..."
Midoriya muttered it in a frightened voice anyway.
I flung out flames to drive him farther back.
The Villain, distracted by me, charged in.
"Y-you look like you’ve got a good body too... y-you’re mine!!"
The feathers of [Strong Wings] separated and sharpened into blades.
"Ignite."
The [Hell Flame] clone set the feathers on fire.
With a crackling sound, the burning feathers became living blades.
"Burn him."
I controlled the flaming feathers with precision and sent them only at the Villain.
The Villain screamed and hastily used tentacle-like sludge to throw civilians up as shields.
"W-what are you going to do now? You’re just some wannabe hero..."
"Your feathers are almost gone. H-haha!"
Just as the Villain said, the feathers seemed weak against fire and burned away quickly.
It wasn’t even funny.
With no change in expression, I said, "I’m planning to shoot."
"[Super Regeneration]."
The wings began growing back at high speed.
[Super Regeneration] also applied to the other clones.
The Villain’s face twisted with fear in an instant.
He started hurling the hostages around blindly and ran for the sewer.
By then, there were already a thousand burning feathers in the air.
The feathers, like living blades, avoided both hostages and obstacles and drove into the Villain’s filthy skin.
Flames burrowed inward, and heat made the Villain’s body bubble and boil.
In a matter of seconds, he shrank to the size of a human torso.
Even then, he was still crawling toward the sewer.
As I walked over slowly, that miserable body was swallowed by my shadow.
I shaped a [Strong Wings] feather into a katana and set it ablaze.
I cut him down in one stroke. A wet, sticky sound followed.
The burning blade made the Villain’s skin boil and char as if it were being sterilized.
When he was still twitching, I drove the blade in deep to pin him down.
Even without some disgusting Quirk like that, revenge didn’t seem like it would be a problem.
His life was stubborn, so he still hadn’t died.
Just as I was about to head back to Eri and Rappa, I heard a commotion.
"Waaah!! A middle schooler took down a Villain that even a Hero couldn’t beat!"
"Hic... You saved my life..."
"But wasn’t that Endeavor’s Quirk just now? Is he some hidden son or something?"
Cheers, gratitude, and confusion mixed together into a dissonant racket that rang in my head.
I threatened them with the [Hell Flame] clone and sent out a burst of fire.
"Move. I wasn’t trying to save you, so stop blocking the way."
The civilians hurriedly backed away as they had before.
Rappa, on the other hand, looked delighted.
"Big bro! You’re getting ridiculously stronger every time I see you!!"
Then a small hand touched mine.
"Are you hurt...?"
Eri’s eyebrows were trembling slightly.
I answered with nothing but the truth.
"That won’t hurt me."
Eri looked like she wanted to say more.
Then a voice full of malice cut in.
"Liar!! That’s cheating!!
You’re not a Hero or All Might, just some bookworm transfer student who always stares at a laptop—how did you beat that Villain!!"
It was Bakugo. The guy who had been tied up until a moment ago was now shouting with cold sweat on his face and a deeply wronged expression.
"And you call yourself an extra!! I’m the main character!! I’m the strongest!!
Don’t you dare cheat now!!"
His trembling eyes and the words coming out of his mouth were pure denial, like reality itself had broken.
Had he really been treating me like I was an inanimate object?
As I stared at Bakugo like he was some noisy animal, Midoriya came running over, panting.
"Kacchan...!! I’m glad you’re okay. I tried to help too, but—"
Bakugo grabbed Midoriya by the collar and yanked him close.
Then he let out a bitter laugh, his face twisting.
Spitting saliva, he shouted in a cracked voice, "Hey, Deku. You were going to help me? Hah... hahahaha!!"
"You think I’d get beaten by some Villain and need your help?!"
"You’re a Quirkless nerd who’s going to live his whole life as a loser!!
How dare you act like you’re someone who can help me!
You’re an extra who can’t even step into the fight in the first place!! You get it?!"
"...Kac...chan..."
Midoriya lowered his head with a wounded expression and let tears fall one by one.
"Both of you are pathetic."
Bakugo trembled at that.
Midoriya wiped his tears and turned to look at me.
"...What? What did you just say, bastard."
"You say the stronger one is the main character.
If someone stronger than you shows up, then you’re the extra."
"If being weak makes you an idiot, then you’re the one who’s Deku."
"If you’re not strong, at least be quick to admit it."
Bakugo let go of Midoriya’s collar and stared at me, stunned.
"K-Kacchan, calm down! People are watching!"
Seeing Midoriya try to stop him in fear, I said flatly, "If you think that guy is just some severe rage-addicted narcissist, then you’re terminally deep into Stockholm syndrome."
"Look at you, still worrying about him and saying ‘Kacchan, Kacchan’ after he talks to you like that."
Midoriya’s lips trembled as he whispered, "B-but Kacchan is my childhood friend... and I’ve always admired him..."
"Friend? What kind of childhood friend calls you a hopeless loser?"
"To me, he looks more like a master. You look like a slave to the bone."
I added one more thing.
"I don’t care whether you put the leash on yourself or someone else did it for you.
But a normal person gets angry when something happens that should make them angry, and you’re not normal."
"...Die."
Bakugo muttered it under his breath.
Then he exploded with rage and threw a punch.
"Die!!"
The punch was far too slow, and his hand was shaking.
"Ghk!!"
Before I could even move, Rappa’s fist slammed into Bakugo’s philtrum.
Bakugo crashed to the ground, blood pouring from his nose.
Rappa covered Eri’s eyes with one hand and wore a disgusted expression.
"You bastard!! I’ll kill you!"
Bakugo got back up and tried to rush Rappa again, but after a flurry of blows to the pit of his stomach, he coughed up blood and sprawled out flat.
"Why the hell can’t I win...!!"
Rappa looked down at him and said, "There’s no way some brat who only bullies weaker kids can beat me, when I’m the kind of guy who wants to fight someone stronger than me."
"You’re disqualified as a fighter."
"Besides, Tenma big bro is stronger than me.
Don’t go barging in just because you’re weak."
Bakugo tried to raise his fist again, but Rappa drove another punch into his philtrum and forced him back down onto the ground.
Bakugo lay there with his face buried, hiding it with his arm.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
"I’m... the main character... It’s supposed to be my story!!"
After saying that, Bakugo ran off in misery like a defeated soldier.
He acted tough, but his mental state was weaker than anyone else’s in the worst possible way.
"Wait! Kacchan!"
Midoriya started to chase after him, then stopped and looked down at the ground.
"Kacchan..."
I took Eri’s hand.
"Eri, Rappa. Let’s go."
I didn’t want to waste time on this pathetic mess.
"Wait, wait!"
We kept walking, but Eri’s steps slowed.
"That green-haired big brother looks so sad..."
"What does that have to do with us? He’s a stranger."
"Couldn’t we give him an apple? Just one."
My brow furrowed.
"Only this once. Don’t bother me with this kind of thing again.
I’ll hand it to him, so stay here and cover your ears like usual."
"Thank you."
Eri smiled, bowed politely, and covered her ears.
I took an apple from the basket and tossed it at Midoriya with a curt motion.
Midoriya barely managed to catch it, looking flustered.
"Tenma...?"
"Don’t try to play the sympathy card. Get to the point.
Tell me what you can give me in exchange for wasting my time."
Midoriya’s body trembled slightly.
"...Nothing. I have nothing. Kacchan is right.
I don’t have anything, I don’t have a Quirk, and maybe I’ll live my whole life as a loser."
As he lowered his head, hot tears dripped down.
"Even so... I want to be a Hero.
I can’t give up on that dream, even if it’s pointless."
"Can a Quirkless person become a Hero...?"
Pathetic.
In my second life, when I had no Quirk, I fought and killed All For One’s underlings countless times.
Modern people had degenerated.
This kid, crying because he wanted to be a Hero, had forgotten even the most basic common sense.
I said the most obvious truth in the world.
"People die when they’re shot."
Midoriya looked up at me, dumbfounded.
"Villain or Hero, if a person gets hit by something dangerous, most of them go down."
"Are you aiming to become the strongest Hero?
Even just being good with a knife would be better than some untrained blade-type Quirk."
"Someone who hasn’t even thought about the lowest level of what it takes to fight is staring only at the highest level, at Pro Heroes, so of course it looks impossible."
Midoriya’s tears stopped all at once.
It looked like he had heard an answer he never expected, and never even imagined.
"First of all, have you even trained? Have you fought? Do you know how to fight?"
"T-that... someone Quirkless like me couldn’t possibly learn something like that—"
"Pathetic bastard. The standard for being able to fight isn’t strong or weak.
It’s whether you can fight or not.
Your body’s fine, but your mind is practically crippled."
Midoriya trembled violently around the eyes and lips, unable to say anything.
Useless.
As for value... maybe there was some.
Quite a lot, actually.
If this kid could become the world’s first Quirkless Hero, then it was possible.
I stepped closer to Midoriya and, as if testing his resolve, jabbed a finger into his chest in an insulting way.
"Say it clearly. If you only had a ‘chance,’ could you become a Hero without a Quirk?
If you lie, I’ll really make you crippled."
Midoriya trembled for a long time before finally going still.
Then he looked straight into my eyes and said, "......I want to be a Hero."
"If I can become a Hero, I want to become one...!"
When I heard that, a smile spread across my lips before I even realized it.
There was a chance with this innocent idiot.
"Then become a Hero without a Quirk."
For me.
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