‘What are you doing here?’
Shimura Tenko.
A Villain who had originally abandoned his own name and received the name Shigaraki Tomura from All For One.
The grandson of Shimura Nana, the seventh successor of One For All, and the nemesis of Midoriya, the protagonist of the story.
His grandmother, Shimura Nana, had been forced to abandon her child to protect her family from All For One. Raised under a father who had come to hate Heroes because of that, he had suffered abuse until he eventually crossed the line and became a Villain.
And now, he was standing right in front of me.
"Are you okay? You look really pale."
"Huh? No, I’m fine..."
‘In the original, he was definitely older than the U.A. students.’
But unlike the original, where he had been filled with warped madness and destructive urges, he stood there with the gentle, handsome face of any ordinary high school student.
If not for that mole beneath his lip—the one that resembled Shimura Nana’s—he gave such a completely different impression that I might have thought he was merely someone with the same name.
Then, as I was thinking that, one particular fact came to mind, and I looked at my right hand.
‘...It’s fine.’
Shigaraki Tomura’s Quirk, [Decay].
An extremely destruction- and murder-oriented Quirk that gradually disintegrated an object and ultimately reduced it to dust if all five of his fingers touched it.
No matter how much I usually guarded my body with Hamon, that was only enough to fend off minor bruises at best.
And yet my body had not decayed. That meant his Quirk was different from the original.
"Um... could I ask what your Quirk is?"
When I asked him about his Quirk on the off chance, Tenko broke into a broad smile as though he had been waiting for the question.
Then, together with Uraraka beside him, he struck an impressively dramatic pose and answered me.
"My Quirk is [Zero Gravity]! Paw pads grow on my fingertips, and anything I touch with them has its gravity reduced to zero."
"My Quirk is [Flight]! Just like it sounds, I can fly freely through the sky!"
"Uh... right... Thanks for answering."
‘H-Hasn’t his character changed way too much?’
It was a flashy entrance pose straight out of the Wild Wild Pussycats.
For some reason, just watching them filled me with a deep, visceral embarrassment.
Even the two of them seemed embarrassed by what they had just done, their faces already turning red as they hastily dropped their poses.
"I hear the two of them are middle school classmates, just like us."
"Oh... is that so?"
Shimura Nana, Tenko’s grandmother and All Might’s predecessor, had possessed the Quirk [Float].
It seemed that Quirk had evolved into something like this through inheritance.
They said the wielder’s consciousness resided within the Quirk factor, didn’t they?
If he had been born into a peaceful, loving family and his Quirk had not mutated, could the original Shigaraki have avoided becoming so twisted?
"We can both float through the air, so we promised that once we become Heroes, we’ll be on the same team."
"Ah... Is that it? You two are already destined to be together?"
"What!? N-No, it’s not like that!!!"
"I’m kidding. Why are you taking it so seriously?"
My teasing turned both of their faces red as radishes again.
Watching him like that, I felt an unbidden smile creep onto my face.
‘I see. So they really aren’t here—neither All For One nor One For All.’
This completely proved that neither of them existed.
But that did not mean things were better than in the original.
Even if the League of Villains never emerged, major factions like the Shie Hassaikai and the Meta Liberation Army still remained. And with All Might—who ordinarily served as a sort of deterrent merely by existing—absent, the reality was that the crime rate was steadily rising instead.
‘And people like Twice and Muscular are still out there, too...’
In the end, what I needed to do had not changed.
"See you later, Class A guys."
"Bye."
All that remained was training.
I had to make the techniques of Hamon my own as quickly as possible.
To do that, I needed to use it in actual combat, not just practice.
"Just so happens there’s a perfect opportunity..."
As I imagined a strategy for the Hero Basic Studies class taking place the day after tomorrow, I began my Hamon training.
**
Two days later.
After finishing the tedious morning classes, the Hero Basic Studies class we had all been waiting for finally began.
Not just me—all the other students seemed nervous as well, watching the teacher standing before the podium with eager, pounding hearts.
"All right! Attention, everyone!!! From this moment on, we’ll begin the Hero Basic Studies class you’ve all been waiting so eagerly for!"
‘Good grief... I thought seeing Shimura meant there was nothing left that could surprise me...’
Wispy hair that seemed to embody blue smoke, and a blue martial arts uniform.
A cheerful-looking Hero wearing a long staff and a gourd, as though he had been inspired by Sun Wukong from Journey to the West.
At the sight of that Hero’s face, everyone in the class burst into excited whispers.
"That’s insane... It’s Loud Cloud."
"He’s popular and his record is great. Why is he working as a teacher?"
"I heard he was classmates with Class A’s Mr. Aizawa and Present Mic."
"Seriously? With those two? That’s unexpected..."
The Hero who had taken over Hero Basic Studies in place of the original’s All Might: Loud Cloud.
His real name was Oboro Shirakumo, and in the original story, he had been a deceased man who had died at the hands of All For One by the time the story began.
But here, where All For One did not exist, he had survived just fine. Using his cloud-manipulating Quirk, [Cloud], he had become a popular Hero who excelled at rescue, suppression, and popularity alike, consistently placing within the top twenty of Japan’s Hero rankings—the JP Rankings.
On top of that, he was friends with Aizawa and Present Mic, both teachers at U.A. In a way, he was more than qualified to take All Might’s place as an instructor.
"All right, all right, quiet down!!! I know you’re all surprised to see me, but unfortunately, we don’t have much time. You all submitted your costume requests before enrollment, right?"
"Yes!!!"
"Great. Then head to Ground Beta as soon as you’ve changed. That’s all!"
He instantly settled the classroom, which had grown noisy over his appearance, said his piece, and left.
As if a gust of wind had swept through, he was gone in a flash. The students hurried to the changing rooms, put on their costumes, and gathered at Ground Beta.
"Whew... This is a little tight..."
"Whoa... Ichijo, your muscles are incredible..."
The costume I had requested consisted only of a one-hundred-percent wool scarf and gloves with special functions. I had left every other aspect of the design to the professionals.
A scarf made from the guts of thirty thousand Satiporoja Beetles like the one in the original would have performed even better, but not only would it have been difficult to obtain the innards of that many insects just to make one scarf, those insects did not even exist in this world.
At least Joseph’s dialogue in the story had established that thread made from sheep’s wool possessed high Hamon conductivity, so I had made do with wool instead.
But whether the size had become smaller since I first ordered it or I had grown larger in the meantime, my costume had become so tight that it looked as though I had been forcibly stuffed into it.
As a result, it had turned into a bizarre outfit that seemed to flaunt my muscles, like Jonathan’s or Joseph’s clothes in the original.
Seeing me like that, boys who specialized in close combat, like Tetsutetsu and Kaibara, gathered around me.
"Oh! Japanese muscles are amazing too!"
"Man, Ichijo, showing off is all well and good, but at this rate I might actually fall for you."
‘Why, though!? It’s not even my fault!!!’
And then Tsunotori and Tokage joined them, too.
Perhaps because I had drawn too much attention from the guys, the other girls nearby began sneaking glances at me as well.
Of course, unlike the guys’ attention, being watched by girls did not feel all that bad. The problem was that my top was so tight that it was hard to swing my arms properly.
But taking it off now would mean putting on a strip show after I had already drawn this much attention, and my timid heart simply would not allow that. So, putting off alterations for later, I temporarily tore the sleeves of my top and rolled them up to my upper shoulders, securing them there.
"Woooooah!!!!"
The class erupted in cheers at the sight of me.
For some reason, they seemed even more excited than when Loud Cloud had appeared.
"All right, we’ll continue Ichijo’s strip show another time! Now that everyone seems to be here, let’s begin class."
"Haa... Damn it..."
And so, Hero Basic Studies began beneath the gazes of countless classmates.
For some reason, I felt like my mental fortitude had already reached its limit before we had even started.
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