Chapter 13: NO. 13 - A Bitter Pill

Chapter 13: NO. 13 - A Bitter Pill

The city of Musutafu was a special city.

It was your run-of-the-mill city located in the Shizuoka prefecture. Around a 2 hour train ride from the orphanage I live at.

However, there were several key locations ripe with potential points waiting to be made within Musutafu.

Locations like Midoriya's Apartment, Takoba Municipal Beach Park, Tatooin Station, the Todoroki household, Aldera Junior High, and finally, U.A. High School.

But I wasn't here for any of those locations today.

No, I was here to visit my old fellow orphan and friend. Hase Keiko.

"This must be it." I looked up from the GPS on my phone at the impressive-looking two-story home. A bag of fancy cookies in my right hand. "Hm, not bad."

Zaiko grunted from his spot on my shoulder as it also looked over the house.

My amusing meeting with my editor, thankfully, only lasted two hours.

Asuka was a rather fun person to mess with. Unsurprisingly, my young age had thrown her for a loop. While watching her stutter and apologize for being rude was funny, she recovered quickly, and we both got to business.

She had tried to sneakily impose some story beats and suggestions for my story, as all manga editors try to do, but I quickly shut that shit down and told her what my plans for my story were. Asuka was surprised that I only had so many Chapters in mind for the duration of my story and that I didn't want it to run for years on end.

Asuka immediately tried to dissuade me from this due to the sheer popularity of my story. However, when I mentioned that I had another story planned once TMNT was done, she quickly changed her tune and peppered me with questions.

This version of Japan wasn't ready for Dragon Ball Z to drop. This one's for you, Toriyama. Your legend will live on in this uncultured world.

"What do we got here."

I stepped forward and read the nameplate by the house gate. Yoshiyuki, it read. I reached out and pressed the doorbell on the house's stone gate pillar and waited. As I waited, I looked over to the house next door, where a black crow was perched on its roof. I nodded at Crow Megumi, causing him to nod back.

From my calls over the years with Keiko, she had told me that her new family was apparently super wonderful and friendly. They had been very supportive and loving of her. I was happy for her. I truly was. She was a sweet girl who had gone through hell very early on. She deserves some happiness.

It wasn't until recently that she insisted I come and meet her family. Something I had been pushing off for as long as I could.

Not because I didn't want to.

Of course not.

No, it was due to how busy I've been lately and my nightly escapades. But Keiko had finally had enough and all but ordered me to come today.

Stubborn woman, er, child.

"Sou-chan!"

Keiko ran out of her front door and swung open the front gate of her house to jump into my arms. She had a large smile on her face as she tried to squeeze the life out of my body.

"You're here! You're finally here! You've gotten taller!"

[+5 SP]

"Calm down, Keiko," I said with a small smile, causing her to laugh. "You'll crush my gift."

The excitable blue-haired girl jumped back and looked down at the blue bag in my hand. She then grabbed my other hand and dragged me towards her home.

"I can't wait for you to meet my mother and father! I'm sure you'll love them! They're so nice, and they even let me decorate my own room however I like. Oh! Oh! I want to show you my room!"

"Easy there, girl," I said as I patted the top of her head in an attempt to calm down her high levels of energy, just as I did during our time at the orphanage. "Let me meet your new folks first."

"Ah, heh-heh. Sorry! I'm just... so happy to see you again." Keiko softly said as we stopped by the front door. Her yellow eyes gazed at me with fondness. "I missed you."

[+5 SP]

[+10 SP]

Keiko remained silent and brushed her fingers on the bandage on my neck. "Then what's this? Are you still getting into fights?"

"...no?"

I sat up and looked over at her desk, where all her hero costume sketches sat. "I see you still want to be a hero." I said in order to change the subject, Keiko quickly sat up and covered my eyes with her hands. "I thought I told you that was a bad idea."

"No, don't look! I-I'm still working on them!" Keiko said with an embarrassed blush as I chuckled. "And, of course, I still want to be a hero! After all, I want to be just like All Might. I want to save people from danger with a smile like he did when he saved me!"

I grabbed her hands and removed them from my face with a sigh. Standing up, I walked over to her desk and placed a hand on her hoodie.

Being a hero was something she always talked about when she still lived with me at the orphanage. Then again, that's pretty much what every kid talks about when they're young and full of dreams.

However, unlike most kids with weak and lame abilities, Keiko's quirk actually had some potential. Her quirk was called Loving Sheild.

Loving Shield allowed her to summon barriers or walls of blue energy capable of stopping/blocking anything as strong as her. What powers her quirk is her abnormally high levels of positive emotions. However, if her happy emotional state gets disrupted or shaken, her energy barriers will grow weaker or break.

At the moment, her quirk is rather weak due to her young age and inexperience, but with enough time, I knew that her ability had the potential to grow to be rather powerful.

"Do you think... I can't do it?" Keiko asked shyly, her hands on her knees as she looked down at her pink carpet. Her usually bright and happy yellow eyes were now dimmer. I once again found myself sighing and brushed back my hair.

"It's not that. You know how I feel about heroes. It's a dangerous profession, Keiko."

[+5 SP]

"I know that! But I know I can do it!" Keiko said with a grin, her previous shyness gone as if it was never there. She then clapped her hands like a certain blonde alchemist and held her palms to me. I watched as a barrier of blue energy half her size burst to life in front of her. "See?! I've been working really hard on my quirk! Try and get through it like before."

It's true. This is a lot bigger and solid than before.

I reached out and placed a hand on the barrier. Touching it didn't hurt or burn me; the only thing I felt from touching it was a nice, cool feeling. Slowly, I began to push the barrier with my natural strength. The barrier didn't budge. I then tried again with my CE and saw the barrier begin to shake. Seeing that, I stopped pushing.

"Not bad; the last time I did this, my hand was able to push through it as if it were made of jello."

[+5 SP]

"Heh-heh!" Keiko smiled and released her barrier in favor of placing her hands on her hips. "See! I've gotten a lot stronger. I'll definitely be a great hero someday!"

Images of destruction and mutant humanoid creatures popped into my mind. A light blue-haired man with the power to crumble anything he touched creped up behind Keiko and slowly began to reach out to her face, ready to decay her to dust.

In a few years from now, Keiko will probably be in the same year as Midoriya when he joins UA. If she does make it in, will she be placed in 1-A? No, I doubt it. At most, she'll probably make it to a general education course like Shinso. As long as she stays away from class 1-A, then she won't be at the heart of everything. She'll be fine.

I wanted to tell her to quit. To give up her dream of being a hero. It would only get her killed. She wasn't part of the main cast, and that meant she didn't have any plot armor like the rest of class 1-A. Keiko could very well die as one of the background characters.

But if I told her to give up now, would that be fair to her?

Was I really going to risk our relationship based on my paranoid what-ifs?

"...Yeah. You're right." I forced my face to smile at her as I wrapped the All Might-themed sweater around her shoulders. "You'll definitely become a great hero someday... I'm sure of it."

[+20 SP]

Keiko looked at me with wide, happy eyes before wrapping her arms around my shoulders as she laughed and jumped. I was glad that her face was pressed into my shoulder; it meant she didn't have to see the frown on my face.

-

Thank you for the 600 PS!

I hope you enjoyed todays bonus Chapter.

Until next time!