178 Potent Choices

178 Potent Choices

After another long book reading session, this one with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that my reading companion pretty much giggled at the entire time, mostly because of my very good imitation of Igor's voice and mannerisms, I made my choice.

You have chosen My Hero Academia to replace the protagonist, Izuku Midoriya.

Moment of Potential Death: Swallowed by Slime Villain

Appropriate memories will be provided to you within a few moments of your insertion.

Good luck in your new life!

I knew this was going to suck, so I prepared myself for the disgusting feeling I would soon be experiencing. I felt another kiss on my lips and sighed. Thank you.

There was a feeling of friendship and shared loathing of what was about to happen to me before everything went black.

*

All Might crawled out of the sewers where he had chased the filthy villain and internally was disgusted with the thing. He knew it wasn't really the slime's fault his mutation made him the way he was; but, he couldn't help it. He wore people's bodies like suits and he was hunting for a new one... and had one in its clutches.

He couldn't allow the thing to take another hostage and used one of his restrained punches to blow most of the creature into small chunks. He went to the poor boy that was throwing up some of the slime villain's body parts and patted his back.

“That's it, get it all up.” All Might said and waited until the boy was dry heaving before he quickly sped around and gathered up the villain into two different soda bottles, one for the main mass and one for the 'head' part, or at least what he thought was a head. The eyes made sickening sounds when he slid them in through the mouth of the glass bottle and thankfully didn't pop or explode.

He noticed the dropped journal and flipped it open, only to see a page with his information on it and a fairly good drawing of himself. He knew the boy was a fan then and quickly signed his name across the picture. It would be a great distraction to give him and then he could slip away. His timer was almost out.

He talked to the boy briefly, helped him accept what happened, and then made his excuse and jumped away. He felt a dead weight flapping behind him and glanced back to see the boy had grabbed onto him before he jumped. Was the kid suicidal after his near-death experience?

Anyways, All Might landed on a nearby rooftop and had a conversation with the clearly nervous boy. He was sad to hear he was quirkless and even sadder to tell him to be more realistic than to want to be a hero without any powers. The hypocritical aspect did not escape him and he ignored his instincts as he bid the boy a good day and leapt away.

When All Might landed in a secluded spot, he changed back into his human-sized form named Toshinori Yagi and reached for the soda bottle at his hip, only to find that nothing was there. He knew he must have lost it somewhere between where he landed and that building, so he started searching.

It didn't take long before he came across a harrowing scene of a blond kid that was kind of exploding and was mostly covered by the slime villain. Yagi despaired that his timer had run out on his powers and he couldn't rush over there to save the kid like had had the last one. He also understood why the other heroes standing around didn't go help, either. Their powers weren't well suited to fight the villain without potentially hurting the hostage.

Before anyone else could do or say anything, a green-haired young man burst through the crowd and yelled something like 'Catchin' and then tossed his torn book-bag at the villain's face before tearing at the slime villain's body with his bare hands, like a madman trying to dig in the dirt without a shovel.

It was inspiring to see the boy sacrificing himself to save his friend and All Might couldn't let that go to waste. He ducked behind a dumpster and pulled from his limited reserves once more. He knew he was sacrificing even more of his time to transform and he would pay for it later. For now, he had two children to save.

*

I was internally cringing over my performance as I tried to desperately dig the explosive asshole out of the slime villain. I had to keep things the same for as long as possible, so that All Might would see me being a hero and would be inspired to save us. It was also going to net me some powers very soon.

“There's no need to fear, for I AM HERE!” All Might yelled and aimed his fist at us. “Detroit SMASH!”

I just barely pulled on Bakugo enough to get him out of the main blast of air and the slime villain was blown apart again. We fell to the pavement and the blond threw up a few black bits before the ambulance crew and the heroes grabbed us and took us over to the rescue vehicle.

“Why?” Bakugo asked.

I tried to look sheepish as I delivered my lines. “I just... I saw your eyes. You were pleading for help and... and... my feet, they just moved on their own. I couldn't... I didn't want that thing to...” I stopped talking and ducked my head.

“We really should charge you for quirk usage without a license.” One of the idiot heroes said. Kamui Woods was an arrogant jerk to bring that up right now.

“I... I don't... have a quirk.” I admitted and a lot of people gasped.

That was a lot of skills and they were all at Level 1, so again, almost useless at their lowest power. They weren't going to stay that way, however. I had something to do to fix that and I took out my Adventurer Card and spent the XP to get it to Level 100 again to unlock the next Rank.

Congratulations! You have completed and item: Adventurer Card (Rank 2)

Bonuses Granted: High School DxD restored magic affinities (Ice, Holy Light, Lightning), Danmachi (teleportation circle, armor enchantments), Familiar of Zero (modified Brass Golem summon spell, copy enchantment spell), Adventurer Card (Top Rank).

With that done, I sold the soul pieces inside One For All for a whopping 160,000 Karma Points and then sacrificed the One For All power to maximize all of my recently ranked up skills and abilities.

My Divine Body glowed as all of my powers maxed out, the charge of One For All easily covering everything, and I grew about six inches in height from Midoriya's five and a half feet to my Divine Body's full six feet and my muscles popped out to give me a full physique again.

That presence appeared at my side again and hugged me tightly as a feeling of appreciating came from them.

I'm finally getting back to my old self, plus new powers. I thought with a laugh and there was a feeling of satisfaction around me. I turned my head to give them a kiss and heard a soft laugh echo in the emptiness in return.

I looked at the new Adventurer Card and the experience number it showed was still an infinity symbol and it also had an eye with a circle around it. I had thought the top rank card would start me over again to gain new experiences and I was wrong. My work in the Incredibles universe had given me a lot more than just Karma Points and my laugh echoed in the emptiness and the presence beside me joined in.

All right, I better get back. I thought as I completed the Adventurer Card (Top Rank) and unlocked Imagination Based magic from the High School DxD universe and perfectly remembered Grayfia's lessons on how to use it to do whatever I wanted. It also reinstalled the Party System with a few new updates and I mentally kicked myself for not thinking about using it during the last few worlds.

With my powers and magic pretty much maxed out after the One For All power-up, I was probably the most powerful person in the world of My Hero Academia. See you soon, reading buddy!

I felt a kiss on my lips and I chose the option to resume the world. Color seeped into the greyness and All Might still looked disgruntled after I had assaulted him. He let out a sigh and then grinned like a fool at me.

“Well, young Midoriya! Now that you've agreed to become my successor, we need to train you up to be able to handle taking on my power!” All Might boisterously said. “The entrance exams for UA will be held in about 10 months, so we don't have long to get you into shape. Meet me at that trash beach on the edge of this suburb on the weekend and we can get started.”

I blinked my eyes at him and wasn't sure why I was surprised that he didn't notice I was half a foot taller and my clothes didn't fit me anymore. Maybe when someone is a few inches over 7 feet tall, everyone looks smaller than them?

Anyways, I shook my head. “Thank you for the offer, All Might. I should be fine on my own as I prepare for that.” I said and patted his arm. “You've done more for this world than anyone else could have and you've carried the burden for so long. Now that you've finally found someone to take over when you retire, you can relax.”

All Might looked shocked as his form deflated and he became the near skeletal Toshinori Yagi once more.

“Can I have your phone number? If I have any questions, I'd like to call you. If that's okay?” I asked and he nodded. I took out the partially ruined journal that Bakugo had tried to blow up and opened it to the page with All Might's signature on it. He scribbled his phone number on it and handed it back. “Thank you, Mister Yagi.” I said and put the journal away. I'd repair it later. “Do you need me to call you a taxi or something? My home is only a street over that way.”

“Uh, yes. Yes, actually. I could use a lift.” Yagi said as his surprise started to wear off.

I nodded and motioned for him to follow me. “I bet you have a lot of stories you've never told anyone about your adventures over the years.” I said and he smiled. “You don't have to share them, Mr. Yagi. I just wanted you to know if you do want to reminisce about your decades long career, I'm willing to listen.”

Toshinori chuckled. “You're fishing for info about being a hero and also telling me not to tell you?”

I chuckled, too. “I think we both have adventures that no one else has heard about, sir.”

Toshinori laughed. “I suspected as much. I've glanced through that journal you have there, young Midoriya. That's not something you can write about without actually seeing the heroes and villains in person.”

I grinned and couldn't resist joking about it. “I've had more close calls with hero fights than a senior police officer on crowd control.”

The skeletal man laughed pretty hard when he heard that. “I can... just imagine... after today...”

“Oh, it's even better than that! The last one was where Mount Lady almost stepped on me during her debut, after she drop-kicked that giant shark guy, and she didn't even notice!” I said and he kept laughing.