Izuku Midoriya, a quirkless nobody who everybody looked down upon and even laughed at him for planning to be a hero. Through all the harsh words that have been said and actions against him, he still hasn't given up yet, instead, he decided to prove...
We were met up with a group of five kids as they were all smirking and laughing while Mei was in shock as she looked unsettled meeting with the group of kids.
MC (Mei's Classmate)#3: "Wow, I never knew you went out. I always thought you would just work in your parent's basement working on your next failure." She looked smug as her other friends started snickering.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
MC#4: "Yeah, who knew the class freak actually had a life." as the other group of friends started laughing harder.
My anger started rising, I couldn't believe how they were acting so rude towards Mei, but I calmed down as I needed to check if Mei was alright. I turned around to tap her on the shoulder since she still looked shocked, and as soon as I tapped her, she flinched suddenly. Once she realized what was in front of her, she just smiled, but it didn't look like her usual smile, it looked forced.
Mei: "Hey, guys!" she says happily, "I didn't know you go to this mall as well." She puts her hands behind her back as she leans forward, looking excited to see them.
MC#5: "Of course we go here. It's the number 1 mall which has everything a person needs."
Mei: "Is that right? I only heard about the store that sells electronic parts here." as she still keeps on smiling.
MC#3: "Of course that's the only thing you heard about. Who else besides the class freak to miss such a big detail."
MC#1: "Hey, when's the next explosion going to happen? It was really great when we got out of class early due to your failure of an invention." The other kids started laughing at the last remark while Mei still looked unfazed by what they said.
Mei: "I'm glad that it helped you out. I need to buy new parts to make repairs to my baby. After that, the explosion does not occur again"
After being silent for too long and barely able to remain calm for them to insult my friend, I put away my figurine into my backpack, then I grabbed Mei's arm and pulled her behind me.
Izuku: "It isn't nice to talk so badly about your classmate." They then all looked up to me since I was slightly taller than most kids my age. (Izuku is around 1.4 m or 4'7 ft while kids his age are 1.3 m or 4'3, for an 8-year-old)
MC#1: "What's this, you actually have a friend?" as if they all didn't notice me until now.
MC#3: "I bet he isn't even real. It's probably one of Mei's stupid inventions. She was so desperate for a friend that she had to make one." This caused the other students to crack up as the person walked up to me while smirking.
Her remark made me sick. I wasn't infuriated that she called me fake but that Mei was so desperate for a friend that she needed to make one. MC#3 then started poking my stomach really hard, which surprised her for some reason.
MC#3: "Wow, I was just kidding about you making a friend, but you actually made one. He's really hard down here. No way he's a real person." as she now started rapidly poking me with her index finger. Annoyed, I grabbed her hand as I raised it above her.
Izuku: "I am a real person. Now would you stop insulting my friend?" I didn't know why I was acting like this, normally in the face of this type of bullying, I wouldn't dare to try anything, but somehow I felt different when they were bullying Mei.
MC#3: "Huh? You're real?! What's your quirk because it must be impressive since your body feels tougher than a regular person? And why are you hanging with this freak? You should hang out with us." Her friends all nod in agreement as they then smirked at Mei, who was still smiling throughout this confrontation. I felt like screaming at them, my head was throbbing as I was holding myself back from letting out all of my anger.
Izuku: "I'm quirkless." I said as I was ticked off, which surprised everyone, including Mei, the classmates then looked at each other before they set off a wave of laughter.
MC#4: "T-That makes sense. Another freak can only get along with another freak. I-I can't believe you were about to invite him to our group." he said while cracking up and pointing at MC#3.
MC#3: "I-I didn't know. But hey, it's Freaky Mei we're talking about, what did we expect from her when making a friend." as she was trying so hard to talk while laughing.
Her being so rude to Mei was too much that I snapped. I sneakily went inside of my backpack as I pulled out a single small pellet that already is a composite of other smaller pellets, which were used for training my senses on certain days with sensei. I then quickly smashed it against the ground as smoke started to emit from the broken pieces, quickly covering up the area in a layer of smoke.
Many other shoppers were concerned about the sudden smoke, but during the confusion, I used it as a chance to quickly kick sweep the group of bullies and then punched them in the gut when they hit the ground. I then went and grabbed Mei's hand, who was also confused by the sudden smoke, as we made a break for it.
We ran as far as we could until we made a good distance away from the scene with barely any people around. After we had come to a halt, we heard over the speakers to tell the shoppers that they should not be worried about the smoke since no sign of fire was found and told us that it was probably a prank.
Izuku: "Looks like we got away with it huh?" as I turn to face Mei while smiling.
Her hair was covering her eyes, so I didn't know what she was feeling. Thinking that I interrupted something that I shouldn't have, I turned away.
Izuku: "You probably didn't want me to hear all that. I know it's hard to talk about it to others, but listen, I'm your friend. If a friend is feeling down or hurt, I'll always be there to protect them, which includes you." I turned around to face her but I was suddenly met with a surprise hug.
Mei: "Th-thanks Izuku!" she says while hugging me tighter and tears coming down her face.
I was surprised at first, but after hearing her break down in front of me, I responded by hugging her back, comforting her that it was okay. I assured her that I'll always be there when times are tough. She continued crying into my chest, so we stood there until she was able to let it all out.
