My Hero Creature Collection

The Grand Dream (Prologue)

My eyes opened slowly to the sight of a dimly lit room. My hands were bound behind me, the rope itchy on my wrists. They're smart to be cautious... they have no idea what I'm capable of.

"Ah, you're awake." A rough voice drew my eyes upward. The man seated on a barstool tilted his head just slightly. A hand covered his face, keeping me from reading his expression. "I was starting to think Toga had used too much of the sedatives."

The bar that we were in wasn't very big, but it still managed to hold several of us comfortably. Even if I know that I've never been here before, the place feels familiar. It's like a memory from a dream.

My gaze trailers over each person present. A man stood behind the bar, dressed nicely. The man with a hand over his face was closest to him. Beyond him was a young girl who couldn't be any older than a teenager, a man with a mask completely covering his face, a long-haired fellow with sunglasses, an unremarkable man, and a man with a strange face that immediately made me think of that old story of Frankenstein.

They're an odd bunch for sure, but I still had to stay on guard. "You dragged me here all the way from Sendai, so what do you want?" Whatever it was, two things were very clear. First, they wanted me alive. If they intended to kill me, they wouldn't have bothered with drugging me. Secondly, these guys weren't aligned with the Collectors, the groups who abduct and abuse nonhumans such as myself.

"Straight to the point. Sounds like my kinda woman," the man with the Frankensteined face said, grinning.

A man popped out near him. I hadn't noticed him before, but he also wore a mask. Hiding their faces was a smart move, though unnecessary. "Quit flirting Dabi."

"Quiet, both of you." The one with a hand over his face silenced them. He must be their leader. He stood and carefully pulled the hand from his face. "You and I... we're the same." A scarred eye meets with mine. "A halfbreed... a mutt... an outcast even among outcasts... but you're no ordinary mixed blood..." Scared lips curled back into a grin, a pair of fangs being revealed.

My eyes glance at his companions. "Do they know what you are? If you know what I am, then you know how dangerous it is to let people know about us." The leader only nodded.

This guy had said that we were the same. If he knew that, then clearly he had been watching me for quite some time. Not even my friends what I was... only Kenjiro who I was closest to. Though there was only a tiny flaw that I could see. "If you know that much, then you should know that I'm not a fighter..." I shifted my shoulder, trying to draw attention to my bound hands. "Tying me up isn't necessary... and it's pretty clear that I won't be of use to you."

The light-haired man in front of me stepped closer before reaching down and untying me. Behind the counter, a deep voice spoke. "You are the one that they call Wiz, are you not? Our intel said that you have visions... We've even confirmed that many of them are true." Well, he's got me there. I was never as secretive about my strange ability as I was about my species... "Even if you are supposed to be the same, Tomura and the others have never shown any signs of having such an ability."

Eight faces, two names. Tomura must be their leader's name. Dabi was the one with the messed-up face. Even knowing that, it's hard to trust people when six out of the eight of them were nameless faces.

"Join us. Join us and you'll see a world where we'll never be forced to hide again... a world where mutts like us are worshipped instead of treated like abominations..." The leader held out a hand.

The dream of a world where humans and nonhumans are truly equal... where there was no fear of with side... That had always been the grand dream... but that dream wasn't meant for halfbreeds like us... so these people were making their own new world.

All I can do is wonder... what does the future hold for them? Will they ever get to see this grand dream of theirs get fulfilled? Or is it going to crash and burn? However it ends, I want to see it with my own eyes.