Amour Propre (OMORI)

Formalities

Sunny sighed as he returned to his home from Basil's house. His best friend lived only with his grandmother, making him constantly want to be near him. For his safety, obviously.

No, seriously. After his sister was killed by a villain, Sunny didn't like the idea of his best friend being killed, too.

Of course, his best friend had a useful quirk, one that let him control plant material with seemingly perfect accuracy. Sunny wasn't sure it would be enough to defend himself if a really bad villain appeared, though. It didn't help, Mari, and she had the whole ability to temporarily duplicate her body parts, from limbs to lungs. She could put them anywhere with free space. And despite all of that, a villain killed her. Without a second thought, that man had ripped a hole through her chest with... some sort of gun quirk. Then her head. She didn't stand a chance.

Sunny winced as he thought of the past, walking past his mother and planning to go upstairs. "Sunny, dear! Some mail came for you!" His mother announced.

He only lived with his mother now. His father went mad from his quirk, a common circumstance for those with cloning abilities. His mother's quirk was far less dangerous, just making her completely double-jointed, able to bend anything any way, from knees to fingers.

Sunny took the letter from her. It was indeed addressed to him, from The Kingston Institute of Heroism. The place had a dumb name, but it was the best school for heroes in the country. The dark-haired boy sighed. He doubted there would be anything positive within the envelope.

Didn't mean he wasn't going to check, though. Sunny attempted to delicately open, then violently ripped open the envelope. The papers within came flying out, along with a small projection disk. One of those things used infrequently to show a sort of holographic projection in the form of a prerecorded video message.

They were rarely used and even more rarely given out. They weren't cheap. Sunny didn't want to be presumptuous, but he felt himself getting excited.

"Hello, prospective student! It is I, Captain Canuck!" said Captain Canuck. Sunny didn't really get all the hype around him, he seemed kinda lame. Especially for being in the top 10 heroes in Canada. Quebec had Fleur-de-Lis, British Columbia had Sunrise, and Ontario had a guy in a speed skating outfit and a motorcycle helmet.

Sunny rolled his eyes but listened as attentively as he could. "You are listening to this message because you successfully passed the written exam. This letter reaches you to inform you that... ugh, this is way too formal. Kid, whoever you are, you're gonna have to take a practical exam on September 1st if you wanna get in this school! So get ready to kick ass, or you're gonna be left in the dust! The judges are gonna see if you're a real hero or not, I'll be a judge, too! So be sure to impress, or you'll be sent out like the rest! Captain Canuck, out!"

Sunny was very surprised and excited... then he remembered who his quirk was.

Sunny's quirk wasn't something cool like Captain Canuck's "Ice Feet," nor was it something useful like Sunrise's "Solar Power." No, instead it was "Alter Ego." An ability that does nothing but spawn in an alternate version of himself. Sure, it's impervious to all attacks... at least all that Sunny knew of, and it can also hit like a truck... the issue was that he wasn't the most cooperative guy in the world. Unless something was standing to directly kill Sunny, risking his existence, he just dicks around.

Though, depending on the nature of the exam, he could possibly force Alter Ego's hand... Sunny sighed. He decided to see if he could talk Alter Ego into it.

"Omori..." Sunny began.

"What now?" Omori said with a sigh, "Did you get denied by your dream school and wanna cry to me about it?"

Sunny shook his head, "The opposite. I've been accepted for the practical exams."

"And lemme guess, your wimpy ass wants me to do it all for you?" Omori supposed. He was right, but Sunny didn't really like how he phrased it.

The actual human boy sighed, "I mean, we can work together..." Omori immediately scoffed.

"As if. You'd just stand around being useless. You don't even know what the practical exam is, do you?" He guessed again. Again, correct.

"Well..." began Sunny. He didn't really have anywhere to go with it, so he just trailed off.

"Exactly." Omori jeered before disappearing back into Sunny as Alter Ego.

Sunny tried not to let Alter Ego get him down. He picked up his smartphone and called Basil. "Basil, I just got my acceptance letter! I'm gonna be in the practical exams!"

"Wow, me too! Did you check the papers to see what group you're in? I'm in Group C-A!" Basil said excitedly.

Sunny froze. "W-Wait, you're trying to get into the Kingston Institute of Heroism, too?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yep! I must've forgotten to tell you, haha, sorry!" Basil's cute smile could be heard through the receiver.

Usually, Sunny would never want to make that smile fade, but he had to tell Basil. "It's too dangerous, Basil! Y-You can't!"

"Sunny... I have to do this. For Mari. Just like you told me." Basil explained. Sunny didn't understand. Didn't Basil understand that if he did this, he'd become another Mari? "If it's too dangerous for me, it's too dangerous for you. If it's not too dangerous for you, then it's not for me." Basil continued.

"B-But... but Basil..." Sunny gripped his hair. He didn't want to imagine it, but all that was going through his head was Basil being shot through like Mari.

Basil hummed a no, "Sunny, how about we make a promise. A promise to always protect each other. Will that make you feel a little better? I won't do anything dangerous without you, okay?"

"Mkay..." Sunny mumbled. He'd prefer if Basil didn't do anything dangerous at all, but... he knew the world didn't work that way. He decided to look on the bright side. At least Basil would be there with him at school. Things would work out just fine... probably.