Essence of a True Hero

Summer Interlude: A Hero's Bruise

Kon'nichiwa mina! OpalHippocampus799 here with chapter 7. The first day of summer camp is over, and rivalries were still simmering, but not so much now. The classes are even at the point of sharing bento with each other and further caring for each others injuries. But, when Izuku comes to the infirmary, he runs into a not-so-happy camper...

Izuku Midoriya's P.O.V.

    I walked to the infirmary both excited and disappointed, but Fukidashi-san's injury was pressing on my mind. I came into the common cabin about to ask for some gauze and salve but was unexpectedly anticipated. "Another one of you needs medical attention?" this kid asked bored if not irritated.

    "Yeah, I need a gauze and salve."

    He huffed before walking inside. I wanted to follow him, but he didn't seem like he was in the mood to be followed or have any interaction with people. I wondered whence he came. I had only seen him in passing. He normally was insulting heroes, calling them useless. I wondered why. When he came back, I accepted the medical supplies but asked, "Is something bothering you?"

   He glared at me, "I hate being around losers like you. You people are just uselessly throwing your lives away trying to throw around those corny powers. It's a waste of time. You'll only die in the end."

    I was surprised. I should have expected something like this after his passing snide comments thus far in summer camp, but every kid I'd met had been excited about being a hero or had a hero as a role model at least. Kota seemed to have a complete affront to them, the idea of their existence. Now that I was older, I understood some of the dangers of being a hero, of dying. I knew about the ever present possibility of death, how I was always putting my neck on the line for others. It was a dangerous business being a hero. I knew that now, but still I tried to assure him, "It may be a dangerous job, but if you're cautious—"

    "In the end, you'll be dead because someone is stronger than you, and you are stupider than them. That'll be it. It'd be over!"

    He ran away, and in some ways I understood. There was definitely a danger to being a hero, but for him to understand something like that meant that he knew something. He had had experience with these dangers, at least to some extent, but how? How did he know that with just one wrong move a hero was done for? It seemed that people cared for him, but was that someone he cared about as much as others, people whom he might have lost... 

    The possibility wasn't entirely preposterous, but there was no way I could know for sure. If I remembered correctly, Mandalay-sensei and Pixie-Bob-sensei were taking care of him. Who were they to him? Sisters? Cousins?

    A hand rested on my shoulder. As I looked up, I heard Mandalay-sensei's voice, "What are you doing hanging around here?"

    I looked down at my hands and remembered the ointment and bandages which I was supposed to be getting for Fukidashi-san. "Sorry," I muttered.

    I tried to quickly and inconspicuously walk out of the infirmary, but I heard Mandaly-sensei's quiet voice at the door, "Kota hasn't always hated heroes. After the death of his parents, he just doesn't trust us anymore."

   I turned around at that and saw her clenched paws, "His parents?"

   "They died protecting citizens two years back, a heroic death by any stretch of the imagination, but Kota felt...left behind. He was so young at the time. He wouldn't, couldn't understand how their deaths could be anything but stupid, pointless."

    "They," Mandalay-sensei looked distressed, pausing as if contemplating her next words, "Anyway, enough of that. You're supposed to be getting those to a friend, right?"