Essence of a True Hero

Summer I-EMERGENCY

Kon'nichiwa mina! Class 1-A has now endured death training (as always) from their sensei as well as exhausting themselves on the Utility Field; however, not everyone knows this, or really cares for that matter. All that's left is to possibly cool off in the ensuing weekend (or not...)

Izumi Kota's P.O.V.

    I was more than happy when the weekend came around. Sosaki* spent more time with me while the two baby-sitters were teaching those useless students how to be loser heroes.

...except for him.

    He was the only reason that the weekend was less enjoyable. As much as I was glad for Sosaki's company when she acted like a normal person, I couldn't focus, my mind constantly wandering to that night. A boy was always there, always at my secret hideout, even though he shouldn't be, even though he knew that he was in my secret hideout. He would accept the fact that by being a hero he had to be useless, there was no other way around it, but there was more to it than just the pure words that I wished every stupid hero would get through his thick skull.  There was a voice that went with those words, the brokenness of that voice... I couldn't just forget the sound of his voice as he accepted how stupid being a hero was. How familiar it was... There was an image burned into my brain as well. I couldn't forget that he sat hunched up in a ball, trying to be as small as possible. I couldn't help but--No!

     We weren't the same. We couldn't be the same. He was being training to be a show-offy hero, and one day I would see him die and whisper over his grave, 'I told you so.'

    But did that have to be the reality? Couldn't he live? But he was going to be a hero. He was going to try to prove to the world that he was the strongest, that he was the most important, all to one-up one villain or another. He would run into some person who was stronger than him, and...

     I didn't want to finish the thought. More than anything I wanted to say that he would learn his lesson and back down, but wouldn't he already have been stuck in that stupid stuff of heroing for too long? He wouldn't know how to back down, let alone the villain letting him back down as they fought about who was stronger, who was better. I couldn't get that thought of Midoriya out of my head no matter how hard I tried.

    It was a long weekend.

   I was no more thrilled when the next Monday rolled around though. All of those wannabe heroes looked even stupider as they tried to make themselves look the coolest. Unfortunately, I had to be present. Sosaki and Tsuchikawa-san** especially liked to keep track of me and made sure that I was by their side throughout the day, especially after my adventures over the passed week. When the wannabe heroes were training in the "Utility Field," that meant having to stand outside and watching them make their stupid effort to show off their weird powers again. I couldn't even volunteer to go into the infirmary so that I could be as far away from the lot of them as possible while being able to glare at them whenever they were too stupidly overextending their efforts.

    For the first bit of the morning, I instead glared at them and sneered if anyone should dare look at me. I was not in the mood for this crap. I didn't need their pity or concern. They were the reason that my life was hell.

     Of course, standing became tiring, so I sat down. The ground was hot and hard. I could feel bits of dirt digging into my bum. However, I wasn't going to just stand up again after everyone, namely Sosaki and Tsuchikawa-san, had seen me sit down, so I supported my back by planting my hands against the ground and kicked my feet out. I tried to look anywhere except the losers who were trying to show off, trying to look cool just to get anyone's attention. It was infuriating. The sun was glaring down making the air burn. The passing breeze right in front of me was the only relief. The trees stood straight unaffected by the happenings just on their boarders, completely calm, completely still, and I looked to them longingly, wishing that I could be somewhere with them in peace rather than out here with these idiots in the blistering heat.