Chapter 173 – A Mountain Of Trouble
"Welcome back, John! Are you ready to continue your journey?" Alec asked as John walked across the DEN stage and took his seat.
"Yes. I believe I am." He replied. He had already stowed away most of his gear in his pockets and was ready to step through yet another door.
He had woken up the previous afternoon with the pair of Xiaolin's still in his arms, but they kept the rest of the day fairly low-key, just hanging out at the beach and being served hand and foot by the twin rulers of the planet. They had a much more intimate evening of dancing and lovemaking that night, her simulacrum having already merged back into her body. He woke up refreshed that morning, and after a quick breakfast, they returned to DEN.
"Excellent. Do you have any plans going in?"
"Well, I already have a ton on my plate. I need to get through these next three doors quickly, then return to The Great Cleric. I have people I need to save, and the magic I need is there." He replied, eyeing the mech figurine as if staring at it more would tell him what it was. He wouldn't be as passive going forward and would use all the tools at his disposal as needed. He didn't want people getting hurt because he was worried about outing himself. If that meant dropping a Mech in the middle of a fantasy world town, so be it.
"Very good. Now, unless you have any questions, proceed to the Orange door." Alec said, his greasy smile growing in anticipation. John didn't think that boded well for his well-being, but let it slide.
"I don't... or if I did, I don't remember them anymore." John stood up, adjusted his gear, and proceeded to the orange door. Xiaolin blew him a kiss from the side, which he returned, then opened the door and stepped through.
Above the door, the sign switched from <World Randomizer> to <My Hero Academia - AU>.
John materialized in an alleyway of a city. He was wearing his leathers still but had a large pink suitcase beside him. A note at the top said his weapons were inside, as they would be illegal to carry in public. Before he could digest that, information started to fill his mind, giving him the backstory to this world.
He was John Suzy Wayne, a forty-five-year-old teacher, who changed his last name from Bate so as not to be associated with his much more successful younger sister. He had moved to Japan for work and was on his way to U.A. High School for his orientation. He still didn't have accommodations, hence why his luggage was still with him.
More information was flooding into his mind, giving him more background information on this world and he was shocked. It was filled with heroes and villains, all with different superpowers and abilities called Quirks. The villains would go around, terrorizing or even kill people, and the heroes would stop them and put them in jail. Then they would break out or get released and start their reign of terror all over again.
How does this society even function?
He checked his status quickly, and it showed there was no innate magic in this world, so he only had a hundred points of mana in his pool.
He did notice he had a different ability available, and while it was fundamentally very different, the feeling reminded him of his sacred gear in HSDXD. He activated it and... nothing happened.
Huh, it isn't something for fighting, but I expected... something to happen.
Shutting off his quirk for now, he gathered his suitcase and walked out onto the street. Well, he attempted to, but a car landed at the mouth of the alleyway in front of him, the occupants screaming inside. Flames were coming from under the vehicle's hood, threatening to engulf the rest of it.
"Hold on!" He shouted, tossing his bag aside for now. He tried the door, but it was bent so out of shape that the handle no longer worked. "Dig!" He called out, turning the handle and door lock into a cube, then forced the door to open.
"You're okay now." He said, helping the middle-aged woman and two children out of the car. Before he could ask what happened, the ground started to shake as something approached them. "Run!" he shouted, not knowing what the hell was happening, but he wasn't about to let some innocent by standards die.
"You should run too, it's another villain, and it beat up several heroes already," the lady said as she shepherded her kids down the alley.
He nodded, but quickly rummaged through his suitcase for his sword instead. Now armed, he activated his armour and poked his head out into the street, before diving back to safety. A giant pink... humanoid something was striding down the road, smashing storefronts and vehicles alike.
Fuck me... is this even my job?
"Stop right there! You are under arrest for serial larceny and murder!" A loud female voice boomed from out in the street.
John stuck his head out again, and there behind him were three people in Halloween costumes, all looking pretty beat up already. The woman who shouted was standing in front of the other two, who were lying on the ground, in obvious pain. Clearly, they had been fighting this... thing. She was standing, breathing hard, her light blonde hair spilling down over her tight purple-and-tan costume, which accentuated her curvy figure nicely.
The giant beast turned back towards them and started to laugh, and John almost wanted to laugh with it. They already seemed to have lost the fight, and the beast knew it. It grabbed another car and chucked it at the woman. She stood her ground and blocked it, making John whistle appreciatively in his mind.
Okay, maybe she isn't out of the fight yet.
Still, there was a beast with its back turned to him. He drew his sword and rushed forward, prepping a darkness spell if it turned around.
Unaware of his presence, it continued to throw things at the woman, letting him close into melee range. He fed the sword as much anger as he could, slicing into the beasts achilles tendon and causing it to fall over, screaming in pain.
"ARGH! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" It bellowed, looking around for its new assailant. John had danced backwards, out of the range of its flailing limbs.
The lady took that moment to step forward and punch the beast in its weirdly shaped head, knocking it out cold. With a deep sigh, she walked over to John, who had just sheathed his sword.
"Who are you and what in the world do you think you're doing?" She asked sternly, her purple face mask hiding almost nothing of her appearance.
He just noticed the costume also had orange highlight dividing the tan and purple areas, along with two purple horns coming out the sides of her head. It was kind of cute, but it seemed impractical for fighting crime. She was short as well, only around five-foot-four, with brilliant red eyes that were staring up at him as if he had just done something wrong. Something about that rubbed him the wrong way.
"Obviously, I'm a medieval knight saving a damsel in distress. Now, don't you think it is rude not to introduce yourself first when meeting someone, young lady?" He replied, crossing his arms in front of him.
Didn't she have a criminal to apprehend? I assume she is one of these 'Heroes'.
"You... you don't know who I am?" She asked, taken aback.
"No. If I did, why would I ask?"
She cursed under her breath, then looked back up at him. "I'm Mt. Lady, Japan's twenty-third-ranked pro hero!" She announced, kicking a leg up behind her and placing her hand by her head in a weird salute.
"I see. Well, call me the Twilight Knight then. If there is nothing else, I will be going now." He said, making up a fake name on the spot. If she wasn't going to tell him her name, then he wasn't going to say his either.
"Stop right there! You are under arrest for an unregistered weapon and assault with said weapon!" She said, grabbing his arm and forcing him to turn around.
"Are you insane? I pulled a family out of a burning car, then helped you defeat... whatever that is, before it hurt or killed anyone else." John said, trying to wrestle his arm away from her. Despite their size difference, her arm didn't budge.
"Be that as it may, you still used a weapon. Unless you can produce a hero card right now, I'm going to have to bring you in." She said, her red eyes boring into his.
"No good deed goes unpunished, eh? One sec, I have a card right here." He replied, finally getting his arm free. "Darkness." He said, casting a spell over her head. He turned around and booked it back to the alley.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Mt. Lady shouted at him, flailing wildly around her.
Once he got out of sight, he retracted his armour and stowed his sword in the suitcase. Quickly adjusting his clothing, he walked back out onto the street and started to make his way to where his memories said U.A. Academy was.
Hell, I haven't been here ten minutes, and apparently, I am already a wanted criminal. In what world can't I put a stop to something threatening innocent lives? Mainly something that doesn't even look human anymore?
He made it most of the way down the street before he released his spell, letting the 'heroine' see again. The car he rescued that family from chose that moment to explode, providing him a further distraction for his escape.
Hah, Clark Kent has nothing on me!
He chuckled at that thought, turning down another street while that Mt. Lady was still shouting something behind him. He wasn't a hero; he was here to take a position as a teacher at a hero academy. He just hoped that was the last time he would have to deal with someone like that. He sighed, his memories telling him that probably wouldn't be the last time he had to deal with an overzealous hero.
Far above him, unseen by John, a man in a yellow pinstriped suit flew across the city. He was late to join the teachers and students at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint (U.S.J.), but was repeatedly interrupted by criminal activity. Something told him he was supposed to stop in to defeat a villain called Habit Headgear, but he could see that Mt. Lady already had it covered. It was weird, like it was something he was supposed to do, but it was already done.
"No matter! Every hero plays a part in the symphony of courage that defines our victories! Now, where was I flying again?" The hero, Japan's number one Pro Hero, All Might, said to himself, banking slightly to head towards the U.S.J. rather than U.A. itself.
At this rate, he would only be a couple of minutes late. He hoped that man, Shota Aizawa, a hero named Eraser Head, wouldn't give him more flak for his tardiness again. He was a busy man, being both an instructor and the top hero in Japan.
A pain shot through his chest, causing him to wobble a bit in the air. He clutched his chest for a moment, waiting for the pain to pass before continuing on. His powers were diminishing rapidly, and his successor wasn't ready to take over for him. Not even close. Still, he would push on, as that was the right thing to do. Someday, in the hopefully not too distant future, his successor would be able to take over for him and allow him to retire.
But that was not today. Today, he was helping them oversee the students as they participated in simulations of different disasters and other scenarios, and his disciple, Izuku Midoriya, was there. He wanted to be there to see how the lad had progressed with his training.
The pain passed after a few moments, his powers stabilizing for the time being. He didn't want to know what would happen if they failed him during a major battle, but for now, he was okay. All Might carried on to the U.S.J., thoughts on his own mortality weighing heavily on his mind.