Mob ojisan at heart

Hikaru & Masa

More about the girls

Mirai & Heeko are gyaru besties who can suddenly say amazing profound things in their everyday conversation. It's rare to see one without the other whether in school or not. Rikotya is on the outskirt of the group, so the AU will mostly about Hikaru & Masa + Mirai & Heeko duo and quartet.

or where I put Parakou kids in a shonen manga universe and see how they fare in a hero manga... as UA Gen Ed students still with their cracked power level in Parakou (also I have a feeling Masa is a fan of heroaca in canon parakou... I remember hearing a "plus ultra!" in one of the videos...)

(Also full offense why do 🍵 and toga so prominent and smackdab in the middle of the poster?? Paralleling afo and all might?? And shigaraki the main villain was put on the sideline??? Why is the mc way below everyone??? The composition is weird af

Also wtf is kurogiri taking the spotlight?? The color composition is so murky that when seeing it without zooming in making everything blend together except toga🍵)

Isn't his thought about them isn't about her in particular but more about "oh god it's a girl!!"

That's just the virgin otaku trope lol that's so old school

"Look at this virgin otaku being approached by an attractive (subjective) girl! No wonder he's flustered!! Look, this can be you!!!!"

“Do you think a quirkless person like me can be a hero?”

Midoriya prepared himself for rejection, but what Reigen said to him threw him off his balance.

“Well, of course you can.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, if you want to get a hero license, there’s nothing in the rule that says that a quirkless person can’t register.”

“Re-REALLY?!”

“That’s right. I mean, you can just put whatever in the quirk registry, so even if you write something stupid like farting with no smell it won’t make a difference. All you have to do is pass the tests.”

“The-Then–!!”

“However! Why do you want to be a hero? They’re just glorified police officers or first responders with media gigs on the side for money and votes. Even though it’s one of the highest-risk jobs, the way they have to sell themselves to the masses is actually cheap.” 

“That’s not true! Heroes save many people all the time!”

“Is saving many people only done by heroes?”

Midoriya took a sharp breath. He exhaled, “When a hero appears on scene, you know that everything will be alright. No matter how hopeless a situation is, a hero will always smile to reassure people around them. They’re the symbol of hope to everyone. I… want to be that kind of hero.”

“Hm, I see, so that’s how you see heroes…:” Reigen hummed before he lifted a finger in a eureka moment. “Then, isn’t everyone a hero to someone else?”

“Huh?”

“See, when I was in a second-grader, there was a time when I was lost. I remembered being so scared thinking I can't go home anymore, but a kind high school girl saw me crying in the park and approached me. She smiled and took me to the police box. The police officer on guard helped me call my mom and so I can go back home. At that time, I felt relieved that the girl and the officer helped me. In that way, you can say they’re my heroes, right?”

“I’m… yeah, I think so..”

“See? It’s a cliche, but even for you, your Mom’s your hero right? Or for example, a stranger who stopped you from falling flat on your face on the day of an important test. Even small acts like that can be called heroic.”

“Is it really…?”

“It is! I know not everyone will help others, even with the smallest things. It sucks, but that's how it is.”

Midoriya nodded. Well, it’s true that he would be grateful for the person who saved him from falling, and his Mom is a hero for putting up with him, but… “You didn’t say that I can’t become a hero.”

Reigen looked genuinely surprised. “Why would I?”

“Because I’m quirkless… Everyone always says that I can’t be one.”

“Huh? What's a quirk got to do with it? There are even people whose quirks are only useful for picking their nose, right? That’s just genetics lottery. Don’t hinge your life on something flimsy like that.” 

Midoriya's heart felt like it stopped. “Wha-How- How can you say that?!”

“A quirk is nothing more than a part of you, not all of you. So what if you’re quirkless? You still have more characteristics that aren’t defined by what you don’t have. And I think being quirkless is cool! There’s only 20% quirkless people in the world right now, how amazing is that?”

“That’s not something cool, it just makes you less from everyone else!”

“It just makes you different. People, quirk or no quirk, are different because there’s only one of you. Don’t look down on yourself and other quirkless people down just because others do. Be better. than them”

Midoriya bit his lip as he averted his eyes from Reigen’s calm eyes. All this time, everyone else, even his mom, defined him by his quirklessness. By looking down on himself for being quirkless, did that mean he also think other quirkless people as less capable than those with quirks?

I'm so arrogant...

“Listen, It’s your own life, so the choices you make are up to you and no one else. Don’t listen to others dictate your life. If you want to be a licensed hero, just do it. Ah, of course, with the necessary effort to aim to be one. For example, you can start with training your body or learning first aid.” 

Faced with his self-centeredness, Midoriya could only nod at Reigen's flowing words. Effort... Other than analyzing quirks and pro heroes, what did he do?

How could he say he wanted to be a hero when all he did was daydreaming?

No wonder everyone mocked me.

“Look, I’m sure you know that being a licensed hero is a tough life, that being a hero isn’t all about doing grand actions on screen with costumes. They have to be careful even in their private life. Well, there are scummy heroes too, but that’s because they’re people too.”

“People…”

“That’s right! Other people with other occupations are heroes too! Imagine life without people maintaining internet connectivity, or phones. Man, when you think about it we’re all saved by people doing things none of us know about, isn’t it?”

That’s not something Midoriya even thought about. All this time, his image of saving others was All Might—pro heroes. But that was just him being so narrow-minded. Just like Reigen said, without he realized it, he was living by being helped by many people, directly or indirectly.  

“So, why aim for the big leagues when you can start by something small?”

“Huh?” Before Midoriya realized it, Reigen who had been sitting on the sofa across him had crouched down next to him with a lopsided smile.

“Like I said, even by doing small acts you can be a hero to someone else. For example, cleaning a dirty park, or helping the elderly board a train. I mean, it’s not as grand as saving someone’s life, but it’s fine to start off with something you can do even now, isn’t it?”

“I can be… a hero?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?” Reigen put his hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. It was grounding, warm, and gentle. “You can be a hero. No, you may even have been a hero to someone, you just didn’t realize it.”

“I’m…” I can be a hero? I might’ve been a hero…? 

“What?! Why’re you suddenly crying?! Hey, you okay kid?!”

“Thank you!! Thank you…”

“Just doing my job, here, wipe your tears.”

Reigen-sensei has always been like this. Midoriya smiled as he remembered his first meeting with Reigen. It was embarrassing how he flooded the office with his tears, and Kageyama found him bawling his eyes out like a baby. 

Plus about the topic of kindness, between mob and deku (also 🍵) I think mp100's take on kindness is better

Especially because chapter 431 kinda ruins it because it shows deku being on a billboard to promote formal suits, deku saying he's busy giving lectures (on what?) so he'll "gather data" on weekends, etc, while a month ago a kid said he doesn't think deku even real cause he's just that elusive.

My sister said that he probably got confidence boost because of the armored suit but without the manga upholding the "show, don't tell" rule deku came off as being super shallow

also reigen & mob dynamic is better than all might & deku on the basis that mob sees reigen's flaws and still think of him as a master compared to deku who's blind to all might's & HIS flaws until the end of the series.

Also the fanbook kinda hinted that reigen & mob's relationship is heading towards them being equals / friends (?) down the line while in the timeskip it feels like deku still had that starry struck awe / distance with all might

Hrak jp twt community was chock full of toxic positivity and forced conformity (bakugo is always the victim) it's just plainly disgusting to see

It's even more sad that my sister said that one of the reasons we don't even get the childhood friends hero duo or a drawn handhold between the childhood friend is because of "those lgbt people"

It got me thinking how different the outcome of the final war would be if only deku told bakugo everything that happened in jaku and how he wanted to save shigaraki.

Bakugo would berate deku for sure, but saving shigaraki would be more challenging than killing him so bakugo would probably reluctantly support deku.

He wouldn't let deku wing it, in fact I think he would be the one to think about using the mindscape to separate shigaraki and afo.

Everything went like in canon, but rather than bringing shigaraki to the ground and using gearshift we would get a cool 3-way battle scene in the mindscape between deku and the past vestiges, shigaraki, and afo.

(The mindscape is so wasted why didn't we get the psychological dissection of the characters and absurd out-of-the-box battle scene??)

Even when a lot of jp people were pressuring other jp fans to vote for deku because "he's the protagonist so he should have the bronze statue (note that they're specifically calling out bakugo fans and not todoroki fans), bakugo fans kept voting for bakugo because they believe that they're the only people that love him. What do you know, apparently other character fans were voting for him in the plus ultra stage because "voting for deku just because he's the protagonist is unfair and dishonest, I'll vote for bakugo because I like him better than deku/he has relevance to my fav character"

(Ngl I think it's kinda pathetic that the reason why people said others should vote for deku is because he's the protagonist so he should win the last popularity poll" and never because he's an interesting or good character. That says A lot about fandom in general, really)

The result of the plus ultra stage was really unexpected even for the jp bakugo fans because they thought other bakugo fans would vote for deku because they cracked under the pressure. They thought bakugo naturally would lose so of course they're celebrating his surprise win.

And even then, other jp fans were pissed at bakugo fans because "deku should be the one getting the statue because he's the protagonist", "bakugo fans can't read the mood because deku should've won the last popularity poll", and "bakugo fans are selfish and shouldn't celebrate bakugo's win".

(Thankfully there are fans who said if it's about money, they're willing to donate some so jump can make deku and todoroki statues lol)

She never even fold the corner of a page in one of our 500+ books because she doesn't want to damage one yet she's okay with stapling 431 out of existence.

He wouldn't pester Deku about joining his agency, because now Deku is reconnecting with Uraraka and his other friends and fulfilling his teacher-part-time-hero life.

He extinguished his childhood dream of competing with Deku as pro heroes quietly.

Yet his friends and his loved ones kept his flames lit.

Todoroki would challenge him for the number 1 hero spot. Mirio would laugh and told them to do their best.

Iida would race with him to a scene whenever they're going in the same direction.

Jiro would ask him for jam sessions and they'll be one-upping each other.

Monoma would kept pestering him how he's better than Bakugo just to make Bakugo riled up.

Even Sato would try to compete with Bakugo about baking.

Everyone loves Bakugo's straightforward drive and his childlike wonder towards his dream.

They won't let Bakugo's inner child die like it did with Deku.

They won't just wait and watch over from afar anymore.

When Bakugo realized how much rivals he had, he thrived.

He grinned more, laughed louder, and he became a bright flame that lit everyone to do better and be their best selves as well.

His friendship with Deku was... mundane. That's it.

Bakugo knows he's not special after all.

Yet he didn't realize how callous Deku was with him compared to Deku with everyone else.

Deku would carelessly say things that he wouldn't dare say to others in fear of hurting them.

Kacchan was the exception, because he thought Kacchan was strong enough so he wouldn't be hurt by anything he said.

That's why he can say "Oh yeah, sorry, I won't join your agency" without a second thought.

Even if Deku lost his starry-eyed admiration for Kacchan, he knew Kacchan was someone who could stand strong by himself.

Because after 8 years, he knew that Kacchan would stay next to him as the same old Kacchan.

Because Kacchan was his only childhood friend.

(Kacchan's special because Izuku is unconsciously so very selfish in regards to Kacchan's everything)

Yet Bakugo didn't realize it.

And neither did Deku.

So one day when Bakugo, Deku, and Iida hurried to a scene, Bakugo wouldn't turn to Deku anyomore.

He'd bark a laugh at Iida and said, "I'm first!" and Iida would grin and said, "I won't lose next time!"

Deku saw how Bakugo and the other heroes riled up each other, making everything a competition.

Aizawa was even on it, telling Bakugo "You know how much of your interview was cut compared to Todoroki? Do better." and Bakugo would say, "I get it! They won't cut any part of my interview again, just watch me!"

One day Class A managed to have another drinking party to celebrate their overall rise in heroes ranking.

When Mineta and some of the boys were competing with Bakugo about who would be able to eat the spicier dishes, Deku finally said something about the situation.

"Geez, Kacchan, don't try to compete with everyone, that's so childish!"

He said it with a laugh so lightheartedly, he intended to tease Kacchan, he thought Kacchan would snap at him with a simple "Shut up!" but the reaction that he got was different.

Kirishima immediately answered in place of Bakugo, "Nah, we're competing for reals!"

Aoyama nodded, "Oui! Healthy rivalry is simply the best."

Sero chimed in, "It's all in good spirits, and even competing for the small things is fun, y'know."

Todoroki agreed, "And it makes us want to be better, be the best versions of ourselves."

And Bakugo would just snort, "You're all idiots." but he was so so fond of his friends.

And Deku would wonder about himself.

When he was with Uraraka, he asked "Where was that me who chased after Kacchan and be a better version of myself?"

Uraraka would answer, "I don't know, but all we can do is try to do our best. We just have to live and make do with what we have now."

"And what's our best?"

She would see Toga waved at her, telling her how much she loved Ochako-chan.

The hero who loves smiles was still unsatisfied by the smiles of all the people she saved.

"Living, pursuing love."

He would see Shigaraki smirked at him, asking him to do his best as a hero.

The hero who does his best was settling and comfortable to not try to be his best.

"Helping others is our best."