Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 73 ANTI-HERO

I read the notifications dozens of times. This was the 2nd quest I had failed. The first was killing instead of saving Kei Kurono in Gantz. Apparently there was a big difference between Defeat and Kill. 

Honestly I knew something like this was coming. I didn’t receive a quest for the Sports Festival. I had killed 2 people unrelated to my quests, and picked a role that wasn’t very hero-like. I had killed. 

But I didn’t regret it. All 3 people deserved death. The System or whatever gave me the memories of a kid whose mother died. Of course the first thing I was going to do was get revenge for him. I did something he had stayed up nights thinking about. Killing the man that murdered his mom. 

I pushed the notifications away. If I had to be the Anti-Hero, then I would. I remembered more than one villain they let slip through their fingers only to come back and hurt them more. I was on a path of revenge. I had 3 more to kill on my own personal quest, and if the quest-giver was going to send me on Anti-hero quests, I would do those too. 

“You can go in now,” the nurse said. I stood, walking into the room I found my friends all bandaged up. Midoriya’s arms, Ida’s legs, even Shoto ended up having to see the doctor. 

“What’s up tournament losers?” I asked, sitting in one of the empty beds. 

“How long are you going to keep calling us that?” Shoto asked, a tired look in his eyes. 

“Till you win a tournament,” I said, forcing on a big smile. “Look at you all. He really did a number on you.” 

“Yeah, I don’t know how I didn’t think of making him bleed so much. Where did you get that idea?” Midoriya asked, a little more energetic than I would have thought for his injuries. 

“TV,” I said. “You see what happened to him after that guy took him?” The trio looked up to the TV in the corner of the room. There was video of me killing Stain as Kakashi, but also the video of me killing Eiko in her apartment. The Villain Slayer was quite the topic. 

Stain of course was the main subject. Somehow the media got a video of him talking about his ideals as a Hero Killer. Because not all heroes were at the standard of All Might he thought they deserved death. There would be a lot of people inspired by him, no matter how much I tried to fight it. 

“You alright, Ida?” I asked. He frowned but nodded. “Sorry you didn’t get your revenge. Guess that Slayer guy took it from both of us.” 

Ida turned, some tears in his eyes he nodded. He was either happy Stain was dead, or sad that he couldn’t get revenge himself. 

“Looks like the hurt locker is already awake,” an old voice said as he walked in. A short man he wore a costume and mask. Behind him walked a young hero wearing blue, Ryuko, and a man with a dog’s head. Not a cartoon dog either, an actual human sized dog with floppy ears and hanging tongue. He had the body and hands of a man though. I was really glad I didn’t have his quirk. 

“Gran Torino,” Midoriya whined. 

“Manual,” Ida said. 

“Ryuko, darling, I missed you,” I said with all the confidence I could muster. She glared at me, but the dog/man barked. 

“Quiet, you all need to hear this,” Ryuko said. 

“I am chief of the Hosu Police Precinct. Kenju Tsuragamae. I hear you 4 are to thank for ensuring the Hero Killer didn’t kill anyone else,” the dog man said. “I am here in front of you 4 to give you a warning. Since quirks began awakening in people the police have emphasized leadership and protocol. We have made it a point to not wield quirks like weapons. Heroes rose up during that time to fill the gap between normal police work and super powered police work.” 

He looked around, trying to make sure that everyone understood the grave importance of his words. “Of course, individuals with such weapons can cause injury easily. The public has only been able to accept such heroes because your forebears adhered to a strict set of rules and morals.”

There was a long pause. Or since it was a dog man I thought of it as a paws. “You all are training. All of you have supervisors. There is a reason for that. None of you have been deemed worthy or trustful enough to use your powers within the confines of the law. You attacking the hero killer with your quirks, was against the law.” That appeared to be news to the others. 

“But we-” 

“But nothing,” Kenju said. “The law is the law. And we adhere to it, or else there is anarchy.” I nodded, agreeing with him. “But…I also understand that people were in danger. Normally you and your supervisors would be reprimanded and fined for letting such an event happen. But because the Hero Killer was…executed unlawfully. We will be able to keep you all out of the story, and thus any punishment you might have received will be forgotten.”

There was a relieved sigh. I raised my hand. “What about me? I didn’t use my quirk,” I said. The dogman noticed me there for the first time. 

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“I heard you attacked the Hero Killer,” he said. 

“Yeah, with a beer bottle,” I said. “Ryuko warned me not to use my quirk so I didn’t. Do I get some of the praise for beating him up then?” I put on a big smile. Ryuko glared at me. “I’m joking, of course. Unless…there was a parade for helping beat him up of course. There’s no parade, right?” 

“I am sorry chief,” Ryuko said. “This idiot doesn’t know when to shut up.” I smiled big but the chief chuckled. 

“No parade,” he said. I cursed and he moved on. He looked back to the bandaged trio. “Again, thank you for doing what you did. The Hero Killer’s body had severe burns so the official story will be that Endeavor fought him, then the Villain Slayer swooped in and killed him. Your involvement, and punishment will be unnoticed.” 

“Yes, sir,” they said one after another. The chief left. I decided to leave the trio after some sage advice about trying not to let people suck their blood, and I was off with Ryuko. 

“You’re an idiot, you know that, right?” Ryuko asked. 

“Yeah, why though?” 

“Well you made me think you fell off my back, then you admitted to running to your friends,” she said. “I really thought you fell off.”

“I slipped, but decided to just roll with it,” I offered.

“I will be making you clean the entire Agency the rest of your internship,” she said. 

“But I didn’t use my quirk,” I whined. 

“I don’t care. I am in a pissed off mood. You drag me out here to help your friends. You make me think I dropped you and killed you. Then, to top it off, someone I have worked with for years turns out to have helped hundreds of villains escape justice,” she said angrily. 

“What?” I asked, playing dumb. 

“You haven’t seen the news? The Villain Slayer killed one of my employees,” she said. 

“Stain worked for you?” I asked, trying really hard not to crack a smile. She whirled, slapping me in the chest. “Ow,” I said in truth. 

“No, Eiko Tamari, the other person he killed the other day. She worked for me,” Ryuko said. A sad look on her face. “She was acting weird for weeks, and I gave her some time off. I didn’t think she was running from the Villain Slayer.” 

“The girl that was changing the faces of those villains?” 

Ryuko nodded. “She was a great stylist for my models,” she said. “I-I had no idea she had a past like that.” 

I couldn’t help but ask. “Did she deserve it?” 

Ryuko eyed me, anger at first, then sadness. “Yes,” she admitted. “She deserved to be punished. Death though….” I nodded as we headed to the train. It was a hard thing to know who deserved death. 

—

I stayed up watching my screen. My internship with Ryukyu Agency had ended with very little drama. I was back in my dorm waiting for Monday and school to roll around. I had a great time at the agency. Spending every night with Nerjire and Toru we filled it with sex and fooling around. By the end I thought of Nejire as a friend. 

Because I was in the boy’s dorm she couldn’t visit my room. But she did say there would be time on weekends to stop by. Toru said she wanted to try to be with me for that sort of thing, but she didn’t strictly forbid me from having fun without her. 

I was sad without them there with me. Sleeping alone I simply stared at my status screen. The only change was there was an asterisk by the My Hero Academia world listing. That was apparently the only marking that made it an Anti-Hero role. 

I didn’t like it, but that’s how I had played it so far. It was best to accept it. Now that I knew the role was a possibility I needed to make sure I didn’t turn into a Villain for quests. I didn’t remember much of Stain after he was beat, so I didn’t think I messed up the canon too bad, but I needed to watch myself in the future. 

Too much killing and death on my mind, I needed a vacation. I said aloud, “World Escape.”