Chereads / MHA:TRUTH / Chapter 3 - Intermission

Chapter 3 - Intermission

Just so you guys doesn't get mixed up,

"..."=> Speech

'...' => Thoughts

[...] => EAS prompts

<...> => Lying

Enjoy the fanfic guys.

....

Eight Years Later;

Inside a Shozaku middle school classroom in Musutafu, Japan, a twelve-year-old boy sat listlessly. His faintly shimmering lavender hair framed a face with iridescent silver, starburst-patterned pupils, dominant pale blue irises tinged with kaleidoscopic hues of purple, green, and silver. From the inner corners of his eyes, faint, shimmering white lines stretched delicately toward his temples, sometimes catching the light with a soft lavender glow.

'Ah, crap. I've turned into a complete sissy! Even before the mutations in my eyes became noticeable, I always thought my lavender hair was way too feminine.

When I first read the mutation descriptions, I was expecting—and I quote—"hauntingly beautiful eyes" paired with badass blood-red and black lines like something straight out of Tokyo Ghoul.

At the time, I figured the femininity of my hair would balance out with the edginess of my eyes, leaving me in a pretty sweet spot. ( I have a child's brain. Don't judge me.)

Instead, every time I look in the mirror now, I swear I faintly hear, "🎶I just wanna get high with my lover🎶." What the actual fck?!'

With wildly twitching eyebrows, he whispered "Easy Access Screen."

[Truth Energy: 834/900]

[Programs:]

1. When Truth Energy hits 900 (full): Announce the permanent truth: (Costs around 50 points depending on the situation.)

2. When fatally wounded: Announce the temporary truths:

3. One minute after waking up: Announce the temporary truth:

4. At midnight every day: Announce the permanent truth:

(Most of the time, this costs nothing since I've only listed severe pathogens, leaving milder ones to help build immunity.)

---

After reviewing his setup with a satisfied nod, the boy fell into thought.

'Hmm, I'm mostly happy with the programs. The two things bothering me are: (1) I still can't find an affordable phrase for permanently strengthening my body, and (2) I can't increase my Truth Energy capacity by using it. I've tried repeatedly, decreasing the increments smaller and smaller. Stopped at five decimal points—at that point, it just wasn't worth it anymore.

At least I've gotten plenty of practice with my quirk. Most of it's been spent refining effective and affordable phrases for combat, rescue, and hostage situations. I've also practiced deploying those phrases quickly and efficiently.

Physical training's been pretty basic—mostly stamina work. Anything more intense, like martial arts or specialized techniques, doesn't make much sense at my age. I'll save that for when I've used "Copy" to acquire a second quirk.

Speaking of Copy, I still haven't used it. The prime target is obviously All Might, of course.

I mean, I already have versatility in spades thanks to Truth. What I lack is raw power, and who else has more raw power than All Might? My guy's punches literally change the weather!

Another quirk which even comes close to his is America's "Stars and Stripes" and her quirk, "New Order," but that's way lower on my priority list. Why? Her quirk is basically just another version of mine. She can maintain two "Truths" indefinitely, but only two and no more. Impressive, but I don't need redundancy.

For now, I'm waiting to see if I can find something even better. The plan is to wait until I'm thirteen. If nothing else pops up by then, I'll just go ahead and copy All Might's quirk. That would leave me two years to train with the new quirk before UA's entrance exams.

Why be a hero? Simple: heroics is one of the most lucrative careers for someone with a strong quirk.

The money.

The connections.

The influence.

The access to information.

Most importantly, being a hero pays you a crap ton of money just for helping people. It's the ultimate no-brainer.

Like my grandpa always said in my previous life:

"If being a good person gives you money, everyone will want to be a good person."

That's exactly what heroism is. So yeah, I'm going to be a god-damned hero.

The best there ever was.'

After pumping himself up for a few moments, Naoki scanned around the classroom. It was break time, and students were either sitting or standing in their cliques, talking animatedly.

One thing stood out, though—a great void around Naoki. Everyone seemed to either consciously or subconsciously avoid him like the plague.

Naoki smiled mirthlessly and shook his head, thinking,

Yeah, the social situation? Exactly as expected. In other words, it's bad. Really bad.

A few months after school started, everyone figured out that Naoki couldn't lie.And, if asked a question, he would always answer truthfully.

Students finding out wasn't the issue. In fact, after they realized, the tension lowered. Now they knew he wasn't being a jerk by answering their questions brutally honestly. He just couldn't lie.

The problem came with the teachers. Once they realized Naoki's inability to lie, well they started asking him questions. And so, unwillingly, he became the ultimate snitch. And no one wanted a snitch in their clique.

It wasn't that bad at first, though. He had died around seventeen in his previous life, so he saw his classmates as little kids. He didn't mind not being in any of their cliques. They still talked or hung out occasionally. Mostly because, with his exotic hair, eyes, and shimmering lines, he was somewhat of a looker, if he did say so himself. Plus, he was the type of guy who could enjoy being alone as long as he had a manga or novel in hand.

So, Naoki was doing fine until the fire nation...uhh no, the Japanese social conformity kicked in. If you haven't noticed, he stood out—a lot. Combine that with being somewhat of a social outcast, and a certain clique of students got it in their heads that he was an easy target. The nail that sticks out, and all that.

The teachers didn't care, though. They didn't care if a student was ostracized because of them. They didn't care if bullying happened because of them. The only time they cared was when the victim finally fought back.

And Naoki wasn't the type to just take bullying with his head lowered. So, he developed some phrases to discourage the bullies.

Most of the time, it was resolved with a simple phrase:

If that didn't solve the problem, he'd escalate to progressively worsening versions:

But the worst moment came when a jackass with a quirk that made his hands stronger and his nails tougher snatched Naoki's novel and tore it up while throwing insults.

Naoki didn't hesitate. He immediately hit him with the phrase:

The kid didn't even dare to look in Naoki's general direction after that. Naoki also got two weeks of detention for it. But it was well worth it because nobody dared messing with him after that day.

That was also the day Naoki became a total social outcast in his school.

...