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chemicalmagecraft · 5 years ago

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The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 13

A/N: Y'all I've been waiting for this ever since I thought of how this would go down.

To Chrono Phoenix: Yeah that would be the best course of action wouldn't it? Too bad even The Gamer has limitations...

xoxoxo

"Ah, crud," I said as I crashed into the water. I wasn't too concerned with the fall because of my high HP and almost-prestiged Physical Endurance, and swimming was probably really easy with water magic and an elemental. No, what was really concerning was that there was a villain with a shark mutation Quirk swimming menacingly toward me. Thankfully, Tsu came out of nowhere and kicked the guy before he could get too close. I think she was carrying Mineta like some sort of parcel too.

"Hey, Midoriya," she said despite being underwater, then grabbed me with her tongue. I was dragged with her to the surface, where she gently deposited me on a nearby boat. A second later, Mineta made a lewd comment to her and was thrown onto the boat next to me.

"Note to self, don't piss off Tsu," I thought. She climbed on board next. "Thanks for saving me, Tsu," I said.

She nodded. "Don't mention it. This is shaping up to be a bad day, kero," she understated.

"Yeah," I said. "I think that they planned this. One of the villains said All Might should be here, meaning they had our schedule. Maybe one of them snuck in when those reporters invaded," I theorized. Mineta and Tsu both suppressed a shudder.

"Yeah, but won't All Might get here to rescue us?" Mineta asked. "Aizawa-sensei said you could contact Yuuei!"

I shook my head. "Unfortunately, the party invite function has a range limit. I tried, but we're too far away for me to invite anyone at Yuuei to my party, which is what he was talking about," I explained. "Actually, though, I can do this." I cleared the party chat history, changed the party name to an explanation on what the party invite was, then sent invites to our classmates and teachers. Though I couldn't see them, Tsu and Mineta reacted to the boxes randomly appearing in front of them.

"What is this?" Mineta asked.

"Is this that 'party invite' thing you were talking about, Midoriya, kero?" Tsu asked.

"Yeah, just press 'yes' and you get in. There's a party chat function. Hang on, I'll put instructions in it for the others." I typed in some quick instructions as the others joined in, as well as the reason why I couldn't just summon All Might.

Kirishima Eijirou: Dude holy crap, this is awesome! Sucks that you can't just ring Yuuei, but I guess all Quirks have their limits.

I noticed that Thirteen and Iida weren't responding and Todoroki declined. I sent him another invite, but he just declined it again. I recalled his title, The Path to Isolation, and winced. I wasn't going to be able to add him, was I?

Deku: Does anyone know why Thirteen and Iida aren't joining? I'm starting to get a little concerned.

Uraraka Ochako: That warp bastard got Thirteen with their own Quirk and Iida's probably out of range. Don't worry about the warp guy, though. I have him.

I blinked. Even through the chat, I could tell she was angry. I hoped she didn't go overboard...

"Right, we need to fight our way out of here, right?" Tsu asked.

"What!? Why?" Mineta objected.

"Midoriya," Tsu said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You have a healing spell, right? And beyond that, aren't you getting special lessons from Recovery Girl? Thirteen's down, so we need to get you over there ASAP, kero. Plus there's just the fact that they're probably going to attack soon."

"Yeah, hang on, I'm going to do something first." I opened up my status screen and, for the first time, used some of the points I'd accumulated over the course of having my Quirk. I only had to use ten, though.

By raising WIS above 100, two random skills have been created!

The skill 'Tactician' has been created through WIS rising above 100 and having INT above 80!

The skill 'Mantra' has been created through WIS rising above 100 and having the skill Enlightenment!

The skill 'Duality' has been created through WIS rising above 100!

It was an odd feeling. I felt... something shift in my mind, along with a my mana changing somehow. It was interesting to know that I could get extra skills for the hundred benchmark, plus the fact that they could be influenced by other factors. Before I could check out what they did, though...

"I'm tired of waiting!" one of the villains shouted, and a blade of water crashed into the boat, causing it to start sinking.

"AAAAAHHH!" Mineta started screaming and threw some of his head balls into the water. "I didn't think we'd actually be fighting villains so soon! I don't want to die!"

I slapped him. I don't know why, but I felt like it was the best course of action. It did get him to stop crying. "Mineta," I said sternly, putting my hands on his shoulders. "This isn't the time for panic. It's unfortunate that this happened, but we can't just wish ourselves out of this situation. I don't know why you decided to become a hero if you're so afraid to die, considering how high the mortality rate is, but I need you to stop whining and focus." I turned my attention to the villains. They were afraid of Mineta's balls, backing away from them. They didn't know what his Quirk was, and more likely than not ours as well. I noticed that even with just a glance, I could tell their emotional state, Quirks, and other information that I'd normally need to use Observe for. Why was that...

Tactician. It granted me enhanced critical thinking, decision-making, and thinking ability in general, but only in battle or other such high-stress scenarios. Not only that, but it synergized with Observe and Gamer's Mind to passively grant me any information I could find useful in my current situation. That... was a very good skill, and I could tell why it needed to have INT so high. Armed with the knowledge that I didn't even need to bring up the skill box to know what my new skills did, I used Tactician on them. With Mantra, all I could tell was that it was useless in my current situation because it had the exact opposite activation requirements as Tactician, most likely because it was useless in my current situation because it had the exact opposite activation requirements as Tactician, but Duality... Duality was exactly what I was hoping for. In addition to giving me a slight boost to elemental magic, it, as the name suggested, allowed me to combine any two primary elements to create secondary elements.

"I have an idea," I said, then looked at my hand. I combined fire and wind, and small sparks arced across my fingers. "Tsu, I need you to get Mineta out of here. And Mineta, I need you to throw as many of your hairballs as you can at the villains after I use my Limit Break. If all goes well, you shouldn't even have to aim that much." I stepped onto the railing, preemptively buffing myself and and activating Lightning Aura. Tactician immediately told me that Lightning Aura boosted movement speed, attack, STR, and DEX, and obviously let me generate electricity.

"What are you even doing, Midoriya!?" Mineta screamed.

"LIMIT BREAK!" I shouted, drawing on One For All and my newly-made lightning affinity. As I jumped from the railing, sparks arced from my clenched fist. I made sure to have Blaise and Halitus help make sure none of the villains were too hurt by the voltage after confirming they could collaborate to control lightning, plus have Rayne chipping in by purifying parts of the water to make some insulation so the lightning wouldn't go out of control. "THUNDER HAMMER!" I punched the air, shooting a lightning bolt combined with a Detroit Smash at the water. Thankfully, I saw that none of the villains were too badly hurt from the resulting electrified whirlpool, just incapacitated from the balls Mineta threw. From that alone, I jumped up five levels to twenty-eight, and got a few other notifications. Tsu's long tongue wrapped around my waist, plucking me out of the air.

"You okay, Midoriya?" Tsu asked once we landed in the shallows. "You said that Limit Break gives you backlash, kero."

I nodded. "Yeah, it stung a little and I need to wait a bit so I can recover my HP, but there aren't any villains around so I should be good."

"What do we do now?" Mineta asked nervously.

"I'd say we should go to the entrance, where Thirteen is," Tsu said, looking at what I assumed was the chat log.

"Actually," I said, then created a few glowing green orbs from my mana, then manifested my elementals to give them to them. "I think we should check out Aizawa first. I recently got a new firing mode for my Regeneration spell that lets me store the effect in an orb and only release it when it's broken. Hopefully that'll tide Thirteen off for a while, but Aizawa-sensei's probably starting to get tired by now..."

"You want to go where even more villains are!?" Mineta asked.

"Between Tsu's long tongue and hopefully water magic, your sticky balls that we've already proved are very good at stopping villains, and my magic, we should probably be able to pick off a few villains for Aizawa without getting dangerously close," I suggested. "Now let's go before something bad happens."

"Something else, you mean," Tsu said. "Kero."

xoxoxo

Kaminari screamed as he ran away from a villain. "Damnit, Kaminari!" Jirou yelled. "Why didn't you ask for any support gear!?"

"I didn't think about it, okay!"

"At least tell me you figured out how to use magic to help your Quirk!"

He dodged another attack. "How?"

Jirou sighed and blasted a soundwave straight from her jack at an enemy. Figuring out that sound was an element was a godsend for her. Not only could she do quicker shots from her jacks, but the sound magic was boosted by louder sounds, making her boot speakers devastating. "See, lightning is even more what I'd think of as a magical element than sound, so why shouldn't you be able to use lightning magic?" She stared at him dodging a bit more. "For now, though..." Jirou kicked the blonde generator into a villain, causing Kaminari to instinctively activate his Quirk. When he was touching a villain.

"Heck yeah!" Kaminari shouted as the villain was launched back from both the current and his own spasming muscles, taking out another villain. "Did you see that?"

"Cool," Jirou said. "Do it some more."

"I wish I could use magic with my Quirk," Yaoyorozu said, then took out a villain with a net. "Unfortunately, I haven't figured out any way to do that."

Jirou shrugged, then blasted a group of villains over with her speakers. "You ever seen Full Metal Alchemist?"

"No, I don't believe I have," Yaoyorozu said. "Why do you ask?"

"Dude, you should totally watch it!" Kaminari butted in. "It's an oldie but a goodie! Plus you'd probably like all that stuff with chemistry and stuff!"

"Hey," a villain shouted. "Stop talking about anime in the middle of a fight!"

"What I meant," Jirou continued, "was that the way you said your Quirk worked reminded me of the alchemy in it. You said your Quirk breaks down the lipids in your body and then lets you turn it into other stuff, right?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah, well the alchemists in FMA do their stuff by understanding, breaking down, and remaking matter into whatever shape they want, following the law of conservation of matter. Sound familiar?"

Yaoyorozu nodded. "Thank you. I doubt I'll be able to do it in the middle of battle, but it's definitely something to think about."

"Though yeah, you probably should watch it if you're gonna try to be an alchemist," Jirou said.

"Dude, I've got the whole thing on Blu-ray!" Kaminari shouted over electrifying another villain. "Brotherhood and the movies too! Let's watch it some time!"

"Thank you both," Yaoyorozu said. "Now, it's ready!" She hunched over and a giant blanket-like object burst from her, and I'm not making this up folks, Yaoyoreotard. Yaoyoreotard...

"What good's a blanket gonna do you guys?" one of the villains taunted.

"It's not a blanket!" Yaororozu responded. "It's an insulator!" She covered herself and Jirou fully. "Go, Kaminari!"

"Alright! Indiscriminate Discharge!" He dumped as much electricity as his Quirk could handle into the air, shocking all of the villains.

"Dang, this is a pretty big-" Jirou started to say as she lifted the insulator, then looked at Yaororozu and blushed. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CLOTHES!?"

"Sorry," Yaoyorozu said. "I had to make it under my costume, which broke it a little..."

"Don't look, Kaminari!" Jirou shouted at Kaminari through the opening in the insulator, hypocritically still looking.

"Whee~" Kaminari said, completely oblivious to both of them on account of his Quirk frying his brain.

xoxoxo

"And we're gonna cheese it if anyone even looks at us the wrong way, right?" Mineta asked.

"Yeah, that's the plan," I said. I handed them Speed Up orbs. "Crush these and you'll go faster." We watched Aizawa-sensei beat up a few of the villains before setting his sights on the leader, Shigaraki. He charged Shigaraki, trying to elbow him in the gut. Shigaraki caught his hand, though, and Aizawa-sensei's hair dropped. I felt a sense of foreboding, then saw Aizawa's sleeve start to disintegrate where Shigaraki was touching it. He jumped back, though I saw that some of his skin had also been destroyed. He kept fighting, though, even with what must have been unbearable pain. I called Halitus back over to me, now incorporeal, and gave him a Regen orb. Unfortunately they didn't stack, but getting just one over to Aizawa-sensei would help him a lot. I had Halitus slowly levitate the ball above the villains with air pressure and over to Aizawa-sensei. But before Halitus could get it over to him, though, that... thing, the Nomu, slammed his head into the ground hard enough that blood splattered out. Even with Gamer's Mind, I was sickened with how the Nomu crushed first his injured arm, then his uninjured arm. His screams were bloodcurdling. Before Nomu could kill him, though, the warp mist guy, Watanabe, teleported in.

"Shigaraki Tomura," he said.

"What is it, Kurogiri!" Shigaraki shouted back. I figured it would be about how Iida got out, and that this would distract Shigaraki and maybe even get the villains retreat, so I made Halitus break the Regeneration on Aizawa and was about to enter an Illusion Barrier, but Tactician and Sense Danger told me that would be a bad idea. Aizawa could wait, but...

"Well then, let's at least get some of the hunt targets before we retreat," Shigaraki said before he ran with surprising speed to us. I tried to jump up to fight him, but the water hindered me a bit. Before I could get Rayne to help me, though, what I feared the most happened.

Shigaraki placed his hand on Tsu's face.

We all froze in terror, but nothing seemed to be happening. Shigaraki laughed and looked back to Aizawa, who was staring at him. "You've got a high CON stat, huh? Damn, you're amazing." Before he could say anything else, though, I activated OFA and swung at him with an eight percent punch with lightning added into it. However, Nomu just seemed to appear in front of my punch, tanking the hit. I noticed, though, that the lighting seemed to bother it. "Heh. For a kid, your level's pretty dang high," Shigaraki said.

"What?" I thought. "Can he see my level? His Quirk is Disintegration, otherwise Aizawa wouldn't have been able to stop him. Actually, he said CON and not VIT, so I guess he's just a gamer, not a Gamer."

"Meh," he said. "I've got these two. Kill the boy, Nomu." Nomu reached for my head, and Shigaraki reached for Tsu and Mineta. I doubted Aizawa would be able to use his Quirk again, so I told all of my elementals to get him away from my friends. However, I still couldn't leave my elementals behind when entering an Illusion Barrier, so I didn't see how I could...

One skill. Tactician gave me the one skill I could use to get myself away from Nomu without forsaking the others. One skill that I'd only just got and didn't even have the time to test out, yet it was perfect for my situation. As with Air Aura, I let air mana saturate my body...

A skill has been created through special action! The skill 'Elemental Embodiment' has been created through Elemental Aura reaching MAX level!

...but this time took it one step further. Before the giant fist of the Nomu could close down on my head, it dissolved, along with the rest of my body, into the air itself.

"What the actual crap!? Is this kid an Heir of Breath?" Shigaraki asked after getting blown back by a combined effort of Rayne and Halitus and then seeing me avoid Nomu by becoming air. Interestingly enough, I could hear him perfectly fine despite not having ears.

I canceled Air Embodiment because it was actually a little on the expensive side. That being said, though, it was definitely a welcome tradeoff for complete immunity to both physical damage and one element, plus the logical weaknesses and resistances of whatever element I became. "Shigaraki Tomura," Watanabe, or Kurogiri, as Shigaraki called him, said. "I believe that that is Midoriya Izuku, the discoverer of magic. If I had to guess, his Quirk facilitates the use or development of magic somehow, meaning he has the potential to become even more dangerous to our goal than All Might." I gulped. Being overestimated by a villain with control over a giant monster with a level that I couldn't even see wasn't fun.

"Higher-level threat than All Might, eh? Yeah, I don't want that. Nomu, kill the hacker." The giant monster appeared before me at a speed that made me almost completely sure that that thing had a speed-raising power. In that instant, I had an idea. Instead of trying to run or dodge, I let the punch hit. My body was splattered across the ground, which was exactly what I was planning on.

Instead of painting the floor of the USJ red with my blood, all Nomu's punch really accomplished was soaking the floor, with the exception of a perfect circle around Aizawa-sensei and the area by the water with Mineta and Tsu in it thanks to Rayne, in water that I'd made sure contained the impurities of normal water. I'd heard of inexperienced hydrogenesis Quirk users trying to use their water to conduct electricity and failing because of the way their Quirks worked making only pure water, an insulator, before and made sure that that didn't happen. "Dammit, this kid has water magic, too!?" Shigaraki yelled. "This is bullshit!" The BGM my Quirk supplied me switched to something that I felt was really fitting for the situation, so I switched it to public. "Shit, does anyone else hear anime protagonist music or is it just me?" he asked.

My hand shot out of the puddles, and I pulled myself up from the water. I didn't really have to, but with magic like mine, a little showmanship every once in a while was fun. Nomu charged at me, but I combined air and water mana to form ice magic. I was locked into using water magic when Water Embodiment was in effect, but it seemed I could partially get around that to combine it with another element if at least part of me was still flesh and blood. "Ice Beam!" I intoned as a beam of cold shot from my hand, covering Nomu in a layer of ice that I was sure it'd break out of quickly. "That thing, Nomu, it was made to kill All Might, right?"

Inside I was screaming, but on the outside I kept a mask of calm to try and intimidate them as I pulled myself fully out of the water. "I noticed when I punched it, even though I'd upped my strength a lot it wasn't hurt by the force, but at the same time it was bothered by the electricity I added in. And just now, it didn't have a counter to my ice." The Nomu broke free through sheer physical strength, tearing chunks of frozen flesh off. I noticed the wounds appeared to be healing at an increased rate. "Aside from pure muscle, of course." I froze Nomu again. "So my guess is it was tailored to fight All Might, a pure physical fighter. Shock absorption, strength on All Might's level, super healing for if All Might did manage to land a blow, that about right? But you didn't even bother to give it much special defense aside from the healing, did you?"

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Shigaraki shouted. "How the hell did a little brat manage to figure out my anti-All Might weapon like that!? Let's kill him!"

I grinned as the music reached a peak. For the second time that day, I shouted the magic words. "LIMIT BREAK!" Lightning mana surrounded my body.

"And he's got a limit break too!? Fucking hell, this kid is OP!"

"LIGHTNING BARRAGE!" I shouted, then dissolved into pure electricity and entered the water to rush the Nomu. Electricity doesn't travel anywhere near the speed of light, but it does travel a lot faster than sound in a good conductor, so at close distance I might as well have teleported. When I exited the water I traveled a lot slower, but still definitely faster than I would have normally. Despite the fact that I was energy enough to travel as a current, I was able to hit Nomu with a lightning-fast barrage of OFA-enhanced punches, Lightning Embodiment mitigating the physical damage even from my own attacks.

Even though Nomu literally couldn't touch me, I arced away when it tried to punch at me, though more to deliver some relatively light punches to Shigaraki and Kurogiri than to actually dodge the attack. I was absolutely sure to not let them touch me, on account of how they might have been able to hurt me, and went back to Nomu. I picked up where I left off with my wild charge, stopping every few milliseconds or so to take down a few more villains before returning to Nomu, until my MP reached a little under half, at which point I retreated back to Aizawa and deactivated Lightning Embodiment. Keeping my eyes on the villains, I knelt down nest to him and started using Limit Break: Healing Hands on him, focusing on his vitals and eyes.

"Damn... fucking... hackers..." Shigaraki whined. Nomu wasn't moving, the parts where I hit it were smoking. As I watched, it fell face-first.

"That kid just took out Nomu, holy crap!" one of the villains shouted.

"Fuck this shit, let's get outta here!" another villain contributed. Before they could, though, the doors slammed open.

"NEVER FEAR," a voice that I'd never been happier to hear (and that's saying something) shouted, "FOR I AM HERE!" All Might, who just then I saw for the first time in his muscle form wearing anything but his trademark smile on his face, dramatically and literally ripped off his tie, then disappeared in a blur of speed. He incapacitated several of the villains without even slowing down and stopped in front of me. "Are you okay, young Midoriya?" he asked me.

"Running a little low on MP, but I'm more worried about Aizawa-sensei," I said, now focused more on healing him because I doubted the villains would even do anything with All Might there and Nomu down. "By the way, that steaming pile of monster there was supposed to be able to kill you. While it might have been able to give you some trouble earlier, it wasn't nearly as effective against two new skills I just got."

He grinned. "Good job, young Midoriya!" Then he addressed the villains. "Now, how about you boys stand down and save us all some trouble?"

"Kurogiri, it's Game Over," Shigaraki growled. "I don't care about the minions, just use Teleport on me." Kurogiri's mist enveloped Shigaraki before even All Might could do anything, and the both of them escaped.

"That fucker left us!" a villain said. "Now how are we supposed to get out of here!?

"I'll give you two choices, in handcuffs or on a stretcher!" All Might said. "I suggest the handcuffs, there's less bruising!"

Within moments, all of the villains stood down. With that, our disaster of a field trip came to a close.

xoxoxo

A/N: Il Vento D'oro what's that never heard of it.

JO! JO! (Golden Wind!) JO! JO! (Golden Wind!)

So yeah, secondary elements. They're a combination of two primary elements. You can probably guess how tertiary elements are formed. Though I'm saying this right now, it's actually a lot easier to break down compound elements than it is to combine individual elements, with the ultimate combination, the true element of limitless bullshit, only attainable by already having affinity for it or by being granted its power by one who already has it. Izuku's just a special little snowflake who gets things backwards.

Wait now I have to do the sports festival.

#The Gamer Hero Deku #Gamer Hero Deku #GHD CH13 #fanfiction #bnha fanfiction #bnha

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notebook-13 · 4 years ago

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BNHA History

Alright! I decided to assemble what we’ve been told about how society has changed since the advent of quirks. So here’s a rough timeline + my speculation.

Distant Past

≈200 years ago

The birth of a glowing baby signaled the beginning of superpowers. Considering the tremendous chaos that followed, I think it’s likely that the onset was fairly rapid—the glowing baby was the first of a lot of people all at once born with superpowers (or, it was the first baby born with a noticeable superpower). Crime skyrocketed, the law became meaningless, humanity came apart at the seams.

Why there was such an explosion of crime and chaos hasn’t been directly addressed; presumably it’s because early metas were violently shunned as nonhuman, and because new powers entailed the opportunity to use them.

Under these conditions, All for One rose to prominence. He used his meta power to win slavish loyalty, granting powers to those who desired them and removing them from metas who rejected them. His manipulation of his devotees was so great that he didn’t need to give them orders: they anticipated his will and acted on it. He didn’t tolerate dissent and crushed those who defied him. (ch193)

AfO’s period of de facto rule is not included in history books (he persists as a myth), so it’s unlikely that he occupied an official, publicly recognized position. But his rule apparently stretches from approximately the advent of quirks till the battle of Kamino Ward. (ch59)

However, AfO’s younger brother opposed him. AfO punished him by forcing on him a “useless” power-stocking ability. This power fused with the brother’s latent ability to transfer his ability, and the brother was able to pass it on. Over the next two centuries, the OfA holders continued to pass it on, largely to whoever happened to be nearby when they were dying instead of to selected proteges. (ch59, 257)

Relatively soon after the advent of superpowers, the police foreswore using them as weapons in order to keep the trust of the public. Vigilantes emerged to fulfill this role, attempting to mete out justice, and at some point the government authorized certain people (heroes) to use their powers offensively to enforce the law. Heroes were heavily criticized at first, but they eventually developed public support thanks to their strict adherence to the law (according to police chief Tsuragamae). (ch56)

According to the bnha spinoff Vigilantes, the government classified vigilantes into heroes or villains based on public opinion of them. (ch13)

MLA Era

How long ago was the Meta Liberation Army active?

Ch232: Redestro weakly implies that Destro was born before the beginning of heroes as a profession. This early date would also coincide with writing legislation to authorize heroes to use their powers to apprehend any other meta who used their ability.

Ch238: the MLA was in hiding for generations, plural.

Ch223: Redestro states the MLA has trained for “many generations”

So…somewhere between seventy years ago and more than a hundred years ago?

Regardless of the exact dates, Destro was born into a borderline period when there was intense prejudice against metas and official effort to coexist peacefully. When his mother defended him by claiming his power was a mere “quirk,” she was killed by a mob.

Sometime later, when the government drafted legislation to (supposedly?) promote peaceful coexistence, they recalled her idea of “quirk” and tried to use it as part of their reform. Destro, now an adult, opposed this and their reform, asserting that this was not the world his mother envisioned when she’d said “quirk.” (ch232)

He rallied metas to his cause, to bar any restriction of meta ability use, and the MLA fought the government for several years before defeat. It dissolved, many of its members in jail, including Destro himself. He penned his autobiography and then killed himself. (ch218)

Post-MLA, Pre-Symbol of Peace

Unknown number of years ago

Villain: “Seems like no one’s willing to break the law nowadays. All this whining about not selling out their friends. It’s a real pain. […] Man, I miss the days before All Might came along… I was young, and this country was a way more impulsive place.” (ch57)

Yagi: “I believed that this country needed a symbol so I started dashing headlong towards that goal. A shining light…hope. A wake-up call for everyone. As I ran, I swore I’d become that sort of man. People always had these worried looks. All the heroes in the world couldn’t slow the rising crime rates. Much more than now…they were truly scared.” (ch165)

This was an apparently cutthroat, impulsive period where efforts to curb chaos continued but found limited success. Crime was on the rise, something Yagi attributed to the idea that there wasn’t anyone (a “pillar”) for people to rely on. (ch93)

≈70 years ago

When Ujiko proposed his “paranormal singularity theory,” he was roundly rejected and mocked. Due to his own struggles with housing multiple quirks, AfO recognized how prescient Ujiko’s warning was, and he reached out to recruit Ujiko. (ch270)

(Note: Ujiko’s use of “paranormal” could mean he proposed his theory before “quirk” became the standard term, meaning “quirk” could be a rather recent change of language.)

≈35 years ago

AfO killed Nana. All Might was eighteen; he subsequently went to America to complete his training.

Symbol of Peace Era

≈30 years ago – Battle of Kamino Ward

Deku: “Ever since he appeared on the hero scene, his strength has won him undisputed popularity. Every year that he’s been active has seen a marked decrease in the appearance rate of villains. His existence alone is a deterrent to villainy.” (ch2)

Gran Torino: “[Stain’s] ideals and opinions…they’re gonna get out there. On the net. In papers and magazines. On TV. This age we live in, for better or worse, is one of suppression. But mark my words—people are gonna be influenced by this.” (ch57)

Shigaraki: “It’s not crazy to imagine that someone could commit an atrocity at any given moment. So why do they smile and mingle like this? Because the laws and rules are built on their individual morality, they’re convinced that ‘No one would ever do that.’” (ch69)

Shigaraki: “The reason these fools can smile and live their lives is cuz All Might’s always got that grin on his face. Smiling wide, as if to say there’s no one he can’t save!!” (ch69)

Deku: “All Might. Was there ever a time you really couldn’t save someone…?” Yagi: “…? … Sure. Plenty of times. Right now, somewhere out in the world, someone could be hurting or dying. It sucks, but I’m only human. I can’t save people who are out of my reach… That’s why I stand tall and smile. I’m the Symbol of Justice. The citizens…heroes…villains…I need to light the way for all of them.” (ch70)

Kid: “Nowadays people expect different things from heroes than they used to. It’s all about the entertainment factor and approval ratings.” (ch144)

Shigaraki: “You heroes pretend to be society’s guardians. For generations, you pretended not to see those you couldn’t protect and swept their pain under the rug. It’s tainted everything you’ve built. That means your system’s all rotten from the inside with maggots crawling out. It all builds up, little by little, over time. You’ve got the common trash, all too dependent on being protected. And the brave guardians who created the trash that need coddling. […] I don’t care if you don’t understand. That’s what makes us heroes and villains.” (ch281)

After about two centuries of chaos, Japan achieved stability after All Might established himself as the Symbol of Peace. All Might was specifically noted to have demolished most organized crime, so that villain teams were relatively rare (ch83, 115, 125). As Shigaraki put it, now people could go about their lives confident of their safety because All Might convinced them that everything will be alright, a hero will take care of them. This was true to the extent that people would flock to the sites of hero/villain battles to take photos and videos.

Whereas, as Twice put it, if you were on the wrong side of the law, then All Might’s catchphrase “I’m here” was a curse, something to fear and loathe. Gran Torino characterized this era as an age of suppression, as in, the symptoms were suppressed, producing superficial stability, but the underlying conditions hadn’t changed.

During this period, the industry of heroism shifted to over-emphasize heroism as public entertainment, rewarding attention-grabbing stunts and PR skills over humbler virtues.

This shift inspired Stain the Hero Killer to enact a purge of unworthy heroes in order to revive true heroism. He deeply impressed society, and, despite his murders, he became a popular figure. His ideals provoked some people to question whether society’s heroes were “true heroes,” while others disregarded his ideals and simply found him cool.

During this era, 80% of the population had a quirk. Whether that statistic was stable or if it was an effect of demographics (ie, most quirkless people are elderly and almost all kids have quirks) hasn’t been specified.

This era could be separated into All Might’s Bronze, Silver, and Golden Ages, each with a different costume.

≈30 years ago

All Might debuted in Japan, and he kicked off an unprecedented era of stability.

5 years ago

All Might fought and “killed” AfO.

Age of Endeavor

Battle of Kamino Ward – Present (ch283)

HPSC: “All Might had it all…power with enough charm to win the people over. The gulf between him and the perennial runner-up was always huge… I doubt we’re gonna find someone that charismatic again anytime soon.” Mera: While we’re waiting for the next All Might, hero squads with a focus on team unity are gonna have to fill the gap. This order from up high is meant to make some headway on that front… (ch111)

Miyagi (newscaster): “If we’re being honest, I think All Might just got too big for our own good. So big that we lost sight of things. […] As for us, we shouldn’t just passively protect the status quo. Isn’t it our duty to bring back a culture of excitement around heroes?” (ch115)

Kid: “We know what’s up. Mom and dad and the TV all ask the same thing. ‘Are the heroes doing okay?’ …We know. We’re better than them!” (ch165)

Hawks: “That guy earlier, screaming ‘Long live metahuman liberation’…this [rumors of nomu sightings] is kinda like that. They republished some old-school criminal’s autobiography, and it’s flying off the shelves. I’m thinking that’s influencing people. That stuff tends to sell best when society’s feeling unstable, right?” (ch186)

Gentle: “What counts as a spectacle is a question for the current generation. We shall go to the source [UA]—the source that enchants our society.” (ch171)

Newscaster (surveying the stampede of fleeing civilians during Endeavor’s nomu battle): “This is society without a Symbol of Peace!!” Can’tcha See-kun: “Stop saying that crap already!! Open your eyes before spouting off on TV! Especially at a time like this! Look! Those flames’re still rising up! You see ’em, right?! Endeavor’s alive and fighting!! So don’t give up just cuz the other guy’s gone! There’s still a dude out there risking it all for us!! Can’tcha see?!” (ch189)

Kuraishisu (newscaster): “In the past, a situation like this [the destruction of Deika City], where heroes were forced to make a difficult call, would have earned those same heroes criticism, but I suspect we may be witnessing a critical turning point in this era. A large-scale shift in opinion from criticism to passionate support.” Uraraka: “Feels like everything’s different ever since the ‘Can’tcha See kid’ did his thing.” Ashido: “It’s all cuz Endeavor kicked butt!” Mt. Lady: “Y’think the future’s bright? Not so fast!! It might seem like the winds of good fortune are blowing our way, but if you stop and think about the flip side of all this…it’s actually coming from a sense of urgency—it’s a response to danger! These cheers for the conquering heroes are really prayers—a plea that we emerge victorious! They’ve had enough of the showbiz side of heroism and want us to prove our worth for real now!” (ch241)

Mineta: “Not too long ago, she didn’t give a crap about anything except being on camera…” Aizawa: “Mt. Lady’s not the only one who has changed. Every hero out there is being pulled up by the number one’s rising ride.” (ch241)

After All Might retired, uncertainty gripped Japan as people wondered what would happen now. A strong consensus agreed that Endeavor wasn’t suited to fill All Might’s boots, something reflected in how the crime rate went up 3% in the month after Kamino, and reflected in how people suddenly became interested in reading the MLA ideology of rejecting heroes and protecting themselves.

During Endeavor’s battle against the nomu, the press attributed the public’s frantic stampede—ignoring heroes trying to guide evacuation—to the public’s lack of trust in Endeavor (and heroes generally) now that All Might was gone. Public trust improved after the nomu battle, especially thanks to Can’tcha See-kun.

Within a month after the battle, expectations shifted. People had enough of showbiz heroism and wanted the heroes to walk the talk and protect the public against villains, to the extent that comfortable armchair criticism was replaced a passionate support driven by fear of villains.

Miscellaneous Questions

When did “hero” become a recognized profession?

When did the hero ranking system begin?

When did the celebrity culture around heroes develop?

When did “quirk” come into common use?

How old is Yagi? How long ago did he debut in Japan and begin the era of peace?

How old is AfO? How long after the advent of quirks did he come to power?

When did AfO recruit Machia?

When were the nomu invented?

When did humanity pass the point of quirk singularity? (ch193)

#bnha #reference #worldbuilding #bnha meta #bnha manga spoilers

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