What Does It Mean To Be A Hero...?

Chapter 17 - What Does It Mean To Be A Hero...?

Pain, lots and lots of mental pain. The equivalent of having several migranes at the same time with a hangover to add insult to injury. A pain that seemed to split the brain into two equal pieces while burning it as well. This was what the purple haired boy named Shinsou had prepared himself for. A pain that he knew would come as soon as he pushed himself beyond the limit. The pain was just the part that he would have control over, the rest of his plan was up to chance.

He'd lied to his two classmates about what he had in store. A white lie that would be understandable to them in a few moments when the ship finally went fully under the surface of the water. A shark themed villain had gone through the side of the ship a few seconds previously and now the situation had gone sideways in the most 'Titanic' way imaginable. For some reason this was the same villain who'd tried to make Shinsou into a meal.

"Shinsou? Does the plan still hold?" The girl with the ear jack quirk asked him with concern as she saw the boat quickly submerged. The 'plan' that had been put into place much earlier had been for Shinsou to use his quirk in order to control one of the villains and have them fight on his behalf. It would have worked to if it hadn't been for the sheer number of villains present. Now, he would have to place his own plans before theirs.

If he'd been taught anything in his short time of being in the hero course, it was that heroes put the needs of others above their own. Right now he needed to ensure the safety of both of his classmates even if it came at the expense of his own well being. Hopefully he would be able to get through this along with them.

The water was quickly raising and Shinsou sighed knowing what he was about to do and of how unethical it was. He was about to use his quirk in just the way that his former classmates had talked about so often. This is for their ensured safety, they probably will never trust me again after this...it's an immense betrayal of the trust that they put in me, but I had no better alternative...I hope that they'll understand...

"Jirou, Asui…" He spoke clearly and activated his cursed quirk as he awaited for their response. It was extremely difficult for him to do this, but he knew that it was necessary. He closed his eyes and put his fingers to his nose as he waited for what would be the start of his plan.

Both of them turned to him and gave a small 'yes?' in recognition of him speaking. It was also what Shinsou needed to send his plan into motion. The small response that would also lead to a fracture in class 1-A, one that would have to dealt with later.

As soon as the response came out of their mouths, they lost all control of their own bodies. They remained aware of their surroundings, yet they were in the co-pilot seat, nothing they told their bodies to do happened, they were incapable of the movement that they desired. It was up to Shinsou to instruct them what to do now, whether they wanted to or not, and they very clearly didn't want to.

"I'm very sorry for doing this….I know that it is an unacceptable use of my quirk but it is needed to ensure the wellbeing of both of you...now, Asui take Jirou and as soon as I give you a signal I want you to jump away from here and as close to land as possible. Don't look back, and try to find the rest of the class. Once you have found them, you are to return to your own devices and may do as you wish…" The trench coat wearing hero smiled sadly as he gave these instructions and then headed back to the edge of the ship as his classmates went onto the roof of the ship.

Just from hearing him, the two young heroines could tell that the apology that Shinsou had given was insincere. He believed himself to be in the right, even if what he was a doing wasn't. Shinsou believed that the 'ends' truly justified the 'means' even if his classmates didn't.

In the back of his mind, the hypnotic teen began to feel the strain of controlling more than one individual at the same time. It felt like a rubber band being stretched out, except that the rubber band was his mind and if it broke then so would he.

He'd only ever done what he was planning to do once before, and it ended with him in the hospital…After trying to pull this trick on his class the previous year in order to get them to be quiet, he'd almost gone into a coma from the mental strain that he'd put himself in. After this, his class shunned him for what he'd attempted to do...now he'd try to do the same thing to many villains who looked to be easily irritable.

"Hello aquatic dumbasses! Isn't hilarious how you aren't any more than glorified goldfish?" Hitoshi almost never resorted to crude language but he would have to make exceptions in order to get a response out of them as soon as possible . "I mean you were forced to sit in the water till a group of first years came...not even a hero like Eraserhead…now that you think about it…not even the full class just three children...how sad..." There were a handful of grumbles within the water.

"Just wait till your ship sinks!" One of the fish themed villains took his bait and fell under his thrall while his comrades remained unaware. This added more strain to Shinsou's mental state and began with the small pressure that was just behind his eyes. This was the first sign of the troubles, the strain behind his eyes was always a sure sign.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you guys were here to be disposable henchmen before I was allowed to take on a real villain…Are you guys just second rate losers " Calling them 'henchmen' angered the villains located in the water quite a bit. To be called 'second rate' by a child was a lot more than enough for most of them to lose their cool and begin yelling obscenities at the UA student.

Another mind under his control, and another, and then another. Each one was another weapon in his arsenal to use against the remainder of the villains. Each was an individual that he would be forced to account for the remainder of this attack. Yet, not every single one of these minds under his control was going to help him. Yes, he gained more power with each mind, but he also lost much of what kept him calm and collected. Now he was beginning to have his mind clouded by the pain that came, lose himself in it.

He stumbled and caught himself against the wall as he attempted to regain the balance he was quickly losing. His head was exponentially gaining pain and the rest of his body was trying to cope with it. His vision was just starting to see in two's, his mouth was beginning to get dry, and….his nose was bleeding profusely. This was the second sign that he was beginning to succumb to the symptoms.

Oh….this is going to be very bad really quickly. My head...I can't worry about myself anymore...time to bring in the main game…timing is going to be the most important here.

The lone hero student signaled to his two classmates to leave by a wave of a hand and….the two students that were under his current control jumped from the top of the boat and away from the obvious problems here. The villains in the water who weren't under his control looked at the students who left but payed very attention to them. What they wanted to do was hurt the kid who'd insulted their honor.

The next moment Shinsou began his assault on the villains using their small amount of distraction from the previous student's departure. This is going to be a very fun thing to watch, also extremely painful and….the water is at my feet and they aren't going to go after my classmates. This is good...I hope they understand….this was all for the greater good...

"ATTACK NOW!" The teenage lone hero yelled at the top of his lungs and watched the scene unfold as his mind began to tear itself apart. The bleeding only worsening as he put more strain on himself in maintaining this many people. It fell into the water and Shinsou could see that the shark villain was being driven into a frenzy.

In the water, comrade turned on comrade. The villains who weren't under Shinsou's control were shocked for a moment, but gave no mercy as they dealt with their similarly interested peers. A bite out of one villain, a fist made of water hitting another, the stabbing of a spear into another. This was the real world, and in the real world people did what they needed to do in order to survive.

These weren't the villains that Shinsou had occasionally seen on the street doing some petty crime like shoplifting or purse snatching. They knew what they wanted to accomplish here today and they weren't going home till they'd done so. This meant that no punches were being held back as they turned on each other. It also indicated that Shinsou's complete control over the villains went away the instant that they suffered pain. A small bump in the road that he paid little mind to, they were out of the fight so it didn't matter much if they couldn't attack him.

The boy now had the water resting at his waist, now was the time to find a better place than to be in the middle of the action. This was more and more difficult as the pain worsened by each detaching consciousness from him. He'd put himself in an extreme amount of pain by gaining so much power, now he was going to gain even more by losing that same power.

As he continued blankly staring at the villains, he realized that the side that was under his control was winning, or as much as winning could count. They had more people on their side you were still conscious and might even make it out of this with strength in numbers. This was looking up for him he...a huge wave formed itself about twenty feet from the almost completely sunken ship.

The purple haired teen wiped the blood off his nose with his coat and tried to come up with some plan as quickly as possible. This was almost impossible due to his current mental state, but he was able to do so anyway. This wasn't something that could work in his favor, but he would make it so...

"You…" he pointed towards the shark like villain who had almost taken a bite out of him earlier and had also caused his plans to be changed suddenly. In fact this villain was causing many problems for him. "...would be amazing as sushi…or maybe toss you into an aquarium where you could be useful and actually do your job right…" In this stage of pain there seemed little that he could do to come up with clever pokes that would lead to a response.

The 'fish' grit his teeth and came straight at the boy without any intent at being non-lethal. He only missed meals once, the second time was to fix what he had been unable to do during the first. With the water on his side there was no way that he would be able to miss the kid, not without having his fun first.

If it weren't for the small amount of boat still available to him, Shinsou would surely have been a meal. The blood spilling from his nose was an added bonus as it drove the villain mad simply by being so close to it, clouding his thinking by wanting to be near it. Enough for Shinsou to exploit and use his quirk once more, despite the immense disadvantages that he would be placing himself under.

"You know what's the best part about being a shark?' He sidestepped the sudden launch from his opponent. "Well I wouldn't know since I'm not a shark but I would presume that you can actually sympathize with the sharks from all those old Jaws movies...you know the one's where the sharks die….unless you're really a fish in disguise" Realizing the insult, the villain tried to take a bite out of him again this time catching his coat and tearing a good bit off…

"You are a fu-" His eyes glazed over and Shinsou smiled...the blood from his nose coming into his mouth and causing his teeth to have a red appearance. His victory was short lived as the wave rocked the boat and began to capsize it…he saw another wave forming in the distance and knew that it was time to leave.

"Get me as far away from here as you can…away from the wave and to land." He then fell onto the villains back and saw as the blood dripped from his face onto the shark's head….oh the irony of the situation..

The shark villain waited no more as he launched himself into the water and away from the wave. Shinsou was able to look back and realize that there wasn't a way that he would be unable to avoid this second wave even if he wanted to. It was simply to big and moving too fast for him to maintain control of the situation.

The boy saw the giant wave of water mow down both groups of villains. The more sudden explosive pain in his skull began to make him tired….very tired. He was beginning to lose consciousness pretty soon and with the villain next to him there was no way that he was going to let him go back to his own devices.

"Villain, lose consciousness now!" Although this shouldn't have worked, the shark quirk user instantly went out as if his strings had been clipped. This left Hitoshi Shinsou alone in the water for a mere second before he was hit by the full force of the wave.

Here he lost his concentration, and rapidly attempted to swim back to the surface. He broke through the surface and took a rapid breath before being pushed down under by another wave. Apparently the villain who had created the few previous waves was still trying to deal with the rest of his former comrades. Now, none of them knew who they could trust and so chose to not trust any of the remaining standing people.

At this point he was beginning to get really tired and his lungs were beginning to bring him pain. His arms were tired, so were his legs and mind. Every part of him had been drained of its energy in order for him to maintain his quirk for as long as he did. It was done, the villains in the water region were now dealt with, his classmates were safe and now he was tired.

There was almost no time that he had thought that he would go out this way. Sure his death as a hero had often come to mind, but certainly it wasn't like this. He'd wanted to go out in a more memorable way...fighting his arch-nemesis on the steps of a government office was what he'd expected when he was a younger...but….this might just do fine if he was being honest….he'd done what he wanted to…

You were a hero...no matter what anyone might have said in the past….you were a hero in this one moment in time….they'll remember you as such...now you can go and do whatever people do when they die…hopefully the living here don't miss me too much...or who knows….

Hitoshi Shinsou closed his eyes and proceeded to lose consciousness. His grip on the situation was lost and everything was out of his control now. He had given his classmates a good head start but no true hero would abandon another hero. This is why it wasn't a surprise when a certain frog form quirk wielding girl broke through the water a few moments later.

Don't stop running, whatever you feel, however much pain you put yourself through, no matter how much your legs want to give in...you cannot afford the luxury of stopping your legs. Your classmates stood by your side as you ran for the door and went to get help. I can't let their efforts go to waste I can't fail them…now just keep on running…

Running down the same path that they had taken an hour earlier, Iida put himself to the limit. He was pushing himself beyond that which he had before, just on a whole different level. His legs screamed, his lungs struggled to find air, but he could not stop. No matter what he felt, he knew that right now his peers from class 1-A were risking their lives and trying to fight back against the villains. From where he stood on the top of the stairs he'd been able to make out small signs of battles all through the USJ.

Now that he was out he only had one goal in mind, reach UA and find help as soon as humanly possible. It was a job that would have been better suited for Midoriya to do given his far superior speed. He probably would have been there within a minute and back to help as well. At least that's what Tenya Iida believed at the current moment.

If only Midoriya had been at the top instead of me….he would have stopped the villain before anyone could get hurt...he could've gotten us the help that he needed...if he was standing where I was instead...this would have all played out differently and we would've been out of this situation….but he would probably say that we can't focus on what could've been…I need to get help now!

He continued running just the way that Midoriya had corrected him...his arms at his sides pumping to make him more efficient. It was all in an effort to get there as he possibly could. No matter how long it took him or if he killed himself in the effort, he would know that he tried his best to get help.

Realizing that it would be unpractical for him to follow public roads and remain off other people's property, the engine quirked boy lost his normally elite attitude and went through the fastest path imaginable. He crossed through people's lawns, over cars and didn't stop once. He knew that there would be complaints by the general population later but not right now. Right now it was about getting the help, that was his first priority.

He pushed himself to the point of breaking. Every muscle in his legs and arms felt as if they were burning. His lungs were still trying to get a complete breath but he saw that he really didn't need to. In the distance he was able to see the giant gate of UA that had been replaced since its disintegration yesterday. With his eyes set on a goal he was able to come up with the energy that he needed in order to push through the pain.

Realizing that he didn't have his student identification of him, Iida knew that he would never be able to get through the massive gate at the speed that he was going at. It would surely end with him colliding with the side of it or possibly being crushed by the massive piece of metal.

Well...there is only one speed at which I can go in order to cross….I hope it'll work...Stopping just outside of the detection of the gate, Iida prepared his feet for what he had to be done. He felt the heating up of his calf engines and the slow buildup for what was ultimately his strongest and most effective technique.

In what appeared to be an instant, the boy used the move that he liked to call 'recipro burst'. He burst through the barrier and was well beyond the limits of the gate before it even began to come down. Panting, he collapsed onto the floor unable to take a further step. His burst had fried his legs and there wasn't anything else that he could do.

I've got to keep moving...have to find someone who can help them...if I can't walk, then I'll find another way to get where I want to go...picking himself onto all fours, the teen slowly began to crawl to the main building where he would surely find someone who could reach help if he couldn't.

"Hey, are you alright?" Looking up all that he could see was the shade of someone quite large. The sun was in his eyes and thus he could not make out more features than the blond hair or the large smile plastered right on the person's face. A really friendly person by the looks of it.

"Help…USJ...villain attack...need help…too many" His lungs were still trying to regain the air that had been withheld from them which resulted in the boy's inability to speak clearly.

"Wait! What do you mean by a villain attack?" Before Iida could respond, the being did something of immense power. Punching the ground with a quirk that was easily a strength enhancement, Tenya Iida realized that he was more likely than not talking to All Might...The responding sound that came from that was pretty hard to miss, even if one was unable to hear. The resulting crater was one of immense size and could easily be used as a pool if one wanted to.

"Wait here and help will come, tell them what you told me and they'll bring reinforcements….now, I have a class of first years to save…" With nothing else, the being of immense power jumped cleanly over the UA gate without any signs of difficulty. They were going to get help….he'd done it...he'd run as fast as he needed to….

Removing his knight-like helmet, all Iida could do was wait for a teacher or student to come and get him now. You did it, you actually did it….What will Tensei say when he hears of what I've done….will this be enough to make him proud….I think that it is. I think that today this my part of being a hero…

Some time passed and Iida was unable to tell exactly how much of it really was, the fatigue had really gotten to him. A few dozen meters away the boy, as he still technically was, saw the clearly worried figure of something. It was obviously a teacher as no one else could've gotten into the school. It also couldn't be a student as this person wore a yellow suit which was against school policy of uniforms. Whoever they were, this person would get him the help that was needed by the students.

This is good...if I can get the teacher's help than they could go and help All Might with the vi-...wait a second….t-t-that's All Might...This person in the yellow suit is All Might! Then who went to go help the rest of my class…?

"Hello Young Iida! Why are you here and why is there a crater next to you?"The Symbol of Peace said this with a smile and looked at the clearly drained boy. The blood drained from the first year's face as he began trying to answer the questions….things were going to get very interesting….very interesting indeed...