The Road to Greatness: One Quirk at a Time - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Chapter 1

My name is Monoma Neito, though it wasn't always. You see, this is my second life that I was born into a little over fifteen years ago. I've no idea how, or why, but I was born into a world that was believed to be fiction in my last life. A world known as My Hero Academia.

For a world I used to believe was fictional, living in it wasn't actually too bad. Uh, once I got over the existential terror of living in a world filled to the brim with people who had super powers. That fear really took a nosedive once my own Quirk manifested. I half expected to get a different Quirk than the Neito in the story I knew did. I didn't. I got his original Quirk with all is awesomeness and flaws.

My kick ass uber powerful Quirk is Copy. With a single touch, even the lightest touch of someones hair, I can copy their Quirk. It doesn't matter what kind of Quirk it is either. Emitter, Transformation, Mutation, I can copy and use them all. Sadly, fate saw fit to limit such an amazing ability.

First, I can only hold four copied Quirks at once. I can choose to 'forget' any Quirk I've copied at any time to snag another, but I can never hold more than four at a time.

Second, I can only use one copied Quirk at a time. Sadly, that means I can't copy a Fire-type and an Air-type then combine them together for an even more powerful effect. However! This doesn't stop my copied Quirks from interacting after they've been used. For example, if I had a Quirk that let me spew oil and a Quirk that lets me use Fire, I could spew some oil out and set it on fire easily.

Third, I can only hold a copy of a Quirk for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, I can no longer use the Quirk and 'forget' it. I can, of course, touch the same person once again and copy their Quirk once more for another thirty minutes. It's taken me eleven years worth of effort to push my Quirk up from the original two minutes it could work to the current thirty minutes. I'm sure I can push it further, but it will take more time and effort on my part. Though, no matter how hard I try to hold onto the Quirk, it slips away after exactly thirty minutes.

Still, even with all its limitations, I am convinced that my Quirk is second only to All For One, the only Quirk I know of that can steal someones Quirk permanently. Frankly, just remembering that monster made me afraid that he would somehow find out about me and try to steal my Quirk. Until I realized he would only see all the major flaws of my Quirk, it's limitations, and wouldn't be interested. He can permanently steal Quirks, why would my ability to temporarily copy Quirks even remotely interest him?

Yeah, I had a few existential crisis events growing up. I got over them. I mean, why wouldn't I? I'm a good looking guy, in my humble opinion, and about to take the entrance exam for the greatest hero school on the planet. I can't help looking up at the sign that triggered my reminiscing. A giant sign proclaiming the school in front of me to be Yuuei Hero Academy.

I hitch my bag up on my shoulder to make it more comfortable and take my first step onto the paved pathway leading to my future. A sense of excitement and trepidation fill my being. How could I not be excited about going to school to become a hero?! Every child growing up wanted to be a superhero in both of my lives. It's just that in the first life I lived, superheroes were fiction. In this life I had true role models to live up to, like All Might.

The trepidation came from knowing some of the future of this world. I hadn't been the biggest MHA fan in my last life so I didn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of what the future held. I only watched three or four seasons of the series. Anything beyond that was as much a mystery to me as it was to anyone else in this world. Minus a few random snippets I saw in Youtube videos or had friends mention. Even then, what I do know is enough to terrify and excite me.

Terrify because Nomu's, Shigaraki, and other villains. Excite because... Well, I really want to meet that first Nomu in person. Really, really badly.

I shake off my, once again, distracted thoughts and make my way onto the school campus. It's easy enough to find where I need to go. Not only did they mail me directions and instructions after I applied, but there were signs on campus as well. Nice.

-----Line Break-----

The first phase was an above average difficulty written exam that took a few hours with only one break. Piece of cake. I studied like no bodies business. I may have slacked my way through school in my first life, but in this one I put in a ton of effort just for this moment. It was nothing special. No, the special test is about to start now.

The combat practical.

Leading up to this point was a little pow wow in the school auditorium where Present Mic explained the rules. Complete with Ida Tenya scolding Midoriya Izuku for mumbling. That poor blue haired bastard had such a large stick up his ass it was no wonder he moved in stiff robotic fashion.

Regardless, that's over and I'm currently standing in front of the gate to the testing area. Looking around I can see some familiar faces, but none of their names come to mind. I think some of them were in class B... Oh! That purple hair and surly look! I recognize that guy! His Quirk was Brainwashing, right? Such a cool Quirk!

I take some time to adjust the clothing I've chosen for the test. It's nothing special, sweat pants to keep my legs loose and free, a tank top that shows off my muscular arms, and a nice pair of sneakers with good solid grip to help maintain my balance when moving. As I look myself over, I trace my left hand fingers over some tiny slit like scars on my right upper arm fondly.

These scars are the secret to my future success!

“AAAAAAND START!”

Immediately I switch to my game face as I blast into the air and fly through the barely opened doors to the testing ground. I blast through the air until I find my target, a three pointer. As soon as I get close I swap out my flight Quirk for Tactile Technopathy. I land on the robot and immediately slap my entire hand onto its armor and connect with it mentally. It's the work of second to reprogram the machine to be my loyal minion.

I can't hold back on my laughter as the machine rears back and focuses on a two pointer, “Target acquired. Exterminating.”

Missiles were immediately launched from the massive launchers on its back and destroyed the two pointer while I continued to cackle.

It wasn't over though! I swapped to another Quirk, Molecular Fortification. A simple Quirk that permanently enhances the molecular structure of objects to make them more durable. How durable depends on the material. In the case of metal? It can make plain iron as hard as tempered steel. The robot, with steel armor, was now significantly more durable than its brethren.

I still wasn't done! I switched to yet another Quirk and, thanks to still touching the machine, used Speed Boost to enhance how fast the machine could move. There were some limitations to Speed Boost, which is why I used it last. The biggest limitation is it requires touch to affect anything but myself.

With all the modifications and buffs to my little minion, it became a true monster and began to relentlessly slaughter its way through the other robots. Even when it ran out of missiles it was capable of just ramming the other robots to death using its superior speed and durability.

I maaaaay have been laughing like a mad man villain while watching Minion destroy his brothers.

-----Line Break-----

In a dark room the current teaching staff of Yuuei watched several large monitors that showed off the various testing grounds and the students within them. They couldn't see everything happening, naturally, but they were getting a decent overview of events as they switched through the various camera feeds. A more in depth examination of the footage would come after the tests were over.

Nezu, the Principal of Yuuei, sat in his little chair sipping on a cup of tea as he watched on particular monitor that featured a rather interesting examinee. He'd first had his attention drawn to the young man when he, literally, flew through the entrance of the city block and straight to a three pointer.

This gathered his attention since no other student had charged in and flight type Quirks were rather rare. His curiosity only grew when he pulled up the students information and found out that his Quirk was not flight but rather the ability to copy other Quirks temporarily.

That begged the question, who did he copy the flight Quirk from since no other student in his block had such a Quirk. His curiosity only grew when he watched the potential student commandeer one of the three pointers and send it on a rampage against the other nearby robots. A rather twisted smile grew on his face, “Hoh? Power Loader, check out channel 2232.”

Power Loader, a rather short man with an excavator bucket on his head, did as Nezu asked. He watched as the three pointer smashed a two pointer into spare parts and whistled, impressed. It wasn't often that his little guys were taken over by an examiner. He quickly typed a few commands into his own computer and whistled again, “He's completely cut off all of my access to the bot.” As he watched the 'traitor' bot move extremely fast and easily smash another three pointer to scrap, he frowned, “That's not right.”

Nezu glanced over for an explanation, which Power Loader provided, “It's too fast and durable. All the robots are the same, so two three pointers smashing into each other like that should lead to mutual destruction. Yet the one the kid is riding is crushing the others like tin cans. What the hell is his Quirk?”

Nezu sipped his tea to build suspense before answering, “Copy. With a touch he can copy anyone's Quirk for a limited time.” His beady eyes focused back on the monitor where the three pointer Neito had commandeered finally sputtered out and died, “The problem is. He's not touched a single other participant and none of the students in his cohort have Quirks like what he's shown. So where did they come from?”

That comment immediately drew the attention of everyone. Though certain individuals in the know, looked even more concerned. The ability to copy Quirks was rare. The ability to use multiple Quirks was, extremely rare. Being able to do both? A one in billions, if not trillions, ability. One that sent a small spike of dread through the heart of a thin man with long blond hair standing in the back of the room.

Nezu, seeming to sense the disquiet of his newest teacher, glanced over his shoulder at the shrunken form of the number one hero, All Might, before commenting, “We'll have to pull him in for an interview after the test to make sure there's no... improprieties.”

All Might gave Nezu a small nod of appreciation then refocused his attention on the monitor in front of himself. He was only really interested in a single student taking the current exam. It didn't look good as his chosen successor had yet to earn a single point. He had, in fact, been running around accomplishing nothing for the last several minutes. He didn't doubt his choice... but he would be lying if he said he wasn't worried. It would be possible for him to get Midoriya-shounen into the hero course regardless. He would just prefer there be no nepotism.

Nezu returned to his viewing of the various students. He was intrigued by what he'd seen Monoma Neito do, but he had a whole school to run and classes to fill out. He couldn't afford to focus all of his attention on a single student.

-----Line Break-----

I may have... pouted a bit when minion ended up broken after body checking one too many other three pointers. Molecular fortification might have made it more durable, but it wasn't invincible. Still, I had my fun as a mastermind, now it was time to try out some other tactics. Additionally, other students had finally arrived at the area I'd occupied and I was keeping my eyes open for any chances as earning myself some rescue points.

I flew up into the air and activated another Quirk. Of course, activating another Quirk meant I lost my means of flight immediately and began falling. The thing is, the new Quirk I activated changed my perception of time, simply named Time Perception Manipulation. With it I could change how fast, or slow, I perceived time. With it active and speeding up my perception of time massively, the whole world seemed to come to a stop.

Granted, it only boosted my perception so I couldn't move faster, or even look around faster since my eyes couldn't move that fast. Some might consider it a pretty crappy ability. But I thought it was amazing. It was basically a pause button I could use any time I wished. I might not be able to move, but I could still think, still plan, and still process the things I could see. In this case, I was high in the air and looking down at the entire city block below me.

From this position I could see the majority of the other students, paused in their actions, and choose my next course of action. Seriously, this underestimated Quirk was one of my absolute favorites! It made studying anything a piece of cake! I could boost my perception and take my sweet ass time reading two entire pages of a book. Even if it took me a minute in perceived time, it was less than a second in real time. I was the worlds fastest speed reader... Okay, I was actually tied with the guy who was born with the Quirk. He got a job as an editor for a book publisher and loved every moment of it. Also, tests were sooooo much easier with nigh infinite time to think about your answer.

I studied the field and made my plans. I could see a few people getting in over their heads and I had just the tool to help them all out. I canceled the perception Quirk and swapped back to my flight Quirk. Well, technically, it isn't flight. It's actually a telekinesis Quirk, though a relatively weak one with a hard limit on it. I can only lift a maximum of one ton at a time. If I try to lift anything more, it will give me a splitting headache, and if the object is heavy enough it will even burst blood vessels in my nose.

Not fun.

Still, one ton is a good amount of weight and the utility of any kind of kinesis ability cannot be underestimated. With the one I have I can fly, lift heavy weight, even project a field around my body to act like armor. A splitting headache and bloody nose is worth being able to stop even a high caliber bullet.

With my Minor Telekinesis Quirk reactivated, I immediately shot through the air in a specific pattern taking the shortest route to the three different people in trouble. The first was being overwhelmed by a three pointer pushing him to the ground. For that one I ripped the three pointer's arms and shoulders off, drastically reducing its weight and letting the trapped guy out.

The next on my flight path was a girl surrounded by one pointers. It was taking everything she had to protect herself from being shot with their rubber bullets. She was using a manhole cover as a makeshift shield. When I got close enough I thrust my hand down and pancaked half of the one pointer's heads, flimsy as they were, and left the rest for her. I was certain it would reflect well on me that I didn't steal all of her points. Besides, I'm generous like that.

The last one was another girl. She looked absolutely exhausted and was trying to escape a pair of two pointers that were chasing her down. When I was close enough, I dropped down between her and the robots, making sure to do a classy hero landing! She turned in surprise but I didn't pay attention to her. Instead I swapped to another Quirk. Though someone looking in from the outside probably couldn't tell the difference between it and Telekinesis.

Magnetic Manipulation.

Using it I ripped the two one pointers into shreds. I loved this Quirk since it reminded me of Magneto. The issue was, it had a severely limited range of only ten meters. Even a single millimeter past that limit and I couldn't interact with anything. This severely limited what the Quirk was capable of. I'm also pretty certain it's nowhere near as powerful as the comic book villains Mutant gene was.

Still totally bad ass though!

The girl gives me some quick thanks before taking off. I don't pay it much attention as I use my magnetic ability to pick up scraps of steel and start forming them together. I force the pieces to twist and distort into my desired shape, sharpened spikes. It takes a lot of effort and by the time I have forged ten spikes, I'm left sweating and panting for breath. Using that much strength drained my stamina pretty good. But, it's alright. I got more to give.

I switch back to telekinesis and pick up all ten spikes. Together they weight a little over five hundred kilos, a little more than half of the maximum weight I can lift. This lets me fly straight into the air carrying all of them with me.

It's only a moment later that I flick my wrist and launch one of the spikes into a lone three pointer. With the power of telekinesis and gravity assisting, the sharp metal spike easily pierces through the machine and destroys it.

As I turn to look for another target, the world begins to vibrate as the Zero Pointer finally makes itself known. I can't help the broad, probably arrogant, grin that spreads across my face at the sight of the gigantic metal monstrosity. I quickly change my perception of time to give myself some time to look it over and decide how I want to take it down.

I know I don't have to take it down and I don't have the Dues Ex Machina of a girl in need to rescue to score me tons of rescue points...

Okay, serious talk. I'm one hundred percent sure that All Might had something to do with Midoriya getting that many rescue points for helping Uraraka. No matter how 'heroic' it was to save her, saving just a single person, even from the Zero Pointer, shouldn't be worth so many points. So. Either taking out the Zero Pointer automatically grants maximum rescue points, or All Might flexed a bit and nepotism once more won the day.

Otherwise, Uraraka should have totally gotten maximum Hero Points for literallysaving Midoriya's life. He shattered three limbs and only had one left to tryand save himself. If she hadn't slapped the stupid out of him, he probably would have either died, or been seriously injured from his landing. On top of his self inflicted injuries, a head injury was more than likely since he would have had no arms or legs to even try to stop his fall with.

As for me? I can fucking fly and have long range attacks. Of course... I suppose I could try and reprogram it with my Tactile Technopathy... Zero Pointer becomes super rescue bot? Hell yeah!

With my mind made up, I swap back to Telekinesis and time resumes around me. I catch the spikes that just began falling before I launch myself at high speed toward the Zero Pointer and land on its head effortlessly, depositing my metal spikes nearby. A quick Quirk swap and a slap of my hand allows my mind to dive into the machine. I frown as my mind instantly slams into a pretty powerful firewall protecting the main programming of the big machine.

See, Technopathy doesn't automatically make it so I can control any machine I touch. It depends on the defenses the machine has. The smaller bots had minimal programming and no protections. They were essentially metal punching bags meant to be broken to pieces. This big mother though? Oh no, it was a true blue war machine. Seriously. With a quick swap of weapons it would make a towering weapons platform.

Course, that's not including what Quirks like mine or Midoriya's could do to it. Lesser Quirks, like ninety percent of the people taking this exam, couldn't do piss all to this behemoth. With that in mind, protecting its programming made a whole lot of sense.

Just as I started to dig into the firewall and look for a weakness, the Zero Pointer seemed to notice my presence. Its head began to shake violently as it tried to throw me off. Unable to keep my balance, I was forced to swap back to my telekinesis Quirk and take to the air while snagging up the remaining nine metal spikes I'd made, “Fine, you want to do this the hard way? I can do the hard way!”

I flip through the air and fly around to the face of the machine. It's red camera eyes focus on me as its massive arms start to come up in a clear attempt to smash me between them. I waste no time in launching eight of my nine spikes into its eight massive red eyes. Propelled by the force of my Quirk, the spikes shatter and destroy all of the bots eyes, completely blinding it.

With its vision gone, I immediately fly towards it's neck. As soon as I can touch it, I swap to my Magnetic Manipulation Quirk once more. See, Telekinesis is far more versatile with a much larger range, but its weaker than Magnetic Manipulation. With a grunt, I curl my hands into fists as I focus on crushing or twisting the pistons, gears, and other mechanics that allow the robot to move and rotate its head.

It takes a lot of energy, but I pull it off in just a few seconds of effort. The robots head immediately sags as it loses all ability to control it. With the head loosened, I focus once again and grab it in my magnetic grip. I take a deep breath and let out a shout as I make a twisting motion with my hands. The robot's head mimics my hands forcing it to twist in a complete three sixty that completely destroys anything holding it on the body.

I watch in complete satisfaction as the robots head slumps, and then lets out a loud groan of metal on metal as it tumbles off of the neck and falls to the ground, completely decapitated.

“TIMES UP! THIS TEST IS OVER!”

I let out a soft sigh and jumped off of the broken Zero Pointer, catching myself with Telekinesis and floating down to the ground. A lot of the other people taking the test were staring at me in awe of the display I'd given. I couldn't help preening under their looks of shock and awe. With a bright smile I walked toward the exit of the testing area.

Today was a hell of a good day.

-----Line Break-----

I stepped out of the locker room, once more in my civilian wear of jeans and a t-shirt with a nice pair of sneakers. Hanging from my shoulder was my bag with my used outfit from the test in it. As I exited, I heard a rough voice call out, “You, Monoma.”

I stopped and turned, coming face to face with Aizawa... erm, what was his first name again? I can't remember, but it doesn't matter. He's the pro hero Eraser Head and the homeroom teacher for class 1-A. He's rather... plain. Long shaggy black hair, dark eyes, scruffy face, and all black clothing. The exception being the special over sized gray scarf he has wrapped around his neck. As I give him my once over, he continues, “Follow me. The principal wants to see you.”

I nod and begin to follow Aizawa, ignoring the students looking at the pair of us in confusion. I hear one or two forgettable guys questioning if I'd cheated or something. Part of me couldn't help wondering if they would consider what I'd done cheating since I hadn't registered any support equipment. I mean... technically what I did doesn't use any equipment?

Aizawa doesn't give me any clues as he silently leads me through the school until we arrive at Nezu's office. He gives a single knock before opening the door and letting himself in. I follow behind him and get my first, in person, look at Nezu. He's... kind of adorable honestly.

“Am I a bear? A mouse? A dog? I'm the principal!”

I can't help grinning at the classic opening line, “And I'm Monoma Neito. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Principal.”

Nezu smiles and takes a seat at his little desk on his little chair. After adjusting the lapels of his suit, he fixes me with a firm look, “Can you guess why I might have wished to see you Monoma-san?”

I nodded, “Pretty sure you want to know how I was doing the things I did. You have access to my Quirk Registry right?” At Nezu's nod I continued, “So you know my Quirk is Copy and that, with the lightest of touches, I can copy any Quirk.”

Nezu nodded once more, “Which is why we found it... troubling that you were using multiple Quirks without having touched a single student taking the exam with you.”

I nodded, “And you're wondering how that's possible, correct?”

Nezu nods his head, “Correct.”

“Well, it's simple really. I was touching people with Quirks. Or at least, part of those people.”

At the sudden stiffness exhibited by Aizawa and the narrowing of Nezu's eyes, I quickly move on, “With my Quirk, Copy, touching just a few strands of someone's hair is enough for me to copy their Quirk. Even if that hair isn't a part of their person anymore.”

I watch, smug, as the eyes of both Aizawa and Nezu open wide, Nezu is the first to recover, “So you have hair from the people whose Quirks you used today on your person. I see.”

I walk a little closer to Nezu while rolling up the sleeve on my short sleeved shirt, “More than that.” I show him the small line scars on my upper arm, “I asked for locks of their hair so I wouldn't be stealing Quirks but copying them with permission. From those locks I take a few strands of hair and braid them together. After that, I use this awesome Quirk I got from a construction worker that lets me improve the durability of anything I touch on a molecular level, permanently. I improve how tough the hairs are, make a small incision that's not too deep, and stick the super tough braid inside.”

Nezu's eyes widen in surprise, “Thus putting you in touch with their Quirk at all times, allowing you to switch through them at all. Impressively clever.”

I nod happily, “Thanks. Though all the limits of my Quirk and their Quirks still remain. So I can still only use one at a time. Though this does kind of remove my limit of only having access to four Quirks at a time. I can just 'forget' one I don't want and swap it for another I do.”

Nezu hummed as he processed the information I gave him. Finally, he nodded his little head, “I see. A rather clever use of your intellect and Quirk. Since it's not technically support equipment, it's fine.” He narrowed his eyes at me before he continued in a dead serious tone, “But if I ever find out you've stolen anyone's hair to copy their Quirk, we will have a serious problem.”

I returned his serious look and nodded, “Understood sir. Though I would never do something like that to civilians, heroes, or my fellow students.”

We looked into each others eyes, Nezu assessing, me being one hundred percent honest. Though... there was a couple of beings I planned to take a sample from sometime in the future without their permission. I don't think anyone would complain about me stealing villain hair though.

The silence dragged on for nearly a minute before Nezu nodded, “Excellent. Be sure to keep a lookout for your letter. I hope to see you in my Academy next semester.”

I gave Nezu a bright grin but didn't comment. I was one hundred percent sure I'd gotten into Yuuei. I'd gotten a little over fifty villain points, which would be enough all on its own. Add in however many hero points I got as gravy on top. I remember that villain Bakugo got seventy something points. If I got around thirty rescue points, I would take first place from him.

Good.

That evil shit needs someone to knock him into the ground and toss his ass in prison. Seriously, the bastard was an uncharged felon just for his suicide comments to Midoriya. Encouraging him to jump off the roof was a literal felony. If a purse snatcher is called a villain, what does that make the angry blond when he commits a felony? Super villain? Either way, I've always hated that little shit. He never should have made it past the first week of school without getting expelled and possibly charged with attempted murder.

Seriously, the adults in this school were all useless.

After that I was dismissed from Nezu's office and allowed to head home. Which is exactly what I did.

-----Line Break-----

I looked at the envelope I'd just retrieved from the mailbox and couldn't stop a somewhat smug smile from curling my lips. My acceptance letter had arrived! I refused to even entertain the idea that it would be a rejection letter, especially with how heavy it was.

Ripping it open revealed a small metal disk that I set on the dining room table. Immediately it sprang to life showing a hologram above it.

“I AM HERE! With your test results...” All Might looks down at a sheet of paper in his hand, “Monoma-shonen!” After giving the camera his trademark cheesy grin, he continues, “You did well on the written exam scoring a ninety-six percent! Very impressive! As for your practical exam score, you earned a total of fifty-two villain points! Very well done!” All Might flashed another smile while giving the camera a thumbs up, “BUT THERE'S MORE! YES! RESCUE POINTS! Take a look here!”

After he finished speaking, a screen behind All Might lit up and played a short clip that showed me rescuing a girl from a group of robots. After the clip finished he turned back to face me and continued, “What kind of hero school would ignore selfless acts of heroism? You didn't have to help your fellow contestants, but you chose to do so! We have a system for that! Rescue points! The judges were watching and have given you a final score. You, Monoma Neito, scored the maximum amount of sixty rescue points! Giving you a final score of one hundred and twelve points! The number one ranking by far!”

After he spoke my score, a screen popped up showing the total scores for the top ten. Sitting at number one was myself, with Bakugo being a distant second place with a pure villain point score of seventy-seven. I scrolled down the list, spotting Midoriya in rank eight with sixty rescue points. Though what really caught my attention was Kirishima Eijiro's third place score of thirty-nine villain and thirty-five rescue points for a total of seventy-four. I was pretty impressed and hadn't even realized just how close he was to taking first in canon. Just four more points and he would have beaten Bakugo.

With the video over, I went through the rest of the material. It was just stuff I needed to fill out, like my costume request, and information like my class schedule. My face split into a shit eating grin when I saw the class I was assigned.

1-A.

I wonder who I replaced? Well, it doesn't matter.

I quickly filled out the information I had to so I could move on with my life. I had an appointment today and I wasn't going to miss it!

-----Line Break-----

I adjusted the collar of my nice clothing as I walked into a slightly expensive cafe to meet my appointment. As I step through the door, I look around until I spot the person I'm looking for. She's a middle aged woman that seems to have let herself go a bit. She's a bit overweight, but I can see that she must have been quite the beauty a couple of decades back.

She looks a little nervous, but that quickly clears up when she spots me. As soon as she does, a radiant smile blossoms on her face. She instantly goes from slightly nervous to thrilled. I give her a bright smile and make my way over to the table she's sitting at.

As I take my seat I give her a polite greeting, “Tanaka Sakura-san? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Monoma Neito.”

The woman is practically vibrating, “I recognized you as soon as I saw you! I can't believe it's really you Monoma-san. I thought for sure someone was messing with me to try and scam me.”

I can't help but smile at that, “It's not the first time someone I reached out to thought I was out to scam them.”

She looks relieved and then a little concerned, “It's just... I've never met a celebrity from a magazine in person before! Not even the heroic ones like Uwabami. And... you really want a lock of my hair so you can use my Quirk? I mean... I guess it's an okay Quirk, but it's so limited in its application. Do you really want to be able to copy and use it?”

Yeah, that's right. My sexy ass is a small time celebrity. I got scouted to be a teen magazine model a couple of years ago. I'm not a huge celebrity and I've only done a few photo shoots, but I still have a small fan following.

I nod excitedly while answering her question, “I absolutely do! I know what you've told me of your Quirk but I honestly see so much potential in it.”

She looked down, blushing a little at the praise I lavished on her Quirk. I wasn't lying either. Her Quirk was amazing, even with all of its limitations. She finally looks up at me, a wistful smile on her face, “I once thought I could use my Quirk to be a hero. Even had a Hero License for a while. But, I quickly learned that I just didn't have what it takes.” Her mood shifts back to excited, “I'd be honored if you used my Quirk during your hero career.”

After saying so, she lifts up her purse and opens it to pull out a small plastic bag. Within it is a solid clump of her black hair tied together with a rubber band. Going by how much hair she was giving me, I think she got the last few inches of her hair cut off and saved it all for me.

Kinda creepy.

Then again, I'm the weirdo asking for her hair. Sooooo... I guess we're pretty even on the weird slash creepy scale.

I can barely contain my excitement as she offers me the bag of hair. Her Quirk is going to take my skills up to the next level! As for her Quirk, it's registered as Chrono Shift. It's a mother fucking time manipulation Quirk! A super limited use one, but still fucking time manipulation!

Chrono Shift:

The user of this Quirk has the ability to briefly manipulate time on a small scale. They can create short time warps, allowing them to accelerate or decelerate time within a limited area. This could be used for moments of heightened speed, making the user appear almost instantaneous, or for slowing down opponents. However, the manipulation is temporary and localized, lasting only for a few seconds.

Yeah, it's limited, but it's still amazing as hell. I can do a lot of things with it. I graciously accept the bag and slip it into my pocket. After that, I spend the next hour chatting with and having lunch with Tanaka-san. She's a nice woman. She told me some funny stories about her time a a sidekick and even gave me some advice for after I graduate.

Once our lunch was over, we went our separate ways. It's unlikely I'll ever meet her again. She lives rather far away with her husband and kids my age. It was really very nice of her to travel all the way to where I lived to give me some of her hair. The least I could do was enjoy a nice lunch with her.

-----Line Break-----

Once I arrived home, I couldn't wait any longer. I rushed to my room and practically ripped the plastic bag open. As soon as I grasped the tightly bound hair I copied her Quirk. As soon as I activated it, the world around me seemed to slow to a crawl, nearly a complete stop. I could see specks of dust in a beam of light just barely moving.

I started moving but felt no resistance to what I tried. I took a few steps and then looked at where I'd previously been standing. I could still see marks in the carpet from my feet, the fibers not having bounced back up in place yet.

And then time immediately resumed as the Quirk automatically ended itself. It hadn't lasted more than five seconds. At least, it was five seconds from my point of view. If I had to guess, it was less than a second in real time. I've only used it once and I already love this new Quirk!

Oh, who am I kidding? I love every single Quirk I've collected. In fact, I move over to my desk and pull open the drawer that makes up the entire land hand side of it. Inside is a collection of long thin wooden boxes, old cigar boxes I re-purposed. Each box holds small bags with collections of hair in them, all well labeled and curated by myself. It wouldn't do to forget which hair gave which Quirk.

Case in point, I pull out the front most box and flip it open to reveal at least thirty small bags with hair clippings within them. This is my most recent emitter collection. Not all of them are as amazing as Chrono Shift, but that doesn't matter to me. So what if the first one I see is called Finger Gun and just fires a small ball of air out to twenty meters that only hits as hard as a paintball gun. It's still a Quirk and that makes it worth collecting!

I look away from my precious collection and to the bag given to me earlier. I quickly label it as the sample for Chrono Shift. Once that's done, I prepare my tools for the next step. I grab another box that has everything I need. Tweezers, a scalpel, bandages, disinfectant, and so on. It's time to play operation!

The first step is collecting a few of the hair and using the tweezers to braid them all together. The process only takes me a few minutes, I've got plenty of experience doing this by now. I only braid a length of three centimeters together. Once it's done, I activate my Molecular Fortification Quirk and use it on the hairs making them significantly more durable. I do this for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is so my body has a lot of trouble trying to break it down. I don't want to have to do this every few weeks for each Quirk I want on my person at all times!

Once its fortified, I disinfect it, a small spot on my right arm where I plan to insert it, and the scalpel. No need to give myself an infection on accident. With the prep work done, I spend a moment to prepare myself and then I get to work.

I very carefully make a very light cut on my right arm, near all the scars from similar cuts. Though, calling them scars is kind of wrong. They're actually only slightly raised because of the small hair braids inserted beneath my skin making it look like small thin scars.

The cut hardly bleeds and thanks to the scalpel being so sharp, I barely feel it. The next step though... very uncomfortable. I pick up the reinforced braid with a pair of tweezers I disinfected and carefully force the extremely stiff hairs into the cut in my arm. This process causes a little bleeding, but not more than a few drops. Hell, tattoos probably cause more bleeding than this.

Once the hairs are fully inserted, I wipe the area with disinfectant once more and swap on the only regeneration Quirk I own. It's not a super powerful one, but it does quickly heal the light cut on my arm rather nicely. If the cut had been deeper it would have taken that Quirk ages to fix it. Still faster than normal healing though!

With the operation complete, I carefully clean and disinfect all of my tools before putting everything away.

You know, doing this is making me feel a little nostalgic. After everything is put away, I lean back and hold up my hand while accessing the very first Quirk that someone gave me a lock of their hair for. I hold my hand out, palm facing an empty spot on my floor as I use the Quirk. The air shimmers and in moments a perfect duplicate of myself appears standing there. I climb to my feet and look the copy of myself in the eyes, “Hey me.”

The copy gives a cheeky little wave, “Hey me! Been a while since you conjured me.”

After that, the copy of me completely stops moving while I chuckle at the old joke. Sadly, the 'clone' of me is just an illusion and, even more sad to say, it used to be my best friend. It didn't always look like me, but using the Quirk to make a friend in some form just to feel like I was talking to someone else is how my life used to be.

You see, little kids are all evil. When they learned about my Quirk and what it could do, I instantly became a pariah. They were all scared I would take away what made them 'special'. I was avoided and ostracized, always picked last for anything, and just generally ignored as much as possible. No one wanted anything to do with me.

If I'd been a normal child... Well, anyone who read or watched the canon story knows how the original Neito turned out. I'm not saying I don't have some issues from being alone for so long, but I'm nowhere near as bad as the canon guy.

Still, it was my mental maturity that lead me to spending time within the school library, even as a young child. Granted, an elementary school library doesn't have the best selection of books, but it was where I did make my first friend. Leena-san, the librarian. She was in her sixties and had spent all of her adult life in libraries. All she ever wanted to be was a Librarian.

The coolest thing about her though was how she directed other children to finding books they were looking for. Her Quirk, Illusion Crafting which let her make audio and visual illusions. She'd make little living cartoon characters of popular heroes, All Might was seen a lot, and use them to guide the students where they needed to go.

When I was seven, after knowing her for years and discovering I could copy Quirks through touching hair, she was the first one I asked for a lock of hair. I wanted to use the Quirk of my only real friend on my journey to be a hero. It's now the Quirk I've had the longest and the one I know how to use the best, even with its limitations.

Just thinking about old Leena brings a smile to my face, that quickly fades when I remember she passed away a year ago. I'm just happy I still have a part of her with me that I can use to keep something of her in the living world. I just hope she's either watching me on my path to being a hero, or living a wonderful new life like I am. Either would make me happy.

I shake the thoughts away and make my way to the home gym I bought with my modeling income. It was one specifically designed for strength Quirks. While I have several of those, I don't ever use them when working out. No. I use the most amazing Quirk when working out, my regeneration Quirk. It's really not super fast for bad injuries, but its amazing for removing lactic acids and repairing muscle damage. My physique has become something else since I got my hands on it. I can workout for hours and never feel the burn all while getting stronger constantly. I just need a lot of proteins, vitamins, and other stuff to make sure I have the fuel needed to power the healing.

It's awesome to be me sometimes.

-----Line Break-----

I couldn't help running a finger through the collar of my new school uniform, trying to loosen it and the tie I now had to wear. I'd never been comfortable in any kind of formal clothing, especially ties. It felt like the damned thing was trying to choke me.

Also, way too many movies and TV shows show ties killing people in accidents. They freak me out.

Today is the first day of the new school year and my first time on the Yuuei campus as a new student. It's pretty exciting, though the upcoming Quirk Assessment Test Aizawa will spring on class 1-A is not something I'm looking forward too.

What was it with Shounen genre teachers being just about useless and not actually teaching much, if anything. I mean, at best, Aizawa taught the class that he was a hypocrite and liar that they should fear. Or Kakashi from Naruto, he literally only taught Naruto and Sakura tree walking. Sasuke at least got a single Jutsu out of the loser. For a guy who didn't want to see his comrades die anymore, he sure as hell didn't teach them anything to help keep them alive.

It was honestly going to be hard to keep my trap shut and not rip into Aizawa for his shit teaching, if it could even be called teaching. The guy spent more time sleeping than teaching the class. Hell, wasn't sleeping in the class and shoving as many responsibilities as possible onto the students a kind of fraud? He was getting paid to be a teacher but not doing what he was being paid for.

I don't honestly know. What I do know is he's like Kakashi. Claims he doesn't want students who can't make it as heroes, but does as little as possible to actually improve the students odds of survival.

I dismiss the thoughts as I arrive at the rather large door to the classroom. Thankfully it's very well balanced so opening it isn't an issue. There aren't many people here yet, but I recognize everyone that is. However, I only have eyes for a single one of them, the best girl in the whole series.

Yaoyorozu Momo.

Not only was she more beautiful than any fifteen year old woman had a right to be, but she was also extremely intelligent and had an amazing personality. Now, that's not to say that every woman in class 1-A wasn't amazing, they just weren't up to her level of amazing.

Holy shit... am... am I nervous? Sweaty palms. Check. Elevated heart rate. Check. Absolute herd of butterflies in my stomach. Check.

I am nervous!

Still, despite the sudden case of nerves at seeing Momo for the first time, I manage to send her one of my best smiles, the one that got me a modeling job. It takes everything I have not to fist pump when she gives me a bright smile in return. Just to make sure things don't get weird, I flash a smile, a different one, at the rest of the class that's arrived so far. I get a few smiles in return.

After the silent greeting I make my way to my assigned desk, sadly on the other side of the room from Momo, and take my seat.

Okay, I know I'm kind of focused on Momo, but I can't help it. The moment I saw her I instantly had a crush. And I swear on all that is holy, I will get to know her and ask her out on a date before the week is out! Gotta get in there fast before any of the other guys wise up and recognize how awesome she is.

I've barely gotten comfortable when the door to the classroom slams open and an explosive blond enters the room shouting, “WHICH ONE OF YOU ASSHOLES DARED TO TAKE FIRST PLACE AWAY FROM ME?!”

I looked at the idiot and slowly smiled, “Oh, so you're second place to my amazing first.”

Bakugo's red eyes instantly homed in on me while his lips curled into a condescending sneer, “So you're the asshole huh?! Listen up you useless extra! Those rescue points are bullshit! I'm the one who will be number one! Not you! Understand?!”

I couldn't help what happened next. Bakugo seriously needs to be put in his place and I might as well be the one to get the ball rolling. Without changing the congenial smile on my face, no need to earn myself a bad reputation, I reply in a calm tone, “Ahhhh. You're one of thosetypes. The ones that think being a hero is all about fame, money, and hero ranking. The shallow kind who don't know what a real hero is and vanish into history as less than a foot note.”

I can see Bakugo's face turning red as his anger builds, but I continue on, “None of that is what makes someone a hero though. Being a hero is about being selfless and doing what is right, not what is easy. Beating up a ton of simple minded robots is easy. Taking the time that could be spent smashing robots to help out someone else is hard, selfless even.”

By now Bakugo's face is nearly cherry red but I keep going, not giving him even a moment to reply, “Do you think All Might is a great hero because he's number one? Or do you think he's number one because he's a great hero? There is a difference and it's important. Do you think that when he comes in second in something he goes around screaming and insulting the person who beat him? Or do you think he takes his loss with grace and tries to improve himself?”

I narrow my eyes and stare into Bakugo's eyes fearlessly. I could crush the little bastard with relative ease so what I say next comes out with complete confidence, “So, are you going to calm down and act like a hero? Or continue to rant and rave like a cheap villain who didn't get his way?”

Bakugo, clearly unphased, shouts near the top of his lungs, “DON'T THINK YOU COMING IN FIRST MEANS ANYTHING! I WILL BE NUMBER ONE SO STAY OUT OF MY WAY!”

I just roll my eyes and proceed to ignore him completely. It'll be pretty easy to get Bakugo expelled from the school. I'll see what happens during the team exercise that All Might had the class do in canon. If Bakugo and Midoriya get into it and Bakugo attempts to murder Midoriya, I'll just call the cops and use that incident. I know All Might wont, he didn't in canon.

Which was bullshit. He literally let someone get away with attempted murder.

Some hero.

Anyway. If that same incident happens, unlikely but not impossible. There's only twenty students so the odds aren't that horrible. I think. Either way. If it happens, then I report him for that since it's recent and has tons of witnesses. If it doesn't happen, then I report him for his hand in trying to get Midoriya to commit suicide. It's not as big of a crime and there are fewer witnesses, but it's still a felony crime.

So, either way, Bakugo will be gone before the USJ incident even happens. I'm already preparing for that incident and I have a plan to capture Kurogiri and Tomura right then and there. I just hope it works out.

The class remains quiet until Bakugo leans back in his chair and puts his feet on his desk. Aparently this is a bit too much for Ida-san who immediately hops to his feet and begins to robotically berate Bakugo.

A short time into that, the protagonist Midoriya arrives and things are pretty much like I expected. Seeing Aizawa actually coming to school and entering the classroom in a sleeping bag is so much more unprofessional in person rather than being gag-like as it was seeing it in a manga. I don't know if it's a pet peeve or what, but I don't like it at all.

With his arrival the class quickly quiets down prompting him to say, “It took you all eight seconds to calm down. You all aren't rational enough.”

Aizawa dug into his sleeping bag and pulled out a gym uniform, “Put these on and meet me on the P.E. Grounds.”

Everyone collects a gym uniform and heads for the locker rooms. This is it, my journey to become an amazing hero has finally begun in earnest! I can't wait!

-----Line Break-----

AN

Just under 10k words and I had fun writing it. So that's good! Let me know what you guys think of not just the chapter, but my attempt at writing in the first person.

Oh, and this story needs a title. MHA: ???? I've got no ideas, what're yours?

Quirks shown in this chapter, in the order they appeared in.

Minor Telekinesis:

The user of his Quirk has Telikinesis with a limited amount of strength being able to only lift a maximum of one metric ton. The user can go over this limit, however, doing so causes splitting headaches and if they go too far over the limit, even nose bleeds and possibly further physical harm.

Tactile Technopathy:

The user of this Quirk can telepathically connect to and communicate with any machine they touch, as well as other machines on the same network. This doesn't give them absolute control over the machine(s). Though, with proper skill, they can hack into and control just about any machine with programming.

Molecular Fortification:

The user of this Quirk can permanently fortify anything they touch. This fortification makes the material more durable and longer lasting, greatly improving on what it is without compromising it. This Quirk can only be used once on an item. Any further uses wont increase the strength of the fortification.

Speed Boost:

Slightly misnamed, the user of this Quirk can control the speed, and therefore momentum, of any object the touch either lowering its speed to zero, or increasing it up to a maximum of two hundred kilometers and hour. Doing so requires that the user touch the object in question with some part of their skin. Once contact is lost, the Quirk's effect disappears. The sole exception to this is the user themselves.

Time Perception Manipulation:

The user of this Quirk can change how they visually perceive time either slowing the world to a near stop, or accelerating it to a large degree. Poor use of this Quirk can cause serious mental imbalances in the user. Accelerating time in the users view could easily cause days to pass in what, to the user, is the blink of an eye. In the extreme, the user could even die of dehydration or starvation.

Magnetic Manipulation:

The user of this Quirk has the ability to manipulate magnetic fields within a maximum range of ten meters. The more powerful the attempted use of the Quirk, the more stamina it drains from the user. It's even possible for the user to overuse the Quirk to the point of death.

Chrono Shift:

The user of this Quirk has the ability to briefly manipulate time on a small scale. They can create short time warps, allowing them to accelerate or decelerate time within a limited area. This could be used for moments of heightened speed, making the user appear almost instantaneous, or for slowing down opponents. However, the manipulation is temporary and localized, lasting only for a few seconds.

Illusion Crafting:

The user of this Quirk is capable of making audio and visual illusions. Creating the illusions takes time and effort as the user must first craft the illusion they wish to project in their mind. The more effort they put into the illusion, the more realistic it can become. The illusions are just that, illusions. They cannot interact with physical objects or do anything on their own, they require the constant input of their creator to exist.