Chapter 4: NO. 4 - Touching Grass
AN:
Hoo boy, 100 power stones and 17k views!
As thanks, here's the next chapter!
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One of the first things I learned about Hatsume Mei was that she was a big ball of weirdness.
"How's this?"
"Hmm, you have the green and red wire in the wrong terminal points," Mei said as she rolled back over to her work area to resume working on her project, or as she likes to call it, her baby.
I also learned that she was much more brilliant and creative than the original series gave her credit for.
[+10 SP]
I nodded and quickly fixed my mistake. Once I did, I saw the control board finally light up. I thanked Mei and received a quick "Mhm." Which was more than I got during my first week of working/learning under Minato and Mei. During that period, she mostly ignored me as if I wasn't there. Too entrenched in her babies to pay attention to the new individual who now shared her space.
I placed down my wire cutters and grabbed a screwdriver to tighten down a loose screw. From there, I continued working on the fridge's compressor while keeping an eye on the control board every now and then.
During my time at Hatsume's Mechanical Repairs and Such, I had come to understand the fact that I was pretty damn intelligent. Even more so than I originally thought. I had always thought my intelligence was decent, if not slightly higher than average, due to my ability to get straight A's at school constantly on any subject, but I never really applied myself beyond school. I was so entrenched in training my CE and techniques that I never paid much attention to training my mental strengths.
However, now faced with the opportunity to push myself to go beyond what I thought was possible. I finally found out that I could apply my intelligence to learning pretty much whatever I wanted and quickly. If my progress in understanding complex engineering problems was anything to go off of. Sure, I was no Tony Stark, but I was well on my way to becoming a decent mechanical engineer, which was probably the reason why Mei had recently started acknowledging me as more than "Dull eyes" and began using my actual name.
"All right, you two," Minato said as he walked over to the back of his store where Mei and I were working. He was using an old rag to clean his hands. "Time for a break. You've been back here working for three hours now. Go out and stretch your legs. Touch some grass."
"No way. My baby isn't ready yet!" Mei said with a giant smile as she continued working on a large mechanical boot. "Can't do it!"
"MeiMei." Minato said slowly and grabbed the screwdriver out of her hands.
The ten-year-old inventor gasped in horror and tried to take her tool back, but her father's greater stature caused her to just flail around uselessly. I leaned back on my stool and watched as Mei continued to try to take back her tool. Minato then looked over at me and my assignment with approving eyes.
"Not bad, you're halfway there. You weren't lying when you said you were a fast learner." Minato said as he placed the screwdriver next to Mei's project but quickly picked her up to stop her from getting back to work. "Hmm. Another couple of days, and you'll be done. You may have a future at this."
"Ah, thank you, Hatsume-san," I said with a small smile as I rubbed the back of my head. I felt a little bashful since I didn't really receive compliments, just jeers or jokes over my being quirkless. So this was a nice change of pace. "It is a large part thanks to Mei. She's brilliant."
"And don't you forget it!" Mei said with a smile as she gave up trying to escape her father's hold. "See, Papa! If you let us keep going, we can finish his baby by tomorrow! Just put me down and-"
"Nice try there, MeiMei. Out you two kids go."
I got up and followed after Minato as he carried a despondent Mei towards the front door. Stepping outside to the bustling street, he placed Mei down and turned to me with a small smile. "Here. Get yourselves some ice cream or something. I don't want to see you two until 5 o'clock. Got it?" Minato said as he handed me a few bills.
I nodded at him and placed the money into one of my pockets. "Got it. I'll be sure to walk Mei through the park so she can touch some grass."
[+5 SP]
"Good man," Minato said and patted his daughter's shoulder. "Go on, sweetheart.
"But-but my baby's…"
"No buts. Now go on, you two."
I walked over and grabbed Mei's wrist to begin pulling her toward a park a few blocks away. Mei sniffed and rubbed her eyes as she followed behind me. This was something we grew used to doing after a few days of me starting my apprenticeship. Minato had discovered that I was a great way to get Mei out of the shop to get some fresh air. I didn't mind doing this, considering I owed the man for the opportunity of being hired to work for him once I was done with the fridge. It was also a great way to net some points.
"Hey, hey, Souta! Let's sneak back in! I'll help you finish your baby so you can start working at the shop!"
"Can't do that. Your father will find out, and we'll get in trouble."
"Hm, you're probably right. Okay! New plan! We sneak back in, and I continue working on my baby while you keep a lookout!"
"How does that benefit me?"
"It doesn't!"
I squinted my eyes at her and sighed. Pulling her along, we continued onward toward the park. Much to her displeasure, despite that, she continued following me and didn't attempt to pull her wrist free to make a run for it.
It was mostly due to all her past attempts resulting in failure. Using my CE, catching up to her was easy. So, after a while, she threw in the towel and decided to just give in to her fate, which was unfortunate for me. The points from our chases were plentiful. Soon enough, I would be able to pull for two Diamond tier pulls with all my saved-up points.
After a couple more minutes, we finally reached the park we visited every time Minato kicked us out. We did go to other places, sometimes, like the beach, but neither Mei nor I enjoyed going there, mostly due to the sand. It was coarse and rough and irritating, and it got everywhere. Making the park was our go-to spot. With it being Sunday today,the park was well occupied by visiting families and kids around our age.
I looked over to the familiar ice cream stand to see the stand owner, a friendly old man named Sojiro, handing out ice cream to several small children. Nodding, I turned to Mei. "Wanna get some ice cream?" I said as I waved the money Minato gave me.
Despite her desire to be at the shop rather than here, Mei quickly smiled and nodded her head. She had a pretty large sweet tooth. "Sure, might as well. Oh! I want to try that orange-looking flavor today!"
"Let's go get some then." I let go of her wrist, and we walked over to the vendor.
"Hello, Sojiro-san. I'll have a vanilla ice cream."
"And I'll have that funky-looking orange one!"
Sojiro chuckled at Mei's words and nodded. After scooping our orders into two small paper cups, he handed us each our ice cream, which I quickly paid him for. After thanking him, Mei and I walked over to a shady spot under a large tree and took a seat on the grass. I was careful not to sit on my bag of marbles that were on my belt. Mei happily ate her ice cream with a smile, seemingly enjoying the new flavor she chose.
"Hey, Mei?" I asked as I scooped some ice cream into my mouth.
"Hm?" She responded with a spoon in her mouth.
"What do you plan on doing in the future?" I asked as I watched several children playing the game Hero several feet away. They were using their quirks to try and attack a little boy with a mutant-type quirk. The boy himself had the physical appearance of a bumble bee, making him look quite monstrous. In my opinion, it seemed like the kid wasn't having much fun but played along just to fit in.
"The future?" Mei said with a hum. That didn't last long because she quickly got into my personal space with a large smile, causing me to lean back. This was nothing new. She had no understanding of what personal space was. "It's obvious, isn't it?! I'm going to become the world's greatest inventor! To do that, I'm going to have to show off all of my babies to the world and future investors! No better place to do that than being at UA in the support course!"
[+15 SP]
I nodded and looked down at my half-eaten treat. "UA… so that's where you want to go."
Mei nodded and turned to me with a raised brow. "What do you want to do? Oh, oh! Do you want to join the support course too? Is that why you begged Papa to be able to work for him?"
"I didn't necessarily beg…"
"Mm, yeah, you did."
"Geh." I closed my eyes at the embarrassing memory from two weeks ago and looked away from her cross-hair yellow eyes. "No, that's not necessary why. I just needed a job, is all."
"Because you're an orphan, right?" Mei said with little thought and suddenly froze. A rare look of embarrassment took over her face. "Ah… sorry about that."
[+25 SP]
I smiled at her and shook my head. "It's okay, Mei. But yeah, due to my situation, I needed money, so I had to get a job."
"I see..." Mei muttered as she placed her empty cup down and pulled her knees to her chest. A brief moment of awkward silence hung over us as we sat. Looking over at her, I placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a few pats.
"Relax, Mei. I'm not mad. I know you didn't mean it like that."
Despite the way Mei acts, which is usually hyper-focused and seemingly uncaring for others. She was actually a pretty thoughtful person underneath the whole crazed inventor shtick. She just had a tough time expressing herself. This is a fact most would never learn due to them giving up on getting to know her better due to her loud personality.
But after working alongside her every day for two weeks and knowing the way she'd grow up to be, I had a better time understanding and getting her to talk on topics other than inventing or her babies. It's how she learned to become comfortable with me in such a short amount of time. A fact that shocked her mother and father, causing them to invite me to dinner every now and then. They were nice people. Even when I told them I was quirkless, they didn't treat me any differently.
"Then... what do you want to do in the future?" Mei asked with a rare look of intrigue you'd never find on her unless she was talking about her babies.
"I want to live an easy life and be rich," I said without a hint of shame and laid down on my back to watch the blue sky above. A large grin grew on my face as I envisioned my future. Mei smiled and nodded at my answer.
"How do you plan to do that?"
By becoming a hero.
…Is what I wanted to say. But for the past week or so, I've been questioning that line of thinking. Why exactly did I want to become a hero? At first, it was because of the potential the top pro heroes could earn in revenue. The sheer amounts of cash one could make from all the sponsorships, brand deals, and endorsements were mouth-watering to me.
So, with that in mind, why am I even debating doing it?
I wanted money, so why not go with the option that will all but guarantee large amounts of it? I knew in time that I would accumulate several dozen cursed techniques and skills from the Gacha system that would allow me to be a pretty diverse fighter and Hero. With that in mind, shouldn't becoming a hero be the obvious choice?
No, not exactly.
In the series All Might, Toshinori Yagi dedicated his entire life to becoming the symbol of peace. Sacrificing his personal happiness and chances of true meaningful relationships to uphold justice and society itself. All up to the point of being disemboweled and having society turn on its head at the slightest inconvenience.
Endeavor, Todoroki Enji, became a man overcome with greed and jealousy in his pursuit to be the number one hero and surpass All Might. In his journey to do so, he essentially bought a wife so she could bear his children with him in order to create the ultimate quirked human to surpass All Might. Scarring and abusing his children.
Hawks, Takami Keiko, was groomed from his childhood after being sold off by his mother to the Hero Public Safety Commission to become their perfect little puppet due to the sheer potential of his quirk. Not to mention that due to his duty to the HPSC, Hawks ended up killing Twice in cold blood.
I could go on and on about how heroes from this society weren't true heroes at all. Sure, there were some that were genuine in their desire to do what was right, like All Might and Midoriya, but a few good apples don't make up for a rotten batch. Maybe Stain had a point after all? Then again, he was a murdering psycho who deemed himself judge, jury, and executioner.
But still, he had a point. Wouldn't I, someone only interested in becoming wealthy, be proving him right? Why, then, should I become a hero if not for the sake of truly being one?
So, I decided to change course. Instead of putting my safety and well-being in jeopardy to become a hero in the hopes of becoming wealthy, why not focus on creating stories and pieces of entertainment that I know will guarantee me loads of money? I'll still use my Gacha system to strengthen myself for when shit hits the fan. I don't want to get killed when Shigaraki or All For One starts destroying the country.
I know some would call my decision a waste. Why accumulate all these skills and abilities if you're not going to use them? I was in the perfect setting, so why not? Well, it was because I wasn't a shonen hero whose heart beats and bleeds for justice and righteousness. I was in no hurry to save cats from trees or yell about friendship or the sort. I'll leave that for Midoriya. He's got this. At least, I think he does. I doubt Horikoshi killed him in the end or took his powers or anything along those lines. He was a shonen protagonist, so everything will work itself out.
"I'm going to write and sell books," I said with a smile. "That's how!"
"Books?!" Mei jumped at me and leaned over my body with an incredulous look. "That's so boring! Why don't you just make babies like me? That's a much more fun way to get famous and make money! I know! I can take you on as my assistant!"
I pushed Mei's face away as she was growing much too close for comfort. To those around us, it was starting to look like we were a bold young couple unafraid of getting touchy in public the way she was pinning me under her. I couldn't have that because I liked this park. I didn't want the people here to think that Mei or I were some perverted couple. I glanced over to Sojiro and saw him give me a thumbs-up.
Oi, it's not like that, you old geezer.
"How generous. To be the assistant to the Hatsume Mei! What an honor!"
"I knew you'd see it my way! So you accept?!"
"Nope."
Mei threw a handful of grass at my face.
AN:
I was originally planning to have this epic fight break out at the park, but it ended up not feeling right and shoehorned in. So that was scrapped. Worry not; there will be some action soon.
Quick question for you all: I've seen someone ask if there will be romance in this story. There can be, but I'm not too certain about the pairing or if you degenerates want the MC to have a harem. So, I'll leave it up to a vote. Because democracy.
Vote here for single pairing; also, name who you want to see as the main love interest.
Vote here for a harem. Also, name a max of THREE partners. No more.
The one with the most votes wins. The poll will be closed once I hit chapter ten or so, so you all have time.
Until next time!
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