章 10: Chapter 10
Izuku had finally recovered. The experience between swapping forms with the Herrscher, the acid, and just the day's events in general had taken a toll on him. He was tempted to just collapse on his bed and sleep but his fear of the Herrscher taking over once more while he was asleep made him reconsider the idea. So instead, he opted to do as she commanded.
He changed into more casual clothes, a blue vest, and some black shorts, and dragged himself out of his room. He headed to the kitchen to make some food, instinctively going to look for a pack of cup noodles. Once he had prepared the food he made his way back to the living room and sat on the couch.
"Took you long enough." The Herrscher remarked. Izuku jumped, startled by her voice, almost dropping his food. Luckily he didn't. Upon having finally caught himself, he turned to look at the Herrscher who was merely looking at him with an amused face.
It was then he noticed something odd about her. Upon closer inspection, he realized she was wearing the same outfit as he was. It even looked like it was the same size, given how eh…snug it was around her body. To his surprise, the Herrscher was also holding her cup noodles in front of him.
"How?" Izuku curiously asked. "How are you…"
"Here?" The Herrscher finished with an all-knowing smile. "None of your concern." She noted. "The important thing is that you eat." The Herrscher told him.
Staring at her still hesitant, Izuku grabbed his fork, as did the Herrscher. Then he dipped into the cup and picked up the noodles, the Herrscher mimicking his moves as well. Finally, he places it in his mouth, with the Herrscher following his movements to a tee. She even chewed it the same way he did and swallowed it as well.
"Do you have to unnerve me so much?" Izuku questioned.
"Yes." The Herrscher answered. "Your screaming annoyed me for the better part of the evening, if you're uncomfortable then I can say we're even for now." She answered simply.
"But…that wasn't intentional." Izuku defended.
"Don't care." She retorted. "Now eat." She ordered. He complied and soon Izuku and the Herrscher had the most awkward dinner he had ever experienced. He thought it would be best to break the tension by turning on the TV.
It did not alleviate the tension. Izuku had landed it on a news channel covering the current events, mainly what happened that day. Among the highlights was how devasting the damage was to the area. The reporter brought up the villains involved showing the Herrscher and the three villains onscreen before showing how the Herrscher handled them.
"Two of the villains were killed by the Herrscher, the third one is severely injured and being treated as we speak." The reporter explained.
That word stuck with him, 'KILLED', the Herrscher had effortlessly killed those villains using his body. Their deaths were on his hands.
"Hmmm, scrappy little thing. Next time I won't go easy on him." The Herrscher mused.
"You aren't bothered by it?" Izuku questioned as he glanced at the Herrscher. "You took two lives so easily. Don't you feel the slightest bit concerned?" He asked.
"Would it make it better if I said it was for the Greater Good of Humanity?" The Herrscher mockingly asked. "Those people were hardly any saints. They were killed just as easily as me and did it in far more gruesome ways. Besides I don't see what the big problem is, heroes kill the time." She noted.
"No, they don't," Izuku argued. "Heroes make sure villains are beaten and arrested." He told her. "They don't take lives."
"Oh, please, don't kid yourself. Maybe that's the narrative they push now, but heroes throughout history always have blood on their hands. Just look at a story where the heroes kill monsters, or war stories for any nation, where a country celebrates their war heroes who destroyed their enemy factions." Or Second Eruption where Sirin's death was a celebrated event, with many of the humans involved being hailed as heroes for stopping her.
"Heroes are only heroes when the majority of people choose to acknowledge them as such." The Herrscher told Izuku. "Otherwise, there is little difference between them and a villain. All that matters is who the public thinks is right, not who is right; a very easy opinion to change."
"What about disaster relief?" Izuku questioned.
"What?" The Herrscher questioned. Izuku glanced at the television.
"So far only 10 deaths have been recorded, 2 of which belong to the villains." The reporter claimed. "However, there were many more who were injured and buried under the falling rubble. Workers are still finding more people as we speak." The reporter claimed while the camera showed a firefighter helping to lift some rubble off an injured woman.
"Can those people be anything but heroes?" Izuku sighed in relief when he saw the woman reunite with her son. Firefighters and the other public servants, the medics, the cops, they all were doing their part to relieve the disaster.
"You didn't seem to think so." The girl refused. "When All Might, told you on the rooftops, that you couldn't be a pro-hero without a quirk. That if you want to save people, you should become one of those…public servants. What was your response? Were you delighted? Were you accepting of the idea? No, you weren't…you were heartbroken." She retorted.
"Your idol, your hero, the person you looked up to the most, said your dream was not possible and it shattered you." The Herrscher told him. "If you ask me, that says a lot about what you think those heroes are. Seems like most of the current populace don't see them as such."
"I'll confess, you're right about that," Izuku admitted with some shame. "I didn't know what it meant to be saved. The first time I was in danger, I was saved by All Might, so I didn't have any change in perspective. Then today, you saved me."
"Really, that's what convinced you." The Herrscher rolled her eyes.
"In a way, I realized it didn't matter whether it was All Might or you, I just wanted to be saved by someone, when I couldn't save myself. If firefighters, medics, and the like can do that, then it shouldn't matter. A hero is someone who saves people, nothing else." Izuku told her.
"Deluded fool." The Herrscher scoffed.
"You know, you could make a good hero if you tried," Izuku told her. "With your powers, you could become the greatest hero of all time."
"Not this again." The Herrscher rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, you want me to use my powers for good, to protect all that is beautiful in this wretched world and whatnot." The Herrscher told him. "I don't care about humans, much less feel any inclination to save them, quite the opposite actually." The Herrscher informed.
"You technically saved me," Izuku told her. "And helped me with the acid." He tried to reason.
"Pragmatic reasons at best." The Herrscher dismissed. "As I said before, you are my vessel, your body's wellbeing is my main concern, nothing else matters. Not you, humanity or even your mother matter to me. In fact,…" She looked at him with a cruel smile. "What if I told you…I almost killed your mom."
"You what!" Izuku exclaimed.
"Come one…. Think back Izuku…. think back to those dreams you had." The Herrscher urged him. "The ones you had about me, these past few days."
"Wait…are you saying?" He gasped in horror. He remembered one specifically where the Herrscher had brandished a knife at his mother's vulnerable back.
"Those weren't dreams." The Herrscher chuckled. "Do you still think I can be a hero?"
"My mom's still alive," Izuku noted. "You didn't kill her."
"But I could."
"Why didn't you?" Izuku questioned. "You easily killed those villains, why not my mom."
"Pragmatic reasons," The Herrscher answered. "You're easier to control if she's alive." She admitted. It was the truth. Inko's death while leaving him guilty, could also make him more rebellious to her control. It was the logical move to make.
"So that's it. Any act of kindness you do, its all for a pragmatic reason?" Izuku asked.
"Do you think there is any other reason?" The Herrscher questioned him. How foolish her host could be. He knew not what it meant to be Herrscher.
"I don't know, I hope there is," Izuku answered. "I'm sure deep down, you must have some reason for doing all this." He told her.
"Oh, there is a reason." The Herrscher mused. At her core, she was nothing more than an embodiment of hatred and rage, given form. It was in her very nature to hate humanity and see it's worse, a nature she gladly accepted. The only thing that stopped her was naïve hosts, who believed otherwise. "Not that it matters of course."
"I had hoped I could convince you." Izuku sighed.
"What's done is done. Once your time runs out, I'll go and destroy whatever heroes are left and then the world. That's a promise." The Herrscher told him. "You're welcome to try and stop me, but it wouldn't matter. You've already seen what I can do. I'm inevitable."
"And I'm still here," Izuku answered. "Which means I still have a chance…however small it might be. I'm sure I can find a way to stop you." Izuku told her.
"You can try." The Herrscher yawned. "Well, I'm beat. Today was hectic, so I think I'll go and rest now." With that she vanished from his view, leaving Izuku alone in the living room, with his empty cup of noodles.
Izuku threw away the cup and then headed to his room. Lying on his bed, Izuku thought about his conversation with the Herrscher as looked up at the ceiling. She had made some good points, many were painful to hear, but they were true. He didn't understand what it meant to be a hero, nor did he try to become one. He would change that. He'd prove her wrong.
He turned to his table and saw his notebooks, the Hero Analysis for the future series he had written. Wait a minute…oh crap. Izuku got up and hurried to the table. Upon opening the first page he glanced it over quickly. He had a breakdown of a hero, advantages, breakdowns, and….
"Weakness." Izuku realized. He had the weaknesses of many heroes, in his books. Books are very easy to reach for the Herrscher. He thought back to the All Might fight. She had used the knowledge he had on All Might to exploit his weak spot. She couldn't let her do it again for others.
He hurried to his mom's room and grabbed the paper shredder she kept in her room for her documents. Now with the paper shredder in his room, he looked at the notebooks he had so carefully filled over how many years. Izuku took a deep breath before he opened one and ripped the page out.
He looked at the page, one of his first analysis attempts at All Might. With a heavy heart, he placed it in the shredder. Then he repeated the process again, taking page after page from the book, shredding every single one. Once one book was finished he moved to another and then another.
It hurt to do it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Izuku had hoped for the Herrscher, but he wasn't going to be naïve about it. She made her intentions very clear, and he saw firsthand what she could do. He would try to find whatever good could possibly exist but not at the expense of anyone else.
Once he was finished he walked back to his bed and lay down. Never had he thought simply shredding paper could take such a mental and emotional toll out of him. It was worth it though to keep the information from her hands.
"I'll also need to keep those thoughts out of my head." Izuku realized. He had read those books so many times, that he probably memorized them. "Okay, just need to block it all off," Izuku told himself. "Just block it out. Just block it out." He repeated as he drifted off to sleep.
As Izuku fell into the world of dreams, his body shifted once more. Black and green hair turned to white, as once green eyes became gold. The Herrscher sat up and glanced at the torn paper in front of her. "How amusing." She thought.
She hadn't even considered the notes at the time. She was sure she could still handle most of the heroes, but the notes now piqued her curiosity. A shame they were destroyed. Perhaps she should be more invested in what her host could offer. Not that it would matter, All Might was an outlier, not the standard, she was sure she could handle anything anyone else threw at her.
"Still just to be sure." She tried to reach into Izuku's mind like she did before. It was easy enough, to slowly peel into his memories, so many memories she delved past until finally she found the books…and then.
"What?" The Herrscher frowned. She got nothing. That wasn't right. She tried again but her response was the same. "Dammit." She scowled.
She had laughed at the idea, but Izuku had actually done it. He actually kept the notes out of her reach. She frowned. This was bad. She thought back to early that day. Izuku had wanted to avoid seeing the destruction of the Acid villain, and he had gotten his wish. He didn't realize it at the time, but he was the one who closed their eyes, not her. She just pretended to keep him unaware and it had cost her.
"I need to figure out how to get a handle on this." She realized. She was not going to have a repeat of last time.
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