章節 24: ¿Do you want to be a hero?

[Thursday - 10:00 a.m.]

A couple of days after all, Doryoku was in the UA dining room eating a salad all alone.

After the sports festival all the aspiring heroes went on their internships for a month, so the dining room would be a lot emptier and quieter for a long time.

As for Doryoku, he had decided to eat a salad to put aside his addiction to Yakitori a bit, although the demonic beet did not make it easy for him, but in life you have to make sacrifices.

Doryoku had pondered his decision to be a hero for quite some time, but still he wasn't sure, it was a career choice after all and that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Doryoku continued eating quietly until someone sat in front of him, so he looked up and could see Azami with a calm smile on her face as usual.

"Looks like we'll have to eat just ourselves today Suzuki-kun" Azami said with a calm smile as she started to eat a salad as well.

"What about the bright blonde?" Doryoku asked in confusion as he hadn't seen Mirai all day.

"She had a slight fever and her father wouldn't let her come, the typical thing" Azami said calmly and quite used to these situations while Doryoku had a bead of sweat on the back of his neck.

"I-I see" Doryoku said a bit in shock as he continued to eat his salad.

"You seemed quite thoughtful today Suzuki-kun, is something wrong? You can tell me if you want" Azami said with a bit of concern as she smiled in a comforting way.

Doryoku thought a bit about Azami's proposal, and guessed there was nothing wrong with trying.

"I'm thinking about being a hero, I'm not so sure yet, but it would be interesting to know, what would you do in my situation?" Doryoku said in an explanatory tone, taking Azami a bit by surprise and then asking her curiously.

Azami thought about it for a moment with a hand on her chin and then said...

"I doubt I'm a good fit for your question Suzuki-kun, after all I always wanted to help others without being a hero" Azami said with a calm smile while Doryoku looked a bit surprised.

Azami opened her palm and a small swirl of wisteria petals came out, making Doryoku a bit surprised again.

"My quirk allows me to do petal swirls as you see, I would say it's a pretty average quirk but the swirl can be much bigger so I could be a hero if I wanted to" Azami said with a bit of pride and then undo the swirl from your palm.

"And why don't you want to be a hero like the rest?" Doryoku asked a bit confused at Azami's posture.

"That's the catch, for me, heroes save people yes, but not all people are falling from a building" said Azami winking her right eye with a mocking smile.

"Most of the people have other types of problems, legal, medical, mental, among others and since the appearance of the heroes it seems that they forgot them. That is why I never wanted to be a heroine, I believe that my true passion is in helping others of this way" Azami said with a calm smile and an explanatory tone as she continued eating her salad.

Doryoku thought a bit about her words and found the key points, the most important being the passion for what you do.

"I guess that's a very good point, it's very nice to talk to you Wisteria-san" Doryoku said smiling slightly while Azami looked a bit embarrassed.

"Y-you can't say those things so suddenly Suzuki-kun, much less if we're alone" Azami said with a bit of nervousness at Doryoku's kind and respectful words.

"Too close right? I guess Oboro was right" Doryoku said with a thoughtful tone understanding why he used to have female fans at his school.

"Don't worry, I understand that being terrible socially" Azami said with understanding as she continued to eat quietly.

Doryoku smiled slightly and nodded gratefully, then finished eating and considered Azami's statement.

Passion, that was a word that Doryoku had used a counted number of times in his life, something that had eluded him since his quirk awakened and his mind adjusted to it.

The rest of the day, Doryoku was thinking about what it felt like to save Mirai and all the emotions that came out at the sports festival.

Doryoku still had a long way to go to learn the art of making others smile, but being a hero and helping others those smiles were easy to obtain, which filled him with warmth every time he saw them.

'Living through the feelings of others, since yours were no longer present for a long time ago' that was the sad truth that struck Doryoku as he thought.

Doryoku was always good at understanding things, but feelings were never understood, sometimes logical, sometimes illogical, but always unpredictable for him.

Anyway, another day in Doryoku's mind, a place that even he wasn't welcome to.

In the rest of the classes, nothing interesting happened, the odd new topic and future exam, nothing to really talk about.

Doryoku accompanied Azami as she waited for her mother to pick her up since he had nothing better to do, although she warned him again that he could confuse the girls if he continued to be so kind for no apparent reason, so he looked for a small notebook and wrote down the suggestion.

After Azami left, Doryoku said goodbye to her and just went to walk around to clear himself a bit.

If there was any good way to escape his thoughts it was by walking, so it was always helpful when he was overwhelmed by his thoughts.

As always there were heroes here and there, some more phosphorescent than others but nothing that is especially new.

'This would be a very good time for an old sage to appear and give me his advice' thought Doryoku looking around curiously for any anomalies.

Doryoku wasn't much of a believer, but he did have a saying, 'If everything in the world had an explanation, it would be much more boring to live in it' That's why he always liked to hear ghost stories.

As he walked, Doryoku could see an old man with a long white beard sitting on the sidewalk in front of a shoe store while a ray of sunlight pointed at him and he had an expression of absolute wisdom.

'I didn't ask for the Messiah either but ok I guess' Doryoku thought with a drop of sweat on the back of his neck when he saw the illuminated old man in front of him.

Doryoku waited curiously to see if the old man would say something, until he began to move.

The old man raised his hand slowly with his eyes closed and for some reason Doryoku could see him move in slow motion as the sun shone even brighter and the situation became epic.

'I'm sure I'm listening a final boss music' Doryoku thought in shock as he saw the epic of the moment and felt the pressure of it.

The old man raised his index finger firmly and from Doryoku's point of view it seemed to have the sun on the tip of his finger, causing him to have nervous sweat at such a surreal scene.

The old man took a great breath of air, opened his eyes and the atmosphere grew more and more imposing until he lowered his hand sharply and said...

"Damn communists want everything for free!!" said the old man quite annoyed and determined with his hatred of communists.

Doryoku had an expression that was art itself, he didn't even know very well how to feel at this moment, he only managed to think.

'Well let's see, he had wisdom, I guess I wasn't the one who needed it' Doryoku thought with blank eyes and quite in agreement with the old man's words.

After that surreal scene, Doryoku had forgotten everything that bothered him, after all the anecdote that he had recently obtained was quite difficult to put aside.

This helped him see how simple his problem was, after all saving others made him happy so he just had to do it, but Doryoku's wandering mind always made things difficult.

But this decision also meant a lot of effort, after all, something that Doryoku would never want is for his mother to worry about him or feel sad, so the path he would choose would be full of difficulties.

'Why couldn't I find excitement in anything else? Like growing tomatoes, I wonder how much adrenaline there is in that profession' Doryoku thought curiously, lost in his thoughts again, so he shook his head and tried to focus.

There was nothing else to think about actually, Doryoku decided to be a hero since it was the only profession that aroused his emotions until now.

Seeing the time, Doryoku realized it was 3:30 p.m. and that he spent almost 4 hours walking, so he rushed to his home to prepare dinner before his mother arrives.

'I have to stop getting so lost in my thoughts' Doryoku thought a little nervous for the hour as he ran quickly through the streets.

After taking the train to Hosu, Doryoku ran quickly through the streets and past some children playing with a ball until he heard the sound of a car's tires skidding, so he glanced in the direction of the car's noise.

To his left the typical guy with a car in college was present, the one who has his stereos blaring and goes at full speed until he eats a good fine at best.

Doryoku just waited on the sidewalk for the car to pass, it was far away but it was the best to just wait in this kind of situation and not take any risks.

While Doryoku waited quietly, a ball passed him and reached the center of the street so that he quickly deduced what was going to happen.

And sure enough, a boy with light blue hair wanted to go after the ball so Doryoku held him by his shirt to stop him.

"Watch out kid, wait for that madman to pass" Doryoku said seriously as he pointed to the car to the left of him and the boy nodded with a bit of understanding.

When he saw the ball in the center of the street, the young man wanted to avoid it at maximum speed as if it were a video game, so he accelerated and wanted to skid to turn to the right.

'Okay I didn't see this coming' Doryoku thought in shock at seeing the ridiculousness of ordinary college students.

And it came out terribly, because when he made a bad and too abrupt skid, the car turned in the air and was about to crash.

The young man inside waited for the impact as he closed his eyes and covered his body to take the least damage, but after a few seconds, he felt nothing.

*Knock**Knock*

Suddenly the young man opened his eyes and looked out the window at a wine haired boy with a calm expression.

The young man opened the window still shocked by the situation and received a strong blow to the face from Doryoku that left him unconscious.

"You're lucky, if Okā-chan were here you would be a college dump for your idiocy" Doryoku said remembering that his mother always said that these kinds of idiots at least deserve a punch in the face.

"Wow, are you a hero? You're cool!" The light blue haired boy who was next to Doryoku said with an excited smile next to his companions.

"At the moment no, go home kids, this time is too dangerous to play in the street" Doryoku said with a warning tone to the kids making them nod in blind admiration and go home.

Doryoku let out a tired sigh and then deactivate his bracelet which was releasing a bit of steam and go home.

But first, he took a look at the boy's car to see if he had to call a police officer for consumption of an illicit substance until he noticed a photo hanging from the rear view mirror.

Taking it and looking closely with curiosity, Doryoku could see a photo of the young man in the car hugging his mother apparently while they both smiled happily, so Doryoku smiled slightly and started to walk home.

"I almost regret hitting you, almost" Doryoku said calmly as he walked home.

'I hadn't thought about it, many people have their own mother they want to go back to' thought Doryoku, smiling slightly and now totally convinced.

And with all this, Doryoku realized that maybe, it wouldn't be a bad idea to be a hero.