Chapter Text
Ruby POV:
I stare at the ceiling in our dorm room as we wait for Midoriya to come over, he had promised to explain everything tomorrow, the anticipation meant I hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. The others ere getting dressed while I just lie in my bed in boredom.
“What do you think his world is like?” I ask curiously.
Yang shrugs as she combs her hair, “Who knows, but I’m excited to know what adventures he’s been on. He seems like he’s been through a lot, don’t you think?”
“It would explain his overabundance in experience and knowledge,” Blake replies.
I sit up and swing my legs over the side of my bed, “You think they have Huntsmen there too?”
Weiss sigh in front of a mirror as she puts on her combat skirt, “We’ll find out when he comes in and tells his story. Just slow down and wait.”
I groan and flop back onto me bed, “But I’m so excited, I couldn’t sleep all night!”
Yang smirks, “What a surprise.”
I pout and point at her without getting up, “Quiet you.”
“She’s taking after you more and more, Weiss,” Blake comments with a smile.
My partner huffs, “Hardly,” she starts tying up her hair, “She’s said it before, and besides, at least she doesn’t pick up any of your reading habits.”
“FILTH!!!” I shout.
Jut as Weiss finished tying up her hair a knock was heard from the door, “Uh, hey. You all u-um… decent?” Midoriya asks shyly.
Yang rolls her eyes with a smile along with Blake smiles. I hop off my bed as Weiss opens the door, revealing Midoriya on the other side with a notebook in his hands.
He smiles nervously with a small wave, “Hi…”
I smile, “Finally, what took you so long!” I exclaim, dragging him into the room, making him yelp.
He shrugged as he hummed non-committedly, not really giving a response.
Yang crossed her arms with a smile, “What, had to work up the nerve to walk into a girls’ dorm?” he flinches and looks away, making her eyes widen, “Holy shi- I was joking!”
He walks over to the desk and puts his notebook down, “I know… just, ignore it so we can move on,” he turns around, “You want to know where I come from?”
We all nod as Blake asks, “Just to be sure, you really are from another universe?” he nods.
“Wow…” I awe.
“Before you ask ay questions,” he starts, “Let me explain some of my world’s history, and my own.”
We all look at each other before looking back at him and nodding, “Go ahead,” Weiss replies with a wave of her hand.
He takes a deep breath before speaking, “Well to start off, my world is pretty much as close to comic book as you can get. 80% of the population are born with superpowers, which we call Quirks, but it didn’t start out that way.”
He cross his arms as he stress at the ground, “When they first appeared around 200 years ago, there was chaos: wars broke out, protests occurred around the world, and ‘humanity’ was a highly debated topic, especially when a human child with human parents give birth to a wolf-like hybrid.”
Blake frowns as her bow twitches, “You have it too?”
He nods, “With our own kind, their the closest thing to a faunas that we have in my world, and I’m not proud of it,” he shakes his head, “Anyway, over the years more and more Quirks started showing up, until it was almost everywhere. With so many Quirks out in the world, new job popped up to match.”
He smiles, “The most important one being the existence of heroes being an actual profession rather than a title.”
Stars from in my eyes as I gasp, “There are superheroes in your world, is that what you are?!”
He glances at me with a shrug, “I’m getting there,” he looks back down, “Being a hero is one of the most popular professions, for obvious reasons, but you need specific training to become one. Taking a ‘Hero course’ in all your years in highschool just so you can be licensed to work under a professional. However, even that is difficult to achieve.”
He moves his hands behind him and grabs his notebook, “They train you in rescue scenarios, combat, observations, and more. They also ensure you have special moves to gain the edge in a fight; they help improve your Quirk to make it stronger or more versatile… it’s a lot of work that’s crucial in making heroes survive out in the field.”
“Survive?” I ask worriedly, my excitement dimming.
He smiles sadly at me, “Remember when I said I knew a friend who was good with explosions?” I nod, “He was- is a childhood friend of mine. His sweat was nitroglycerin-like, meaning its explosive.”
Our eyes widened in shock, “He has explosive sweat?!” Weiss exclaimed.
He shrugged a small chuckle, “Yeah, he could ignore it in his hands to let him fly, destroy obstacles, or attack opponents. He was good,” then he frowned, “Or… he was…”
I look at Yang worriedly, who does the same before looking back and asking, “What do you mean?”
His eyes dim slightly before he answered, “Our last fight, the fight that would later send me here, my friend, Kacchan, was stuck holding off a very powerful enemy. When I finally arrived, I fund every hero there either covered in blood and unconscious or bordering it… except for one.”
I swallow thickly, “You don’t mean…”
He nods solemnly, “Last I saw of him, he was on the ground, a gaping hole in his chest, eyes open… not breathing.”
Blake and Weiss covered their mouths horror, Yang’s eyes widen shock, while I just stood there at a loss.
He takes a deep breath, “I was told that a hero was working on healing him, but I never saw him get back up during the fight,” he looks down at his notebook, “Hero work is dark, and dangerous, and deadly. But who else is going to protect the people? I though being a hero was the coolest thing you could do, now… I know how serious it is, but if I’m not out there saving people, then who will, and are they ready? So I do this, I fight… because I’m the best chance the people have at being safe in their own homes.”
He blinks for a second, before rubbing at his eyes, chuckling, “Sorry, went on a bit of a rant there.”
Blake shakes her head, “No, it’s alright. Puts into perspective the kinda world you were living in.”
The rest of my team nod, me included, making him smile, “Thanks.”
Weiss steps up, “There’s just one thing I don’t get, okay well, maybe two things.”
He gestures to her, “Ask away.”
“You said 80% of your population has a Quirk,” he nods, “But… you shown 2, along with your Aura but I don’t think it counts.”
He bites his lip as he looks away, thinking, “Well, to be honest, those are only to the powers I’ve let you see. I’ve been hiding the others.”
I blink, “Wait, really?”
He turns back with a nod, “How they come up is a complicated story, but the long and short of it is, I’ve had to work really hard for me to use this Quirk, the other powers came about later when I was adapting well to the strength amplifier piece.”
“What powers do you have?” Blake asks.
He starts listing them off by his fingers, “Well, you’ve seem the strength piece, the energy tendrils are called Black Whip, another is called Danger Sense, it’s pretty self-explanatory, then there’s Smokescreen and Float, also self-explanatory, Fa Jin, which lets me absorb kinetic energy into a limb and release it for a temporary boost in strength and speed, and then there’s Gearshift, which is my strongest one in my arsenal.”
“What does it do?” Yang asks.
“Control how fast something moves, ignoring inertia,” he answers casually, making us freeze.
“Wait, what?!” Weiss exclaims, making him flinch back.
“Oh, uh, would you look at that,” he says looking out towards the sun, “I have to grab lunch, see ya, bye!” and zooms out of the room, leaving a dust trail in his wake.
I blink at the door for a moment, then say, “But it's not even 10am?”