Oh my Gawd, that was so boring!"
Taro expressed, his shoulders slumped and dragging his feet as he walked, exiting the class building.
"I mean, what did you expect? This is still a university"
Denki reminded his classmates, while his hands were busy with his smartphone browsing through his playlist.
"I was excited when Miss Midnight was our lecturer, but Ancient art history is boring asf"
Taro said with an exaggerated sigh; Midnight was certainly a hot teacher who grabbed the attention of all the boys, but forty minutes of her yapping about Ancient art history was not stimulating enough to keep the attention.
"If you can't even pay attention in a class, then you aren't going to make it here; drop out now!"
Bakugou uttered such words, although he didn't share Taro's sentiments as he found the class on ancient art history to be mildly interesting. It wasn't his favorite, but it was something.
"Want to get rid of the competition that badly?"
"Oh please, a loser like you isn't my competition"
The blonde responded, his tone dismissive and his head looking away from Taro as if to say he wasn't worth paying attention to.
"Bakugou is right Taro"
Kirishima quickly cut in before the two could argue about who was better.
"UA is a prestigious school. You need to man up and put in a lot of effort to pass"
He reasoned, Kirishima knew he wasn't the most gifted academically, but he was willing to give it his all to achieve his goal and follow the footsteps of his idol, Crimson Riot
"I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't let you get a hero license if you don't pass all your modules"
Bakugou surmised, and both Denki and Kirishima agreed with his words. Taro could only groan but couldn't disagree; being a hero was baked into every aspect of this world, and sometimes he found it odd.
"Well whatever"
He said dismissively and chose to ignore their words. It's not like he wanted to be a hero to begin with. He began to float off the ground, feeling that walking was a bit annoying for the time being.
"Anyone want to hit the arcade?"
Denki questioned after shoving his phone back into his pocket.
"We're not children, and what makes you think we're friends to begin with?"
Bakugou responded and asked a question of his own; he did note that, for some reason, today, he's been interacting with these guys a lot.
"I mean, we've been hanging together for the whole day"
"That doesn't make us friends!"
"How about the gym, then? I wanna see how much Taro can bench press"
Kirishima chimed in with his own suggestion.
"I have a gym and an arcade at my apartment. How about we do both?"
Taro decided to kill two birds with one stone.
"Hey don't ignore me!!"
"Ignore him"
Taro said, dismissing the blonde's cry for attention, and unfortunately, that only fueled Bakugou's anger, causing the young man to swing at Taro, who easily dodged with an amused look on his face.
"So we're going to my place then?"
"Appears so"
Denki affirmed; he felt it was a bit odd to be visiting the home of someone who was barely a friend, but it would be a bit rude; plus, Denki was curious about what type of games Taro had. He did mention something about being rich, so he was curious.
So the four young men made their way out of UA, and Taro led them to his apartment complex, floating as he did so.
"You know we aren't supposed to use our quirks in public right"
Kirishima warned, his eyes looking to the side, feeling a bit nervous as some people were staring at Taro who was floating with his legs crossed.
"Yeah I know"
"Then why are you using your quirk, The police will arrest you for that"
"You afraid of the police Bakugou?"
"No, I'd rather not have to deal with the cops again"
"I knew you had to have been arrested at least once. You're definitely a delinquent"
Denki stated bluntly.
"Shut up!! And no, I wasn't arrested, I'm a law-abiding citizen"
Such words came out of the blonde's mouth, and the others couldn't help but burst out in laughter. His words were a stark contrast to his personality.
"What?!! I've never broken the law!!'
Bakugou defended himself. However, although those words were true, he couldn't help but cringe, as he knew some things he did definitely deserved some jail time, even if they weren't technically illegal.
"I mean, I guess, but I definitely don't picture you when I think Law abiding citizen"
Denki explained while wiping a tear from his eyes. He still felt amused at the thought of Bakugou being a "law-abiding citizen"
"Whatever!"
"Come on guys, let's not be mean, a person like Bakugou can definitely be a law-abiding citizen"
Kirishima stepped in. However, his wording only made Bakugou growl in displeasure and annoyance.
"At least I'm better than some guy who can't walk"
Baku threw a jab at Taro, but before the young man could retaliate with his own insult, a policeman called out.
"Hey you, no using your quirk in public, stop right there!'
The police shouted and quickly crossed the street; Taro immediately planted himself on the ground and pretended nothing was afoot.
The police officer arrived before them, sporting a displeased look and already to deliver a lecture on quirk safety protocol.
"What seems to be the issue officer"
Taro asked, his face showing an innocent smile as if he wasn't caught breaking the law.
"Young man, you were using your quirk right now. You know it's forbidden to do that, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, officer. I wasn't using my quirk"
Taro lied easily, his face still sporting the innocent smile as if he hadn't done anything wrong.
"Yes you were, I saw you"
The officer insisted.
"I apologize, officer, but I did no such thing. Perhaps you have me confused with someone else"
"Young man, lying to an officer of the law is a crime"
"But I am not lying"
Taro insisted, still maintaining his calm demeanor and smile.
"Yes you are, I saw you?"
"Do you have proof?"
The officer took a moment to think, realizing he did not have proof at all. He frowned as he had nothing else to say.
"Fine you're free to go, but don't let me catch you using your quirk'
"Of course"
Taro responded and bowed to the man before he and his friends walked away from the officer.
"You realize you will get arrested for lying to the police, peak gaslighting, btw"
Denki pointed that fact out, and Taro shrugged his shoulders and thanked him for the compliments before he responded.
"I didn't lie. At least he couldn't prove it"
"Lying is not very heroic, Taro"
Eijiro stated, and Taro gave him a deadpan look, not convinced that what Kirishima just said was true.
"Then every hero isn't heroic by that metric dude"
"That's different, heroes need to protect their identity"
Kirishima defended, setting the boundary that some lies are OK while others are not.
"A lie is still a lie, doesn't matter who says it or for whatever reason"
Taro expressed, not convinced by Kirishima's argument. He was about to speak more, however his words died at his throat as the ground suddenly shook before a giant man with a huge nose burst out of a building and sent chunks of debris flying in all directions.
"Shit!"
Bakugou exclaimed as he stretched out his arms, ready to blow away the debris; Kirishima hardened his body and braced himself, while Denki could only hide behind him as his quirk wasn't very good for defense.
However, Taro, on the other hand, was unbothered, simply staring at the coming debris with barely any interest, as if it were the most mundane of things.
This was because he knew his durability would help him survive, no. Taro knew that within this hero-saturated society, a hero would immediately come to the rescue, and he was correct.
Within a fraction of a second, his vision was immediately blocked by multiple tree branches that surrounded his body, as well as the bodies of anyone near the area, and protected them from the falling debris.
"Everyone all right?"
The Hero, Kamui Woods, had come to their rescue. He questioned everyone and received affirmative words from the civilians before undoing his wood cage and instructing them to flee from the scene.
Behind him, the giant Hero: Mt lady was tussling with the giant Villain: Nose face. The ground shook with each step taken by the giant figures, and with each punch thrown, a building either collapsed or had its walls destroyed.
"Mind the civilians Mt. lady"
Kamui Woods warned the giant woman, however, that caused her to momentarily get distracted and receive a devastating punch to her stomach, forcing her to stagger back, tripping on a car and falling back.
"Dammit"
Kamui Woods exclaimed before he acted quickly, creating a hard wooden net-like structure that was supported by wide and thick trunks of wood to break Mt. Lady's fall and reduce the amount of damage to the infrastructure.
However, while He was doing this, the villain saw the opportunity and fled. He knew he was not able to compete with Mt. Lady strength-wise, so he retreated.
Kamui Woods witnessed this and quickly tried to give chase. However, something else happened. A blur rushed past him at such speed that he could barely see it.
"What?!!"
He exclaimed in shock at such a sight and witnessed as the speeding blur reached the villain almost immediately and it collided with him at such speed that it generated a loud bang and created a shockwave, instantly taking down the villain.
The blur then disappeared, leaving no trace of its existence aside from the fact it took down a villain in a single attack.
Both Kamui woods and Mount Lady, as well as the civilians, were shocked by such an abrupt spectacle. However, the people who were even more shocked were Taro's newfound friends
All three of them looked at the sight with clear shock and in awe on their faces. Before Taro made his move, Denki was already planning to run away as soon as Kamui Woods undid his wood cage around them.
Both Bakugou and Kaminari were eager to watch a battle between heroes and a villain, looking to see if there were any pointers they could see and make note of.
"He didn't just…"
....
A/N: Taro's action will have repercussions, some small and insignificant but others big and very dangerous. He fucked up, he just doesn't know it yet.