My Swarm Academia: Call Of The Void

After school, Class 1-A met up at the athletic field. Just as Kai had wanted, not one person was missing.

Well, nobody from Class 1-A.

"Now, Ayako is probably talking to some friends right now, so I'd like to start with a question: what defines a hero?" Kai paused, and decided to add, "And if you just say strength, power, or a Quirk, you have to smack Bakago upside the back of his head."

"Hey!"

"I'm not gonna smack them- they don't have problems like you!"

After a brief moment of silence, Yaoyorozu raised her hand. "What does this have with combat? I thought you said that was what you were going to teach us."

"Excellent point. Do you have a guess?"

"You want to know why we want to be heroes?"

"Very astute, very close, but not quite. Last Tuesday, I said my lessons would cover Moral Philosophy. I want to make sure you are going to be heroes, and not Pro Heroes."

"What's the difference?" Tokoyami asked.

"Well, that depends on your answer. I know mine, but I want to know if I need to teach it to you all. After all, there are several acceptable answers. The question still stands: what makes a hero?"

"Heroes help and protect people," Deku answered.

"A very good and acceptable answer." Kai nodded with approval.

"Heroes are popular," Mineta said.

"Decent, and actually close to the root."

"Heroes are cool, and save people!" Ashido called out, raising her hand.

"Okay, but you are just combining Deku and Mineta's answers. The root of what a hero is is actually quite simple- they represent ideals, especially that of saving people. 'Pro Hero' is nothing more than a job title. It has nothing to do with actually doing anything heroic. Otherwise, Endeavor would have been imprisoned or assassinated a long time ago. Probably by me. He still should be. But Shoto gets first dibs, so I've been holding back. I have a reservation for a round of slaps to the face in a couple of weeks though, so I'm in no rush.

"I got off topic, didn't I? Hmmm…." Kai tried to remember where he got off track.

"Why isn't he a hero? He's Japan's Number 2 Hero!" Ojiro asked.

"He's number two, you're at least right there," Kai said with a chuckle. Sadly, that joke didn't work as well in Japanese as in English.

"But he's also a criminal. He doesn't even try to be likeable. I ask you, what ideal does he represent, other than power? Power is nice, but not necessary to be a hero. At all," he added with a pointed look at both Deku and Bakugo.

"You can't be a good hero without power," Bakugo scoffed.

"That, is why you fail, Bakago," Kai said with an old and weary tone. He pulled out a holopuck from his pocket and ran the footage of him toying with Bakugo and breaking his arm. As it looped, he continued.

"Yeah, my power and Quirk really destroyed you there, eh? You seem to think that power is the only ideal for a hero to uphold. If you think otherwise, you have given me no reason to think so. A pitiful ideal to cling to, considering you have the physical power of a can of Lysol near a match, and the mental power of a 100-yen calculator. Which is worse- to be useless by being powerless, or being useless despite power?

"Consider this story from last summer in America- at a public pool, a three-year-old boy wandered away from the kiddy pool and fell into the deep end. He began to drown, but a five-year-old girl noticed and called out to the lifeguard. She was a hero because she did what was in her power to save him."

"She just got help- anyone can do that!"

"But nobody else did. Drowning is a very quiet way to die. Trust me. Not even the boy's parents noticed him dying first. But a random child did. You are saying that just because she didn't save him herself, she didn't matter in saving him?" Kai shook his head. "I'd rather the world be filled with children like that, than have them rely on idiots like you. Powerless, yet saving, nonetheless.

"I've been trying to help you to see that your power is nothing. None of you, nor your powers, mean anything in the end. Even I don't matter. At best, I'm the fourth most powerful person in this class.

"The world of Pro Heroes is full of people who can represent the ideals of power. But we need more people who represent more ideals of heroism. Intelligence. Empathy. Teamwork. Solving problems without fighting. In the case of Uraraka, loyalty to family. I want people that inspire the better side of humanity.

"People choose different favorite heroes because of different ideals. I, for one, think the best heroes in Japan are Ayako's parents. Her mom is a healer, and her dad is a tracker. They never get talked about because they don't specialize in fighting villains and don't care about popularity. They just want to do what's right. I hope you will, too.

"What does this have to do with combat? I just want to be sure that those to whom I trust my back are fighting for the right reasons. I want to feel like I can leave the world to you. After all, I will have to. No matter how much I do the work of a hero, I can't really be one. While all of you could be the face of heroism that inspires people to be good, I have a different place to fill- the thing that goes bump in the dark; the reason that people fear to do evil.

"Ahem, that went different from how I planned. I guess I've been talking a bit too much. Judging by how I was able to do that, I guess Ayako is doing the same. So, let's get to real combat. All of you at once." Kai pulled his phone out of his pocket and set a timer. "You have two minutes to consult each other while I get a stick and warm up. Your goal is to defeat me or get me to use my Quirk within five minutes. Good luck!"

Kai started the timer and leaned down to the ground to summon a changeling, from which he removed a bokken. He ran through a quick kata to warm up his muscles as Deku tried to prepare everyone. Nobody wanted to believe they would have any problems with a 19 v. 1, but Deku told them about the "obstacle course" and assured them it was far better that he wasn't going serious. That having been said, everyone had seen Kai going against Aoyama and knew that there was more to him than his Quirk.

Then, there was the holopuck, still playing Kai toying with Bakugo and taking him down without a single use of his Quirk. Whenever conversation halted, the quiet ones would look to its loop and urge their minds to come up with solutions.

3…

2…

1…

"Time's up! Here I come!" Kai shouted, already in motion with a wide grin across his face.