Chapter 84: I’ll face them.

Later, in the control room, all the students were present except for five people: Midoriya, who was in the infirmary, and the four people who would have a match. Among them was Eijiro Kirishima, a young man of average height with spiky red hair and a muscular build, who wore a hero suit consisting of two dark red gear-shaped shoulder pads, dark pants, and boots. This left the upper part of his body bare.

Next to Kirishima was Hanta Sero, who was tall and slim, with black hair down to his chin that spiked downward and an irregular fringe that reached halfway down his forehead. His hero suit consisted of a tight-fitting black jumpsuit adorned with shoulder pads shaped like tape dispensers, very similar to the natural shape of his elbows due to his quirk.

The two had been assigned the role of villains, so they would be protecting the nuclear bomb. As preparation, they secured the bomb with several lengths of tape produced by Sero's quirk, which allowed him to produce tape that came out of his elbows. Meanwhile, Kirishima stood at the entrance of the hallway leading to the room to prevent anyone from entering, ready for battle.

Meanwhile, outside the building were Momo and Kai, who patiently waited until the preparation time was over, calmly talking about what they wanted for dinner and things like that. With poor Salem in the arms of an excited Momo, serving as a sacrifice to calm her, until All Might informed them that it was time to start.

"Kai, I want to face them. In the last few years, my only opponents have been you, Salem, and the girls, so I want to measure myself against them and see what level I'm at." With a serious yet excited expression, Momo commented as she returned poor Salem to Kai, who received him amused while nodding with a small chuckle.

"Hehehe, go ahead, better for me."

In the control room, everyone was surprised by Momo's words and watched the holographic screen attentively to see what she would do. Although some students, especially some girls and a robust young man whose head looked like a rock, couldn't help but occasionally glance at the adorable black cat with blue eyes who was starting to play with their handsome and terrifying classmate.

As Momo entered the building, various support equipment began to emerge from her exposed skin, which adhered to her body on their own, soon leaving her fully equipped with a technological and elegant red armor that highlighted her feminine figure.

"Wow, that's awesome!"

"She looks super heroic with that armor."

"Her quirk is really impressive!"

The armor was one of the prototypes inspired by the armor of a certain genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, which Kai had been working on for a while as support equipment for the girls. Recently, Keiko had joined the project, and its development had accelerated greatly, although they still had some problems with the power source.

But thanks to the ability of Momo's Accomplice, which allowed her to overcome the biggest limitation of her quirk: the inability to create anything without knowing the molecular composition of the object, including every small element that composes it. She was able to be the first to use the armor effectively, as she could replace all the parts she needed without much trouble, including the batteries.

To overcome the limitation of Momo's quirk, the Accomplice developed an ability that allowed her to have a sort of "database", capable of registering anything she touched for at least a minute—time that increased depending on the complexity. Then she could produce it through her quirk with nanometric precision. However, it only had 20 slots, and if she wanted to add something new, she had to delete a previous one. Moreover, she could only register things that she could create with her quirk; if it was beyond her physical limits, it wouldn't work.

"As a man, I can't let you get past here!"

When Momo reached the hallway leading to the room, she found Kirishima blocking the way. He exclaimed loudly, full of confidence, while his skin became rough and cracked, as if it were some kind of stone or mineral. He then struck his fists together, creating an almost metallic sound.

Without saying a word, Momo attacked, propelled by her armor, managing to land a powerful blow on Kirishima's face, who could only survive thanks to his quirk. This initiated a brutal flurry of high-speed blows from Momo, which cornered the young man, who could only cover himself until his quirk reached its limit, at which point he fell unconscious to the ground.

[The armor's energy has dropped to 67%.]

Upon hearing the message from her personalized virtual assistant, Momo nodded in satisfaction. She then left the building and found Kai, at which point the armor detached from her body, simultaneously activating the self-destruct system, disintegrating into simple dust particles—one of the things that had taken Keiko and Kai the most work to develop.

"That was a great fight, but I'll give you the final honors." Upon reaching Kai, Momo commented with a beautiful smile on her face, to which the blue-eyed boy asked with an amused smile while Salem climbed back onto his shoulder.

"What happened to 'I'll face them'? You still had plenty of battery left."

"Hehehe, I know, but this fight gave me several things to think about. Besides, if you don't do anything, they'll probably deduct points." Momo replied with a small smile on her face, to which Kai could only comment somewhat amused.

"If you say so."

As he spoke, Kai activated his Conqueror's Haki, causing Sero, who looked nervous in the room, to fall unconscious to the ground, which automatically gave them the victory—something that was announced by All Might through the communication equipment, while the students excitedly commented among themselves about the impressive "battle".

"Those two are really incredible."

"Yeah, their quirks are insane."

"Exactly, what's up with Saito-kun's quirk? Not only does it give him super strength and super speed, but he even has that strange ability to make others faint—not to mention he's really scary when he's angry."

"Yes, and Yaoyorozu-chan is not far behind; that armor that came out of her body is impressive and very powerful."

While several students were talking excitedly, one person in the control room was not enjoying what he saw, and that was Katsuki Bakugo, who watched with clenched teeth and bloodshot eyes the young man who walked casually holding hands with who seemed to be his girlfriend.

...

...

...

At the end of the class, Kai was in an empty classroom where All Might had asked him to wait. Bored, he sat behind a desk and began playing with Salem, balancing a tower of pens, which the bow-tied cat would amusingly knock down every so often.

Some time later, All Might arrived after visiting Midoriya in the infirmary. Seeing Kai casually playing without paying attention to him—even though he knew Kai could sense him from afar—he could only shake his head with an ironic smile on his face. He then dragged a chair, sat in front of Kai, and spoke in a serious tone.

"Kai-shonen, do you know why I asked you to come?"

"To ask me to heal your successor?" Kai asked casually, trying to play dumb to change the subject.

"Recovery Girl has already taken care of that. What I want is for you to explain why you have that attitude with your classmates." All Might replied with a serious expression, to which Kai could only comment casually.

"Very simple: because that guy is annoying. Nobody asked for his opinion, and he came to bother me with his stupid robotic movements, as if it were his job or something."

"Iida-shonen was just talking about the rules. Besides, he wasn't the only one; yesterday you made Bakugo-shonen and Midoriya-shonen faint." All Might retorted in a serious tone, which brought a small smile to Kai's face. He commented in a slightly mocking tone.

"So it's about your successor, but don't worry about that. Although he has an annoying face, I won't do anything else to him. Everything happened because that annoying blond was screaming like a bitch, so I shut him up, and your little one got involved to defend him. So I just gave him a small lesson."

Kai's words made All Might grimace, not only because of how he described the situation but also because of the evident disdain with which he referred to Midoriya—even when he knew he was his successor, something he had to discover in the same way he discovered the secrets of One for All. But he quickly regained his composure and commented in a serious tone.

"It's not really about Midoriya-shonen; it's about your attitude. Why does being a hero bother you so much, Kai-shonen?"

"Yeah, whatever you say. And honestly, I don't know—it just bothers me. But don't worry about that; that's not the problem, since I won't be a hero. The license that Nezu promised me is like yours; it only serves to keep me out of trouble if I use my powers in public. Besides, over time I can get used to this place, and it will be easier to cope with."

Kai replied with a smile that made it clear he didn't believe All Might's words, then added while activating his Conqueror's Haki.

"Although if you're not satisfied with that, we can always fight a bit so you can let out your anger."

"Stop trying to change the subject, Kai-shonen. There's a reason for your annoyance, and you know it better than anyone." All Might completely ignored Kai's pressure and looked him directly in the eyes while speaking, to which the young man could only remain silent.

"..."

"So you're afraid to admit it, Kai-shonen?" Feeling that the pressure had disappeared, All Might commented with a challenging smile on his face, which seemed to make the blue-eyed young man reflect deeply.

Kai knew that All Might was right; not knowing was just an excuse. He knew perfectly well why he despised the idea of being a hero, and although he wasn't attracted at all to anything in the hero world—apart from the fights, obviously—his annoyance really came from his father, "Iron Palm."

If it weren't for him, Kai could still have his mother in this life; that whole event would never have happened. And even if he could never have recovered his memories, it was an acceptable price to pay as long as his mother could have a good life.

But even with that, Kai really couldn't hate Jiro, his father, mainly because he was the personification of the ideal father he had dreamed of in his past life. Despite being silly, naive, and a real nuisance in many cases, he was responsible, serious, kept his word, loved and respected his mother, and most importantly, his mother really loved him and was happy with him.

Moreover, most likely due to the deep shame and self-loathing he suffered all his life as Daniel for having as a father a complete scumbag he would have liked to kill with his own hands. Knowing about the heroic acts of Jiro—his real father—made him very proud. As if in some way all his actions were irrefutable proof that this time he was the son of someone valuable and, therefore, he was also a valuable person and not the trash of his past life.

Due to all that tangle of contradictions, the solution his mind came up with to at least cope was to transfer that hate to his job. If Jiro were not a hero but a doctor, firefighter, or anything else, things would have been very different. At this moment, he would still be in his workshop happily creating things, with his mother helping him and giving him her incredible advice, in addition to her unconditional love and care.

Although Kai knew perfectly well that hating being a hero was stupid, he couldn't do anything about it. After all, the greatest remorse of his two lives was losing his mother, so he played dumb with the subject, stalled it, and tried to ignore it as best he could. Besides, his mind wasn't exactly an example of mental health, so it was just another problem on the list to work on over time.

"It's not fear; I just understand how illogical it is. I really despise being a hero and everything it entails—that's why this place bothers me so much. But I have my reasons for entering UA, so it will only be a matter of getting used to it." Kai commented with an emotionless face as he leaned back in his chair, at which point All Might commented in a grave tone.

"Kai-shonen, you have incredible abilities; you could do a lot of good in the world if you become a hero."

"That's what differentiates us, All Might. I don't give a damn what happens to the world; I don't plan to do anything for it, neither good nor bad. It doesn't deserve my attention. I never believed that crap that it's the duty of the strong to protect the weak; they should already be grateful enough that I'm not a crazy megalomaniac who kills them for pleasure. But help them? Please, they don't even help themselves.

"Besides, the first thing they'll do is attack me when I can't 'help them', as if it were my damn obligation to do so. And you'll witness that firsthand, All Might. Remember my words: passing on your quirk was a mistake, and soon you'll regret it. Society will turn against you, despise you, and hate you if things go to hell. Everything you built and fought for will be destroyed in an instant."