35 Mock Battle.
The sun had set a few hours ago, the full moon lighting up the sky.
It was truly beautiful, he always had an affinity with the moon. Even as a child when one should still be scared of the dark, though there were real reasons for that back then, he always felt calm when he saw that luminescent glow as the sun went away.
It was a gentle warmth that shone down that made him feel at ease.
His schedule these past few months had not really been hectic but it was enough to keep his mind preoccupied.
"I should really pick up a hobby, I've been too stressed lately." He thought.
Mindless entertainment like games could only go so far and he couldn't just cook whenever he wanted to waste time.
There was something he used to do when he first started college in his second life. Something he almost pursued as a career but changed his mind at the last minute.
"I wonder what my old comrades would think if they knew I almost became a painter." He mused.
He enjoyed it, but nothing really ever came of it. He sat at the threshold where he was somewhat talented but never had professional direction and could have potential made something of his work if he put in the effort, but he abandoned it as he moved forward in life.
It was quite calming and peaceful, and the sense of accomplishment once he finished a work even if it was mediocre was fulfilling.
Though these were thoughts for later as his reminiscing was broken by a scream nearby. He had been perched ontop of a moderately sized building and suddenly jumped off and moved towards the direction of the scream.
The scene was relatively cliché but this world in general seemed to follow the standard hero and super villain stereotypes quite often.
Some hoodlum in spandex running around being a villain and robbing people, using his mediocre quirk to his advantage and a young lady curled up against a wall as she was shivering in fear.
It only took a single Black key to pin his shadow as this villain tensed up in a frozen state.
"Are you alright miss?" Alex said as he reached a hand out.
She didn't speak but hesitantly accepted the help to her feet.
"I have alerted the Authorities and they should be here in a moment."
She calmed down a bit as she looked at her would-be robber his state was obvious as he was trying his hard to resist.
"Whats wrong with him?" She asked on confusion.
"That blade binds a target by piercing their shadow, he cannot move while it remains."
"Does it now?" She asked, a small smile on her face turning into something sadistic.
"I should probably step out more into the open to waive down any oncoming police, and if anything were to happen to this criminal, say a few slaps, well I don't think anyone in particular would be held responsible." Alex said with a wink as he turned around and walked a bit away.
A moment later he could hear would only could be described as a high-pitched scream.....originating from a male.
It was a familiar scream, something that made Alex's stomach drop and any other man who heard could easily recognize. Yes, he could feel the scream in his own manhood.
Luckily for the criminal, the police had arrived promptly. The authorities in this world were very thorough and punctual. They had to be to deal with all the bullshit that quirks brought.
It went pretty standard, they asked for his identity and he presented his Hero Permit. It was something given to him to avoid any hassle that his current circumstance brought about. They were a bit liberal with the permits, but his authority didn't stretch as far as a normal hero license. Once that was sorted, the series of events had been told and they easily took the man into custody. He dropped to the ground and almost passed out as soon as the blade was removed from his shadow.
As everyone left, Alex just casual walked down the street towards where he was currently staying.
It was oddly therapeutic what just happened. He had still been feeling a bit antsy from the fight earlier in the day and had just been trying to distract himself. He decided not to continue with any magecraft practice for the day, rushing was never a good thing. He had some idea he would rather work on after he calmed down a bit.
But this helped, even if it was something small it felt like he did something productive to settle down.
It wasn't too late yet, so he figured he would go home and get a good night's sleep and deal with tomorrow's classes.
He took out his tablet for now to check his status on a whim as he walked.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alexander Penn (Arthur Pendragon)
Strength [ B- ]
Endurance [ B- ]
Agility [ C ]
Mana [ B-]
Will [ C ]
Luck [ C ]
Passive Skills:
- Magic Resistance [ C ]
- Riding [ B ]
- Charisma [ C ]
- Instinct [ C+ ]
Personal Skills:
- Mana Burst
- Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind King (Requires Invisible Air)
- Transfer
- Reinforcement [ E- ]
Equipment:
- Noble Phantasms
o Excalibur [Anti-Fortress] C – EX
o Invisible Air [Anti-Unit] C
o Rule Breaker [Anti-Magecraft] C
o Gate of Babylon [Anti-Unit] E-EX
- A King's Armor [ C ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Huh....thats new." He blurted out.
Reinforcement was now listed as a personal skill…..and it had a rank. None of his other personal skills had ranks. Did that mean it was a shitty skill for only being at [ E -] or was it designating that his mastery of it was that low. It wouldn't be too off to say he had mastered Mana burst, and transfer had no skill attached, he purchased it in the shop and it had basically been uploaded into him and even then it was a skill that maids used in a certain world to do household chores. Then there was his [ Strike Air], it wasn't actually a noble phantasm activation but a skill he used that was attached to invisible air which was barely a noble phantasm in of itself even if it was [ C ] Rank.
It was probably alluding to the fact that he was just very inept with he skill as he had only started learning to use it on his own body. That meant his ability with other magecraft is so abysmal that his status doesn't even register it. He knew that was the case, but having a system tell him so was a bit disheartening.
Regardless, it was good news. It was always nice to have a measuring stick of your progress. It would have been nice if he could just purchase reinforcement and have it directly uploaded into him like Transfer, but it only seemed like simple spells could be purchased like that and the higher 'level' ones in that category were exorbitantly expensive for what they did. A simple 'fireball' was 5,000 points. Something he could just slap away. Convenience fee at it's finest.
His own idle thoughts lasted until he got home and finally jumped into bed, it would be a long day tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Morning." Alex said as he greeted the his house mate.
It was one Eraser Head, or as he insisted on being called out of character, Shota Aizawa. The man had a decent size apartment with multiple rooms so Alex had essentially been regulated to his care during his stay in this world.
The hero just grunted as he sat down at the table. This had become a familiar scene as Alex usually cooked breakfast each morning to which the Hero never complained.
"You seem offly happy this morning….." Aizawa said.
"I had a good night, actually made some progress on my magecraft." Alex replied.
"Magecraft?"
"Ah I never did explain that, its what magic is essentially called back home. It is the reproduction of scientific phenomenon through magical means. If something could theoretically be done regardless of cost or absurdity through science then it can be achieved through magecraft."
"Huh…..that sounds significantly more mundane than how I pictured."
"Truthfully I prefer it to some other brands of magic I've encountered. I prefer the structure it has over the abstract that most literature describes magic as."
"Anyways, I need to get going, All Might asked me to arrive early so we could square out some details in today's lesson." Alex said.
The hero just grunted as he focused on the meal before him.
The apartment wasn't very far away from the school, a mild walking at a normal pace and brought him to it in no time.
It was a little before the first classes of the day started so only a few students present but most teachers had arrived.
Finding All Might's office was easier this time around.
The man was somewhat nervous. He had been planning this lesson for a couple weeks and kept checking it to make sure it would go okay. It was his first time actually teaching and he didn't want to mess up. He asked Alex to double check his plans again this morning. It was a bit comical to see the supposed symbol of justice panic over such a thing.
He was rather stiff as they walked to the class. They were both in 'costume'. He had his All Might persona going while Alex had donned his armor.
"I'M COMING THROUGH THE DOOR.....like a normal person." All Might declared as he casually opened the classroom door to walk inside.
They all had expressions of awe as they watched the worlds most renown hero walk up to the podium in the front.
After the clamoring and murmurs they calmed down a bit to notice Alex also in the corner.
"All Might-Sensei, who's this?" Tenya Lida stood up and asked with a hand raised as he pointed to Alex. The boy with the engines in his legs. His personality was very rigid.
Truthfully the rumors about his existence were just that to most people. Outside of some higher ups that had been pushed away by Nezu, not many people actually knew who he was. Even with his armor equipped, very few people would recognize him.
They recognized him from the previous class but he never really interacted with them, even after the surprise where he shot a black key out, they didn't have a chance to ask him anything. It was normal that they were curious about this person who kept showing up.
"Alexander Pen, I'm something like a temporary teacher aid, I'll be shadowing All Might and Eraser Head periodically." Alex introduced.
As he finished, several of them started to shout in surprise.
"Are you a knight!?"
"How old are you?"
"Are you a pro hero, I don't recognize you."
"Whats your quirk?"
Alex and All Might shared a look as they both let out a small sigh, the Professional Hero had calmed his nerves down a bit at the whole situation.
"Settle down now, we need to begin class." All Might said as they all quickly quieted down and waiting for further instructions. "Now lets jump straight into the lesson it's going to be...…..A BATTLE!"
The kids got excited and started clamoring again.
"We've prepared the costumes and gear you've requested and you will be using it for today's activity." He added.
All Might and Alex waited at the location of the battle, an abandoned building that was a few stories tall. The kids walked out not much later, fully geared. They were understandably excited at the prospect of acting like a professional hero.
"Alright, I will now explain whats going to happen." Alex said. All Might wanted him to take a somewhat active role in their class.
"We're going to randomly separate you all into groups of two. Then we're going to random each group into either heros or villians and then finally we're going to be having a mock battle between randomly drawn teams based on if you are a hero or villain."
"Villians will be defending a mock bomb while the Heroes job is to infiltrate the building and disable the fake bomb."
"Thank you Alex." All Might said. "Now, what you usually see on various media are heroes fighting villians out in the open, but that's not normally the case. Most acts of villainy are committed indoors and such you need to understand how to accommodate your quirks for such occasions."
As he finished, the randomized teams were selected.
The first battle would be Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka the latter of whom has the gravity quirk as the heros vs Katsuki Bakugo, the boy with the explosions and Tenya Lida as the villians.
The team took their places as they formulated a strategy.
"Should be interesting considering the rivalry between Midoriya and Bakugo." Alex said as he looked at the Hero next to him.
"Yes, I did not intend on this happening, but I believe this will be good for both of them. I only hope they don't forget their purpose during the battle." All Might replied.
"Well, lets see if the little brats have what it takes." Alex said with a small smile.
