Chapter 29

As Pixie-bob was trying to grab my head again after I tried to guess her age, I noticed a little kid glaring at us.

Curious, I asked, "Whose kid is that?"

Mandalay looked at the kid and replied, "Oh, he's my nephew..."

She waved at him and said, "... Kota! Come over and say hello. You'll be spending a week with these guys, after all..."

I approached him with a smile and offered a handshake, "Hi! I'm Midoriya Izuku, from UA High School's hero course."

Kita looked at me and then, he suddenly stepped forward to punch me in the balls.

'Rude kid...'

Little did the prick expected...

Kota pulled his fist back with tears in his eyes as he held his injured hand.

I smirked and said, "Nice try, kid. Unluckily for you, I have balls of steel."

But Iida would have none of it. He immediately shouted, "Hey, Nephew!! Why did you punch Midoriya in the junk?!"

Then his head snapped towards me and said, "Stop showing off by using your quirk to harden your junk... !"

Everyone, "..."

"... I did not mean it in that way!! Get your minds out of the gutter!!"

After that little comic show, we were led to the dining hall and chowed down all the food available.

Once again, it was like watching a comic show from the boys' side as they devoured all the food like a bunch of hooligans. Except for Iida... everything he did was in a proper way... so, there he was, eating like a proper hooligan... it was quite a sight to see.

Later in the evening, we went to a hot spring to get a bath. soon, Mineta started acting very strange. He had his ear against the wooden wall that surrounded the bath area.

When I asked him why he was acting that way, he replied, "To be honest, the food was alright. But that's not what I was really after... Should be right around... here..."

From the other side of the wooden wall, I could faintly hear, "... Ahh... I've never felt this good."

"Can you believe there's a hot spring here? This is the best!"

Mineta continued, "Yes... they're really there. Guess they don't have girls and boys baths at different times, nowadays. An accident, we might have a little accident today."

We all tensed up and I could hear some of the boys gulp a nervous blob of saliva.

Iida immediately jumped out of the spring and shouted at the drooling Mineta, "Stop right there, Mineta! What you're suggesting will bring shame to both us and our female classmates!"

"So strict...," Mineta said.

Then, Mineta detached two of his balls from his head and sped up the wooden wall like his ass was on fire. Drool and sweat overflowing from his face, he looked like a psycho pervert. I was ready to fly up and punt him on his head, not bothering if I caused some brain damage to his mind, but I sensed someone on the wall and knew that I wasn't needed.

Right when Mineta was about to reach the top, Kota, Mandalay's nephew, said as he pushed Mineta down, "A hero, really? Learn to be a good person first."

Mineta fell down cursing the kid. His towel came undone and so, his naked butt was aimed directly at Iida's gaping face. I would have laughed if not for the kid to turn around and faint from his brain being overflooded with blood causing him to fall.

Wasting no time, I flew up to catch him, preventing his fall to even begin. I lifted my head up in relief, only for my eyes to bug out as they settled on something I would never forget.

I saw brown hair cut into a bob... eyes widened in shock... a frighteningly red face caused from realisation that I was looking at the said person... two pale, soft and wet mounds being pushed together by tense and pale forearms... the pink tips on those mounds from which water droplets trickled down, slowly, teasing and tickling the curves that met with a flat abdomen... it was so heavenly.

My eyes rolled back into their sockets as I fell down with Kota still in my hold. For the first time... someone had managed to knock me out... but I had no regrets.

I woke up in the infirmary, still in my towel. Looking at my side, I saw Mandalay sitting beside the still unconscious Kota.

She perked up as she noticed that I was awake and said, "Oh, you're awake..."

She looked at Kota and continued, "He must have fainted from the fear of falling... thanks for saving him."

'Not really, the little shit saw heaven and couldn't handle its beauty... much like me.'

She continued, "We put him up there on guard because Eraser told us that one of you is 'The embodiment of Lust'. Girls sure grow up fast huh? How did you faint by the way?"

I nervously rubbed the back of my head and replied, "Uhm, must have been the sudden change in temperature... Anyway, I'm just glad that no one eas hurt."

I had noticed his hateful glares earlier and heard his comments of heroes, so I asked, "Kota... seems to be pretty opposed to heroes."

"Huh?"

I elaborated, "Well, all my life, I've been surrounded by people who want to be heroes. Even I aimed to be one and so I joined UA. Isn't it unusual for a kid his age to be like this?"

Mandalay looked a bit solemn and changed the wet cloth on Kota's forehead while saying, "Right. Naturally, there are quite a few people in our society who don't think much of heroes. He'd probably look up to heroes too if he was raised normally."

"... Normally?" I asked.

Pixie-bob, who most probably heard our conversation entered the room and answered instead of Mandalay, " Mandalay's cousins were Kota's parents. They were heroes who died in the line of duty. Two years ago, they died protecting civilians from a villain. There's no better way for heroes to die in the line of duty, an honourable death."

"Oh..."

"But a child his age who'd just started learning about the world couldn't understand that because his parents were his entire world. To him, It was like they'd left him all alone. But society kept praising them, saying that what they did was brave and noble."

Mandalay lovingly stroked Kota's hair as she patted the wet cloth on his forehead while Pixie-bob continued, "I don't think Kota likes us too much either. But with no other relatives to rely on, he cooperates. To him, heroes are stupid people he can't understand."

Then Pixie-bob looked at me and momentarily stared. She turned her head away and coughed in her hand while saying, "Why don't you go and put some clothes on?"

I just nodded and left.

I kept hearing different perspectives on what others thought about heroes. But I had nothing to say in reply.