MHA Chapter 57: Myriad (Patreon)

~Hakari Kotaro~

"Today you all will be picking out your official hero names."

Instantly the class went into an uproar of celebration much to the chagrin of Aizawa who slammed his hand on the desk, making everyone immediately quiet down and sit down properly while I hadn't moved from my location.

What? While hero names were exciting I didn't exactly hate classes, I had a free pass to leave and train and whatever I missed I could get down in less than an hour with Scholar. And even if I get bored in class I can just use Byakugan to be a voyeur.

Regardless, seeing the class finally calm down Aizawa cleared his throat.

"Before we get to the names I will demonstrate why picking your names is important. Because your internship offers have come in, I don't think I need to stress how important your internships will be." Aizawa put both hands on the podium and gave everyone a serious look.

"These internships are your first real entrance into the world of Pro Heroes, if you do not make a good impression in these internships the interest in your career and the attention on you will significantly decrease and that will be reflected in your following years, affecting the offers and partnerships you may get in your senior years."

"But more importantly, you will be seeing and experiencing real pro hero work first-hand. While you might have faced real villains in USJ that is an outlier event and does not represent real work so I will be expecting all of you to take this seriously alright? These internships are what will shape your hero careers."

Seeing everyone took his message seriously Aizawa stood back up and pointed to the high-tech board.

"Without further ado, here are the amount of internship offers each person got." The screen opened up and I raised my eyebrows at the amount of offers.

Kotaro Hakari: 5777 Offers

Shoto Todoroki: 3102 Offers

Kasumi Bakugou: 1754 Offers

Izuku Midoriya: 699 Offers

Himiko Toga: 255 Offers

Fumikage Tokoyami: 123 Offers

Yaoyorozu Momo: 94 Offers

...

Were there even that many pro heroes in Japan? I looked around the class, seeing half of them groan in frustration at having so few offers compared to the first two while others were just grateful for the attention. Seeing Midoriya about to start the waterworks with his eyes moist I slapped his back hard enough to make him cough, grabbing his attention.

"H-Hakari-kun!?" I slapped his back again, making him lurch, okay maybe a little too much strength.

"Come on brother, don't cry, you got the fourth most offers. A man like shouldn't cower and cry from gratitude but instead, puff up his chest and smile in pride. Isn't that what heroes do?" He quickly wiped his face with his sleeve and smiled at me, although it was a bit shaky it was better than him wetting the floor with his tears and getting the janitor involved.

"R-Right, thanks Hakari-kun. You're right."

On the side, I smiled at Toru shaking Toga's shoulders while crying tears of joy at having gotten more than 10 offers. While Mina and Ochako slumped their shoulders at the fact that their offers didn't even add up to 30 together.

Aizawa cleared his throat, snapping everyone's attention back to him. Well, at least he let us celebrate so that was good.

"Normally the offers would be more spread out but this time people's attention were more focused on the top 5, it can't be helped, if you want more offers, try standing out more and developing yourself. For those of you who received no offers or received offers you don't want to take, UA has partnerships with 40 agencies across Japan you can choose from. And for those of you who have too many options, try asking for help from the teachers, any teacher other than me anyway." He clapped his hands and heaved a sigh.

"Alright, that was all from me, since I am not of much help in the topic of picking out names, Midnight will be taking it over from here." With that Aizawa took his sleeping bag from under the podium and went to the corner of the room before zipping himself up, falling asleep within seconds while the clacking of high heels sounded as a sensual presence entered the room, instantly commanding the attention in the room.

"Hello everyone, I'll be taking over the class from here as your teacher seems to have had a rough patrol last night."

She gave a side glance to Aizawa who was already snoring before resuming her speech.

"You will all be choosing your Hero names, although they will be temporary for now, if you don't take this seriously you will have hell to pay later." She slammed her hand on the podium to show gravitas before continuing. "Even if they are temporary, chances are that these are the names that the public will know you by and if that name is not good it will stick with you and rebranding will be a pain later."

She got a touch calmer while explaining the next part now that she had emphasized how important this whole business was.

"But more than that, these names will represent how you want you to be perceived by the public, the image you want to project to the masses, how you want them to know you. How you want your career to go and what you want to accomplish. For example, a name like 'All Might' is both a play on the word all right and might, showing he is both a protector and unmatched in power."

She then struck a pose and pointed to Aizawa and then herself.

"Of course, you can also name yourself something catchy and simple like Aizawa and I. Sometimes a simple name is better than a complicated one. You could take your quirk or a defining feature of yourself and brand yourself around that! Now then, take these whiteboards and write your name down, when you are done I will call you to the podium one by one to introduce myself. Don't worry about messing up too badly, I am here to make sure your names are appropriate and give advice."

With that she went around, handing everyone small whiteboards and pens while I fell into thought.

I never really thought much about what I would name myself. Should I just go by my own name? I didn't care about what the public thought about me after all, for all I cared they could call me Hero Man or just... Man, I still wouldn't mind.

Hmm, this is... unusually complicated. Should I go by One and All? No, too big of a mouthful and All Might deals with enough stress and heart problems already and the man isn't even 50 yet.

Eventually, I decided to write down on my whiteboard as people started taking the stage.

Some people went with the same names they chose in canon like Froppy for Tsuyu, Uravity for Uraraki, Creati for Momo, Ida for Ida, Shoto for Shoto etc. until I noticed some different ones.

"Tadaa~! I decided to call myself the Bloodsucking Hero: Bathory!" Nemuri nodded in appreciation.

"I like it! It both draws on the pop culture of Elizabeth Bathory and plays into the theme of your quirk that consumes blood! Good job!"

Next was Bakugou who only did a slight change to hers.

"I am the Explosive Hero: Supreme Explosion Murder God Empress!"

Midnight made a really awkward expression, visibly cringing at the name even an 8-year-old wouldn't pick.

"Erm... that is quite an imaginative name Bakugou-chan but maybe try toning it down a little, it seems very... intense and a mouthful."

Kasumi huffed indignantly, crossing her arms.

"But then how will people know how I am the best? I am not changing it!"

Midnight sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"...We can deal with this later. Next?"

Kasumi strutted back to her seat and sat down with force in protest while Toru stepped up with a bubbly expression and revealed her card.

"I will be the Hidden Hero: Mirage! Because I bend light around myself!"

Nemuri nodded in appreciation, probably happy she got an actual name after that attempt by Bakugou. Giving her a thumbs up while it was Mina's turn next.

"I will be the Acid Hero: Meltdown!" I actually recommended that one to her when she told me about her future name plan, because naming after a very specific pop reference from a movie that came out 300 years ago is not good marketing.

"I like it! It fits your quirk and rolls off the tongue really well."

Other than those, the rest of the class those their names when it was finally my turn.

"Alright Hakari-kun, what do you have?" I felt a little intimidated by the expectant expressions on everyone but cleared my throat and turned my board around to face them.

"I chose the Chaotic Hero: Myriad as my hero name."

I considered naming myself Gambler but decided not to, I was branding myself as a hero, not a yakuza. Besides, Myriad just rolled off the tongue easier.

Nemuri expressed her approval with a thumbs up.

"It's great Hakari-kun, it perfectly describes your quirk, it means you have a myriad of quirks right? And is very recognizable, short and sweet."

After everyone was done choosing their names Midnight announced to everyone that they would get their internship details through their mail and would get 3 days to turn in their decision. Although I already knew who I was going to go to.

My heart called out for muscular rabbits. The most important thing for me was experience and physical conditioning anyway. the only other hero that would be a viable internship that I would benefit from would be Endeavor due to my frostflare but no way I was approaching that prick with a 10-foot pole. I knew Shoto was going to take his internship so I would just ask him to teach me some techniques by proxy.

After that whole thing was over everyone naturally fell into a discussion about hero names and discussing whose agency and stuff they wanted to join which I also participated in, helping the others choose their agencies but in truth, I barely knew anything, I only knew a handful of heroes from what I remembered from the anime and manga.

The rest of the school day passed without any incidents or anything of note, I spent most of it talking with the girls and flirting a bit with Jiro and Momo while Bakugou glared daggers into the back of my skull. I genuinely thought that she would try to attack me with how often she just sat and glared at me like a hated enemy, really, with any other girl I would assume attraction but the only thing those eyes held was anger.

Or so I think? Pretty hard to gauge intentions with that one. She was almost bipolar.

At the end of class times, Toga had sent me on yet another endeavour, to buy groceries once more while she prepared a surprise food for us. I'd love nothing more than to be able to use Instant Transmission for chores but unfortunately, using it to teleport around town was definitely illegal without a hero license. Because classic Japan. I could only use it to teleport around my house or into my house.

While walking to the grocery store that got robbed last time, however, I got a sudden chill down my spine as the hairs on my neck stood up.

[Trouble brews as a villain-to-be finally gets fed up, having spent all of his savings to buy the key to power in a syringe. He gets into public and stalks his boss, planning his rampage in Taku Street]

Huh, is this a side quest from Shivers? I haven't had it warn me about something so common before but hey. I guess I have nothing better to do than check it out, Toga would understand if I was a little wait to save the city from a villain attack.

Besides, Shivers seldom says anything if it was not important or related to me seducing a girl. And both outcomes are more than acceptable.

I cracked my neck and subtly used Scary Monsters to transform slightly before powerwalking toward Taku Street.

Let's see what this side quest is about.

A/N: A cooldown chapter and Hakari's name manages to fix some dumb names from the anime, only some of them because you just cannot stop Mr. "I Cannot Stop Twinkling" and Ms. "Ultra Supreme Genocide Explosion Empress." By the way, did you like the name I chose for Hakari? I think Myriad is short and sweet while still being fitting. I couldn't find any other name for Toga other than Bathory, it'll be awkward when she finds out the class next door's teacher is Vlad.

And a wild sidequest appears! Which heroine do you guys think this involves? And what shenanigans do you guys expect from the internships? I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.