In her room, Toru rolled all over her bed in embarrassment. She wanted to stick her head in a hole.
Of all possible things to start a conversation with, she had chosen to talk about the weather.
"I want to die!"
"Toru? Are you okay?"
Her mother's voice from behind the door made her sit up immediately.
"A-ah, sorry Mom!"
Toru was usually an energetic girl, but since yesterday she had been even more hyperactive. Her mother thought something good might have happened, and if so, she was happy for her daughter… but having her shouting in her room was still concerning.
"Alright, get dressed or you'll be late."
"Y-yes!"
The invisible girl let out a relieved sigh, then lay back on her bed while holding her phone. Since her hands were invisible, it looked like the device was floating.
Toru had learned to live with her condition—actually, she had learned not to worry about something she never had to begin with. Even so, more than once she wondered what she really looked like.
Of course, through touch she could get a general idea of her face and body, but what color were her eyes and hair? Was she pretty? Did she have freckles? Birthmarks?
Given her parents, her hair should be some shade of green, but it was still a mystery, since her body naturally refracted light.
*Ding*
Hearing the notification sound, Toru froze.
"He actually replied?!"
Toru didn't know why, but she felt incredibly happy—so happy she got scolded by her mother again.
"Oh yeah!"
"Toru!"
"I'm sorry"
...
Allen peeked around the corner of the alley. Out on the street, Momo was looking around in every direction searching for him—with no luck.
After teasing her, he, of course, ran away, and there was no way Momo could catch up to him.
"Sorry, but I don't want to get tangled up with women."
Allen walked deeper into the alley, planning to cross to the other side.
"Found you, cockroach!"
His plan was interrupted. Near the end of the alley, a small convenience store was being targeted by three punks, who were cornering an employee.
One had green skin and looked like a humanoid lizard, another was a big guy with a punk hairstyle, and the third—apparently the leader—extended spikes from his hand like Wolverine.
"Spike! That's my quirk!" the leader said, pressing the tip of his spike against the employee's neck. Though rather than kill him, he just wanted to stop him from resisting.
"Hey now!"
The leader kneed the young man in the stomach, dropping him to the floor, and the other two immediately began kicking him.
"What's wrong, sto—"
The big guy's words were cut short when he received a punch to the face that shattered his teeth and sent him flying.
"Ah!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
Allen looked at the two remaining punks with clear disgust.
"Every world has bugs like you. Not bad enough to be real villains, just a bunch of worthless bastards."
The punks got irritated by Allen's words.
"Who do you think you are, you bastard?!"
The leader covered his body in spikes and rushed at Allen.
"Ah, watch out!" The injured employee attempted to stand, but was unable to do so.
Of course. Letting a student get hurt went against everything he wanted to become.
"Die!"
The punk grinned as he swung his spiked fist.
That grin vanished when Allen caught the fist with his hand—and instead of getting hurt, the spikes shattered.
"You really are pests."
The punk turned pale when he realized he had just kicked a steel plate. Allen didn't give him a chance; with one punch, he sent him crashing against a wall.
"And you?"
"N-no!"
The lizard punk panicked and ran away.
Allen shook his head and looked at the boy. At that moment, a tag appeared above his head, and Allen recognized him as the young man he had seen yesterday sliding down the street.
[Koichi Haimawari – Nice Guy
Quirk – Slide and Glide]
"Are you okay?"
Allen offered his hand. Koichi accepted with a sheepish smile, embarrassed that someone younger was helping him.
"Thanks."
"Don't worry about it."
Allen examined the young man with a tag. Until now, people with tags were heroes or villains or those who would end up at U.A. But this guy was different.
He was a normal young man barely in his twenties, with brown hair and eyes, looking like the definition of "ordinary." No one would think he had any potential to be important outside of being background character material. Yet… there he was.
"By the way, my name is Allen Walker."
"Allen Walker?" Koichi blinked at the foreign-sounding name, then realized he might be rude and quickly smiled apologetically. "Sorry! I'm Koichi Haimawari. Really, thank you for your help."
"Don't mention it, Koichi."
"...!"
Koichi was surprised Allen used his name naturally, but then he remembered Allen's name and figured that must be normal for him, so he didn't mind.
"Alright, see you." Allen turned to leave, but Koichi stopped him.
"Wait!"
"...?"
"Let me give you something to repay you." Koichi smiled.
A little later, Allen walked out of the convenience store with three ice pops.
"He really was a Nice Guy," Nokotan said while floating beside him.
Allen unwrapped one ice pop and handed it to her. Due to her fairy size, it looked enormous on her.
"Nun! I can handle this!"
"Sure..." Allen laughed.
Starfire – I bet he's a villain.
Rogue – That guy? You could toss him into a crowd and he wouldn't stand out at all. A villain? Nah, he's gotta be one of those surprisingly relevant background characters.
McDragon – I think that guy's hiding his true potential… that's what my instinct tells me.
PercyJ – Brother, you've read way too many comics.
McDragon – I'm betting a thousand points it's true.
PercyJ – Fine, bastard, I accept!
Thor – I'll join as well! I believe that the young man hides great potential! Haha!
Amanda – A thousand points that he's the protagonist. This type of nobody loser ends up being the MC in lots of stories.
Kate – He's definitely the antagonist. A thousand points.
"I forgot that feature even existed…"
Allen was surprised to see his Chat betting. The point system had always been active, but he pretty much forgot about it.
The points were used to buy things from the system shop, though nothing had much effect on his world, so he eventually stopped caring.
"By the way, I'm with Amanda. That Koichi guy has protagonist energy… but the kid named Izuku Midoriya also gives me that vibe. How strange…"
Allen kept walking, unaware that from the roof of a building, a girl with pink hair had seen everything that happened in the alley.
....
On his way back home, Allen remembered he still had slot spins left.
"Those punks counted as villains?"
[More or less. They were the lowest of the low, but still antagonists.]
Along with the previous two, Allen had five slot spins. He planned to wait until he got to Nemuri's apartment to use them, but because his Chat insisted, he decided to do it right there. Still, he moved to a more secluded place—a nearby park.
The slot machine fell from the sky in front of Allen. As expected, no one could see it; otherwise, it would have attracted a lot of attention.
"You guys can be excited all you want, but you already know the result... It's probably all going to be low-quality."
Rick – Even with the worst luck in the world, you should still have a chance to pull something that isn't crap. It's statistics. *Burp*
Wade – Don't worry, I'll give you my luck for this spin!
Allen sighed before pulling the lever. The three slots began spinning, and soon they stopped.
A gray card appeared in front of Allen.
[Template: The Joker
QG 1: (Poor)]
Gwen – ...
MJ – ...
Barbara – Yuck.
Batman – Burn it.
"I knew it..."
Not only was it the worst possible quality, but it was also a Joker template. The deranged clown. There was no need to guess what would happen if Allen used that card. He would have to be truly desperate.
Erza – Allen, what is that QG thing?
"Well, it is exactly what it sounds like: the quality grade."
The system opened a panel visible to everyone.
[The quality grade affects the duration of the template.
QG 10: (Gem Mint)
QG 9: (Mint)
QG 8: (Near Mint-Mint)
QG 7: (Near Mint)
QG 6: (Excellent-Mint)
QG 5: (Excellent)
QG 4: (Very Good-Excellent)
QG 3: (Very Good)
QG 2: (Good)
QG 1: (Poor)]
When they saw that the highest quality was ten and Allen had pulled the lowest possible rating on an undesirable character, the Chat went silent.
Allen pulled the lever again. He already knew what would happen, so he did it four times in a row. Once the machine stopped, three gray cards and one golden card appeared.
"This is..."
Allen opened his eyes wide when he saw the golden template. It was a pleasant surprise, and he could use it for one hour. Just before he showed it to the Chat, an explosion was heard in the distance.
"Hm?"
....
(Tatooine Shopping District)
Chaos had broken out—not because of anyone else, but because of the Sludge Villain, a criminal extremely difficult to defeat with physical attacks due to his slime-like nature. That was why not even Allen or All Might had permanently taken him down.
The area was packed with stores and civilians, and several explosions had occurred—not caused by Sludge, but by the Quirk of the boy trapped inside him.
A young man with spiky light hair and red eyes—his Quirk allowed him to create explosions from his palms.
"Haha!" Sludge laughed as he tried to steal his body. "With your Quirk, I'll definitely beat those two!"
"As if I'd let you!" the boy shouted.
Several heroes arrived on the scene, including Death Arms, who struck Sludge, but his fist got stuck inside the slime.
"What is this?"
Annoyed, Sludge threw him away with a punch.
"Can't you do anything?!" Backdraft asked while trying to put out the flames.
"He's too sticky. He's a counter to my Quirk."Death Arms responded with frustration.
On the other hand, the scared civilians cheered when a giant woman ran toward the district.
Mt. Lady arrived, but immediately got stuck— the streets were too narrow for her to enter.
"I need at least two lanes!"
Elsewhere, Kamui Woods considered fighting the villain, but when he saw civilians trapped by the flames, he used his branches to save them first.
"Don't worry, someone with an appropriate Quirk will arrive soon!" Kamui said while carrying five people at once.
The Sludge Villain wasn't incredibly powerful, but he was troublesome and persistent.
....
When Allen arrived, he assessed the situation. He considered helping even though there were already many heroes, but then he noticed Midoriya—the green-haired boy—running straight toward the danger to help the trapped kid, despite having no Quirk at all.
"You've got guts..." Allen smiled. At his side stood a skinny man clutching his chest.
"I'm pathetic..." the man whispered.
Allen glanced at him and noticed something: the man wore the exact same clothes All Might had been wearing earlier. And there was another detail—Allen could see he had a grave abdominal wound, judging by the way he moved and stood.
"I don't think so."
The man froze when he heard Allen's voice. When he looked at the guy, he went completely still.
"You..."
"Hm?" Allen shrugged. "Rest. I'll handle this."
The man stared at Allen's back and slowly smiled.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Allen."
....
Midoriya reached the other boy and tried to pull him out of Sludge's body, but without success.
"Stay back, Deku!"
"I won't!" Midoriya shouted, shaking with fear but refusing to run away.
The heroes panicked. Death Arms tried to save Midoriya, but Sludge moved faster and attacked.
Just when it looked like Midoriya was going to die, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky.
When the smoke cleared, Sludge's punch had been stopped by Allen.
His suit was red and white, and a lightning bolt marked his chest.
"Who are you?!"
"The Wisdom of Solomon, Strength of Hercules, Stamina of Atlas, Power of Zeus, Courage of Achilles, and Speed of Mercury." Electricity surged around Allen's body. "Power corrupts easily. Someone like you—who can take over other people's bodies—would always be tempted. But don't you think it's pretty disgusting to bully kids?"
"I asked who you are?!"
Sludge felt real fear. Allen's powers came from magic—from the divine—and that terrified him.
"You don't need to know."
Allen moved at super speed, pulling the boy out of Sludge's body instantly, then tossing him toward Midoriya.
"Kat-chan!" Midoriya hugged him.
"Get off me, Deku!"
Katsuki Bakugo shoved Midoriya away and glared at Allen with irritation.
"I didn't need your help!"
Allen ignored him and focused on Sludge, who had recoiled.
"You escaped twice. There won't be a third time."
"Ahhh!"
Sludge screamed and attacked. Allen punched him with power nearly equal to Superman's—yet Sludge broke apart and wrapped around him.
"Be careful," shouted Mt. Lady, trying to help, but she couldn't get in.
"Hahaha! Idiot! Now I'll take your body! I'll be invincible!"
"You're the idiot..." Allen muttered before looking up at the sky. "SHAZAM!"
A massive lightning bolt tore through the clouds and struck Sludge. His miserable scream echoed through the district.
When the light faded, only a burned man remained—Sludge's real form.
As for the superhero, he had vanished. Nobody understood where these nameless heroes kept coming from, but they immediately went viral everywhere.
Allen slipped away quietly again, fragments of light scattering around him.
[Host, you should do something about your hair. Even if the suit changes, someone might recognize you.]
"Hey."
Just as Allen was leaving, a girl fell from the sky. It was none other than Pop Step, the underground idol.
"That was amazing!~"
"What are you talking about?" Allen denied with the force of a hurricane.
Pop laughed. "You know you still have light fragments all over you?"
Allen dusted off his jacket, dispersing the remaining light, then shrugged.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Pop smirked smugly and showed him her phone—the exact moment Allen appeared and canceled the Shazam transformation.
The reason she found out so easily was that she had been following him ever since he saved Koichi.
She smiled confidently. "Hehe, now what could I ask you for~"
But unfortunately for her, she was facing the king of shamelessness.
Allen, with a face harder than the Great Wall of China, denied everything.
"Oh, that's a handsome guy, but I don't think I know him."
Pop went speechless. In that moment, Allen snatched her phone, deleted the video, put the phone back into her hand, and walked past her.
One more thing, don't go around extorting people." Allen spanked the girl.
"Ah... you!" Pop shouted angrily, but Allen was already gone. She swore she would make him pay for this humiliation.
....
Allen returned to Nemuri's apartment exhausted. Too many things had happened in a single day. This city was insane. But when he opened the door, a beautiful woman in an apron greeted him.
"Welcome~"
Nemuri's smile made Allen forget everything, including the two crazy girls who had stalked him earlier.