Kevin Curry
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Epilogue 15 (Life 12: Tenya Iida)
🕑 Added 2024-12-09 18:43:21 +0000 UTCOkay, I swore I had scheduled this, only now noticed that it didn't post. My bad, this was done, like, last Tuesday. Been working on the next Fae Chronicles chapter since then.
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Being a father and a Hero was difficult. Iida Tenkai was a proud hero, The Engine Hero: Turbo! His wife was also a hero, the Speed Heroine, Accel! Their agency, founded by Tenkai’s own father, Iida Tenga, Iidaten, was one of the best in the business!
But he was also the father of two boys: They meant to have Tensei, but Tenya… he was a bit of a surprise. A fifteen year age gap between children was not easy. Tensei was a fine heir to the Iidaten legacy, but he was, in many ways, Tenkai’s opposite. It was only appropriate that his son’s chosen hero name was the Turbo Hero, Ingenium.
“Tenya, Daddy’s busy.” He said, glancing at the boy who had wandered out of his playpen and up to him. They were in his office, of course. Couldn’t do this kind of sensitive paperwork at home. “Where is your toy?” He asked, noticing that his action figure was missing.
“Karate!” Tenya declared, his arm robotically chopping downward. He was imitating his toy, cute. But where did it go? Normal parents would probably assume, given that the boy was nearly four, some kind of quirk thing, but they were the Iida family. Tenya’s quirk was Engine, just like his. His Engine was focused on his legs and hips, with a surprisingly large amount of metal incorporated into the rest of his body, but that meant there was to be no surprises. Well, quirk-related surprises. He apparently had some kind of dream disorder where his brain was unusually active at night, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be handled by modern medicine.
“...You know what? Here.” He took out his phone, a durable model rated for hero work: you could drop it form the top of the building then run it over with a cement truck followed by throwing it in the sea, it would still function once retrieved. Not even a four year old child could destroy it. He locked it into a game he had on there: it was a particularly engaging idle game, so hopefully it would keep the boy entertained with the flashing lights and rising numbers. “Press this to power up. Press it faster for more power.”
As expected, Tenya immediately fell in love with the concept of raising his power level further and further. With the boy occupied again, Tenkai went back to his paperwork.
After about thirty minutes, Tenkai had finished and felt that something was wrong. He glanced at Tenya again and saw that the boy appeared to be just… zoned out.
Wait. Where was his phone! “Tenya!” Tenkai near-shouted, but the boy did not respond. He was facing away from his father, so Tenkai picked the boy up and looked into his eyes.
…Why do his eyes look like loading icons?
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So apparently, Tenya found yet another world that resembled a superhero comic book. They made a note to not go to the adjacent universe next time: maybe he’ll find one that’s a bit less redundant. It was a step up, to be certain: instead of superpowers being caused from trauma, it was genetic, and they had been around long enough that the vast majority of the population had them.
Because not all of these powers were super, they were called Quirks. His new family had a quirk lineage oriented around innate cybernetics, usually some form of Engine that allowed superhuman speed and strength when active. Tenya actually had this too, with a pair of engines in his calves. They were powered by citric acid and sugar, with orange juice having the ideal ratio and additives without delving into custom formulations.
But his true quirk, after a full examination was done at age four, was Cyberization. Any technology could be incorporated into himself, from basic spring hinges to microchips. It was the addition of a substantial amount of processing power that accelerated his past life integration in addition to discovering his quirk’s mutation relative to his lineage.
Of course, the fact that his quirk was such a substantial upgrade over his family’s was in of itself rather… problematic. Not that anyone else agreed.
“I am Shuji Kawasama!” The middle-school boy said firmly in introduction. “My quirk is Fast Hands.” He demonstrated, turning a piece of paper into a paper crane fast enough that a normal person’s eyes would literally perceive it as a blur. “I will be in your care.”
It was the first day of middle school at Soumei Private Academy. As such, the teacher declared that everyone should introduce themselves, in a random order for some reason. “Tch. The name’s Hiraga Mokusai. I’ll be in your care.” The boy who had already modified his uniform to announce his delinquent status said, completely silent on his quirk. With a thought, Tenya brought up the downloaded student files on the boy, the details appearing in his vision. Ah, he was quirkless.
“Moving on, next is…”Fortunately, the teacher didn’t press the issue. Whether it was because he was polite enough to acknowledge that anyone who didn’t disclose their quirk had a reason to or because he knew that Hiraga was quirkless, Tenya didn’t know. “Student five.” He said, looking at the slip of paper he drew from a hat.
Tenya stood up, his mechanical skeleton making the motion stiffer but more precise than standard. “Greetings to you all. I am Iida Tenya, and my quirk is Cyberization.” With a flex of his quads, the engines in his calves roared, sending waves of energy into his body. Used to it, he ignored the sudden desire to run at full speed. “I will be in your care.” He sat back down.
“Woah, that quirk’s so cool!” Another person said in a stage-whisper.
“Just like a hero’s.”
“You know, his whole family are heroes.”
“Really? Awesome.”
Tenya let the voices wash over him without acknowledging it, staring at the teacher impassively as he let the disruption ebb a bit before asserting his authority. “Alright, settle down.” The teacher said after about forty seconds of chatter. “Now, next is… Student twenty.”
This world was also even more obsessed over heroes than Eath Bet was. The lack of secrecy surrounding identities and how exactly one got powers meant that gossip wasn’t discouraged, and the greater accessibility of the profession meant that anyone could aspire to be one, even if there was no realistic chance of success.
Furthermore, the status and wealth attained by successful heroes meant that the profession attracted the best and brightest, the incentives aligned to make… well, people like Tenya, practically worshipped as modern gods.
This wouldn’t be so bad… if there wasn’t always the second order effects of that status: knowing a great hero personally is also something of a status symbol. Just as in their first life, who you knew was just as or even more important than what you knew.
It would be so easy… all he needed to do was to follow his first instinct and slot into what society expected of him, to follow the praise. No matter how many lives he lived, it always made him uncomfortable to drift too far from the road that was paved with the smoothest stones.
But he promised himself to stay out of violence in this life, even if it meant his death. He still worked out, of course. His body was strong, and he had made something of a hobby of developing his body further with advanced technology, dabbling a bit in what Tensei called ‘support equipment’ but was really just a fancy word for tinkering with materials that his family connections allowed him to work with in lieu of proper educational engineering kits.
Was it perhaps dishonest to claim not to want to be a hero when just his natural inclinations made him walk ever closer to that line? Yes. But that was the legacy he’s lived, to be uncomfortable with weakness.
The only one who was supportive of his pacifism was his older brother Tensei. His parents just naturally assumed that Tenya would take over Iidaten when his brother retired or was otherwise incapacitated, as heroism was dangerous work. His immediate family had managed to avoid career ending injury during Tenya’s lifetime, but… Tenya was also not surprised that Tensei took over at the age of 27, when their parents just couldn’t keep up with a full time patrol workload anymore. They still did plenty of administrative and other support tasks, and did maintain reduced patrol hours, but Tensei was now in charge, and they deferred to his decisions on deployments.
It would be logical for Tensei to assume the same. “Hey little bro!” Tensei said after that first day of school, in full hero regalia.
Tenya smiled. “Big brother, greetings! I hope this visit was properly scheduled for your patrols!”
“You bet!” Tensei said, giving a thumbs up. Only now paying attention to the surrounding children clamoring for autographs, he laughed. “Okay everyone, I’m going to walk you all home! Don’t want anyone getting lost on the first day!” He pointed to some older kids. “First years only, sorry. This’ll take all day if I take everyone.” He took out his phone. “Okay, I’m going to take attendance. Your parents should have told you I was coming, so I hope everyone’s here. If you’re not on my list, and you’re a first year, you can come along anyway! Safety in numbers after all.”
Tenya was about to claim that his parents didn’t, but then realized that Tensei himself said that he was going to pick Tenya up from school. Ah. Well, it did follow that a little PR move like helping children get home would be a sensible thing for him to combine familial duties with his job.
After the one missing student was rounded up, and the pick-up students were added to the route, and the older students with a good excuse also were added to the list (five older siblings and eight ‘I’m that kid’s neighbor’), Tensei nodded to himself and got the children to line up in two ranks. “C’mon Tenya, you can be my co-pilot.” Sighing, Tenya stood at parade rest next to Tensei, revved his Engine in time with Tensei, and they proceeded to march along a route that got everyone home in a reasonable time frame, one line of children following Tensei, and the other following Tenya.
As one would expect, no villains assailed the middle school students. Why would they? There was a hero right there. It was, however, a bit lucky that there weren’t any other incidents sufficiently close and urgent that he could justify abandoning the children to attend to them.
After the last few students short of Tenya himself were dropped off at their apartment complex, Tensei relaxed on a wall. “That wasn’t so bad, was it Tenya?”
Tenya scoffed. “I know what you’re doing: You want me to keep walking them home on that same route.”
“Safety in numbers, Tenya.” Tensei said sagely, “Besides, you could use some friends.”
“This won’t be a good way to get them.” Tenya asserted, adjusting his glasses. They were cosmetic after he incorporated some really good cameras into his body, but he liked them, and also wasn’t technically supposed to do that. “But I’ll continue to do so nonetheless. It would be petty churlishness to not help them just because of your perfidy. It’ll be good practice for my teaching career.”
Tensei chuckled at Tenya’s archaic vocabulary. “Well, that ends my patrol. C’mon, let’s go to the gym. Race you?”
“You’re a terrible influence, Tensei.” Tenya said with a small smile. “You shouldn’t be encouraging delinquency like that.”
“The only thing I’m encouraging you to do is to eat my dust.” Tensei shot back before zooming off at what, for him, was just a brisk jog.
Tenya was right behind him.
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Tenya was fuming as he left the bus to the testing center. Honestly, how could his parents have signed him up for the hero course? What’s more, that walking ball of anxiety didn’t even have his head in the game, instead chatting up that admittedly cute girl. At least the girl seemed to think his awkward fumbling was cute, or he’d intervene.
“GO!” Present Mic shouted, and everyone else shot into the disaster zone. After a moment, the anxiety ball followed suit.
After about thirty seconds of standing in place, watching the other students destroy the robots, a purple-haired boy walked up to him, visibly frustrated. “Fucking robots, of course.” He muttered, before waving his hand. “Why aren’t you doing anything? Your quirk only work on people too?”
Tenya shook his head. “My parents can force me to take the test.” He said firmly. “They cannot force me to pass it.”
That was not the answer the boy was expecting. “Seriously? Why not? Everyone wants to be a hero.”
“Not me.” Tenya said, “I do not wish to spend decades of my life personally brutalizing people. I don’t care if they’re villains.”
The boy took a moment to process that. “Well, good for you, I guess? I mean, these are just robots, so…”
“I know.” Tenya said, “If it was just some destruction of robots, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. From the looks of them, they have limited local processing power, and are largely remotely controlled. If you asked me to personally kick an army of these down, I’d consider it a fun time.”
“But if you did, you’d go into the hero course.” The boy said, understanding. “And you don’t want to do that.”
“Precisely.” Tenya said, checking his internal clock. Man, nine more minutes of this?
“Hey watch out!” The boy shouted, pointing behind Tenya.
It was an unnecessary but appreciated gesture, as Tenya pivoted on one foot and, with a roar of his Engines, punted the one-pointer robot into a window, taking out a two-pointer that was lining up a ranged attack on them. “Tch.” Tenya said, examining his ruined shoe. “Should have known I’d need my good boots.” He took off his shoes and shifted his feet into their fully-mechanical state.
The boy looked at him, not in awe, but with cool calculation. “So, what you’re saying is… that any robots you destroy away from here would not be otherwise destroyed if you had your way?” He asked, leadingly.
Tenya knew this was some kind of trap, but the way the purple-haired boy’s smile widened as he output precisely calibrated words piqued Tenya’s curiosity. “Correct!” Tenya said confidently.
The next thing he knew, he was digging his foot out of a three-pointer… and Present Mic was announcing the end of the exam.
…Shit.
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Fortunately, Shinsou was quite apologetic, and the Principal was quite understanding once briefed on the situation. So Tenya was able to enter the General Education department of UA, as planned. Shinsou was even allowed to enter the hero course, due in part to Tenya’s emphatic defense of his tactics. Sure, he would have preferred more warning, and Shinsou could really use a substantial amount of physical training, but the boy’s quirk had serious potential as a safe way to de-escalate conflicts. But he was a student, so needing more work was an opportunity, not a disqualifier.
Still, Tenya went through the scholastic material with ease, passing the time with helping his fellow students with their own work, as usual. This may or may not include becoming something of a personal trainer for about a fifth of the hero course.
In his defense, all he did was work out in UA’s gyms and give tips to people who were either confused-looking, frustrated, or doing things wrong. If this led to a more involved series of exercises, with more hero students than he had initially started helping, and a little bit of maneuvering training in the fake cities… Well, no one intervened. Every single bureaucratic requirement was filed properly, even if half of the hero students in question had no idea that there was anything going on beyond just showing up and using the spaces and equipment. The other half had no idea that such things were even possible. Which, fair. They were only sixteen, after all. It was their homeroom teacher’s responsibility to help their students with that, and from what he had heard, Mr. Aizawa was… not the most diligent at his administrative duties. That was just what happened when a man has two full time jobs, one of them gets done half-assedly. Tenya didn’t approve, but he did understand.
But one thing that could not be avoided was the U.A. Sports Festival. For the hero students, it was a valuable boost to their visibility, a critical advantage that attending this school gave to their alumni. For Tenya’s classmates in General Education, it was another chance to enter the aforementioned hero course, a way to prove that their failure to pass the entrance exam was a fluke, or because the parameters were unfair.
For Tenya? It was just a bit of fun, perhaps to slake his competitive spirit. The opening maneuver by the hero student with the ice quirk was reasonably fast, but Tenya didn’t even need to overclock his processors in order to react quickly enough; all of the boy’s classmates were able to anticipate and react to it just as easily.
Tenya used his cyberspurs, overtuned adjustable cleats that allowed him traction on the ice without issue. With his Engine operating at full power, he burst out ahead of everyone else, turning wide to go around the massive machines that operated as an obstacle. If one of the smaller robots decided to attack him? Tenya just maneuvered out of their way, his reaction speed high enough that the highway speeds he was going at didn’t give him one iota of tunnel vision.
Could he have destroyed them? Of course he could. He let people think that his quirk operated on him needing samples of technology to integrate, but the truth was that he could alter his body’s composition at will, as long as his databanks had the proper designs and he had the appropriate materials available. It wasn’t a fast process, so he needed to still account for space and design limitations, but he didn’t need to, for example, keep his pen-finger during the sports festival. For what Tenya imagined a normal version of his quirk would be, there wasn’t any practical difference between storing data files and making custom hardware, due to how challenging that would be. But for someone who was an engineer before? Well, carbon monowire was simple in concept, it was just difficult to manufacture and to use. He’s learned how to use it effectively before as Sakura with more practice against the Reapers, and his quirk was precise enough for the job. Combine that with the level of force he can generate with his speed? Those robots were built to look more dangerous than they actually were, they’d fall apart easily.
Once clear of the “Robot Inferno” part of the obstacle course, he switched his foot configuration, retracting the cyperspurs, which was easy to fit in around other designs, and instead deploying the skating module. With a simple shift in stance, he went from running at fifty kilometers per hour to settling on his wheels and accelerating to eighty kilometers per hour, straight towards the canyon.
“Iida of 1-E kicks himself into high gear, what is his plan? There’s no way he can slow to a stop before he goes into The Fall!” The announcer, Present Mic, shouted to all who could hear.
With that lead-in, Tenya ripped off his gym jacket and shirt, and crouched, holding out his arms as his feet continued to wheel him closer to victory. A glider deployed, allowing him to jump up for just long enough to, when combined with his forward momentum, cross the gap in one go. Once across, Tenya deployed his monowire to cut up his glider, causing him to land and also let him retract it without needing to slow down.
The minefield was similarly as simple matter, as he could just skate through it with no issue due to his accelerated reflexes and incredible control over his maneuvering. He did slow down to only forty kilometers per hour, but it meant that he was across the finish line before anyone else even got there.
“And the winner is Iida Tenya, the all-terrain cyborg!” Present Mic announced, “What an upset, to see a General Studies student beat every single Hero student!”
Tenya rolled his eyes. Come on, they were the ones who put a race in front of someone from the Iida family. This should not come as a surprise. He grabbed a liter of orange juice that was prepared for him by the robotic attendants, and started chugging it. By the time he finished, the hero students started showing up. “Midoriya, congratulations.” Tenya said, “I didn’t know you managed to use your quirk at low power yet, good job.”
Midoriya gasped, drinking a whole water bottle before taking a deep breath. “I didn’t use my quirk.” He said between breaths.
“Well, that’s an even more impressive feat.” Tenya said, patting the boy on the back. “Even if, long-term, the first thing would be better for you.”
“You did really good too.” Midoriya said, even if he couldn’t hide how disappointed he was in himself for not getting first.
“I’m built for speed.” Tenya said, nodding sagely to himself. “I’m not going to lose in a race to anyone without a speed quirk themselves.” Frowning in concern, he whispered: “I do have some ideas on how you could control your quirk, if you’ll allow me.” He’s controlled enough volatile energy sources and, more importantly, learned enough control exercises from others who use those same energy sources, that he figures at least one would help the boy. Then again, Tenya didn’t actually know what his problem was precisely beyond a lack of control. Midoriya never used his ‘Superpower’ quirk during any of the workout slash training sessions.
“...Sure, I’ll try it.” Midoriya said, before going off to rest.
Eventually, the second round began: While it was combat adjacent, as it was a normal school sports activity and not, say, literal gladiatorial battles, Tenya had no objections. “Mr. Ten million!” Announced a girl with pink dreadlocks. At a glance, it wasn’t a deliberate style: she just didn’t take very good care of her hair. It made the parts of him that remembered being a girl scream in horror.
“Yes?” He asked.
“Work with me!” She proposed, arms full of gadgets. “Have my babies!” She continued, giving him several of the gadgets.
…What?
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As it turned out, Hatsume was not hitting on him. Well, immediately anyway. Tenya did not miss how unnecessary it was for the girl to unzip her gym jacket. He knows the score.
As he was broad enough to act as a solo horse, Tenya kept his team to just himself and Hatsume. No one else wanted to join the team with the gigantic target on its back anyway. Hatsume deployed several gadgets, and Tenya integrated a few of them and used them to good effect… but it wasn’t enough to avoid getting the headband stolen just two minutes shy of the time limit, after a long-fought battle. Well, Hatsume fought. He just carried her.
“Welp, looks like we’re beaten.” Tenya said, sighing. “Come on Hatsume, let’s go relax.”
“I wanted to win, though!” Hatsume whined. “Get it back!”
“Do you have a plan?” Tenya asked, curious.
“First, you need to activate some kind of weapon.” Hatsume began,
“Veto.” Tenya said immediately.
In the end, they didn’t get another headband. The other events were rather fun, though.
It’s just a shame, what happened to Tensei.
An even greater one, what was going to happen to Stain.
Comments
Kevin Curry
That's basically it. Tanya's more powerful soul essentially caused a spontaneous quirk awakening. Instead of Tenya's body growing and producing a specific set of cybernetic enhancements, they can grow anything and even incorporate outside technology.
0xFFF1
Is he going to get in trouble for murdering Stain? Who am I kidding? Tenya's more than good enough at special forces missions to give no leads back to herself. I have a theory that quriks are partially soul-based rather than just genetic. Tanya!Tenya had a more powerful soul, and so acquired an extremely useful mutation over his baseline canon power.
Dragonin
One does not simply harm Tanya/Tenya’s family without consequences
Jonathan Shaw
Cool quirk
