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Gambler Chapter 16: What is a Hero?
🕑 Added 2025-08-31 16:20:46 +0000 UTCThe Gambler's Guide to Heroism
Chapter 16: What is a Hero?
~Principal Nezu~
As Nezu stood silent in thought, his former student, Toshinori, got up from his chair and sat on one closer to Nezu with a shaky sigh.
"His quirk is... so similar to his. Not to mention his naming sense."
Nezu chuckled, much to Yagi's plight.
"Yes, it is quite similar, isn't it? But he is about as far from All for One as you can get personality-wise. Though I admit, Young Hakari does not strike me as someone with the spirit of a hero."
That seemed to alarm his former student as he suddenly stood up straight and looked Nezu in the eyes.
"What do you mean, Sensei?"
Nezu reached over and took a calm sip from his coffee mug.
"Hakari-kun does not seem like someone with the traditional hero spirit. Unlike Midoriya-kun, he is not the type to thoughtlessly rush into danger to save someone. Some may even call him not hero material."
Nezu was fairly old, and he had met and seen a lot of people; he knew Hakari-kun's type. His eyes looked jaded, scrutinising. The look of someone who has seen too much from life to subscribe to any idealism. And the eyes of someone who did not weigh their own morality.
Yes, he had seen that look on the faces of quite a lot of villains.
"Then... what do we do, Sensei?"
He chuckled.
"Hakari-kun has so much potential, maybe even more potential than anyone we have seen, if the words of his quirk hold true. Maybe he would be an even worse villain than even All for One hahaha!"
Seeing the darkening look on Yagi's face, Nezu decided to stop joking at his expense.
"But that means he can also be a hero greater than even you. It all depends on how we nurture his potential. He may not have the heart of a hero, but that can be cultivated over time. Heroes are not born, and neither are villains."
He did not know what kind of past Hakari had to look like that, but he knew something for certain.
For the time being, Hakari was still his student.
"I opened UA to help people become heroes. Because the world needs more heroes. We teach people to become heroes here, so we will guide Hakari-kun to be a hero. That is simply all."
Yagi seemed ever so slightly relieved as he slumped back onto the chair and ran a hand through his hair. He was not convinced, but Yagi knew better than to dismiss his words.
"I... see."
Nezu tapped his desk with an amused expression.
"He is your student, too! You'd better work hard on guiding him towards the right path, Toshinori!"
Seeing the paling expression on his former student, Nezu took a small sip fo satisfaction from his cup.
'I hold high expectations from you, Hakari-kun. I hope you can meet them.'
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
~Hakari Kotaro~
That meeting went unexpectedly well.
In the end, I decided to come as clean as possible. Well, as clean as I could reasonably come out as. It was a hard decision, and I needed some consultation from Seek Guidance, but I did not regret my decision.
It would be rather career-killing to lie to the Nezu and All Might's face and be caught as a liar later on. And really, there was no reason to lie about the mechanics of my ability since it was not like it was impossible to happen in a world like this.
And if I knew anything, it was that Nezu and All Might were more than trustworthy.
Besides, carrying secrets and maintaining lies just... sucks.
The constant stress of trying to keep up appearances, maintaining a web of lies and navigating verbal minefields. I did not want to deal with a life like that.
The whole reason I wanted to become a Hero was because I was tired of being a criminal, I was tired of stepping on eggshells. My goal is a simpler life, and so lying would yield the opposite results of what I wanted.
Besides, being forthcoming has its perks.
Feat Achieved! Tell the truth about your power
+1x Gold Trait Gacha Ticket
Rolling Gold Trait Gacha...
A Rare Trait!
[Void Childe]
|Rare|
You are a child of the void, giving you enhanced spatial awareness, you can sense a portal opening a kilometre away and all Space-based abilities are more potent and you master them faster.**
Whoa now, that is pretty damn good. I can feel some sort of enhanced sense, although I couldn't pinpoint, I felt like I knew where I was in relation to the world around me far better.
Now then, it said something about more potent Space-Based abilities?
To test it, I slotted in Door Crossing and immediately felt the difference.
I could feel ALL doors in this building. Exactly where they were and how to connect them. Even slightly past the doors too, so I knew when someone would pass through the door I was targeting.
This is definitely one of the better traits I could have gotten. Now I just gotta hope I roll more space stuff.
Speaking of, I should probably drop by the lunch room, it should be about time for lunch.
...Should I drop through one of the ceiling tiles? Apparently, those are valid targets for my ability.
Nah, no need to cause unnecessary trouble.
Wait.
The only thing my Door crossing is really concerned about is the target being connected and leading to another room. If I bought a porta-potty and stored it in the bag of holding, wouldn't I always have something use with Door Crossing?
Food for thought.
Throwing open one of the windows, I stepped out of it and into the lunch hall to grab some lunch.
The food hall in UA was premium stuff. Although you had to pay for your food, everything was both cheap and gourmet. And it was manned by Lunch Rush, a pro hero that could cook faster than 50 people could manage working together.
I still preferred Toga's food, but this was more of what I was used to.
Seeing as I was rich down to my bones, I bought some steak and eggs as well as a salad(just because I was a Yakuza doesn't mean I don't care for my health). Just as I was about to head over to the table Toga and Mina were sitting at, I saw Ochako and a rather embarrassed Izuku waving me over. Naturally curious, I walked over to their table and set my tray down.
"Sup, Deku, how's the finger doin'? And how are you, Uraraka-chan?"
"Oh, I- umm, yeah I'm doing well thanks for asking Hakari-kun. And thanks for healing my finger back there."
Ochako nodded in tandem with broccoli-boy.
"Yeah, you were super cool during the test, Hakari-kun. I couldn't do much myself other than the ball throw. How did you heal Deku-kun, though?"
Oh boy, here I go explaining again.
After my quick abridged explanation of the Chaos Gacha as a quirk, both of them were reasonably awed.
"That's so strong...! No wonder you scored first in the exam and tests! I bet you don't have to worry about the class later today, I bet."
"Thanks, you weren't so bad yourself, y'know? Antigravity can't be easy to use in combat as well as you do. Must have trained for quite a while to use it like that."
Ochako blushed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Aww shucks- I-I mean oh geez, thanks Hakari-kun, I did train pretty hard. Feels nice to be recognised."
A Kansai dialect? That's cute.
Deku on the other hand was...
"Multiplequirks?Buthowdoesthatwork?Isitreallymultiplequirksorjustthe manywaysasinglequirkmanifestedSomequirkshavemultipleeffextsbutneversomethinglikeatransformationquirkandanemitterhealingquirkpairedtogether-"
I put a hand on poor green man's shoulder.
"Remember to breathe man. If you have questions, you can just ask them instead of going out of breath. You really need to learn how to use your internal monologue sometimes."
That broke him out of his rather annoying stupor as he shrank into himself. This kid was just... a beacon of confidence, wasn't he?
"S-sorry, hope I didn't annoy you too much. But since you mentioned it can I ask you some questions?"
With those words, he pulled a notepad out of nowhere, making me raise an eyebrow.
"Do you just bring that everywhere-"
But I was cut short by a blue-haired, tall boy who loomed over our table with a steely gaze and a food tray gripped tightly in his hands.
"Hello, you three! Would you if I joined you for this meal?!"
Ochako chortled, whispering "so intense!" to herself while Midoriya seemed slightly intimidated by him. He shot me a gaze, looking for my opinion, to which I responded with a neutral nod.
"Oh, sure Ida-kun!"
"Thank you Midoriya-kun! And Hakari-kun, I cannot help but express my admiration for your work on the quirk apprehension test! Your behaviour was truly exemplary!"
With Ida joining us, the lunch passed by rather fast with all of our talking, and after lunch was the class that every student had been waiting for ever since they enrolled here.
"I AM ENTERING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!!"
The entire class was shocked when one moment, nobody was at the door and then the next moment, All Might all but flash-stepped into the classroom with a 45% degree lean as he grabbed onto the doorframe in a strange way.
"It's actually All Might!" "Isn't that his Silver Age costume? So cool!"
The entire class held varying levels of excitement at the sight of the man, even including Toga, who seemed awestruck by his presence. And I could relate, despite knowing too much about the man, he had an aura of... being larger than life.
And not just because he stood over 2 meters tall.
He did a strange walk towards the podium in the centre of the classroom, yet even those strange movements did not seem strange with his sheer charisma. Was it the way he carried himself? Was it what I knew about him? I didn't know. But his prescence just screamed the word-
Hero.
"Good afternoon everyone! I teach Basic Hero Training! It's a subject where you train in the various fundamentals of being a Hero! This is the subject you will have the most units of!"
"Without further ado, let's get right to what we have for today..." All Might flexed and reached into his pocket before pulling out a sign with the words "battle" written on it. "Battle Training!"
The news that we would finally get to fight in Hero school certainly boiled the hot blood of my classmates. Especially because almost everyone was eager to prove themselves to their idol.
"And to go along with that are these!"
All Might pointed to the wall behind us, where numerous rows of cases emerged from the wall.
"Your costumes based on the letters you sent to the school before the start of the semester and your quirk registrations."
"Now, hurry up and change into your costumes and come to Ground Beta!"
Everyone scrambled to get to their cases, and I, with my height advantage, managed to grab mine pretty quickly. Hauling the hefty metal briefcase over my shoulder, I sent a brief salute to everyone else.
"You heard him, everyone."
"Is he going to-"
Someone seemed to catch onto what I was going to do as I flung myself towards the window in one smooth motion and vanished from the classroom, much to the shock of everyone once again.
Man, I love Door Crossing.
A/N: Nezu is a great principal, especially when it comes to kids like Hakari. He figured him out in the first meeting, but that can be a good thing. Hakari may be experienced with dealing with authority, but he isn't even thirty, while Nezu is like a grandpa(All Might is 50+ and Nezu was still his principal back then). How the chips will fall is anyone's guess from now.
Finally, it's time for Battle Trials, I have a pretty good idea for this one. And I'm not going to be following the cannon matchups for this one. I'd love to hear what you guys think the matchups are going to end up as.
Comments
K_Moretti76
Damn bro you are good at writing this shit
AceDA
I didn't realize Nezu was that old. Damn. TFTC.
