It was a life or death situation, even the slightest incorrect movement would result in catastrophic failure, an event that Y/N desperate wanted to avoid. Taking a deep breath in the hope of quelling his inner tension, he finally released the pressure he was exuding on the handheld device and observed the result of his actions.
Moments passed and all he was greeted with was the smiling faces of the villains he had tried so desperately to defeat, he had failed, in the sorrow of defeat Y/N decided to release his inner feelings.
Y/N: "fffffffffff-" his release of frustration was interrupted by stern voice
???: "Hey I've got a kid here, can you not?"
His attention finally taken off of his own situation, focussing on where the voice had come from, his eyes met with the disappointed gaze of man who was covering the ears of what Y/N assumed to be his child. Figuring the man was only try to preserve their child's innocence and being a father himself, Y/N decided to quickly attempt rectify his mistake.
Y/N: "-fffffrick?" He finished with raised shoulders and an unsure tone as he awaited approval for his 'correction'
Releasing a reluctant sigh in acceptance, the parent removed their hands from their child's ears and returned to their own business, while keeping an eye on the hero to see if he would have any other slip ups. Seeing he avoided a potential altercation, Y/N felt the tension leave his body and instead switched to wallowing in his misery, the misery of his previous failure.
He glanced back at the previously mentioned handheld device; the device in question being his phone, and immediately felt his mood further plummet at the sight, the accursed swines were still smiling. Having enough at the saddening sight he decided to close the 'Aggravated Avians' app and check the time, it wasn't long now till the train he was on came to his desired stop.
Having nothing to do at the moment he decided to check on something that had been bothering him for a while now, someone had been staring at him. A quick glance around the carriage and he quickly found the culprit, it was the same child of the parent that reprimanded him for his language, the child in question was just eyeballing him with blank eyes. Out of all the gazes he's had aimed at him; from an angry wife to villains trying to literally kill him, for some reason this unknown child freaked him out more than any other.
Squirming in his seat in discomfort, Y/N looked at the child hoping to find something to appease their soul judging stare, said glance quickly proved fruitful at the sight of what the child held. Within the child's small hands was a comic book, whilst Y/N couldn't see the contents of the comic he could see the cover and on the cover was none other than himself in his hero attire. The hero never really paid attention to his merchandise or popularity, he kinda just signed off on any bit of paper he got which could be summarised to say "You sign this paper and do no other work and we'll give you some of the money we make on this".
Back to the child before him, said child seemed to of notice he had the hero's attention and made a gesture from the what they held to the hero trying to confirm if they were indeed the same person. After receiving a few quick nods the child's stoic face switched to one of embarrassment, their eyes suddenly found the floor very interesting and then weakly muttered out.
Child: "C-c-can you sign it?" On the noise polluted train the child's voice could hardly be heard but despite that Y/N's trained ears were to pick it up
In response Y/N merely extended his hand in acceptance of the request, which seemed to fluster the child more as they reached to place it in the hero's gloved hand. Having received the comic Y/N went to his belt to grab one of his versatile tools which was next to his shark repellent, a pen; having been used in a variety situation such as for the occasional fan meeting like this, emergency paperwork and his personal favourite being discovering one of his family members asleep, that last one had resulted in him sleeping on the couch a few times.
After wordlessly handing it back to the fan after signing it Y/N leant back in his seat, whilst the majority of heroes would spend such time wisely on worrying about what villains they would face, Y/N was instead just started daydreaming. In the eyes of the young fan however this silent attitude was seen as something, to them who had boarded this train on their way to school, they just happened to run into one of their favourite heroes on the way (which they'd brag to their friends about later) AND got his signature, needless to say their mood was at a high.
The majority of Inquisitive's fans were to drawn to the hero by his seemingly stoic nature, and while sometimes that was true, the majority of times it wasn't and he just had his head in the clouds which was mistaken as 'being in deep thought', but they could never see his face to confirm or deny that after all. Even in the instances where he had a visible reaction, it must something drastic for it to rattle the oh so stoic Inquisitive right? Definitely didn't loose his cool playing a child's game on his phone, of course, he must of received critical intel on a mission that'd make him have to change his 'master plan' he surely already had for said mission. So whilst Y/N is busy with questions like 'is water wet?' fans of his thought they were looking at a tactical mastermind, reality is often disappointing.
Soon after the interaction with the fan on the train, the locomotive had reached the stop Y/N wanted, he proceeded to leave train and then the station whilst doing so Y/N drew eyes as did any hero in costume due to how they stood out among civilians. Finally in Musutafu, Inquisitive reminded himself of his reason for being here, a dangerous villain had been plaguing the area which the local heroes needed help taking down, as they lacked the quirks to counter this specific villain. The villain in particular hadn't been identified by a name or alias so they had stuck to calling him 'the sludge villain' in reference to his quirk, and whilst Inquisitive's quirk wouldn't directly stop the villain it'd certainly make capturing him a whole lot easier.
With all the facts sorted in his mind Y/N decided to make contact with the hero that put out the request for help on the HN (Hero Network), after interacting with a device on his wrist for a few moments, a ringing could be heard in his helmet which only he could hear. Soon after within Y/N's field of vision was a portrait of the hero he was trying to contact, meaning that he'd successfully been put through to the hero, the image of said hero was the of a man wearing a yellow and black stripped head band with white hair.
Y/N: "Death arms this is Inquisitive, I've just arrived in Musutafu, do you know an area where we can rendezvous to make a plan of action against the sludge villain?" In every other instance of when Y/N spoke today his tone was relaxed and carefree, but now it was time to be a hero so now the way he spoke was more focused and direct, his family refers to it as his "hero voice" a voice that his children found cool and his wife found exciting, just not the usual type of exciting
On the now revealed Death arms's end of the calling he was shocked hearing the voice, reason being is how the voice sounded as Y/N uses a voice modifier when speaking in his helmet (his reason for using a voice modifier? Well to quote the man himself it's because it makes him "sound cooler"), said modifier made his voice sound like the popular sci-fi character Varth Dader's voice. Whilst Death arms was expecting Inquisitive's arrival and call as he had been messaged by him on the HN from his request for aid, those were only messages so now hearing what he believed was Inquisitive's voice certainly gave him quite the shock.
Death arms: "A-ah Inquisitive, sorry for not calling sooner, I've got an update on the situation, it looks like it's all been taken care of now" Still recovering from the shock of hearing the voice of the seemingly intimidating hero, he rattled of in a panicked tone
Y/N was walking down the street whilst in this call and he nearly tripped by the time the sentence was finished, what did he mean it was already done? He just got here.
Y/N: "What?" Whilst Y/N was taken aback by this turn of events, his voice modifier didn't correctly translate that he was only asking out of curiosity, to the Death arms it sounded like he was demanding an explanation
Death arms: "W-well you see the villain tried to pull of a robbery today so the local heroes and I began perusing them, but during the pursuit All Might appeared and chased the villain after villain, so while he hasn't turned up with them yet we'll sure he'll be back with them any minute" after finishing his explanation of what had transpired, Death arms waited hoping his explanation would calm the hero who he assumed was angry
Y/N: "..." he was speechless, over his time as serving as hero for more than a decade now Y/N had never experienced a situation like this
The silence only seemed to make the punching hero feel more pressure and so he decided he should try change the topic, but as he was still on a call with a hero he found scary he just blurted out the first thing that he thought of.
Death arms: "sooooooo how are you?" Only a second after the words left his mouth he realised just what he had said, so instead of facing the consequences of saying the first thing that he think of, he instead decided to avoid talking to Inquisitive anymore and just hung up on him
Needless to say Y/N was quite throughly bamboozled, first he finds the job he came here to do was already done before he got there so good job him? Then apparently All Might the number 1 just decided to rock up out of nowhere and then he was asked how he was but wasn't even given time to answer? One thing was for sure in all this, Y/N wouldn't be leaving a good review of Death arms on the HN.
Now Y/N had dilemma, what does he do now? His whole reason for being in Musutafu was gone but if he left now the trip would of just been a waste of time, so putting an end to the unseen childish pout he had on his face in his frustration, Y/N decided he'd go and do some heroing here, he'd pretty much given up any thoughts of going after Death arms to give him a piece of his mind, that'd be too much effort for all that.
For the next few minutes Y/N went patrolling or really just walking around and see if he could find trouble as he wasn't familiar with area, oddly enough a search for criminals that might try kill calmed him down, he's usually more calm but after having faced a tragic loss on an app and that whole situation with Death arms had really pushed his buttons. After a few more minutes of searching for trouble Y/N's attention was focused on the sound of a large explosion that made a large cloud of smoke in its aftermath.
As he rushes to scene the sounds of more explosions increases the closer Y/N gets, upon arrival he's greeted by an annoying sight, as heroes are working around where the presumed villain is civilians are just stood around watching the action unfold, like it's great that they trust heroes with their lives but at some point shouldn't survival instincts kick in and tell get away from the massive explosions? So seeing this Y/N decided to remind them of they danger they were in so he could get into the action.
Y/N: "Hey! What do you all think you're all doing here standing around? You're making our jobs harder with you just standing here" When speaking Y/N had adjusted the volume on his voice modifier so while he was talking at a regular volume to those around him it came across as a yell
Hearing the loud and intimidating voice of the hero seemed to catch most of the crowds attention even through sounds of explosions, and after hearing what he had to say a few people seemed to realise "oh wait I could die here" and decided to leave, but as like all things in life some of the people there were stubborn and refused to listen to reason. With enough of a pathway made to get through, Y/N made it through the bystanders and joined the rest of the heroes in the fight.
His arrival drew a few glances from the heroes and crowd who returned their focus back to the villain seeing another hero had joined the fray, having seen a familiar face among the heroes Y/N made his way over to get an explanation on the situation.
Y/N: "Death arms!" Had adjusted his volume so he wouldn't burst the eardrums of all those around him but he was loud enough to get said heroes attention
Death arms: "Inquisitive? T-thank god you're here, we need someone with a quirk who can help in this situation" still slightly intimidated from his previous conversation with the fellow hero as well as the intimidating appearance of his outfit Death arms couldn't help but stutter despite the situation
Y/N: "So All Might had this one huh?" What was meant as a bit of sarcasm to calm the obviously stressed pro instead came across as more at a jab at him, being that the villain responsible for the situation was the very same he was told would be handled by the number 1 and worse he had a hostage
Death arms: "W-well we don't what happened last he was seen chasing after the villain but now their here and All Mights nowhere in sight" he explained whilst fending off debris launched from one of the explosions
Y/N: "Alright I've got an idea I need you t-" he cut himself off when he saw some random kid running past the heroes and towards the villain
Briefly astonished by the actions of the bystander, Y/N quickly went into action putting himself between then kid and villain, shielding him from an explosion from the hostage. While this was happening the green haired teen running into the scene suddenly had new thoughts fill his mind.
Green kid: 'Wait what am I doing? I should let the pros handle this'
For a moment time stopped as the focus was Y/N as the voice of a hero/radio show host was heard.
Present mic: "Y/N L/N, hero alias: Inquisitive, quirk suggestion: using his quirk he can put thoughts into other people's head as if it were their own, but at the end of the day it's just a suggestion and it's success varies from person to person"
As time resumed the target of Y/N's quirk reacted to the sudden thoughts 'he' just had.
Green kid: 'No, I've got to save Kaachan!'
Knowing he had just filled the kid's head with common sense and he was still running, Y/N deduced that they were either brave and stupid or just plain stupid, regardless this kid was moron. Knowing the kid wouldn't turn back through the use of his quirk Y/N decided to use another application of his quirk, one limit of his quirk is the amount of suggestions he can make simultaneously, through training Y/N can make over 100 suggestions at once to separate people.
But what's not a limit is who he can target, so with this in mind Y/N prepared to use his quirk to its full potential...
Y/N: 'Number of suggestions: 113'
Y/N: 'Number of targets: 1'
He was going to barrage the villain's mind with multiple different lines of thought at once and with this many being used at once, the target would have so many thoughts in their head but they'd never know which was truly theirs and would end up in a catatonic state. And as any self respecting hero Y/N had of course name this technique...
Y/N: 'Catatonic bombardment!'
From an observer's perspective one would think that Y/N had used his quirk on everyone in the area, as when the villain stopped everyone else froze in bafflement of their lack of movement, with the first moving being the one responsible.
Y/N:"Death arms! Catch!" Within a few seconds he launched a thin cable from his wrist, had said cable wrap around the waist of the intervening kid, and had launched the kid using the cable at the only name he knew
The sudden action brought the punching hero out of stupor and successfully caught the child that Y/N threw at him, with any unnecessary distractions out of the way Y/N turned back to the villain so he could move in and rescue the hostage, however someone unknowingly did his job for him for the second time today as once looking back Y/N was greeted with...
All Might: "I really am pathetic..."
Y/N stopped his actions upon witnessing the number 1 hero steal his thunder not once but TWICE today, seriously where'd the man come from just now? His train of thought was taken off it's tracks when All Might had stopped talking to himself and delivered a devastating punch, which not only defeated villain but also defeated the weather itself as the force cleared the previously cloudy sky, the feat had all those around in awe.
As things calmed down the civilians (who for some reason were still here) were checked for injuries and the scattered parts of the sludge villain were gathered to capture the villain, during which Y/N decided to pitch in to make the police officers's jobs easier, although doing so lead to the following interaction:
Police officer: "Ah, umm Mr hero you don't need get involved in this, me and the rest of the boys have this covered" whilst this officer appreciated the help, he had a high opinion of heroes so he saw this kind of work as beneath them
Y/N only turned his head to officer and looked down on them due to naturally being taller
Y/N: "Oh no please, I insist" he was doing this out of the good of his heart of course and he didn't think heroes were below any sort of help, so he had to emphasise he was doing this of his own free will
However...
To everyone else this came across as him basically saying "stop me, I dare you" due how his voice sounded to them, of course this interaction would spread amongst Inquisitive's fans and further raise the idea of a serious hero who does whatever it takes even if it's labour like this.
Police officer: "O-oh a-alright Mr hero sir, good lu- I mean have fu- u-uhhhh, good, good job" the lawman stuttered his way through the conversation and as soon as it finished quickly scampered away
Y/N seeing this just assumed the officer had places to be and shrugged at the reaction, soon after the scene was cleared and all that remained was the media reporting on the scene and the previous hostage and interferer being talked to by the heroes, neither of which looked thrilled by it, seeing there was nothing left to do Y/N turned around and prepared to leave only to be stopped by a voice.
???: "Umm I-Inquisitive, c-can I please talk to you?" The voice had a nervous and polite tone to it
Turning Y/N identified the speaker as the green haired boy he had to yeet earlier who was nervously holding a notebook with their eyes on the ground.
Y/N: "Yes?" He spoke with only curiosity as to what the boy wanted, did he want an apology for throwing him?
For a reason unknown to Y/N his response caused the boy to briefly shake and lower his eyes even further, and with seemingly no more courage to speak he just wordlessly extended his arms with a notebook in to Y/N, very reminiscent of his encounter on the train earlier today, actually a lot of his fans were like this when we spoke to them, he wondered why...
Hey at least this kid supplied him with a pen to sign with. Receiving the book that was already opened to a specific page, the page in particular had notes describing Inquisitive, although a few of the notes seem fresh, did he write all these while approaching him?
Looking over the notes Y/N's eye was drawn to the section describing his quirk, unsurprisingly for him it was label as 'mind reading', that was a common misconception about his quirk as it appeared that he always knew what his opponents were thinking so people assumed it was mind reading, which Y/N never confirmed or denied as why would he tell people what his quirk is? But people have yet to figure out instead of knowing what moves his opponent would make he was actually suggesting what moves they should make.
Another little fun thing about people not knowing his quirk was that he on purposely put a red herring in his hero name, the word inquisitive means having or showing an interest in learning things, how would someone learn those things? Certainly not with the ability to make suggestions but more like a quirk like mind reading.
Pretty clever right?
Well at least Y/N and the author thought it was
Regardless after Y/N had signed on a clear spot on the page about him, he handed the book back and prepared to leave but left one last comment before doing so.
Y/N: "Those are good notes, good luck on being hero just don't go charging in like that often, I won't be there to save you every time" having read the notes and some of the contents of the book he knew what the boy wanted to become so desperate being a stupid kid, he left him with motivating words and a lighthearted joke
To the green haired boy the compliment on his notes seemed translate across despite the distorted voice, but the last part came across as more ominous than playful however despite the different understanding the words still served as words of encouragement.
This incident would go on to be known as 'The Sludge Villain Incident', it only became well known due to All Might getting involved so it indirectly lead to Inquisitive becoming more popular due to his quick reactions during the event. Still as always all days of work eventually come to an end, as the day for the hero Inquisitive came to close with him back at his agency storing his suit away Y/N L/N arrived at his home.
Upon arriving the first thing he was greeted with was...
Well just look and see
Or read
You get the idea
Tomoko: "AAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Hearing his wife screaming he rushed through the home trying to find where she was only to be greeted to by sight of Kazuha and Kotori huddled up in a corner with Tomoko trying to find a way to get her hands on whatever they were protecting.
Tomoko: "Please kittens? Momma really needs it" she finished with a poorly acted whimper and sniffle
The attempt at reasoning only seemed to make the children go even further into the corner even making Kotori let out a catlike hiss at her mother
Kotori: "No way we wanna have some!" She whined in defiance with an oddly fierce look in her eyes
Kazuha: "Yeah, you already had the rest anyway!" He came to support his sisters declaration
Y/N finally figured out what this might all be about as he recalled Kazuha'a prediction earlier today, so hoping to end this Y/N decided to get involved.
Y/N: "Hello there" his reference got the attention of his whole family
Tomoko: "YYYYYY/NNNNNNNNNNNN" she leaped onto her husband wrapping her arms and legs around him while almost knocking him over in the process
Y/N: "Wow so much for you being sick" his comment was seemingly ignored as Tomoko continued
Tomoko: "Please tell them to share with me, they're being selfish" she whined childishly
10 years of marriage had gotten Y/N used to Tomoko's childish behaviour when things don't go her way so he was already used to this
Kazuha: "Nu uh, Mom ate all the ice cream like I said so this ones ours!" He quickly got his opinion in and finished with a huff one the that his sister tried to mimic but instead looked rather adorable instead
Y/N glanced down to his wife that was still tightly clinging to him trying to see if she really started all this over ice cream, this however only proved his fears true seeing Tomoko looking at him as if she was expecting him to come flying to her aid, Y/N being the expert negotiator he is of course quickly resolved the situation.
Y/N: "Kids give your mother the ice cream" his answer put shocked and betrayed looks on the faces of his children
Tomoko: "YAY!" Tomoko seemed oddly happy to take her children's ice cream for herself, sometimes she really didn't act like the mother mother
Y/N however wasn't done...
Y/N: "If you do I'll buy you twice as much tomorrow"
this got the so-called mother and her children to switch places, with Tomoko sulking in a corner with her ice cream and Kazuha and Kotori clinging to their father in celebration of making a profit out of this situation. Later after all the questionable parenting was done and Tomoko making a brief disappearance upstairs, the family of 4 were all sat around a table together having dinner whilst discussing their individual days, right now it was Y/N's turn.
Y/N: "...but them guess what?" He recalled in a rather flat tone in recollection of the event
Kotori: "What!?" The youngest there had too much enthusiasm
Y/N: "All Might turns up AGAIN and stops the villain"
Kotori: "What? He stole it from daddy? Well that just makes daddy great if the number 1 hero has to steal from him" she finished with an exaggerated huff that turned out about as well as her last one, she seemed more angry about it than her dad was
Kazuha: "Of course he did, he needed to use to dad to stop the villain cuz that villain got away from him before, maybe All Mights just old now" Ok so both children were way more passionate than he was
Tomoko: "..." she had been silent since her brief disappearance which her family caught on to
Y/N: "Tomoko?" He gave her shoulder a nudge to bring her back to reality
Tomoko: "Ah!" In response to the nudge she let out a high pitch yelp and nearly threw her food from her plate in shock
Kotori: "Mommy are you ok?" The youngest was first to ask with plenty of concern in her voice, a notion that was shared with the 2 males at the table
Tomoko: "O-oh sorry kitten, momma just had something in her brain, you know how thinking is?" She finished her rhetorical comment by gesturing to her brain with her index finger
Kazuha: "A-alright, well help us cheer up dad" the boy tried changing topics while pointing at the man in question
Y/N: "Seriously it's not as b-" his disagreement was cut short by the young girl at the table
Kotori: "Yeah say something that'll knock his socks off!" Her cheers were soon joined by Kazuha
Tomoko: "Oh knock his socks off you say" she ended with a mischievous glint in her eyes
Y/N: "Oh no" muttering to himself in fear of whatever was planned
Tomoko: "I'M PREGNANT!" She shouted with out a care in the world which while not physically doing it certainly metaphorically knocked her husband's socks off, as well as her children's and her teammates when she called them in the morning with the news
Word count: 4898
A/N that's chapter 2 done, opinions?
Good?
Bad?
Meh?