MHA: The Fictional Hero: All Fiction - Chapter 4

“Just… what was that?” Izuku muttered under his breath, the words hanging in the quiet of his room.

He was alone again. The sun had long since set, and his mother had already left for her hospital shift. But Izuku couldn’t sleep. Not after everything that had happened.

Not after discovering what might be an entirely new aspect to his Quirk.

Izuku had hoped his delivery would arrive today—a good selection of different Mangas, Comics and Books from different Fictional Universes—but the shipment had been delayed. That was fine. He still had something far more urgent to investigate after that fight today.

His thoughts kept circling back to that moment during the fight with the Sludge Villain—the panel in Hunter x Hunter, the one where Chrollo held Black Voice, Shalnark’s Nen ability.

That page had… changed.

Back then, the panel had rippled like water—fluid and alive. He had reached into it and almost pulled the object from the page before being interrupted.

But now?

Now it looked like an ordinary manga panel again. Solid. Lifeless. No matter how much he stared, how much he touched the paper, his fingers met only dry pulp.

Nothing happened.

“What did I do differently…?” Izuku whispered, frustration building.

During the fight, he’d copied Chrollo’s ability and held the manga volume for several minutes. He hadn’t let go of it the entire time. But holding it now did nothing. The paper remained stubbornly unchanged.

So what was missing?

Closing his eyes, he replayed the moment in his mind—dodging, gasping for air, the overwhelming pressure of near-death. Then he just wanted the phone and antennas—he needed them. It became a matter of Life and Death.

Need. Desire.

He opened his eyes. That was it.

It wasn’t just about copying abilities. His Quirk responded to desire. The pure, undeniable will to want it—that’s what had activated it!

“Let’s see if it works again,” he murmured, heart pounding.

He placed his finger on the same panel, willing the image to come alive. Wishing, needing, hoping—

Ripples spread across the paper like a stone dropped in a pond.

His breath caught.

It was happening again.

This time, without a villain smashing into his back, that particular bruise still hurt, he carefully pushed his hand into the panel. The surface gave way like liquid, and something cool and rigid touched his fingertips—plastic? Metal?

Izuku gripped it gently.

With a slow, steady pull, he brought it out of the page.

In his hand now sat a sleek, demon-faced cellphone with the two long antennas—Shalnark’s equipment for Black Voice.

His eyes widened.

“Oh god…” he breathed, heart hammering. “It’s not just copying powers… I just pulled a physical object out of a fictional universe.”

Was it gone from their world now?

He looked back at the panel—but Chrollo still held the phone and antennas in the artwork. The scene hadn’t changed.

“Wait… can I do it again?” he asked aloud, placing his finger back on the panel and focusing. Desiring it again.

Nothing.

The paper remained flat and unresponsive.

He blinked. “Huh? But I just did it…”

Focusing even harder on it again. He felt something strange—a kind of emptiness. The panel was… spent. As if it had no more to give.

“So… I can’t pull the same object out more than once?” he muttered, trying to piece it together. “Maybe it’s one panel at a time?”

Or maybe… there was a limit to how many items he could summon?

A toughtfull grin formed on his face, “Okay, okay… let’s try something else.”

His hands flew over his collection, looking for the right Book, pulling out the Hunter x Hunter box set. Volume 18—Greed Island’s finale. His fingers trembled with anticipation as he searched for the exact panel: the completed Book filled with all the Greed Island cards.

The artwork here was rougher, drawn during a time when the author’s health had taken a toll. He pressed a finger against the page and focused.

Nothing.

Was it the art quality? The detail? Or was it really a limit on his Quirk?

He flipped to an earlier chapter—cleaner lines, sharper drawing—and found a better depiction of the Book.

He tried again.

Still nothing.

“Tch… so it’s not the drawing,” Izuku muttered. “It’s really a Quirk limit.”

He glanced down at the phone and antennas. Maybe he could only access one panel at a time? That would explain why he couldn’t extract more.

Time for a test.

“Maybe I can return it?”

With a small tought the Phone and Antennas vanished inside their Original Panel.

It actually worked!

With the Phone gone, he focused hard on the last Book panel in the Greed Island Arc.

Something shifted.

His hand sunk into the page—success!

Excitement surged as he reached in… but instead of the Book, he pulled out—

“A ring?” Izuku blinked.

And then it clicked. He recognized the strange inscriptions on it, “Of course… it’s the Ring that summons the Book in the game! So I pull out an Item in it’s base form?”

He slid the familiar artifact onto his finger. It shimmered slightly, warm against his skin.

“Book!” he called, half-expecting nothing.

Poof!

A leather-bound Binder materialized in his hand—thick, solid, weighty. He opened it slowly.

Inside were dozens of cards.

Rows of filled slots, just like in the manga: 100 specified card slots, all neatly arranged, completely filled, and 45 free slots holding various spell cards and miscellaneous items.

Izuku’s breath caught.

“This… has to be a dream…”

But it wasn’t.

He flipped through the pages, eyes darting over names and effects. The specified cards were broken. The possibilities were endless.

“Only one way to know if they work…”

He pulled out one relatively harmless card and said: “Gain.”

With a soft puff of smoke, the card transformed into a tangible item—a pair of X-Ray Goggles.

Izuku stared at them, stunned. “They can’t actually—”

He slipped them over his eyes, turned to the wall… nothing.

Then he remembered.

There was a dial to adjust the depth.

Turning it slowly, the wall faded—and he could see through it.

“They actually work,” he whispered.

His Quirk wasn’t just powerful—it was broken.

The possibilities overwhelmed him. What else could he exploit? What items could he bring over?

His mind raced, but then—

He froze.

A problem.

He couldn’t return the goggles. Not into the Book. Not back into a card. Items only turn into Cards when recieving them for the first time. There was no way to turn them back after using Gain on them.

Neither could he return the Ring and the Googles into the Manga together.

He tried to extract another item. Nothing.

“Oh no…”

His face paled as the realization hit.

“I… I soft-locked that aspect of my own Quirk…”

———

< A Month Later >

Carrying the remains of a massive truck wheel to the garbage container, Izuku gritted his teeth and summoned every ounce of strength he had. The wheel was nearly as large as a third of his own body and weighed close to eighty kilograms. With a grunt, he hoisted it high before heaving it into the container with a loud, bouncing thud.

He let out a deep, exhausted sigh and released his Ren.

Ren—one of the fundamental Nen techniques—was a powerful combat method that boosted his physical stats while active, allowing him to perform feats far beyond his natural limits. Right now, Izuku wasn’t just pushing his body; he was practicing the four major principles of Nen, striving to master them while building his fitness.

Zetsu—the art of hiding one’s aura—had come easily to him. Years of trying to avoid bullies had given him an instinctive knack for concealing his presence. Ten, the defensive aura shroud enveloping his body, he had picked up quickly too, thanks in part to an unexpected synergy with his Quirk.

His ability to copy others’ skills didn’t just grant him temporary access to their powers and knowledge; some of it seeped into his muscle memory. Although he couldn’t use a copied ability without touching the original source again, fragments of instinct and knowledge stuck with him, making things like learning Nen far easier.

Each time he emulated someone like Hisoka or Chrollo, some of their mastery of Nen lingered in his mind, smoothing his path toward mastering the art himself. That’s how he’d already come to command three of the four major Nen principles—and even mastered Gyo.

Gyo, the technique that focuses aura around the eyes to reveal hidden aura, had initially seemed useless. After all, people unconsciously used aura with their Quirks but rarely manipulated it to hide. Yet, when he tried it while copying Hisoka’s abilities, Izuku realized Gyo wasn’t limited to his eyes; it could focus aura around any body part, enhancing it. Concentrating it around his eyes sharpened his vision beyond human limits—he could see finer details and greater distances. Similarly, focusing Gyo around his ears granted him superhuman hearing.

Having exhausted himself physically, Izuku returned to the clearing amidst the heaps of trash at Takoba Municipal Beach Park, where he had left his backpack. It was time to rest his muscles and shift focus to the next stage of his training.

He rummaged through his bag, leaving his comics and manga untouched, and carefully pulled out a wine glass and a bottle of water.

With three of the four major principles mastered, it was time to confront the last: Hatsu—the manifestation of one’s personal aura ability.

This was the part he hadn’t tried yet. It was time to discover his Nen category.

Every Nen user possessed an affinity for one of six categories: Enhancement, Transmutation, Emission, Conjuration, Manipulation, or Specialization. Each had its own strengths and weaknesses, and while users could learn multiple categories, they achieved their greatest power by developing abilities aligned with their natural affinity. The upcoming test would reveal which path Izuku was destined to follow.

Pouring the water into the wine glass, Izuku placed a small leaf he’d collected earlier onto the surface. This was the water divination test.

Just as he prepared to begin, a sudden voice beside him made him jump.

“What cha doin’, cutie?”

“GAAAH!?” Izuku yelped, startled.

Beside him stood a young woman of average height, her straight light brown hair falling just below her shoulders. Her large, dark brown eyes fixed on him without blinking, lips plump and glossy, parting slightly as if to say more. Her curvaceous figure and confident stance held his gaze unflinchingly.

“Whoa, did I totally spook ya? My bad! Name’s Camie Utsushimi—nice to meet ya. I saw you lugging that massive wheel off the beach and just had to know what you were doin’. Kinda hard not to notice someone looking that interesting, y’know?” she said, her voice light and teasing.

‘Oh god, I’m talking to a girl! Stay cool, Izuku Midoriya, don’t make a fool of yourself!’ His mind raced as he froze, caught off guard by her presence.

Camie leaned in slightly, spotting the glass before him. Her gyaru-inspired outfit—shorts and a top that left little to the imagination—gave him quite the view, completely frying his brain. Yet she seemed unfazed, eyes locked on him with genuine curiosity.

“Ooooh, are you practicing your Quirk or somethin’? ‘Cause it totally looked like that test thing from that old manga—y’know, Hunter x Hunter? Super intense vibes. You good though? Wait… are you, like, mute or just playing the mysterious type?”

‘Right, I haven’t even spoken yet!’ Izuku thought, embarrassed by the question pulling him back to reality.

“I’m not mute, Utsushimi-san. Just didn’t expect anyone here. And yes, I’m kinda practicing my Quirk,” he stammered.

“What do you mean kinda, huh? And puh-lease, just call me Camie—Utsushimi-san makes me sound like some old lady or somethin’. So, what should I call you, cutie?” she teased, stepping closer.

Blushing as her face neared his, Izuku managed, “R-right, I’m Izuku Midoriya. And, well, I was planning to use Nen from Hunter x Hunter. My Quirk lets me use powers from manga, comics, light novel, and books. Any Fictional Work made out of Paper as far as I can tell.”

Camie’s interest deepened. “Wait, like—serious serious? You actually have Nen? You can see aura and make your own ability and all that wild stuff? Okay, that’s next-level! But hold up—from all manga, comics, light novel and Books? Not just Hunter x Hunter? So no movies? How does that even work? That’s kinda hot, not gonna lie.”

“You seem like quite the manga fan, huh?” Izuku muttered, realizing it himself.

“Yes, it works with all manga and comics. I can use a character’s powers as long as I’m touching their image in a manga or comic. At the same time, I awaken their power system. That’s how I got Nen, which I’m practicing now.”

He chose not to mention his ability to pull items from different universes—it was a sore spot. He hadn’t yet resolved the soft lock in that part of his Quirk.

“Duh, of course I’m a fan! I’m totally into manga—and I read some comics too, duh. A girl’s gotta have her hobbies, right? But your Quirk? Sounds totally broken in a fun way. I do love Hunter x Hunter—Hisoka’s super hot, not gonna lie—but it’s not, like, the strongest universe, y’know? Aren’t there, like, way crazier places to train? What about Haki? Chakra? Or that whole ki and magic thing from Dragon Ball? Or all that stuff from Marvel and DC? Now that’s some next-level power stuff,” she said enthusiastically.

“Probably. Still, I want to be a hero. Strength isn’t everything,” Izuku shrugged, growing more comfortable talking to Camie. “I decided to start with versatility. Nen enhances my body while giving me around a hundred different abilities I can use for heroics. Of course, I plan to practice other power systems—I even tested Haki. But none have training instructions as clear as Nen’s. All I know is I’d need someone to hit me with a stick to develop Observation Haki. I don’t have anyone like that.”

“Ooooh, you’re going for heroics too? That’s, like, super cool! So, which school are you trying to get into? Maybe we could apply together or something? I wish I could help with your Haki training, but I’m only in the city for the weekend—just checking out the area around U.A., you know, in case I apply. But seriously, rent here? Totally insane. How do people even live without selling a kidney or something?” Camie sighed, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“I can keep an eye out for you, if you want. The building I live in with my mom has some affordable single apartments for students on the lower floors,” Izuku offered sincerely.

“That would be amazing, seriously—thank you! So, wait, you’ve got access to all Nen abilities? Like, even Biscuit’s super cute magical spa thing? No way, that’s so extra!” she asked with a wide smile.

“I think so? Why?” he replied.

“Omg, we’re definitely gonna be besties! Just imagine—after a crazy long day, we’re chilling with the best spa days ever and bam, instantly back to fab again. Sounds like the perfect plan to me! Give me your number!” Camie gushed, making Izuku’s eyes widen.

“Oh my god! I’m such an idiot—I forgot about her recovery ability. I could train so much more without worrying about overworking myself,” Izuku realized. All Might’s training plan warned him of that risk, but with Biscuit’s ability, overworking wouldn’t be a problem.

Then his brain caught up to Camie’s last words. “W-wait! Y-you… w-want my phone number?”

“Duh, yeah!” she answered with a mischievous grin.

It took every ounce of Izuku’s willpower not to pass out right there on the spot.

He had just exchanged phone numbers—with a cute girl. For the very first time in his life.

His heart was still thudding in his chest when Camie tucked her phone away, giving him a sly little grin that only made things worse.

“Sooo, you actually gonna do this or what?” she asked, tilting her head with playful curiosity. “C’mon, don’t keep a girl waitin’—I’m dyin’ to see what kinda Nen type you are~”

For a moment, Izuku blinked, brain still catching up. "Do what?" he almost asked aloud—but then his eyes dropped to the wine glass sitting in front of him.

Right. The Water Divination Test.

He had completely forgotten about it.

“Uh—yeah. No reason not to,” he said quickly, doing his best to sound composed as he sat cross-legged in front of the glass.

Camie scooted closer, clearly excited, her attention fixed entirely on him.

The wine glass remained perfectly still, filled nearly to the brim with clear water. A single leaf floated gently at its center, untouched by wind or movement. Izuku took a deep breath, then placed both hands beside the glass. He focused inward, channeling his aura—soft at first, then sharper, more concentrated—as he initiated the test.

At first, nothing happened.

Then, it appeared.

A faint shadow bloomed near the center of the glass. It didn’t drip or ripple. It materialized, subtle and strange, like a flaw in the light itself. Small and shapeless, it began to unravel slowly, tendrils of darkness curling outward like ink in slow motion.

Izuku leaned in, brows furrowed. The water was beginning to tint—just slightly at first, but growing deeper with each passing moment.

That’s when he realized.

It wasn’t a shadow. It wasn’t just curling like ink.

It was ink.

“Omg, somethin’ just popped up in the water?” Camie leaned beside him, eyes wide with fascination. “Wait, is that, like, Conjuration or whatever? I dunno, I kinda forgot the details from the manga~”

Izuku snapped into analysis mode, mind working fast. “It’s ink. And I don’t think it’s Conjuration. With Conjuration, you’re supposed to get general impurities—cloudiness, flakes, sometimes odd colors. Sure, ink could technically count as an impurity, but this is… really specific. Too deliberate. Maybe it’s because of my Quirk? I’m leaning more toward—”

“Specialization?” Camie finished for him, eyes sparkling. “Oooh, that one’s, like, super mysterious. How’re you even gonna train somethin’ like that, Izu-kun?”

Izuku’s mouth opened, then closed. “Honestly… no idea,” he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

Then his brain caught up.

“I-Izu…kun?” he repeated, blinking. A flush spread across his cheeks like wildfire. “D-did you just—?”

Camie giggled, clearly pleased with his reaction. “Yeah, it’s a cute nickname, right? Don’t tell me you don’t like it—’cause I’m totally keepin’ it if you blush like that every time I say it~”