A Week Later --------

Everyone had fallen into a sort of pattern of contentment with their lives. The contentment was fragile enough to be broken at any moment, but for some strange reason, it wasn’t broken for an entire week.

Everything seemed to flow naturally. There weren’t even any arguments about toiletries and clashing showering schedules since Christina’s apartment had five showers and a pool.

If there was anything to complain about, it was the fact that Jessica would ‘unconsciously’ use Mirio’s toothbrush every morning.

Jessica and Mirio had grown very close over the past week, not to the point of romantic interest but infinitely close, bordering on more sibling love and rivalry.

Jessica was as awed by Mirio as she was jealous of his talents. Mirio seemed like the perfect being and Jessica hated that about him. Thankfully, he worked his way around her jealousy by showing her some Martial Arts he had learned from Sir Nighteye.

Christina was just happy that she could finally work in peace without Jessica bothering her to eat every five minutes. However, she was also a little sad with too much time on her hands, so she and Mirio would drink wine later into the night sometimes.

Christina realized that Mirio was a much more mature company than she gave him credit for…

Mirio would often cook Japanese dishes for them to try, though, Christina was unable to find references to Mirio’s dishes anywhere online, but it didn’t change the fact that he was basically a culinary god.

A few days after Mirio arrived and was assigned the room next to Jessica’s, Jessica’s parents also made a surprise appearance.

At first, they were displeased with Christina allowing a boy into her home and placing his room right next to Jessica’s but one meal from Mirio’s hands and Jessica’s parents were already referring to him as their ‘Future Son-In-Law’.

Of course, Jessica was overly embarrassed by this and shooed her parents away to a nearby hotel for the duration of their stay. However, every day they would invent a reason to be present for dinner or supper, depending on Mirio’s work schedule.

Mirio had also started working as a Security Guard at Stark’s Tower without many issues. Of course, he was pulled into an investigation when the attempted bombing of Stark’s decoy car was uncovered, but it was obvious that he did nothing wrong.

Happy was overly pleased with Mirio’s attitude and strength so he assigned Mirio the easiest job there was – Monitoring. Happy saw a lot of himself in Mirio and Mirio, stable on his meds, was beginning to feel a bit of happiness in his heart once more.

What Happy didn’t expect was how many small thefts Mirio would uncover within a day. Mirio took his job way too seriously and since Happy was exactly the same, they were a Security Team made in Security Heaven.

Of course, Mirio had tried to approach Pepper Potts numerous times over the week but she was always busy and took different elevators, stairs, and entrances from everyone else.

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Christina’s Apartment (Everyone Having Supper) ------------

“What is this dish called?” Alisa (Jessica’s mother) asked, falling in love with yet another one of Mirio’s dishes.

“I know I should be jealous that my wife is falling in love with your dishes more than me but… I would kneel and ask you to marry me if Jessica wouldn’t kill me first…” Brian (Jessica’s Father) joked, dodging to the side as a knife breezed by his face.

Christina giggled with her mouth stuffed, Mirio glanced at Jessica smugly as if saying ‘I knew you liked me’, and Jessica just blushed in embarrassment, her usual haughty attitude nowhere to be seen.

“The dish is called ‘United States of Smashed Potatoes’…” Mirio explained, earning giggles from everyone across the table except Christina who knew he wasn’t joking.

Christina decided to shift the topic since Mirio’s mental condition was a sore spot for her as a doctor “I still can’t find any of these dishes online…”

“Because-”

Mirio was cut off as Brian, Christina, Alisa, and Jessica finished his statement in unison “Because it’s from another world… we know…”

Of course, they knew that statement because Mirio would use it as an excuse for every extraordinary thing he made or did.

“You know, Mirio…” Brian said humbly, looking serious for the first time since Mirio met him “At first, I thought you were crazy but the more dishes I taste, the more I am inclined to believe these are dishes from another world…”

Christina, Alisa, and Jessica frowned since they knew Brian was as much of a knucklehead as Mirio himself. The only difference being Mirio’s condition was neurological while Brain’s condition was completely self-imposed scientific research principles.

Brian’s motto was ‘Believe in everything impossible until you can master it!’…

“So what was your world like…?” Brian asked seriously causing Christina to pause in surprise since she never thought to ask such a basic question of Mirio.

It demonstrated just how much of a stranger she had been treating him even after they spent an entire week getting to know each other as friends.

“Well…” Mirio was at a loss on how to reply due to lack of belief from everyone before, but he quickly recovered “Here is the truth about the world: One of my teachers once told me that all men are not created equally and for the most part, that is true… but the struggle is universal and those struggles are meant to chip away at our shells so we discover who we are at our cores…

The first incident was in Ching Ching City… An extraordinary child was born who radiated light. After that, reports of people with superpowers popped up across the globe. No one knew what was causing these quirks… Before long, the supernatural became the totally normal…

What was once dreams became a reality. The world became a superhuman society with about 80% of the population possessing some uncanny ability. Our streets looked like scenes from comic books. Our cities became swirled with chaos and confusion, and a new profession was born to dominate our collective consciousness.

A new age was born…. It was a new age of heroes…

With the rise of superpowers came an explosive increase in criminal activities… While governments were stuck trying to figure out how to reform laws with quirks in mind, courageous people started performing heroic acts to keep our city safe, protecting us against villains who abused their powers for evil.

With overwhelming public support, heroes found an official place as peacekeepers overseen by the government. Those who performed the best were paid the most and got all the fame and glory. Their careers depend on their ability to stay in the spotlight…

But these powers were called ‘Quirks’ for a reason because no matter how awesome the power may seem, there is always a downside to it all… a singular weakness that once attacked specifically, would lead to a hero’s downfall without a doubt…

Still, like everything else in life, there is a way to overcome these weaknesses with enough training and that’s where Hero Academias like UA come into the picture… they are responsible for training the next generation of heroes like me…

I was born with a difficult-to-control Quirk called Permeation… but I later lost it in a battle, along with my heroic will and now, I am just a depressed teenager spouting nonsense that nobody else will believe in their lifetime…

Sometimes, I think of myself as an echo of the great person I once was… A Hero in training named Lemillion – for the at least a million people he would save… And that’s as far as my story goes…”

Christina, Jessica, and Alisa looked sad but also thoughtful after Mirio had finished his story.

Christina frowned since her logical mind was debating against the absurdity of Mirio’s story with her emotional mind.

Jessica was just confused, not sure what to believe but leaning more towards the fact that Mirio had bouts of craziness and depression that could lead to vivid hallucinations.

Alisa smiled widely and jumped to her feet excitingly “I finally got it!” she proclaimed “Mirio, I want to use your idea for a novel… I’ve always wanted to tell a story of what it would be like to live in a world with true heroes… I especially want to tell that story with Iron Man and other people in the picture…”

“You’re saying there are more people in this world with quirks?” Mirio asked hurriedly, finally hearing something that could aid in his research on how to get back home.

Alisa nodded fervently “I always research these types of news… I heard of a huge green man at secret military facilities… In the past, there was an experiment that created a soldier with fifteen times the strength of a normal man… and I heard of a hammer in New Mexico that levelled an entire town…”

“Thank you!” Mirio whispered, drawing everyone’s attention to his tear-soaked face “I thought – I thought that there was no way home… but with that news, I know that amazing things exist in this world and one of them might be amazing enough to send me back… so thank you!”

Brian, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up “Okay… Alisa and I should head back to the hotel… Jessica can escort us downstairs… and Mirio… I hope we can run some more tests and experiments to see if your mental condition improves…”

Mirio nodded helplessly since it wasn’t the first time Brian asked for DNA and other tests to check for any abnormality in his genetic structure.

They should have been something there but with the loss of his quirk, Mirio was sure that nothing would show up on any tests except a body of a slightly tougher human.

Jessica grudgingly escorted her parents out the door and down the stairs to the bottom floors since they were very distrustful of elevators.

With everyone else gone, only Mirio and Christina remained in the kitchen with a heavy silence between them.

Christina stretched into the cupboard and retrieved a Dom Perignon Rose Gold, Champagne, pouring some into two glass cups and gesturing for Mirio to sit.