In a forest near the Tsunotori property, the sounds of horns and turtle shells clashing could be heard.

A pair of horns slammed into my stomach, pushed by the force of a full-on charge. The blonde-haired bull that had hit me kept pushing, sending me through a tree. I roared and raised my arms up, bringing them back down.

The massive bull shrank in an instant, becoming Tauren. In her much more slim human form, she front-flipped just as my arms came down, easily dodging my attack. Still in the air, she transformed again, bashing her head into mine. She was growling, eye to eye with me, a challenge in her eyes.

“NICE!” I grinned in Cow Lady’s face. “Pony!”

A small storm of pointed horns came shooting out of the woods, right at Cow Lady. The transformed hero, still face to face with me, wouldn’t be able to escape, not while she was still in mid-air!

Yeah right. She was way too smart for that to work.

She shifted forms again, grabbing my head and using my body as a fulcrum to twist around my body, using me like a shield. Two of the horns curved around to follow her, but Cow Lady, still grabbing my head, did a judo throw while transforming, using the sudden shift in weight to send me onto my back, allowing the horns to hit me. As the horns shattered against me, she laughed.

“Nice try, kiddos!”

“Oh come on!” I wiggled on my back, breathing a bit of fire in frustration. My back spikes had stabbed into the ground!

I pulled my limbs and head into my shell. If I wanted to free myself…

I spun around on my back. The Shell Spin, one of Bowser’s most famous moves, was one of a few of my goals for this whole training trip. It was tougher to do than you’d think… Like, INSANELY tougher. I was literally forcing my body to move in a high-speed twist without any sort of momentum. But the trick was all in how you used your muscles from the inside of the shell.

I thought so, at least. Because it was hit or miss so far.

So I spun and spun and spun, hearing the sound of grinding rock, Pony shouting and horns whistling through the air, while Cow Lady roared. Every once in a while. I would stop mid-spin. Goddamn it! What was the means of propulsion for my own body!

I finally stopped on my own, and poked my head out…

“Ah, crap!”

Well, I’d gotten my spikes unstuck. But I’d also dug a ten-foot hole.

I could hear laughing up top. Yeah, I didn’t blame them.

I clambered out of the hole, driving my claws into the rock to create hand and footholds. As I climbed out, Tauren and Pony were smiling at me.

“Still getting the hang of that, eh sugah?” Tauren asked cheerily, still in her full bull form.

Wasn’t that the truth. I could still remember the first time I’d managed to at least start spinning.

------

Two Weeks Ago

“I just don’t get where yer even getting the idea you can do this, sugah,” Tauren asked as I stretched, twisting my hips from side to side. Pony floated sat atop on one of her horns nearby, panting as she tried to keep herself over the floor while watching me.

“Is it from Gamera?” Pony asked me, face strained as she continued to float next to her mom.

“Kinda?” I said hesitantly, cracking my head to the side. “But I don’t think I can control my spin by fire power. Pretty sure that way bigger turtle uses magic or something.”

Ah, shit. I hoped Bowser didn’t use magic as well… Well, nothing to it but to try.

“I’m going to start by just going for it, okay?” I told Tauren. “Just… please stop me in case I go bouncing out of control.”

She nodded seriously. “Don’t worry, sugah. Whole point of this is for ya to go wild. I’ll stop it if I have ta.”

Good enough. I took a deep breath.

“Ganbatte, Bowser-kun!” Pony called. Then she wavered, almost falling from the horn she was floating on. “Oop, oop, oop!” she caught her balance. “SAFE!”

I grinned at her. Adorable.

Then I got serious. Okay. Let’s go.

I kneeled down, arms to my right. Then, in a single furious motion, I spun around, pulling my arms and legs into my shell!

And went bouncing along the ground haphazardly, rolling on the ground like a tossed coin before finally smashing into the wall of the quarry.

“...” I poked my head out of my shell sourly. “Well… this isn’t going to work.”

I exited my shell and ignored the sound of Tauren giggling. Try again.

I went for a run this time, leaping into the air, shoving myself back into my shell in mid-air as I spun around. It worked! I went spinning across the ground, skating at high-speed, zooming-!

‘Wait, how do I stop?’

As that thought filled my mind, I smashed into a boulder, bouncing off, then into another, then the quarry wall, screaming while bounding like a damn pinball!

“Help me, for the love of god, I don’t know how to stop!”

“Bowser!” Tauren shouted, turning into a bull and chasing after me as I bounced around, Pony falling to the ground in a panic.

“AHHHHH!”

------

Tauren continued to tease me as I thought on my first attempts at shell spin, a wide grin on her face. “Or were ya planning ta tunnel to the bottom of the earth as some kind of crazy strategy, sugah?”

“My plans are beyond your understanding,” I said as fake wisely as I could. “So. Did we win?”

“Not this time!” Pony said happily. “Momma is strong…”

“Ah, yer gonna be way stronger than I am one day, dahling!” Tauren wrapped an arm around Pony, pulling her into a hug. “I wish I had a power half as useful as yours will be.”

She wasn’t wrong. Pony’s quirk was insanely versatile in the right hands. It was comparable to Wing Hero: Hawk’s power. Long range attacks that could also be controlled and moved around at will. That was pretty badass in the right hands. She could hit people from any angle, catch and save people, block attacks, and fly if she could control it well enough (though she had a lot of problems with the last part thus far).

As I was thinking about that, Tauren grabbed my hand, surprising me. “Come on, kiddos. Grocery shopping.”

“What, now?” I asked, surprised. “I thought we could-”

“Keep training? No, us gals need a break,” Tauren rolled her eyes at me. “Not all of us have more energy than a nuke.”

“Ah…” She was right. Tauren and Pony we both sweating, and Pony, for all her cheer, did look exhausted. I was kinda feeling it too, but not quite as much. I wasn’t sure why. I just kind of… loved fighting. It was sort of worrying, the amount of energy I felt in a battle.

“Well, before we go, I need to do something,” I announced. “I keep forgetting to test it but… You said the closest neighbor was three miles away, right?”

“Yeah?” Tauren asked, confused.

“Okay… Cover your ears.”

Pony and Tauren shared a look. Then they did like I asked.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs until it felt like they were going to explode. I clenched my fist, flexed my chest, and-

“RrrraaaAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The roar I let loose exploded forth like a small explosion, echoing into the air, sending birds flying up out of the trees and silencing the animals of the forest. I stopped after a long moment. And smiled.

“Awesome.”

“I am so glad you warned us,” Pony said quietly. “That was loud.”

“Probably useful if I do it right next to someone's ear,” I said with a smile. “It’s nothing like Present Mic,” or Black Canary. “But I’ll still scare the pants off people if I need to.”

“Showoff,” Tauren said with a sigh. “Come on, kiddos. We need to get some food.”

“Yes ma’am,” Pony and I said in unison.

As we walked out of that forest, I thought about the last four weeks or so I’d been spending with the Tsunotori family.

It was weird, in some ways. After so long being on my own, in a body and world I didn’t understand, with a language I didn’t understand, living with them was a breath of fresh air. There was room enough for me out in the outskirts of the cities to feel a little less like a freak of nature.

And Pony and Tauren were awesome. They didn’t have to take me in, but they treated me like family.

I thought back to last night.

------

“Why does he always talk about his evil plans?” Tauren asked, sounding frustrated. “No actual bad guy does that!”

Pony giggled as on the screen in front of us, Greed continued to explain his powers

“Are you complaining that fictional heroes from ancient anime acted unrealistically?” I asked idly while lifting an ostrich drumstick to my lips and shoving it into my lips, pulling it out out as a clean bone.

“No, I just wish they did it more in real life,” she sighed. “You know, half my work would be easier if bad guys would explain things like this. Take a lot of detective work out of my job.”

“They have to do it in movies though,” I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “If villains didn’t explain how they managed to figure things out, how their plan makes sense, it would all seem way too magical to the audience. We’d be all, ‘wait, he really managed to plan for the hero to act like this? How did he know the hero would be there?’ So they have to explain it just so that we don’t assume the guy is psychic.”

“And it’s fun!” Pony said. “When they talk all dramatic and evil, and you just know the good guy is going to win anyways!”

“I should do something like that,” I chuckled. “Talk like an over the top wrestling heel in a fight when I become a hero.”

“What, for publicity?” Tauren asked thoughtfully. “I think Gang Orca does something like that. Acts all big and tough for his image. Don’t let that fool ya though,” she gave me a smug grin. “He’s a big ol’ softie. Loves kids.”

“Gang Orca?”

“Oh, he’s the number 10 hero,” Pony said. That triggered my memory. Dude was half-whale. And badass. “I haven’t met him yet though.”

“You think I should do that?” I asked Pony seriously. “I mean, I’d love to be a hero, but I don’t think I’ll be able to pull the classic hero thing like All Might does.”

It had been on my mind for a bit. Because, well… I was Bowser.

When I first got to this world, I had two things I latched onto. A goal (to get to UA) and a, I don’t know, a comparison? I couldn’t exactly call the original Bowser an idol. A measuring stick, that was it.

But UA as a goal, and the hero course specifically, meant, well, becoming a hero. And the longer I spent here, the more I knew I couldn’t quite be the kind of hero that others would be. A huge portion of heroism in this world was public perception. And I just was not the cuddly type. I think I’ve got a friendly personality.

But my new form just didn’t fit the whole hero thing, especially when even I… well, I still felt like reeling back whenever I saw myself in the mirror when I didn’t prepare.

And Bowser was a good hammy type of guy.

“As long as you stay a hero,” Pony said seriously, though her eyes were glittering a bit. “No stealing from banks!”

“I’m more likely to have a bank steal from me,” I snarked. Still… it was an interesting thought. Having a persona when I became a hero.

Still, something felt wrong.

------

Thinking back on that night led to that thought again. That something felt wrong. Like I’d missed something fundamental.

“Bowser-kun, come on!”

I looked up to see that Pony and Tauren had outsped me. I quickly rushed after them and brushed aside the thought for now.

------

We headed into town, a place called Theed. There was a port village of sorts that people of the surrounding farms used to get materials and sell their harvest, so we’d gone there a few times. I kinda liked the place. It was still fairly open and big, and had a very old school farm town feel. Hell, guys even rode horses around the place. Which was weird, considering some were dressed like cowboys. In Japan.

I think Cow Lady had an effect on the local fashion, because she was pretty popular out there. Where we walked a few people would wave, smile, and all around just be happy she was there. I never got a scared look, because I was following Pony and Tauren, and if they liked me, clearly I was good people.

We entered a marketplace and started roaming around, eventually separating from Tauren. It’s the law of shopping with parents. You have a 70 percent higher chance to get separated while shopping with older family members, that’s just science.

So Pony and I grabbed some ice cream, sent a text to her mom, and headed outside to wait. Across from the market was city hall, a nicely made marble building about as big as a large house, where tourists were visiting.

I took a bite of my ice cream sandwich as I watched people walk around. The place may not have been a busy burg like Tokyo, but there were a few dozen people living normal lives.

And on top of that, there was something I was used to now. People that looked weird. Hypocritical of me to say I’m sure, but it was true. Quirks led to a whole stream of odd appearances, most of them unique in some way. It was wild. And kinda wonderful.

“Thanks for inviting me out here, Pony,” I looked down at my tiny blonde friend. “This was awesome.”

“You’re welcome! I’m really glad you came,” Pony’s wide crystal-blue eyes glittered with happiness. “It’s good to have a friend who wants to be a hero like me.”

“...” I took another bite, thinking quietly.

“What’s wrong?” Pony asked after I was quiet for a while.

“Hm? Oh, well I…” I thought for a bit longer. “I’m sort of just worried about UA, to be honest.”

“You’re nervous about getting in?”

“Sort of, but that’s not it. It’s more that, on some level I think I’m worried about if I’m going for the right reasons,” I finished my ice cream, one of my claws rubbing against my scaled lips. Claws and scales. “Pony… I went through something recently. Something life changing. In a way that I can barely understand.”

I walked over to the wall of the market and sat in front of it, Pony walking over to me. Even while sitting, I still was able to meet her eyes. I avoided that. I was still staring at my own feet. Feet I still kept wanting to freak out over whenever I saw them.

“After everything that happened… UA is sort of all I could latch onto. All I could think of to try and find my way to something familiar. I think because of that, I’m sort of feeling like I’m, I don’t know, like I’m trying to go for the wrong reasons.”

I raised a clawed hand, clenching and unclenching it. “Being a hero is a wonderful goal. It’s important. But I’m not going to UA to become a hero. I’m going there because I can’t think of anything else. Now though, a huge part of me does want to become a hero.”

I scratched my chin. “I’m kinda going through a lot. The last two months are making me think about how I’m going about this. Am I trying to be a hero because I actually want to help people, or because it’s just the only thing I can think of doing-”

“Stop,” Pony walked closer, raising a hand and placing it on top of my head. She smiled. “You big dummy.”

“Um…”

She chuckled, shaking her head. “Does it matter?”

“Uh…” I stared at her.

“If you want to be a hero. Then go to school and learn,” she rubbed my hair, fingers brushing through scarlet spikes. “The reason doesn’t matter. You don’t have to go for just one reason, ya know?”

I rubbed my cheek. “I guess. It’s just… You and your mom. You both want to become heroes to help people. I’d love to help people, but the main reason is just-”

“I want to make my momma proud,” Pony cut me off. “I want to be like the heroes I see in anime! I want to be on TV in America one day,” she released my head and raised her hands. “There are soooo many reasons I want to be a hero! But as long as you keep the important one in mind, it’s okay if some of them are selfish, right?” Pony held up a finger and giggled. “It’s okay to help people. But it’s okay if helping people means something good happens for us too, right? None of us are perfect, Bowser-kun. We’re all just trying our best.”

I stared at her. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, she was right. I may be going into UA because I was hoping to find something familiar I could tie myself to in this life I’d found. But as long as I did work to be a hero. As long as I really did want to help people, did it matter what else I got out of it?

Before I could say anything else, a loud scream from nearby. Pony and I looked over to somewhere down the street, where the pier could be seen. As were some running people.

And a huge amount of vines following them. The green leafery was speeding along the concrete, stretching out to grab people and lift them into the air, wrapping them in thin and thick vines alike.

“The hell is going on?” I asked as I rose to my feet.

“Bowser, Pony!” Tauren came rushing out of the store, her eyes hard. “A villain is attacking! Stay here, I’m going in!”

“We can help!” Pony and I said in unison, stepping forward, before Tauren snapped a hand to the side.

“No!” Tauren glared at us. “No. You guys will get your chance one day. But I can handle this. Just stay here.”

She shifted into bull form, then ran forward, steam leaving her lips as she booked it towards the vines.

“Good luck, momma!” Pony called, worry in her eyes.

“Damn it,” I grunted. Still. She was right. Legally, we couldn’t fight unless we had a license to. Made sense. Can’t have some random civilians trying to help cops in a shootout, no matter how well equipped. “I guess we should get to cover.”

“Yeah,” Pony said, still looking out at her mom, then turning to look around. “I guess we should… Oh no!”

She went running before I could say anything. Towards city hall.

“Pony!?” I looked at her, then at City Hall. Tourists were rushing into it, likely hoping for some sort of safety. And I saw what Pony had.

The vines had reached the building, and were digging into it. Plants, with time, can slice through concrete. Quirk-enhanced plants can do much more than that. And they were wrapping around the stone and marble of city hall, slicing through it and sending rubble down. But the people inside had yet to notice, since the plants were only now chopping through.

They were sitting in a building that was about to fall apart.

“Fuck!”

My feet started moving.

“Get out of there!” Pony shouted, two horns flying out as she booked it. She grabbed one of them, using it to accelerate her body into the air, while another moved ahead towards those inside. “Everyone, the building is going to fall!”

No one running inside could hear her. Not with everyone else also screaming and shouting as the sounds of explosions went off in the distance. They didn’t notice a teenage girl trying to help...

I stopped running. I opened my mouth.

And I let loose.

RRRRUUUUUUAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My voice echoed through the square. The whole place fell silent except for the roar of a dragon turtle.

“Get out of there!” Pony hadn’t stopped moving, while those inside froze. She flew up into City Hall falling down just in front of the steps. “The vines are breaking the building! Come on!”

The people inside, dozens of them, started booking it out of there. Pony sent her horns inside, two of them pushing against the wheelchair of an eldery woman to get her out.

I got to the door with her and started yelling.

“Come on, come on! This damn thing is coming down!”

The whole building began to crack and shatter as vines ripped through the floor and ceiling. Tourists and City Hall employees ran for it.

“Get the fuck out, go damn you!” I roared as a chunk of building came down inside, smashing into a glass case holding a model of the town. “Come on!”

“Ahhhh!” a woman screamed as a horn carried her out to safety.

A vine reached down towards the entrance.

“Back off!” I joined those words with a blast of flame, wilting the vines. “Is everybody out!”

“I think so-” Pony began to say.

Then I saw her. A woman coming from deeper in the building. She was carrying a kid, both crying and covered in dust. She must have been visiting someone deeper inside. She had eyebrows and hair made of some kind of cloth. Her kid, a young boy, was crying.

An ominous crack filled the air. The roof began to fall. They were still running, but-

And I was inside.

The woman screamed. I reached out my claws as I got to the center of the room, my hands wrapping around the pair. Shadows fell across my body. I got the two under me, covering them as best as I could. And the whole building fell on top of us as the kid cried against my chest.

------

The sound of the world cracking filled the air as hundreds of tons of stone and marble shattered apart. Dust flew upwards, clouds of stone billowing outwards.

“Bowser!” Pony screamed as her friend disappeared. The last thing she saw before the building crashed was his spiked shell and grit fangs. Then she was forced back a step by the dust that exploded from the crashing building.

“Bowser!” she rushed back in, coughing on the stone dust, desperation in her voice. She felt tears fill her eyes. “Please! Are you okay!?”

“-oh no-”

“-he ran in-”

“-kid shouldn’t have-”

“-get help!”

Pony ignored the people behind her, rushing forward. That’s when a muffled voice came out of the building.

“...Hey! Can someone get this fucking building off of us!”

Pony fell to her knees, crying. “Bowser-kun...” she rubbed at her cheeks, smiling to herself. “You have to stop saying bad words.”

Even as she said that though, she was grinning happily.

------

I looked at the rubble around me and groaned, looking at the people in my arms. The woman was staring at me, eyes wide. “You okay?”

“Y-Yes,” she said, clutching her kid close.

“Good,” I smirked. “Because I think we’ll have to wait for a bit. I don’t want to shift the rubble while we’re like this. So we’ll just sit here for a bit, okay?”

“Y-Yes,” she said.

I continued to smirk. I had to. I didn’t want her to know how precarious this really was. Because I was holding the building up. And if I moved, well, the rubble might crush the fragile folk beneath me.

So I sat there, on my knees, holding hundreds of tons on my back with a woman and kid under me, and waited.

“...Don’t suppose you guys have motivational music?” I asked the woman. “On your phone?”

“N-No,” she squeaked, while her kid stared up at me.

“Well, reach into my pocket please,” I said with a smile. “Might as well make this fun, right?”

As she did what I asked and I continued to hold up all that weight, I winked at the kid. Waiting and keeping them distracted. Best I could do right then.

Glamorous life, this.