A Room Full of Heroes

Izuku's eyes sparkled as he took in the sight of my collection, his gaze darting from one action figure to the next. I stood frozen, unsure of how to react as he bounded across the room, picking up figures and examining them with a critical eye. I had expected him to be impressed, but this was a little much. "Wooah!" He laughed, spinning in circles as if to admire everything at once. "You have so many of them! You really like a lot of heroes, don't you?" I shrugged, feeling a little bashful all of a sudden. I didn't really know if I liked a lot of heroes. I liked them on screen, but... everything is so new to me. Thinking that All Might exists. That he's an actual living, breathing person - damn, it's a bit weird. I guess it started with All Might. Nobody could blame me, honestly: I got thrown into the BHNA world and didn't even buy an All Might action figure? It would have been a waste. So I asked my parents, and then, hidden at the back of the shelves, overshadowed by other flashier figures, I found an Eraserhead's one. Really, what should I have done? Not buy an Eraserhead action figure? Just the thought of leaving it there was blasphemous. Since by then I was already in the shop and there were many more heroes to choose from, one thing led to another and I took Best Jeanist too... and Midnight and Mirko, since she didn't get nearly enough screentime. Then I decided to restrain myself. I wasn't even that big of a fan, five action figures were more than enough. But I hadn't taken into consideration my parents. Who, seeing me for the first time engage in normal toddler activity, promptly got so excited they bought me the whole collection. I couldn't really blame them, although now my room looked almost as fanboyish as Izuku's. Izuku was still spinning, his eyes shining with excitement. "This one's Hawks, and this one's... I don't know, who is this?" He held up a figure, and I took it from him, feeling a little embarrassed. "That's Endeavor," I said, trying to sound casual. "He's a pretty popular hero." Izuku's eyes lit up. "I know him! He's got a really strong Quirk, right?" I nodded, feeling a little more at ease. Maybe having Izuku around wasn't so bad after all. He was easy to talk to, and he seemed to know a lot about the heroes. As we continued to talk, I realized that I was having a lot more fun than I expected. Izuku was infectious, and his enthusiasm was starting to rub off on me. I found myself smiling, feeling a little more like a normal person. But as I looked around at the collection of action figures, I couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious. Did I really like all these heroes, or was I just collecting them because they were cool? I wasn't sure, but as I looked at Izuku's smiling face, I knew that I was going to have to figure it out soon.