Hello everyone! I'm not here for an update, but I do have some new content. As some of you may have heard, I plan on expanding I'm No Hero into an independent series, where each book will concentrate on a different student (Tami, Kaito, Sakura, and Raiden). Each book should be able to be read on its own, but if you start on a latter one, you might get spoilers of a previous book. This is the plan at least. Whether I get to writing and finishing all of them is a whole other story, but again, that's the goal.

To help get myself in the mindset of that, I started writing little snippets or came up with mini stories for a different character's POV. Most, I'm not sharing as they're not good, and one I plan on expanding into a one shot later down the road. There is one snippet that I did write that I wanted to somehow incorporate in this book, but it was cut out due to the fact it was written after the part had been published and the fact that is was in a different POV. While I personally don't mind reading stories that switched up POV, this one would've really seemed awkward.

So, my solution is that I share it here as an extra. I hope you all enjoy as it may help what was going on while Tami was...away from her friends.

Raiden's Reaction and Realization

Spoiler Tag: Chapters 20 & 26

Takes Place: End of Chapter 20

~*~*~*~

The moment Luz got off the phone, I sighed. I get it. Luz was super close to me in age, but she always had to call at the worst of times. Sure, Hatsuko, Dad, and Mom were busy here at the festival. That left her with six siblings to call, but knowing our older brothers and sisters, they were either too busy with their own families or other stuff.

I was never really busy for her to bug me. Except, now, of all times, was not the time to be calling.

"Sorry about that," I apologized as I looked over at Smith. My eyes widened, noticing the small blonde was missing. For a moment, I thought she might have gotten up to get more beef skewers to eat, but I saw a tray with a single chunk of beef on a stick. That had to have been hers.

Where did Tami Smith go? My heart started to pound as I looked around, trying to see if I could see her, but she was nowhere. Maybe she was as she could have used her Quirk to turn into someone, but that was for self defense. I knew she only used that for self-defense. If she didn't, then the incident at the mall would have been very different.

The mall. Fuck. Why didn't I realize it sooner? Tami was easily spooked. It might not sound like hero material, but it was probably because she was thinking of others. If she was a person of interest, then she would've probably ran rather than ask for help.

I knew I should have never told her that it was a good idea to run away from her problems that day at the mall, I thought to myself.

No, she was smarter than that. She wouldn't have—

...but she was also in full blown panic mode, caused by that damn scam artist. I shouldn't have blown her off for my sister, but Luz had similar anxiety attacks. The only way to get her out of them was to talk some sense into her. If she said the world was going to end, I had to remind her that she could breathe and see tomorrow if she stopped. I thought Tami was the same way.

Apparently not.

I started pushing my way through the thick crowd, as I my thumb flipped through my contacts until I saw Katio's number on there. Without a second thought, I pressed it, hearing the endless rings as I keep pushing my way through.

Tami needed out of there. She needed out of here. Maybe the best thing for her was for her to see her brother. If that would stop her from worrying, then my job would be done.

"Hey, Raiden! Can you put Tami-tan on the phone. I have something to tell her," Kaito started, but I froze in my tracks for a moment.

She wasn't with Kaito or Sakura. If she wasn't with me, and she wasn't with the others, then there was only one place to be. It was all my fault. Damn it! If I didn't pick up the phone, I could have kept a close—

That was why Tami was hungry, the reason why she was so nervous. It wasn't just about her brother, she wanted—no, in her mind, she needed to get to that tent. For her sake, I hope no one tried to do anything to her on the way there.

More-so, I really hoped I was wrong and that she wasn't really that stupid to go back without anyone going with her.

"Yo, Raiden, you there?" Kaito asked. "Tami?"

"She's missing," I told him as I took off in a run, feeling the sweat collecting on my forehead. I never minded the festival's heat, but now, I couldn't help but to wish I was in something other than the damn black kimono I was in. The long sleeves were killing me, and the bottom part restricted movement.

"What do you mean she's missing?" Kaito asked. "You were supposed to keep an eye out on her!"

"Yeah, well, I got distracted by a phone call from Luz," I shot back, as I looked around the crowd. She could have been anyone, but she would've been in that pink kimono she wore. That kimono would have been a dead giveaway.

I just needed to keep my eye out for her and hope to find her soon.

"Screw that! Tami's more important!"

"Like you have room to say anything. I shouldn't have to babysit your girlfriend while you play stupid carnival games. Now, I don't have her phone number, so just shut up, call her, and find her! I'm doing everything I can right now to the same," I shot back.

There was no arguing with Kaito, but it wasn't helping, not when I couldn't find any sign of her anywhere. After all she had gone through, the last thing she needed was to be ganged up by some villains, or find herself lost, not knowing where to go.

Kaito was silent on the other end, but I quickly hung up before he had the chance to say anything. I had more important things to do: find Tami. Tami needed help. She needed—

Before I could take another step, someone's hand wrapped around my wrist and yanked back. My eyes widened. I knew that iron grip anywhere and looking back, I couldn't have been more right about it.

I had been so focused on finding Tami myself I forgot that this was a hero festival. Heroes had mingled with other people in the streets, most incognito at this point as they wanted to enjoy a bit of the festival for themselves. One of those was the man standing in front of me, wearing a ridiculous blue kimono and a rice hat to hide his face.

"Dad," I said, "I need your help."

"No, you need to stop making a scene of running off like a lunatic," he chastised as he glared at me. Without a mask covering his face, he looked far more intimidating. People said I looked scary, but they had never met the death glare of my father. It could put Medusa to shame.

If I knew I could rip myself from his grasp, I would have. I would have used my Quirk to do so as well, but there was just one problem. My dad shared the same Quirk as I did. Being that he did, and had a longer time to train with it, he was a lot stronger than I was. I hated being weak compared to him, but that was why I trained.

One day, I would surpass him in strength.

"My friend is in trouble," I told him. "Very short, has short blonde hair, brown eyes that are usually looking away whenever you try to make eye contact. Her name's Tami Smith. She's wearing a pi—"

"Trouble?" my dad said in disbelief. "How do you know your friend is in trouble. Did she call you?"

I shook my head. "She was right next to me. I got a phone call from Luz, and before long, she was gone."

"She?" Dad questioned, making me freeze in my spot. His dark eyes glared harder into mine, which forced everything in me to keep steady eye contact as I wanted to look away. "She wouldn't happen to be that one that dragged you down that day, was she?"

The day of the first exam, that was what he was talking about. Dad was furious when he found out I didn't make it into the top ten. He was even more disappointed in me when he found out Kaito ranked higher than me. If I wasn't ranked number one, then in his eyes, I had already failed, and there was no hope of being a hero.

I wasn't Hatsuko, my older sister who was also a hero. Even though I trained every day to make sure I could one day be stronger than the two of them, I still fell short. If I told Dad that she was the one I was partnered up with, I knew what he'd do.

"No," I lied. "That was someone else. This is Kaito's girlfriend."

Kaito's girlfriend. I wasn't sure why, but something bugged me about it. They didn't seem right together. Maybe it was because I knew Kaito was so full of himself. He wanted to be a shining hero that people could look up to himself because he had a "Light" Quirk. He thought he knew what was best because he was just "smart." He just seemed so different from Tami.

He thought Tami would feel better once she got her mind off of things. Having sisters of my own, and having to listen to them complain about stuff, I knew distractions weren't going to help. Sometimes, sure, but Tami was clearly uncomfortable with what he was doing. He should have backed off.

If he kept it up, I was afraid what would happen. I didn't want either of them to go through a heartbreak, even if I didn't feel comfortable seeing those two dating.

"Then she's none of your concern if she's Kaito's girlfriend," my dad said as he let go of my wrist. "She is in your class after all. She'll be fine."

I watched as he turned around and walked away. My hands tightened in fists as I watched him disappear in the crowds.

A memory popped into my head. It was after the exam. Mr. Elastic told me I needed to be more compassionate around others. When I told Hatsuko—as Dad wasn't home to ask him about it—she agreed. The alternative was turning into him: a cold shell of a person who just was in it for fame, glory, and a stable income.

If I continued to look up to him, it wasn't going to work. I didn't want to be like him. I wanted to be better. I have always wanted to be better than him. One of these days, I would, but not if I strived to think like him.

"Maybe you should learn from others that aren't like you," I remembered Hatsuko telling me during that conversation. "Like that shy girl you talked about from the entrance exam, the one with the weird last name."

"Smith?" I had asked.

"Yes! Her!" Hatsuko beamed. "Anyone who can jump in front of a villain when scared half to death like that is a hero in my book, even if they aren't classified as one."

"I had to pull all her weight in the exam though," I remembered telling her. "Had I not been lucky in finding that kid as soon as I did, then we would've lost to those damn twins."

"But did you?" Hatusko asked. "Did she make you think of a new strategy on the spot? You're going to learn that on the field, heroes have to learn on the spot, do impromptu stuff. Learn from that."

Learn from that.

Tami was the opposite of him. She put herself in the line of fire when that robot villain was about ready to stop us at the exam. She was weak, but she didn't stop. She cared for others, even when it put herself in danger, just like that time she yelled in the library. If she didn't, I would've probably lost my memories, but in return, she threw herself in danger.

Then there was the way she reacted when she heard about her brother.

Compassion. My dad had none of that. Tami had all of that.

After all the times she showed me all that, she was now the one feeling helpless. I needed to be there for her. I needed to be the one to find her and tell her it was going to be okay. If not, I would end up like my dad. He wasn't a bad guy, but he wasn't the best of heroes.

Tami was.

Just like that, I pushed myself through the crowd once more, determined to find her. I wasn't going to rest until I did.

~*~*~*~

And that's the end of the Raiden tidbit. I have to say, this explains a lot about his character, the "abrupt" change that Tami witnesses in chapter 26, but again, she was gone for a few days, and there was no way I could really fit that in there. I just hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As for an update as to how the writing is going: I've finished the current arc, but it needs some more revisions, major editing, and of course, the every chapter music and picture if I can find it. If things go well, this story shouldn't be on hiatus for more than a month, but I can't make any promises as I want to have this book finished before I start publishing once again. Whether that happens or not is another story, but that's the plan.

I just hope this can hold you all over until then. Hope you all have a great day. Take care!