Chapter Text
It started - or, well, more like ended, really - as most things do: with a bang.
The thing is, my day had been quite ordinary up until that point.
I'd woken up, gotten my coffee from my roommate Jay, showered, called Mom, ate breakfast, all that crap. It had, really, been a rather boring day until--
Okay. Before we continue, I need to clarify something here.
I'm not a hero.
Well, I mean, I'd certainly like to be. I'd like to be someone people could look up to and feel safe around. It sounds nice, doesn't it?
But that wasn't me. I was a skinny, dorky little dweeb who liked cartoons and anime and worked two jobs as I tried to work my way through community college.
However, I'm also a severe meddler.
Even as a kid, I'd always been one. I'd been bright, cheery, and downright annoying sometimes, and that kind of tied into the fact that I stuck my nose into places it didn't belong. My parents hadn't really discouraged it, either. My Mom was always saying stuff like, "Always help someone else in need, honey", which, granted, I guess was better than Dad's, "Even if they don't want help, a 'want' is a very different thing from a 'need.'"
So, really, I'd been practically encouraged to invite myself into situations and shove my foot in my mouth.
Anyway, the point is, I'd always been up in people's business. But then, as I got older, got accepted into University and the bills started piling up, I had developed a mindset of 'help when you can, but your wellbeing should always come first.'
But the thing is...I wasn't thinking about that when I saw that kid running across during a green light. To be honest, I wasn't really thinking at all. The only thing that was going through my mind was, 'they're going to get hit by a car.'
And suddenly, I don't even know what happened, but then I was in the middle of the street, pushing them out of the way.
Do you know those stories that survivors of traumatic events tell? The whole thing about 'life flashing before their eyes'?
That's...not exactly what happened.
It was like the world had slowed down to a creeping pace. In my periphery, the car's headlights were about a foot away, and my eyes were locked on the kids own horrified look as I pushed them out of the way.
Oh, I thought to myself dumbly. I'm gonna get hit.
And then time started moving again and, lo' and behold, I did.
I went flying, my limp body crashing somewhere down the street and rolling a couple of times until I finally stopped. The pain was searing, filling my very bones, my very being. So much so, in fact, that I stopped registering it at a certain point. No pain. Nothing at all, really.
Just...cold. I was really fucking cold. Also the yelling. There was a lot of crying, and I could hear someone screaming to call an ambulance, but it all sounded far away. Like I was underwater.
My head was twisted to the right, and I could see a pair of scuffed-up sneakers stop next to me. Someone - a teenager - dropped to their knees next to me, tears streaming down their face as they hesitantly slipped a hand beneath my head. I whined, and my vision blurred as they pulled my head into their lap.
"S-shh," they stuttered out through heaving sobs, hands shaking and body trembling. "Shh, Miss, it's gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay, I promise--,"
Something wet rolled down my cheek. I couldn't tell if it was their tears, my own, or more blood. I found I didn't have the energy to care.
"P-Please, please, n-no, no, you can't fall asleep, miss, please stay awake!"
I blinked my eyes open, scarcely aware of the fact that they had slipped shut in the first place.
The kid pressed a hand to my cheek, a body wracking sob ripping from their throat.
I was struck, then, by the sudden realization that I was going to die.
Oh.
Oh.
I didn't want to die.
I'm pretty sure I must have said that out loud, but the kid didn't react at all, beyond stroking my hair back from my forehead.
"I'm here, I-I'm right here," they whispered. "Y-you're not alone," The kid sobbed. "You're not alone."
For last words, I thought they were pretty good.
Not alone, huh?
And then everything went dark, and I didn't think at all after that.
I think I speak for most people when I say that, when I died, I didn't exactly expect to wake up again.
But I did.
Or, well, I think I did?
When I came to, it was slowly. A drowsy awakening, like I'd just had the best nap of my life or whatever.
Then my eyes blinked open, and I saw someone I'd never met before sitting in front of me, and I jerked to wakefulness.
"W-who--?!" I managed to stutter out, choking on my own breath.
The person - they looked too androgynous to really assign a gender or pronouns to them - shot me a cheeky grin.
"Hey there!" They said cheerfully. "How ya' feelin', kid?"
I blinked at them. Kid? I was 24 years old, and they couldn't be older than 17. I shuffled in my chair, fiddling with my own fingers as I pondered their question.
How was I feeling?
"Pretty traumatized," I said without thinking.
A beat of silence, and then--
They cackled, their head thrown back. The sound of their laughter managed to get me to relax - aw, hell, I hadn't realized I'd been so stiff - and I managed a small, lopsided smile of my own.
As they tried to stifle their laughter, I studied them. With cropped silver hair and bright, green eyes, they looked extremely approachable. They had light skin, and I hummed to myself. Japanese, maybe? Or perhaps Korean. Definitely somewhere Eastern. They reminded me a little of Saika Totsuka from OreGairu.
They eventually managed to stifle their laughter, wiping their eyes and heaving a huge sigh. "Thanks for that, kid! Really made my week with that one."
I blinked. "U-uh, you're welcome?"
They grinned a little, and I smiled shakily back.
We sat in silence for a few moments before I swallowed and managed words.
"If I could ask...where am I?"
They blinked. "Ah, yeah. About that." Their face dropped, and the sudden seriousness gave me mental whiplash.
"You, Miss," they began, "are dead."
I stared.
"You died saving a life, an act that isn't anything to sneeze at," they continued, either not noticing my shock or just straight up ignoring it. "The crux of the matter is, not many people would give their lives to save someone else's, but I have to ask - why?"
I did a double-take. "Excuse me?"
Their endless green gaze bore into my soul. "You heard me. Why did you save that kid? It would have been so easy to just let it happen. You didn't even know them."
I felt a wave of defensiveness rise up in me. "B-because it was the right thing to do!" I snapped. "If I had just stood there and let it happen, knowing I could have helped, I-I would never have been able to live with myself!"
I drew myself up to my full height (which, admittedly, wasn't much, but it counted for something) and forced myself not to flinch away from their knowing eyes. "There's this movie, Captain America: Civil War. In it, one character, Peter, he says, 'When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then bad things happen? They happen because of you.'"
I looked down at my feet, my next words a little calmer than before, though no less determined. "Yeah, maybe it was stupid, and maybe I should have just left things alone but--," I forced myself to meet their gaze again. "I'll never regret it."
They stared at me for a few moments, the intensity of their face never dropping, before finally leaning back and forming a crooked grin on their face. "Well, kid, aren't you an interestin' one, huh?"
I felt myself flush a little. "U-uh, thanks?" I felt out of the loop, and I didn't know why, but I got the feeling that my little 'rant' had just changed something.
Something...fundamental.
They crossed their arms, leaning toward me a bit. They were a little taller than me, I noted absently. "You had a character, right? Hino-somethin' or other?"
I felt like I had mental whiplash from the sudden subject change, but I went along with it. "Er, yeah. Akahoshi Hinode. She was my My Hero Academia OC."
"Explain her to me."
I stared at them, confusion bubbling up in me. "Why?"
They waved a hand at me. "Just...satisfy my curiosity, yeah?"
I gave them a dubious look, but continued anyway. "W-well, her hero name is The Sunshine Hero: Spirulina, after the algae. Her Quirk - er, that is, her superpower - filled her skin with phycocyanin, which allowed her to absorb the entire light spectrum and then release it from any part of her body as a kind of fire-energy thingy. Visually, I always imagined it looked like Jean Grey's power from the X-Men movies, especially Dark Phoenix, however crappy that movie ended up being.
"She...She's everything I ever wanted to be. Because I mean, yeah, she's a superhero and she's got amazing powers and all that but...at the end of the day, she's still human. And even if she's always trying to lift up others, she's constantly sacrificing what she wants to do it." I chuckled a little. "I guess I...kind of just made her into another, well, me in that respect. Or, well, in a lot of aspects."
This next part was personal but, well, hey, what did I have to lose? I was dead.
"She, well, she's everything I ever wanted to be. Someone who has the power to help other people. Someone who-who will stand up and say, 'this isn't right', who has the courage to say that."
I looked down at my feet again, my face flushed. "She-well, she's amazing."
It was silent for a moment, and I worried that I had talked too much, but then I heard them speak.
"You really admire her, huh?"
I blinked, looking up and meeting their gaze. Their eyes were unusually soft.
I smiled a little. "Yeah. I do."
They grinned back at me. "You're a lot more like her than you think, y'know, and after saving that kid...I think you deserve the chance to see that."
I barely had time to open my mouth to ask them what they meant before they were snapping their fingers.
I felt the ground slip out from underneath me, and my head felt faint. I couldn't register anything, and suddenly I was slipping, slipping, slipping.
"Take this chance while you have it, kid."
And then everything
went
dark.