Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reincarnation is not the worst, she decided after dying in a horrific accident.

While staying alive and well would be preferable, being not dead is an acceptable outcome in the given situation. As pragmatic as ever (and definitely not deeply in denial) she decided to accept the unexpected circumstances.

So there she was. An adult ass woman with an okay-paying job, betta fish named Bluey, and a mortgage, currently occupying the body of a 3-year-old baby. Kinda depressing to think of all those achievements and relationships now gone.

At least there were small mercies connected with impromptu body conversion. For one, being gifted with a body capable of eating normal food. As fun, as the prospect of sucking some random ass lady's tit for a few might be, it did not bring joy to her heart. So that's great.

What's even better was apparently being able to comprehend Japanese on a basic level, which is absolutely amazing considering that before she didn't understand anything beyond the 10 most popular words for a protagonist to shout in a considerably popular anime.

And some truths were harder to swallow.

Like new parents.

They weren't bad, in fact as far as she could say they were quite good but there was nothing wrong with the first ones. But it was hard to act as their normal baby daughter that's the least they deserve for bodysnaching the real one. Nonetheless, she was determined to adjust to the new life.

So.

Fresh start.

New identity.

Kieruko.

Her new parents call her Kieruko-chan now.

That is her name.

She's basically a toddler. Black hair and dark eyes. Chubby cheeks. Way too short legs.

Conclusion: she's a standard baby. A win in her books.

Problem: that's where the "ordinary" ends.

Kieruko realized that maybe she did not reincarnated into the usual world about 5 minutes into watching the ceiling after an unmeasurable amount of time spent having something between an existential crisis and a mental breakdown. That's when she noticed another person in the room.

My mother, brain supplies.

The new mom was a pretty lady with amazing black hair (that Kieruko hopes she inherited) and the look of a dreamer. As in she looks like just a humble passerby in someone else's incredibly detailed memory. Not exactly present in this reality.

Her name was Ishiki and she had a pair of the most vibrant violet eyes. An impossible shade of it that could not be found in nature. And yet.

"Time to get up sunshine." Even her voice sounds slightly distant.

Reincarnee decided to follow her mom around the house like a little duckling while she was quietly absorbing information. The place was clean, bright, with enough wood and glass to indicate an upper-middle-class dwelling.

Good place to be raised.

Ishiki noticing her little shadow, smiles and begins to hum an unfamiliar melody as they both make their way down the hallway. Everything feels so unreal in the morning light.

As Kieruko enters the kitchen, she's met with the smell of delicious breakfast and the sight of another figure. Guy in a white shirt, with short dark hair (why does it look kinda green?), glasses, and wide amber eyes. He smiles at the newly arriv- oh wow the guy, her dad, has a kind smile. It makes her feel guilty for so many reason.

"Good morning sleepy head."

Dad gets a noncommittal hum as an answer and the morning routine organically continues.

It seems like quiet breakfasts and her behavior is normal enough because no one questions the newly kid-sized reincarnee why she fucking stole kid's body and is eating toast with it like nothing happened.

So she's playing her part well.

Also. Motor skills? Downgrade of the fucking century. Not to even mention walking because Kieruko is proud that somehow she didn't fall on her face, despite her limbs' best attempt at sabotage. Useless little stubs. Grabbing food is a slight challenge but she is a grown woman capable of consuming a slice of bread with at least some dignity.

She is still in a haze figuring out the new re:life when her new parents start talking about plans for the day. Kieruko does her best to focus and absorb any information possible despite faint confusion lingering in the back of her mind.

Both of them are some kind of counselors, working in the same place. There is some kind of kid that Ishiki has a problem categorizing. Dad, Ishiki calls him Seichi, notices their daughter's confusion, misunderstanding it for boredom, and sits her in front of the TV leaving her in the graces of whatever morning programming has to offer when two things happen.

Mom says "I can't just call it hydrokinesis when obviously there's more to the quirk, even if that's the only visible manifestation at the moment"

At the same time, the screen plays a short clip of ALL MIGHT followed by a shameless advert for his new action figure.

And then suddenly Kieruko's vision sharpens for the first time in this life as enlightenment comes.

Quirk.

All Might.

Holy shit.

She knows where she got reincarnated.

Boku no fucking Hero Academia.

Following that revelation began one of the most suspicious interrogations, if not for the fact that it was conducted by a 3-year-old also known as one of the most curious creatures on the planet.

"Mom, what's your job?"

"I help kids figure out what their Quirks are and how to safely use them."

Kieruko decided to play the oblivious kid part.

"What's a quirk?"

"It's a special unique ability that most people get."

"What's my quirk?"

"You haven't manifested yet."

"When will I get a quirk?"

"Probably in a year."

"That's a long time."

"It is," Ishiki says barely holding her laughter. Her husband's giggling like a schoolgirl into his coffee.

Kieruko isn't sure why rapid-fire questioning is working so well, she's not going to look a gifted horse in the mouth, so she continues her currently successful interrogation technique.

"What's your quirk?"

There is a glint in Ishiki's eye when she begins the explanation. "I call it Quirk's True Color. It allows me to see the unique color, shade, texture, and pattern of each quirk. This way I can figure out how they work. For example, all fire quirks have an orange-ish hue to them. Also, that makes me see a lot more colors than possible with a human eye."

So she can see like forbidden shrimp colors but with superpowers. That's honestly so fucking cool.

"Wow, I hope I get a quirk like yours." That comment makes Ishiki smile again. "Dad, what's your quirk?"

"It's called Lock-on. I can track the location of a single person in a 7km radius." His eyes begin to glow slightly for a moment.  Kieruko's fascinated by whatever anime magic makes that possible.

"How does that help you in your work?"

"It doesn't."

"Huh."

"You don't want to have a quirk like your dad?" There is a mischievous note in his expression as he asks.

"Nope."

That awards Kieruko with another round of laughter for some reason. Maybe her destiny in this life is to become the best stand-up comedian of the century.

Then Seichi speaks finally shining light on their confusing behavior "I can't believe our Kieru-chan was quiet for so long if the only thing needed for her to open up was quirk talk. If that doesn't prove she's a Hiseki then nothing does."

Oh, that explains a lot.

Hiseki Kieruko. The kid who wasn't speaking before.

Now she did.

And now she loved to talk about the same topics as her parents.

Now she was Kieruko.

There is no going back, isn't it?

It took her one morning to accept the new reality. Much shorter than she would ever guess.

After that first chaotic day, she quickly adjusted to the new normal. First family breakfast, then they would go together to a fancy office where parents were working leaving Kieruko alone in a corner where she was quickly relearning alphabets (yes multiple because Japanese is anything but simple), slowly picking up books again. She breezed through those intended for 4yo and started to read anything she could put her pudgy hands on. Which meant mostly scientific literature on quirks. That was fine by her considering her unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the new world.

After a few weeks, Kieruko was sure that both parental units were aware of her educational endeavors yet no one made a single comment about her astounding academic achievements. Maybe they thought she was pretending to understand complicated scientific terms. She wasn't sure. Then again, she was in sight of at least one competent adult at all times, (along with unlimited access to a tablet with a wi-fi connection and a wall of books about the most fascinating scientific topic).

Quirks were so cool.

Her parents were weird though.

Both of them were quirk counselors. Their job was to look at people using their supernatural abilities, analyze, test them, and advise how to use them better. There could not possibly be a better job than that.

While Seichi never allowed Kieruko to even take a glimpse at any of the tests, Ishiki loved to carry her while older kids were performing various tasks in special training rooms behind thic glass windows.

Her mom would always explain the reason behind every exercise, the typical activation conditions, side effects, and terminology. Kieruko loved being treated like a tiny adult (that she was to a certain extent) and getting university-level lectures.

After 2 months of that arrangement, she was probably the only toddler who could give a lecture on the differences between Quirk Factor and quirk related mutations or categorization of telekinetic quirks. Ishiki was delighted with that development, Seichi was much less excited judging by his expression. Both of them had more than one heated conversation about it behind closed doors. Kieruko didn't have to be a genius to guess why.

What she should have predicted was that the whole arrangement was temporary and yet she was shocked when dad informed her that she was starting kindergarten next week.

Like any ex-adult idea of being grouped with actual toddlers was insulting to some extent.

Then there was a realization of being locked with kids in different educational institutions for the next 15 years

That thought brought pure dread to her usually stoic heart.

"No, thank you." She replied resolutely.

For the first time since reincarnating Kieruko was showing actual displeasure at her parents' decision.

"I'm sorry but it's not up for debate sunshine, you should spend time with kids your age."

This argument was shit for reasons Kieruko was unable to disclose. And so it became quite a fight. Hurtful words were said. Apple juice privileges were revoked.

It did not change the outcome in the end.

There was denial, anger, pleading, bargaining, attempts at bribery, long period of silence, and cold acceptance.

It was a difficult period in the Hiseki household.

The faithful first Monday of April arrived.

Seichi was holding the hand of a very pissed-off child with an adorable yellow hat but even in all of her acts of defiance, his daughter was incredibly cooperative considering she did not cry, scream or bite like some of the other children around. The kiddo with blue hair had an especially healthy pair of lungs was an example of contrary behavior. Both Hisekis cringed at the sound of ear-piercing shrieks performed by an unstable dumbass child.

Seichi could practically feel the burning gaze of his daughter conveying 'See? I could be so much worse if I really wanted to send a message'.

He did understand that. He appreciated the signs of goodwill from his way too-smart daughter. Didn't change the fact that she needed to socialize with her peers.

Seeing that his resolve did not waver, Kieruko clicked her tongue.

"Please, pick me up early." She murmured.

"Okay, sunshine. You know I'm very proud of how brave you are."

I am an adult. The problem lies with my patience, not my courage.

"Thank you," she says instead.

"And you can make so many new friends here."

That sentence is not met with enthusiasm.

"...and we will have pizza for dinner to celebrate first day, okay?" Now THAT on the other hand does spark joy in Kieruko's heart.

They finally reached the gate where a suspiciously enthusiastic-looking lady takes, more often than not, crying kids off their parents' hands.

When it's finally their turn Kieruko steps forward, turns to make eye contact with her dad, and with a solemn expression of a man approaching an electric chair she asks "Are you sure?"

Seichi barely stifling laughter nods seriously "Go and represent our family with honor." After a second of consideration, he adds "Think of it as an opportunity to witness multiple quirk manifestations. I'm sure you'll find something interesting."

That makes an impact. There is a new sparkle of interest as Kieruko salutes with newfound energy. "I will make you proud." Then she lets a kind lady take her inside.

A pair of amber, slightly teary eyes stays fixed on her as she enters the building.

He believes his daughter will do amazingly. There is a new kind of anxiety slowly building inside Seichi's chest. Why is she growing up so fast. It feels like barely yesterday she was a quiet, tiny baby, now it would be more appropriate to compare her to a little chaos gremlin. Much livelier, louder, and actively attempting to uncover secrets of the universe.

That's how growing up works.

It's going to be okay.

With that thought he finally turns around ready to go back to his work.

There is no God, Kieruko repeats the new mantra over and over in her head as she enters her new classroom.

Apparently, all the little morons have 3-second memory because they already are laughing and playing with toys without a care in the world. Like they didn't try to drown the entrance with tears a few minutes prior.

The kindergarten teacher beacons children to sit in a circle on the floor and introduce themselves.

Kieruko bets that after that they're going to learn the hiragana song, maybe how one plus one equals two.

Fuck this is her life for the next 3 years: learning things she knows, screaming toddlers and HOLY SHIT is that baby Tokoyami???

Chapter Text

Kindergarten.

Is.

Not.

Exactly.

Fine.

Kids are annoying.

And loud as fuck.

Seichi, you lying traitorous motherfucker. Kieruko calmly thought as she realized there was no way the time spent in this cursed establishment was worth anything.

She sat in the circle. She pretended to listen to introductions. Expectedly it was boring. Then their teacher (tired lady) gave them play time as she started to explain basic shit to newbie teacher (nice lady).

Dull.

At least Tokoyami situation was amusing... for some time.

One of the things Kieruko could not predict was interacting with canon characters before their personality even formed. So with nothing better to do in the ridiculously colorful preschool room she approached the brooding lonely kid in the corner.

Before she could even speak Dark Shadow emerged, almost giving her a heart attack. But that was of no importance when she got to meet one of legendary sentient quirks.

"Woah, so cool!" she called. That seemed like something a three year old would say when met with a hatchling of an eldrich horror in post quirk society, right?

Apparently it was not the typical reaction they got because both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow stilled.

"I like her!" quirk yelled. The boy just nodded. "My name is Dark Shadow and this is Fumi."

"It's nice to meet you." Tokoyami whispered.

Gosh, was this adorable.

In attempt at "proper socializing" she initiated game of blocks. If not for the fact that her playmates were babies they might've notice the true nature of this activity. Quirk aptitude test. After all it was Kieruko first chance to experiment by herself.

"Dark Shadow, can you pass me the yellow block?"

"Sure!" Subject comprehends the environment at the same level as the host.

What's your favorite color, Dark Shadow?

"Hmmm, oh! It's red!"

"And you ...Fumi?"

"...purple."

Subject expresses his preferences as well as own personality unrelated to the host.

Judging by good mood of her "playmates", Kieruko concluded she must be a god at entertaining children while gathering data.

Pretty interesting data.

Quirk is weightless, on same level of mental development as the host, capable of basic telepathy between him and his host, identifies as "he", sees in a slightly different color range and has no taste (or pain receptors).

After few more tests, slowly ramping up in complexity, they were stopped by the tired lady. Who would of thought that being lifted to the ceiling by a shadow demon looking quirk, might result in legally responsible for you adult stopping you from continuing to act in a seemingly reckless manner.

Still, it was upsetting. She didn't even got to test changes in Dark Shadow behavior based on amount of light available. Shame.

"Kieru-chan what do you want to play now?"

Ah, yes.

Tokoyami called her "Kieru-chan as that is how nice lady introduced her to the group and in return she calls him "Fumi" as technically this is the only name she heard him addressed as.

Also he thought they were simply playing games. To be fair it was fun for all parties involved, just for different reasons.

The novelty of Dark Shadow wore off after that and Kieruko was left with 2-in-1 clingy toddler package for the rest of the day as the kid(s?) sticked to her like glue.

With nothing better to do she sat at the table with paper and made the best of the crayons scattered around. When the much more tired looking lady of the two taking care of the group, began to gather kids for some kind of activity, Kieruko finally admired fruits of her labor.

3 pages long analysis on Dark Shadow written in crooked hiragana with pretty good illustrations, considering standards preschoolers are hold up to.

The tired lady shoots her an incredulous look after reading the analysis with wide eyes. While muttering something about "damn intelligence quirks", she confiscated the papers like it's a piece of contraband and promised to "keep it safe to show her parents".

Kieruko would argue to take her stolen work back. She really would. But then she would also have to ignore the sobbing toddler next to her. The little shadow that she was pointedly ignoring for the last hour finally brought attention to himself. Seemingly Tokoyami became instantly a huge fan of her work as he weeps at the loss of the crayon rendition of his face... so Kieruko promised him another "art piece" in exchange for blessed silence.

The drawing was below mediocre but still enough to apparently secure Fumi's undying loyalty as Kieruko would soon find out.

Rest of the day was much less interesting. Typical preschool stuff. Plain boring. Constant noise did not enhance the expirence.

She left that nightmare of a building with more conviction to murder the next toddler she's forced to interact with rather than befriend it.

"How was it sunshine?" Seichi, the ultimate liar, the blind fool, asks with amount of cheer that makes his daughter actually consider patricide.

"Fumi has a sentient quirk. We did experiments. I made a whole essay about it. Tired lady stole it. Rest is boring."

"...yes, Dark Shadow is a fascinating one. I have the notes Miki-san got from you. And you did a great job writing about him. Was anything else fun?"

"No." After a beat of silence she decided to try her luck. "Do I have to go back?"

"Don't you want to? I thought you had fun with Fumi." Seichi countered.

"I have. Now that I had chance to see his quirk in action there is no reason to go back." That was enough amusement to last one day, no one else can deliver on that right now, went unsaid.

"That's not a nice thing to say about your friend."

"I've known him for a day, we're acquaintances at best."

"You should make friends sunshine."

"I'm fine."

"Despite that you're still going to attend kindergarten young lady."

He's met with the flattest look. "Do you hate me?" she asked in a serious tone, expecting serious answer.

Like a back-stabber that he is, he stifled laughter and assured her that everything will be better soon.

She knows it won't.

There is an idea, in the back of her mind, of explaining her previous life, reincarnation and BNHA plot but it dies as quickly as it was born. No one wants to think that instead of a brand new offspring they got a second hand depressed adult.

Would reincarnation count as a quirk? Probably not, considering Ishiki can see those even when not actively used and she said Kieruko's quirk hasn't manifested yet.

While the explanation would 100% saved her from ever stepping back into the menace infested hellhole, it would also come at the cost of having a family. She liked her new family. She loved her parents debating magical superpowers like an actual science, eating meals together, being hugged. She didn't want to lose it.

Even if it was going to cost her sanity.

Nonetheless, she was considered a toddler and could show her displeasure by acting like a brat.

Kieruko in act of defiance did not say a word for the rest of the day. Pizza does nothing to brighten up the mood and after awkward evening, she just went to bed without uttering a single word.

Next day she asked her mom if she can tag along to work. Soft "no" was met with a scowl.

So she was left at daycare where she would do the bare minimum, interact with Fumi enough so he doesn't feel hated (it's hard to ignore the guy who follows her like a duckling without looking like an asshole). Go back home where she could relax.

And repeat.

After first week, Kieruko began to take books from home to the daycare. The first time she was looking Seichi straight in the eyes while slowly pulling out a copy of Dichotomy of Quirks from a bookcase as if to challenge him. He was first to break eye contact.

That became a part of routine.

Boring routine where she would valiantly fight to find some kind of entertainment in a baby proofed environment.

Fortunately quirks finally did start to come in and a lot changed.

First manifestation happend at the end of May. White haired girl made doll shakily float while strong draft blew trough the room. There were many 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' as fascinated kids crowded around the source of the commotion.

Kieruko noticed that while nice lady was positively giddy at the new development, tired lady was just looking more exhausted as she actively noted something in the notebook.

Also Fumi just kind of... stood to the side. Awkward as usual. That was something she noticed quickly. Most kids steered clear of Fumi. She wasn't sure why but it was probably some kind of quirk discrimination. Also main reason why despite valiantly avoiding other children Kieruko didn't have heart to deny playtime with the bird boy.

In short, lots of deplorable behavior that adults didn't try to correct.

Even so, she wasn't exactly a paragon of justice and morality, ready to right every wrong of the society. Just a simple reincarnee with an unhealthy quirk fascination.

And boy did it show at home. Ishiki couldn't stop smiling as she listened to her daughter rambling all about newest abilities of her group mate (notes made in kindergarten could be stolen, so this was first time she was able to externalize her thoughts).

"..and then she was talking all about how special and cool  her new quirk was, like it wasn't one of the most basic ones known to mankind. Literally even activation requirements were textbook!"

"Elemental quirks are definitely one of the most commonly met in the field. Despite that remember that they're going to be excited to demonstrate their unique abilities no matter how mundane they ought to be."

"Yeah! I bet most of them are going to get typical manifestations" with a basic-ass bitch abilities was quietly muttered "that are so common, one could fill a bingo card with quirks they are going to have."

There was a beat of silence as both of them realized the potential of that statement.

"...we could do bingo cards" with slightly widened eyes Ishiki pondered.

"We absolutely should" replied Kieruko grinning widely.

"Telekinesis."

"Aha, I already have 3 in the row."

"That's including the free space, no way you'll win."

"Oh my god, what happened?!"

Kieruko did not understand why she had to listen to her one of her parents fretting over a bandaged forearm twice. Especially when it comes to the more rational one.

"The blonde girl. She got hands to blades transformation." She hoped that her mom as a fellow quirk enthusiasts with a competitive streak to match her own, would concentrate on what is truly important.

"Damn. This entry doesn't connect to any of the others."

"Honey!" Seichi the killjoy of the family interjected.

"AHA. It crosses out both 'blade creating' and 'hand transformation' for me!"

"You cannot be possibly more invested in the bingo than your own health." It truly seemed like dad for some reason was still focused on the most insignificant part of that conversion.

"Tis but a flesh wound. Father, please do not disturb our precious mother-daughter bonding time any longer."

"You heard the boss sweetheart" Ishiki added with an intense smile before pecking her husband on the cheek, then joining her daughter back in the conversation.

Kieruko's birthday was a simple celebration. Small cake, present in form of a fancy looking leather-bound journal and a family day trip to zoo. Nothing life changing, just one idyllic day together.

"How was preschool today?"

"Five point touch, pain removal."

"I have 4 in the row in THREE places, how is this possible?"

"Yeah, also I can't believe this is the first touch activation we got."

When Ishiki got home she found her daughter on he couch looking preplexed.

"This one is peculiar."

That opening was a first.

"Color me intrigued."

"Kid can animate origami he folded himself." There was a slight pause indicating obvious hesitation. "Question is if ...independent behavior of animated objects is caused by the nature of the quirk or if the source of rouge reaction of those originates from kid's atrocious origami folding skills."

"That's certainly unique. I've never seen one of those myself. Do you think he can actually create sentient constructs?"

"It seems more realistic to categorize those as golems capable of acting according to creators will." Kieruko pondered.

The metaphorical lightbulb lighted up over Ishiki's head.

"But the quirk belongs to a four year old who doesn't know that yet! Instead of clear objective golems are provided with incoherent stream of thought, what makes them act erratically, giving them a semblance of sentience. That is a brilliant theory.

Also it matches nothing on my card."

"...same."

"Creation of small floating globes of light."

"Bingo."

"Goddammit."

"Language."

"I know."

It was time for Kieruko to finally start thinking about her quirk as it would either manifest soon or not at all.

If it was the latter then obviously she would just follow her parents steps. Attending school, acquiring some fancy degree and with the magic of slight nepotism easily finding place in the counseling field. Also somewhere between step one and two sending Nedzu useful info about all the shit he will have to take care of during The Disastrous Year. No reason to play with fire.

Same strategy if her quirk is useless as fuck.

IF.

And that's a big 'if'.

If Kieruko's quirk turns out to be some op bullshit capable of nuking All Might (or at least applicable in combat), she might consider trying to attend UA. There is an appeal in being part of the official plot, replacing the grape, befriending canon characters and thwarting evil plans with her own hands.

There are also slightly immoral acts that heroes in official capacity definitely won't do, when unfortunately those would prevent many future tragedies from happening.

It would be noteworthy to let some of those tragedies occur to ensure better future.

Maybe it would even be significant enough to go vigilante if needed. She's ready to commit felony or two, if it stops Japan from going into a civil war.

Kieruko is flexible like that.

Well, shit.

Somehow planning the prospective occupation went form 'going to be like my parents tee-hee' to 'maybe I shoud commit multiple crimes in the name of prosperous future'.

Then again, 90% of her advantage is knowing what will happen. Butterfly effect caused by telling left an right about the future would subsequently eradicate that benefit.

(Also the plan was made with genetics in mind. There was no way two 'weak' sight based quirks will result in explosion or One for All. She banked on getting something useless in the grand scheme of anime plot and liked her chances in that bet.)

At any rate, all the strategizing didn't really matter until quirk revelations. For now there was a simple idea of: if quirk good then she'll make a master plan of plot annihilation and put the effort needed to execute it, if quirk bad then Nedzu can do the heavy lifting and she'll enjoy the leisurely life of an isekaied character.

Easy.

She didn't expect it to be the same day as the first snow of the season. Then again she lowkey though she was Quirkless at that point, despite mom assuring her otherwise.

Kids in kindergarten loved to play heroes and villains or to be more accurate in this particular case, kids loved to bully other kids while using their Quirks.

Kieruko looked up from the book just in time to witness the most heroic scene of them all. Light globule girl and weak-ass fire boy teaming up to bully Dark Shadow and Fumi. Tired lady was nowhere to be seen, while (maybe not so) nice lady was pointedly looking the other way.

Wow.

This is it. I'm going to beat up two toddlers, she mused.

Right then fire boy decided, in a stroke of absolute dumbassery, to summon his flames right upon Tokoyami: a very not fireproof kid.

She was pissed but before she could even reach the moron extraordinaire, fire extinguished itself. Definitely not by bully's will, judging by bewildered look on his face.

There was slowly growing pressure behind her eyes and she could feel the connection to something in front of her. This was it. The moment she was waiting for.

Huh.

"You stole my Quirk!" Now slightly teary bully screeched. "Give it back!"

Kieruko despite not liking the kid, decided to comply. Not sure how exacly it works, she choose to just push with everything she got and see what happens. Immediately there was a feeling of strengthened control and the kid screeched in pain.

Wrong move.

Now there was chaos all around the room as other kids started to panic.

Not great.

What to do? She needed to think. Her head was throbbing. 'Give my Quirk back' ergo he can't use it. Either I somehow got upgraded All for One or ...or much more realistically some form of Erasure. And Eraserhead cancelles out his Quirk by blinking.

Kieruko blinked.

It did absolutely nothing.

Voices in the background were defening, someone was shaking her by the shoulders, as she was trying to figure out how to turn her ability off before the growing migrane killed her.

Situation was escalating quickly.

Okay, new plan.

Despite her thoughts becoming rapidly less and less coherent, she yanked the connection with all of her mind's might.

And just like that.

Pressure was gone.

Relief.

Kieruko didn't even remember collapsing.

Chapter Text

Kieruko was convinced she kicked the bucket for the second time and somehow managed to take over the life of yet another random civilian.

Truly, the worst one-in-a-billion lottery to win.

For them.

Fortunately, that was not the case. Just some standard Quirk exhaustion.

If beeping or chemical smell were to be of any indication, she was in the hospital. Bone-deep fatigue and slowly recovering memories gave enough information on the...occasion that put her in a hospital bed.

There was a rustling sound of shuffled papers followed by a deep exhale. She wasn't the only person present in the room.

What if it was someone else than her parents? Like a police officer. God, please don't tell her the fire boy died or something. It would be put on her record. They can't make a preschooler a criminal!

Can they?

They can't.

She's just spiraling for no reason.

It was a highly unlikely scenario to begin with.

She didn't want to open her eyes. It would probably end up in addressing whatever the heck happened and she needed time to figure it out for herself.

She's definitely not pretending to be asleep to avoid confrontation.




So.

Erasure, huh?

Not exactly what she had in mind but it's sight activated, so she got at least that right.

Also, it's plain cool to have a similar Quirk to Eraserhead, everyone's favorite exhausted teacher. And it had different rules as to how it works. She had so much research ahead of her.

Exiting.

The problem lay in the fact that her Quirk was certainly useful. According to The Pre-Plan™, she should now create The Master Plan™ to decimate the original plot, save as many people as possible, and give everyone a happy ending.

It felt like a lot of thankless work.

Suddenly talking to whoever was on the other side of her eyelids sounded much more awarding in comparison.

Mainly by virtue of not having to figure out a way to defeat an immortal Quirk-stealing cryptid and an over 100k-member organization of fanatics. All by herself cause butterfly effect.

Fuck it, she's delegating that problem to her future self.

It was dark outside. Lights inside the room were turned off except for a lamp in the corner where Seichi was sitting. He looked just as tired as she felt.

"Hi, dad."

With a sudden jolt, his gaze locked onto a small figure gently shifting in bed. "How are you feeling sunshine?"

Not great.

"...okay" she replies instead. Neither of them believed it. An awkward silence filled the room.

"I have a quirk now."

"That you do. How does it feel?" Seichi gladly takes a second chance at the conversation.

"From the only experience I had, my current conclusion would be: pretty confusing. Do you know what happened?"

They exchanged all viable information and together built a timeline of events.

She manifested her Quirk, it knocked her out. There was a small fire accident caused by startled fire boy, followed by evacuation of the building and, the arrival of a fire truck and several ambulances. After that, they called parents.

Wild.

She did her first (heavily assisted, not really voluntary) arson.

With that cleared up, she babbled about her new Quirk to Seichi who seemed content with just listening for now.

Sometime later a doctor came, did a check-up on Kieruko, had a hushed conversation next room with her dad, and then let them go on their merry way.

Just like that, they went home.

It felt too quiet. Something was wrong.

Quirk manifestation was supposed to be a reason for celebration. Child ending up in a hospital should make their parents fret.

There were no signs of either.

"Where's mom?"

"...she's working."

"It's almost midnight."

"The client was very excited to meet her. She should be back home soon enough."

"Okay. I can't wait to tell her about my Quirk!" She chirped excitedly. "We are going to have so much fun testing it."

"About that Kieruko."

Not sunshine?

Uh oh.

"She might not be exactly thrilled about that..."

The fuck does that mean.

"Is mom quirkist?"

Seichi chocked. "No! Absolutely not. How did you even...? Nevermind. It's not that."

He took a moment to compose himself.

With a deep exhale he renewed. "Mom might be slightly upset because she had a... big argument with someone who has a similar Quirk and she's still hurt by that quarrel."

How in the everloving fuck Ishiki got beef with Eraserhead? In theory, it could be someone else with Erasure, but come on. Obviously it was him. Too many similarities between him and her, now that she thought about it.

Also what kind of damage did that bullshit disagreement inflict on mom, that dad feels like the best course of action is to explain the issue to a baby?

She decided to forgo any kind of decorum for a second to find an answer to at least one burning question.

"Who's that guy?"






"Your uncle."

Ah.

So that explains a lot, holy shit she's related to a popular character. As a thank you for that foreseeable but still insane revelation, she benevolently stopped the questioning. For now. "Okay, I'm not going to talk about it with mom."

"Thank you and I want you to know it's not a secret, I'll just tell her first."

"Okay." There was nothing else to say. It made her feel empty. What would have happened if he had this kind of conversation with an actual kid? What a mess.

She couldn't sleep so she lay in her bed perplexed, looking at the dark ceiling. Then the sound of the front door shutting down brought her attention back to reality.

Muffled voices. So her parents were talking. For a long time. They still had work tomorrow as far as she was aware so this was beyond bizarre. A beat of silence. Talking resumed much louder and more frantic for a few minutes before tension snapped, reverting the beginnings of an argument back to a civilized discussion level.

Kieruko drifted away to the sounds of her life inevitably changing.

Breakfast the next day was great. For one it began around noon which was an amazing hour. Also pancakes. And what's most important:

"Am I going to kindergarten today?"

"No, we are going to test your Quirk in my office" the best dad ever responded.

Perfect day. Amazing. Extraordinary.

Ishiki was nowhere to be found.

Seichi could hear the unspoken question.

"We are going to have dinner together, she's busy now."

She basically forgot about any and all incidents happening in the last 24h.

Maybe there was nothing to be worried about. Maybe it's just a good ol' misunderstanding. Victim of circumstances and all.

Right now worrying would change nothing and pancakes would not devour themselves.

Fun.

It was so much easier to gather data when she had direct access to certain info. Being a subject instead of communicating with one skipped a few steps.

Even before the practical part has begun they already uncovered some exciting findings as well as had a considerable amount of theories.

Seichi was indulging her. No way what they were doing was the most streamlined process (nonetheless she chose to enjoy the experience).

She was introduced to Mr. Kenshi the middle-aged man with gray hair, crocodile eyes, and patches of scales. Apparently he was a professional target for people testing their Quirks. Very niche. Guy would be requested by specialists in the whole prefecture as people with Quirks influencing other Quirks were a rarity. His Minor Telekinesis was perfect for that kind of experiments.

They both were left in an empty room with few wooden blocks between them. Empty, heavily reinforced room with several cameras and a speaker with an anxious dad at the other end of it.

"Whenever you're ready."

Mr. Kenshi's hand began to glow orange as a single block drifted into the air.

"Kieruko?"

Here goes nothing.

Familiar pressure nestled behind her eyes as she stared at the older man. The block immediately dropped to the ground.

"Can you break the link? Try pulling away. Metaphorically. With your mind."

And. It. Worked.

Orange glow was back.

So Erasure 2.0 (name's still a work in progress) surprisingly functioned a lot like Seichi's Lock-on. It made working on control much easier when someone with similar abilities was able to walk her through the intricacies of using her Quirk.

Also, it turns out Erasure 2.0 was far more intuitive and easier to control when she didn't have to figure it out surrounded by a crowd of toddlers audibly losing their collective mind.

Something about stress-free environment.

They repeated the exercise a few times to make sure she knew how to break off the connection before moving on to the next part.

"Sunshine, can you push this time?"

Ah.

This is where Sunshine makes a comeback. When it's time to encourage possibly scared child into recreating move that knocked them out. Welp. To be fair Kieruko was more fascinated than traumatized by those events so it didn't bother her.

Gently, she pushed. Nothing changed. The guy was just standing still, temporarily Quirkless.

"I don't feel any different." Mr. Kenshi all but encouraged.

A significantly stronger push didn't give her immediate response but only because everyone was too stunned to reply. Mr.'s 'I get hit with Quirks for a living' mutations were gone.

As in.

He just looked like a normal guy. All croc parts gone.

There was a feeling that she could push harder. What would become of him if she applied just a bit more pressure? She didn't.

Kieruko dropped her Quirk. Mr. Kenshi was back to his normal self.

"What the fu-uuudge was that?", he gasped more surprised than strained.

That was it for the testing part of the day.

Leading theory?

She could make the whole Plus Alpha Gene her bitch. Not only the active expression of the Quirk Factor. No, no, no. Mutations caused by were apparently also a fair game if she put enough force.

Did it make sense? Not really. But in quirked society that was a common occurrence. Like why someone who can at will become intangible while still staying visible becomes blind bEcAuSe LiGhT pAsSeS tRoUgH but a tangible invisible person somehow can see despite it being impossible for light to hit the retina.

It doesn't make sense. Quirks are magic.

In this world where logic ends, Plus Alpha Element begins.

After she saw the recording of the session it revealed just how visually alike her ability was to the one of a certain Erasure hero.

Her hair floated and eyes became gosh darn reflectors. Although the latter looked almost the same as Seichi's eyes when he used Lock-on, so maybe not reflectors but dim yellow flashlights?

Doesn't matter, still kinda funny how much it resembled Aizawa's.

"What are you naming it?"

Seichi once again proved to be the most amazing parent to exist as he handed Kieruko an official Quirk Registration Form, allowing her to fill it out (in pencil) as long as she consulted her choices with him. They even got to do it in his office. So formal.

"'Go go away Quirk privileges' ray!"

"Absolutely not."

"Dis-Quirk-inator."

"Nope."

"Forced conformity."

"Try again."

"I'm not calling my Quirk any variation of Erasure."

"Why?"

It's a name of someone else's Quirk.

Mom would be upset if she called it that.

The last time a guy with it got recognized in the public eye, over a century-old kleptomaniac villain sent a prototype nomu to murder him. By accident, his friend died instead but that didn't stop the evil incarnate from experimenting on the body postmortem. Until it wasn’t postmortem anymore. And there is no way that motherfucker didn't bribe/indebted at least one person with access to Quirk Registry. So fuck that.

"Because."

"That's not a good reason."

"Why can't I just have a silly name for it?"

"So you know it's silly."

"Majestic named his Quirk Magic and no one is calling him out!"

"We are not talking about heroes right now."

"So you would be fine with me calling it Magic?"

"Kieruko."

She took a deep breath. There is honestly no way to explain this reasonably even with a 'way too smart 4yo' card.

Emotional manipulation it is.

"Okay. I'm going to fill out this form. Then you can disregard everything I've done because you are a professional adult who knows better and I am just a dumb baby."

To be fair those words came from a baby.

She slammed filled papers on the coffee table as she stormed out of the room. Then slammed the door. For dramatics. And after that, she slammed her face into the couch in the waiting room to scream in frustration.

Acting temperamental was a lot of work.

Quirk: Not today

Type: Emitter

Description: Ability to temporarily nullify neutralize Quirk Factor of another person


It was vague.

And short.

Two things Kieruko's analysis never was.

He didn't want to think about reasons why she would purposefully leave the form ambiguous. She was four. A very smart four-year-old, to the point he considers her intelligence might be quirk-related. Still four.

He tries his hardest to give his kid the best childhood possible. Now it was going to be more important than ever. Things are about to become complicated and she needs to know he'll always be in her corner.

He looked over the paper one more time. By the letter of the law, there's nothing wrong with it.

Seichi sent the Quirk Registration Form unchanged.

Dinner was a quiet affair.

It was udon. Dad outdid himself that time.

Ishiki bursted into the house a few minutes earlier apologizing for being late but quickly simmered down after food was laid on the table.

On one hand, Kieruko was barely stopping herself from Quirk-related jabber. On the other, she could feel the uneasy atmosphere that gave her an aversion to starting any discussions.

For once Seichi, the glue of this family, was lost to how he should proceed. His daughter in an act of benevolence took over that mess.

"I spent my day with dad today. It was cool." There. Decent conversation starter.

"We had a lot of fun." Dad's support was highly appreciated.

"Is that so?" That's something.

Technically the youngest family member decided to take that reaction and run with it. "Mmhm, we did lots of fun Quirk testing, did you know mine works a lot like dad's?"

"I see." Ishiki was actively avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah! What's more, I do have a theory about the mechanics of-"

"Kieruko. I know you're excited but I have some news I need to share. Mom's going to have a lot more important work to do so we won't see each other as much." So she went with the coward's choice. "I still care about you and will spend with you as much of time as possible but it'll be less than before."

That was it. No addressing the elephant in the room.

Kieruko would call her out on the bullshit if not for the very obvious guilt in her eyes.

So that was it.

Simple "I'm going to be even less in your life".

Disappointing.

The rest of the meal tasted sour.

Going back to Kindergarten was eye-opening. After stepping back into what Kieruko's lovingly called 'the most colorful torture room on this side of Japan' she got tackled to the ground by Fumi. And Dark Shadow. It was a joint effort.

It might've been another normal day after that, if everyone was rational but since every kid was using their Quirks willy-nilly, Kieruko saw no problem using Erasure 2.0 Not Today liberally as well. To stop little menaces from hurting each other.

Then to stop little assholes from hurting her specifically.

That day Kieruko got attacked several times by red-faced, snotty-nosed little fuckers, attempting to take out 'the Quirk stealing villain'. As flattering as it was, she didn’t have an ambition to become the next boogeyman of the underworld. What she did have was two hands ready to throw at anyone coming at her.

She might have the fitness of a typical child but a few extra years of being alive combined with common sense truly gave her an upper hand in any scuffle.

The result of those fights were two black eyes, several bloody noses (including her own), and countless bruises.

What really stopped the brawl from snowballing was Tokoyami's attempt at joining it. Terrible idea considering how strong Dark Shadow is. No matter how funny it would be to see him flinging preschoolers left and right.

So she reluctantly backed away while pulling her bird friend along.

The scolding everyone got for the fight was unholy. Half of the kids had their dessert privileges revoked that day.

Tokoyami was always considered a bit scary for his Quirk, but Kieruko became officially the evil kid with villainous Quirk in their class. She was absolutely fine with being cast out by the group when it meant peace and quiet, no matter how small-minded the reason was.

Besides, their logic while horrendously flawed was still understandable.

Whole situation made Fumi protective of her for some reason.

Utterly baffling.

From that day forward everyone else gave Kieruko a wide berth. Excluding the tired lady, the one person who probably envied her ability to make superpowered toddlers less of a hazard to themself and everything in the vicinity.

She gladly adapted to the new routine. One of the few times when ostracization made the victim genuinely happier.

In the blink of an eye, she was six and leaving Kindergarten for good.

The most memorable part was saying goodbye to Fumi and Dark Shadow, both of whom tried their hardest to hug her to death.

Kieruko would miss bird boy(s?).

She managed to get smacked by Seichi, while giving her farewells, for calling Tokoyami 'her favorite flammable acquaintance'. It was absolutely worth it.

With that, she had 9 years left till UA.

Chapter Text

Spring break was delightful. For a second she believed in finally obtaining freedom from insipid lessons and dull personalities. Alas, no good thing can last forever.

She was attentively listening to Seichi's explanations as he guided her through the route to her new school. It was within walking distance in a suburban area so he wasn't too worried about her traveling alone.

Nonetheless, there was something bittersweet about growing up, taking that next significant step in the journey of life. At least that's what dad said.

Somehow Kieruko expected a time-skip in real life and was severely disappointed to see still 6yo children in her new classroom.

Few familiar faces stood out, the rest not so much and there was one floating uniform.

No way.

There are enough humans on this planet for multiple people to have the same Quirk. It was statistically probable for that set of levitating clothes to belong to someone else. And yet.

It shouldn't be possible for this to happen twice in a row. And yet.

The new teacher asked the kids to introduce themselves after saying a few words about himself. Probably there was a name somewhere in that speech.

A new set of irrelevant children began rattling off their names with some random trivia.

Then.

"My name is Hagakure Toru. My Quirk is Invisibility. I like caramels and funny cartoons.

Damn.

It finally hit her.

Canon characters were all around. Soon enough familiar events would start to play out in the background. She needs to decide what her stance is.

"Hiseki Kieruko. My Quirk is called Not Today. I like" she did not have anything ready for that part so: random bullshit go! "...cute animals."

Her knowledge of the manga was a huge boon to the whole 'saving Japan' endeavor thus changing anything major now, would be plain stupid. But doing nothing would render it useless. So small ripples. Like befriending less fleshed-out characters. Maybe help them in figuring out their abilities earlier.

Then if Kieruko fails at her objective, people participating in the PLF war plot will be more prepared than in the original.

"...ith that I will now explain how your lessons.."

The objective.

She actually thought about that a lot.

Conclusion?

All for One is the main target. Her best bet will be to wait for when he is arrested and his original Quirk is stored (in Garaki's lab? hidden in Shiggy???) far away from Tartarus.

With plot knowledge and almost a decade to prepare, it feels like she has a fair chance at locating LoV.

Besides the second Kurogiri is arrested she will sic the whole hero community at Jaku Hospital, indubitably stopping the production of high-end Nomus and Shigaraki from becoming a flesh monster.

So arresting LoV will be more about intercepting them before they successfully absorb MLA and Gigantomachia into their ranks.

And as long as AfO's down permanently, it doesn't matter if one or two chess pieces slip away.

Honestly, she doesn't understand why anyone would let him live after Kamino with his expertise in murder and manipulation. Why would HPSC keep him alive? They had to know he was a ticking bomb that would not cooperate.

Impractical.

"...er a break. Please reme..."

...but maybe that's something a Kieruko with a gun could remedy.

Not Today was excellent against this particular opponent's fighting style after all.

The sound of shuffling chairs snapped her out of the thought.

Right.

3 years until OfA vs. AfO

6 years till middle school

8 years till Midoriya gets chosen as the 9th

9 years left before she can attend UA

She's going to be a hero (or rather get into UA's Hero Course to supervise the plot from the front row).

If that doesn't work out, she will become the most annoying vigilante to ever exist.

Damn it, the sheer weight of future knowledge feels exhausting already.

It's only going to get worse, isn't it?

The first few weeks were fairly uneventful. Excluding the sightings of one Hatsume Mei who seemed to attend the same school, just as a member of the other class.

Insignificant at the moment.

Kieruko was doing a short detox from potentially messing with the timeline in favor of genuinely planning out future steps and as such ignored pink inventor or anyone else for that matter. In return, everyone left her alone. One could even hope that with this kind of a great start, elementary school would be a serene experience without any hurdles.

No such luck.

Kids are demons, the universe seems to hold a grudge against her and the concept of karma might as well actively attempt to make her shoulder the sins of humanity as a whole.

It started with an innocent request.

After the last period was over, one of the random goobers in her class asked Kieruko to follow them. She decided to humor the child...and maybe satiate her faint curiosity.

Also, the kid sounded like Elmo which was hilarious. Red bob cut did not help.

What she could not expect was being jumped by an entire group of Muppet-looking kids while passing by janitorial closet. The whole circus popped out of there to immediately surround their victim.

"We got you now, villain!" exclaimed the rainbow-haired girl and likely the leader of the assailants.

Again? I didn't even do anything this time. She pondered just before a familiar blue-haired boy (with a pair of exceptional lungs from what she could remember and features vaguely reminiscent of the Cookie Monster now that she had a chance to look at him) tried to push her while using his weak-ass electricity.

She easily erased it...only to feel a hand latching onto her arm. Suddenly her muscles went slack.

Five-point touch paralysis Quirk.

Motherfucker.

Before she could even shift her gaze, another figure stepped in and blindfolded her.

Why. Are. Those. Toddlers. Working like an organized crime ring. Is this a kidnapping?

The sound of duct tape did not bode well.

They taped her arms and legs together, used a generous amount of tape on her mouth, then threw her immobilized in multiple ways body into the closet.

All of this was accompanied by a riveting narration of their fearless leader.

Apparently, everything was not fine in the last few weeks.

Being left alone was a sign of a cast out.

Light globule girl and blue-haired boy did in fact spread far and wide the tale of 'Quirk stealing villain kid' who before was protected by someone with a strong Quirk.

Now that she was separated from her belligerent warden, the righteous heroes could bring justice to the local 'evildoer' and finally put Kieruko in her place.

So when she was planning out her training regimen needed for future ventures, a group of self-proclaimed heroes put together an effective plan to capture her slippery self.

She regretted dearly not paying attention to the Quirks of her classmates. Or other kids in general.

As the door slammed shut, she was left blind and thoroughly incapacitated in a closet.

Fuck.

It was beyond embarrassing to be outsmarted by literal elementary schoolers.

But hey, on the bright side: not a kidnapping.

A person locked in a makeshift sensory deprivation chamber has a lot of time to contemplate their fate.

Asking the real questions.

Like.

When did it all go wrong?

For someone planning on taking down supervillains, to have their ass handed to them by the cast of Sesame Street was quite the wake-up call.

Turns out six-year-olds are vicious creatures prone to violence.

Who would have guessed?

...

She really needs combat experience. Something she'll mention to her parents at a later date...and maybe frame it as an extracurricular exercise and not a needed ability. Dad would not be happy to find out that self-defense might be an essential skill for her survival.

Growing up the first time around WAS NOT this precarious. What is happening? Maybe there is something in the tap water? It would not surprise her if in this batshit crazy anime land was at least one person deliberately making citizens more aggressive.

Actually, she knows of a few factions already doing it. Dammit.

...

Kieruko should be panicking.

But it would not change a single thing.

Still paralyzed. Even 10 minutes after the contact. Pretty strong Quirk despite paralysis being a common one. Shame it's wasted on such a little shithead.

Thankfully having a few extra decades' worth of memories reduces any distress she could have to almost nonexistent.

Oh no, I'll have to lay on the floor for some time. Dad's going to notice I'm still not home in an hour or so. Staff will discover me even faster. If not, humiliation will continue for a few more hours. I might have to take a nap in the meantime. Oh no.

Hopefully, she'll be found out before anyone starts panicking. It would be wasteful to leave the school with 2 BNHA characters without even an attempt at establishing a connection. No doubt parents will pull her out of here in a blink of an eye if they find out about this fiasco.

...

Quirk finally wore off.

It did not change a lot. But it was a start.

With a lot of wriggling she confirmed that, indeed, she was still unequivocally stuck.

Fuckers used a whole roll of tape to make sure of that.

Untangling herself from mops and brooms turned out to be a futile venture, leaving her with one solution. Kicking the absolute shit out of the door.

And kick she did.

Before swiftly tiring herself out.

Definitely needs to exercise more.

Hagakure Toru was invisible.

It was the first thing every single person noticed about her.

If they noticed her at all.

She was defined by her lack of notable presence.

Making friends became quite the challenge when she needed to go above and beyond to be just perceived. To compensate for that she had to be twice as loud and expressive.

And when she wasn't, well, there were a lot of things people would do when they thought no one was looking.

Like two of her new classmates spreading malicious gossip about the villainous actions of the girl sitting in the back.

Supposedly she could steal Quirks and burn those who opposed her.

The worst thing Toru saw her do was almost fall asleep during math but others heeded the warnings and kept their distance.

Kieruko. Plain girl with the highest grades in their class and a bored look permanently plastered to her face. Honestly, Toru can't blame her, she also wouldn't want to socialize with peers if they were constantly badmouthing her behind her back.

Toru spotted the dirty looks Niji-chan sent that girl's way every time the teacher announced Kieruko had the highest score on a test.

Toru overheard when part of her class gathered to plan an ambush on an innocent classmate.

'To take care of the villain once and for all' they said.

It felt wrong.

Toru observed as Sekiaka-kun led unsuspecting Kieruko-chan to her doom.

She had to do something.

Following the two unseen was easy.

Seeing her classmates beat down and restrain a vulnerable girl was not.

But she was scared.

Unfortunately, she was a single person unable to protect herself or others. So weak. She wanted to confront the bullies head-on, however, that would only end up with one more tied-up body in the dark closet.

She didn't want to be locked in a closet.

She wanted to help.

Like a hero would.

Toru witnessed the whole incident while peeking over the corner of the corridor. When the cheerful group of tormentors began to head in her direction, she promptly backed far away.

She didn't want to get caught.

Thankfully her Quirk was perfect for hiding.

Waiting them out in an empty classroom and finding the closet again took her way too much time.

Dread was slowly filling her stomach.

No.

Everything was going to be okay.

She was going to save Kieruko-chan.

In the world of flashy abilities, she was transparent.

She wanted to be seen.

She wanted to become a hero, to be perceived, to help those as invisible as her.

She would become the best hero possible.

Starting now.

Toru grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open.

There, on the floor was lying a sweaty mass of tape and crumpled clothes buried under cleaning supplies.

She frantically pushed aside buckets, mops, and brooms, not knowing where to start as she decided to peel off the gag first.

The lying figure greedily gasped for fresh air before speaking.

"Sooo... is this a rescue party or did you forget to kick my ass on the way out?"

Why would she...?

The blindfold.

Toru almost tore it off Kieruko's head.

She was met with black eyes, squinting at first from a sudden wave of daylight then slightly widening in surprise.

"I haven't expected to see you here, Hagakure-san."

"I want to save you," Toru responded without skipping a beat.

Kieruko can proudly say, she didn’t roll her eyes at the heartfelt declaration. Really wanted to but didn't. It appeared like recently something exceedingly emotional happened to her savior and it would be rude to intrude on that.

"That's great!" she replied, then slightly wriggled, still on the floor. "Do you have anything sharp for the bindings?"

Toru did not.

It took 10 minutes to find scissors and with that, Kieruko was finally free.

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver." Actually, there was one compliment every kid wanted to hear those days.

"You are my hero."

*Kieruko uses appreciation*

Hagakure began sobbing violently.

*It's super effective!*

"Do-do you-uuu wa-want to be frie-eends?"

What kind of logic is that?

"Sure."

The first thing Seichi heard when his daughter, who came home terribly late, was "I want to learn martial arts."

"..why?"

"I want to be cool" Kieruko claimed in a flat tone.

"Did something happen at school?"

"Nope. Just saw a hero fight" she lied.

That sounded suspiciously like something a normal child would say. He gladly accepted it.

"What did you have in mind?"

With that, she began attending Muay Thai classes twice a week. That physical activity was desperately needed.

And then after a few more months, she convinced Dad to also sign her up for gymnastics because she just loved exercising.

For now, she felt proud of the training she managed to obtain.

Friendship with Hagakure Toru changed a lot in her everyday life.

They were eating together, talking with each other, and hanging out after school.

It also made Kieruko remember that she didn't know the Quirks of people around her. With some examination few things suddenly made much more sense.

Psychotic Rainbow Dash had a minor intelligence Quirk called ironically Super Intelligence. That might be the reason she has taken offense to not being The Best at schoolwork 100% of the time.

Her henchmen: light globules, Cookie Monster (shit electricity), Elmo (some kind of transformation), Fedora Bear (boy with slight bear mutation), and Big Bird (tall girl with very yellow hair, 5-point paralysis) while surprisingly thematic, were still sheep mindlessly following their charismatic leader.

With some extra context provided by the ever-observant Hagakure, their stunt was, while explicable, still an overreaction.

Kieruko didn't report the blatant act of assault. Mostly to not worry parents, they have been busy enough lately.

In the meantime, she had an enlightening one-on-one with Rainbow Dash. Let's just say it's easy to spook kids with some cleverly presented facts. As intended, it made her calm the fuck down.

That year continued more serenely.

Where was she?

Ah, yes.

Spending time with Hagakure.

In their friendship, Toru was the one to do most of the talking, which was fine with Kieruko.

The first time they switched roles, she was invited over to the invisible girl's house. When they were playing in the garden, Toru asked about her interests.

What followed was an introductory lecture about Quirks with a nifty addition of Kieruko's new and improved classification system based on her experiments with Not Today (definitely not sneakily conducted on kindergartners for the most part).

"..but erasing the Quirk Factor is only the first stage as it only disables obvious Emitter and Transformation types.

The second stage is mutations caused and working in tandem with the semi-active Quirk Factor. The most provident examples would be Heteromorphs.

In my first-ever test, I found out that there is an obvious distinction between Quirk and vestigial mutations I was capable of erasing one before the other.

In short with ranking by the amount of active Quirk Factor, we have:

1. Quirk - 100% active, anything breaking laws of nature or physics (telekinesis, gigantification)

2. Mutation - 100%-1% active while used with obvious deviant tissue that does not disappear when Quirk is in an idle state.

3. Vestigial mutation - inactive but present, honestly anything that would be considered out of the norm over 150 years ago

It should be noted that what is considered a mutant Quirk nowadays can fall under either the second or third category depending on the individual in question.

A new classification system divides Quirked and Quirkless based on recognized functional methods (even if only available to one person) instead of just acknowledging observable differences.

With that, we come to my Quirk.

Not Today.

Proof of everything that's great with Mendelian inheritance, but that's a story for another day.

When activated it stops types one and two from being used.

On a technical level, anyone not affected by that should be considered Quirkless."

Also, she could feel when she was blocking the active Quirk Factor and the only Quirkless people she ever met were a few Heteromorphs. She wondered if it would feel different with someone like Izuku or Melissa.

"Now, because I'm awesome, there is a possibility to push my Quirk into temporarily getting rid of anything affected by Plus Alpha Gene.

It's like a slider. The more engaged role" a body part "an element takes in active Quirk use, the less takes me to deactivate or even entirely get rid of it."

The one time she pushed to 100% on that slider everyone was screaming.

Once Seichi asked her to test Quirk's percentages on him. It was not a happy memory. People get hurt when she goes above 80%.

"Also it gets harder to hold it and shortens the time I'm able to keep the connection

For example"

Which heroes were working already? Obviously, Hawks and Mirko were out.

"If I used Not Today on Endeavor, he would be unable to use his flames. After pushing the slider he would lose fire resistance but his looks wouldn't change.

In comparison, Gang Orca wouldn't probably lose anything at first. Maybe hypersonic waves. And then...I dunno what's next. I actually never used that part of my Quirk on a Heteromorph. He probably would turn into a normal dude."

A lie.

She had no idea and was too scared to test it out on anyone who didn't have the Human 1.0 model skeleton.

While Tokoyami probably would agree to testing, it didn't feel too ethical to erase a sentient being known as Dark Shadow or try to dig even further into an oblivious toddler's Quirk Factor.

Kinda a fucked up thing to do to someone you care about.

She lost the thread.

"Any questions?"

"Can you make me visible?" Hagakure's tone was almost pleading.

"Indeed I can." That much should be obvious. Doesn't she have any questions about the groundbreaking parts? Wait. She's still six. "Would you like to try now?"

Toru shot up from the grass (she was lying down sleepily after the first few minutes of the tedious lecture).

"I'm ready."

"Okay." Kieruko's eyes shifted from black to yellow and her hair began defying gravity. "So. Fun fact. Your Quirk is erased."

"I'm still invisible." The disappointment was palpable in the girl's voice.

"Exactly." Kieruko did her best impression of Eraserhead's trademark grin. "That is how you look." Still no recognition. "Which means you are invisible AND have a Quirk."

"REALLY?!"

Deciding to drop a second bombshell in 20 seconds Kieruko slightly pushed on the link of Not Today.

There she stood, wonderfully visible Hagakure Toru in all of her adorable baby glory.

She had messy green-yellow? (is 'pastel lime' a color?) hair with pink streaks.

With wide disbelieving eyes, she looked at her pale hands for just a moment, before sprinting back home screaming for her parents.

Understandable reaction.

Kieruko decided to give her excitable friend as much time as she could to marvel at that revelation.

She lay down on a freshly mowed lawn and focused on keeping the connection stable as long as possible. Almost like training. When pressure turned into the beginnings of a slowly growing migraine, she let go. So probably around 2 minutes? it felt slightly longer than last time.

With closed eyes, she sighed. The weather was nice, high in the sky sun shined cheerfully, and as such she decided to take a deserved nap.

It was never meant to be.

A moment later three sets of clothes also known as the Hagakure family arrived.

There was a second round of explanations, ironically enough with two adults Kieruko's descriptions were simplified for the sake of not giving the strange 'small child with too analytical personality for their age' vibe.

A few times she tried acting true to herself with grown-ups, they were visibly disturbed and Seichi was always hiding sadness behind an engaged expression.

Kids were surprisingly fine with her real personality, just bored.

Okay, that's a lie.

Obviously, they were not fine with it. But attempts at bullying mean that at least she's still treated as a part of their ecosystem. Why did she care?

Toru's parents were surprisingly okay with that revelation. Still, they were left with one question.

"If it's not Invisibility, then what is Toru's Quirk?"

Impossible to answer without lying about the mechanics of Not Today, or explaining BNHA so time to "theorize".

"Considering how entangled it is with her mutation and the statistical probability of her having kind of common Quirk type, I would say something connected with light manipulation."

There goes her resolve to not spook the parents.

"...you are really smart Kieruko-chan" a soft feminine voice replied.

She was definitely not. Absolutely middle-of-the-road intelligence in her original age group.

"Thank you, Hagakure-san," she says instead. "I like reading about Quirks."

"How do I use it?" An excessively bubbly girl piped up.

Isn't that the million-dollar question?

Time to summon all the knowledge gathered from articles with a mix of manga memories.

"We are outside. Can you feel sunlight?"

The girl froze up. Probably. For sure her clothes didn't move anymore.

For but a few moments, there were just four people in a garden on a sunny Friday. No one dared to make a sound.

The visible light around (probably) Toru's hands began to slightly bend before it twinkled and then went back to normal.

Fascinating.

"Refraction" Kieruko muttered.

Everyone else was losing their shit.

All in all an eventful afternoon.

Hagakure family undeniably took a fancy to Kieruko. It was great. Uncle and aunt (an upgrade from Mr. And Ms.) made her always feel welcome, commenting on how much of a well-mannered clever girl she was. And what a great friend to their daughter!

She felt flustered by the generous praise but learned that any attempt at helping them (to feel less like a fraud) would only earn more compliments. Embarrassing yet amazing problem to have.

On an even better note, Toru became her partner in Quirk training. For now girl was only capable of creating slight shimmers or marginal light refraction. Didn't make it less impressive considering the first time it took her nine more years to figure it out.

The other half of the duo got approval to erase Toru's invisibility almost constantly. The girl adored being seen especially delighted by the attention from her peers and Kieruko got a chance to improve the time limit of Not Today by constant practice. Using her Quirk in school became a game of sorts. During classes, it was a Green Light, Red Light where detention was at stake, and between periods kids were usually okay with it (might have something to do with the fact visible Toru was cute as hell).

Tight Bun became Kieruko's new staple hairstyle for practicality's sake. She also gained killer reflexes in deactivating her Quirk. Part of the process. As well as mastering the use of all natural migraine remedies from the constant Quirk exhaustion she hid from everyone.

With that day day became more hectic than ever. Getting top grades for now was too easy so she was stealth Quirk training at school, had her extracurricular activities four times a week (Toru in the act of growing clinginess also now frequented the same Muay Thai classes) and weekends were her internet privileges days. Those were sacred for research and entertainment reasons.

And in between all of that, she was plotting.

What?

Obviously, no plan survives the contact with the enemy.

And when your enemy is the fate of the very universe you reside in, you need to be prepared for anything.

So she was busy creating contingency plans for contingency plans.

Just in case.

7 years before 1A Hell Class came to be, Kieruko made her first potentially risky move.

One of the biggest issues that arose during the planning sessions was: What if she died or was incapacitated during big events?

Accidents happen.

As far as she's aware stray brick could end her story tomorrow. All her effort for naught. Which is unacceptable.

So.

Contingency 1

A random anonymous email containing a PDF file with everything she knows. Scheduled to be delivered a year from now to the one person she knows won't ignore it. Every 30 days she logs in and pushes the date one month further.

Now, no matter what, the knowledge won't be lost.

Contingency 2

Creating external support in case of emergencies.

During summer Hiseki family took a trip to a remote village with a rapidly aging population in southern Nagasaki. They were visiting some distant aunt for a week. That was beside the point. The important part was the public library. Small decrepit thing with peeling paint, no cameras, and an ancient computer in the back.

After being given permission by responsible adults to roam around freely, she had a chance to execute the next tiny piece in her ever-growing Master Plan™.

All she had to do was to sneak past an ancient (quite possibly senile) librarian and there would be no way to trace anything she did on that machine back to her.

The elderly woman did take almost an hour-long break at noon every day. Without closing the building.

It was too easy.

Kieruko entered the library, turned on the relict of the past, made a new email, and...

So fucking stupid.

She was going to regret it.

She already found Nedzu's official electronic correspondence address on UA's website.

Horrible plan.

Going to ruin all the prep.

But if it works out as intended, she will have a powerful ally to at least partially rely on.

No way a rat won't want to play mind games.

All she needs to do is to be honest, except for a few small things. Like the fact, this is all a manga/anime. Create a beneficial but believable narrative.

Besides this is just to establish her presence. She doesn't have to contact him ever again.

Reckless.

Trusting others with any knowledge introduces new variables. Brings more uncertainty.

She is but a single powerless person.

The clock is ticking. 30 minutes left.

Fuck it.

Hello.

You don't know me and I hope to remain anonymous for the time being.

What you should be aware of is that I'm either clinically insane or experienced future in a limited way.

If it's the former, I'll never contact you again. If it's the latter though, let's just say things are going to become much more complicated and you might be interested in what lies ahead.

This is a test for me to determine that. And I guess you are the best person I can contact and consider an impartial judge.

I'm going to leave a...prediction. Please do not check the text file attached below before the end of the next year. If I'm right, it could make the future take an unfavorable turn.

Just to ease any worries, I wrote about one of the biggest victories your allies will achieve and we wouldn't want to risk changing that.

You know how those butterflies like to flap their wing.

Hopefully sound of mind,

Sibyl

She logged out.

It's done.

One more chess piece on the board.

Chapter Text

As the summer continued, Hiseki family returned home. Usually, while adults worked, Kieruko would spend most of her time with Toru.

Today was different. Hagakures went on vacation to Hokkaido, the dojo was closed for the duration of August, and even Seichi went on a week-long business trip. Something about a need for a specialist on some small island.

In short, he was incredibly unavailable.

Ishiki in an attempt to fix their frail relationship (caused exclusively by her own doing), organized a girls' day out. While Kieruko never partook in one of those before, she wasn't opposed to checking by herself what's the fuss about. One could even say she was excited.

It was supposed to be a day-long outing filled with fun activities.

'Suppose' being a key word.

Because the second they were on a highway Ishiki's phone buzzed and she swore after seeing the message. With that, she whipped out an earpiece and what followed was a torrent of calls asking (probably every non work related number on her phone) if they were available to babysit right now.

Oh, wow. To think I actually brought my hopes up for a second.

In an insane stroke of bad luck there was not a single free person.

"I could stay home alone" Kieruko suggested. Which was factually correct. She already went through 'stick forks in the outlet' phase once, so it would be fine.

With limited knowledge, Ishiki didn't seem to share that sentiment.

She called one more number.

"This is Hiseki speaking. Unfortunately, I cannot be there."

Muffled sounds of the earpiece.

"I am taking care of my daughter for the day and there is no one available to take over at the moment."

More muffled speech.

"Are you sure? I don't want to impose."

Short response from the other side.

"Alright. We will be there in forty minutes."

Oh great. Guess who's going to spend a day doing nothing in some fancy building belonging to some shitty company.

"What about 'girls' day out'?"

"Something important came up, I'm sorry."

Disappointing but not unexpected response.

What was the point in even attempting to argue? Hollowed out of any remaining enthusiasm Kieruko slumped against the soft surface of the car seat. The rest of the ride was filled with hostile silence on the part of the smaller figure and guilty silence on behalf of the larger one. That was before Kieruko recognized the sign in front of the building they were heading towards. Verbal protest instantly became a much more desirable way of voicing objections.

"I'm not going there."

Abso-fucking-lutley not.

"Kieru-chan I promise I'll make it up to you" lies "but right now you don't have a choice. Mom has urgent business to attend to"

"You work there?!"

"I am a hired consultant. I work with them on the occasion." That line sounded scripted.

"What kind of counseling does HPSC need? They are all grown-ups. Shouldn't they already know how to use their Quirks?", she asked slightly frantic.

Ishiki went stiff behind the wheel for a moment.

"Even adults can benefit from professional help."

Yeah, no.

That field is almost exclusively intended for (foolishly but statistics don't lie) children aged 4-16.

On top of that Kieruko did read Boku no Hero Academia. And a ton of theories. And fics. Maybe even enjoyed those edgy fanarts. The picture painted with the data she gathered was not pretty.

Mom.

My question is:

Are you helping governmental institution in creating child soldiers?

If yes.

WHY WOULD YOU BRING ME HERE?!

"I can stay in the car."

"There is a room for you to wait inside."

Nope, nope, nope.

It took her everything to not laugh hysterically.

On the logical level, she knew there was no way her mom would do anything reckless enough to endanger her. On the 'I am a mad oracle from another dimension where every fanfic might be an alternative timeline' level though?

This was not okay.

"Who are you consulting?"

"Heroes."

That. Kind of. Made sense.

Huh.

Okay, so maybe Kieruko had some fatalistic tendencies with a healthy dash of paranoia.

Maybe she would just hang around some random conference room for a few hours and freak out after seeing Endeavor or Best Jeanist somewhere in the distance. Just maybe HPSC was normal and slightly corrupt like everything else in this world.

Still.

"I hate this."

"I'm sorry." Are you?

Car stopped in an underground parking lot.

She exited it willfully but with a visible pout. In most other situations exploring a canon location would be exciting. This obviously was not it.

They were greeted by two guys in full suits and sunglasses. As they were led further into the building she was curiously glancing around. It looked like a boring yet fancy office space. No blood splatters or fingernail scratches.

Then she was introduced to some boring-looking lady who would 'take good care of her' and if that wasn't at least a tad bit ominous then she didn't know what was.

Ishiki immediately began rushing ahead to some 'very important hero counseling session'. Probably.

"What's your name?"

There are two wolves inside you. One begs you to keep your head down in case this place is dangerous. The other one says 'fuck it'.

"Kieruko."

"Please call me Shinasa. I have fun games prepared for you Kieruko-chan."

Oh boy. She cannot wait.

What a fun adventure.

Yup.

She just needs to pretend she lost all her brain cells alongside newly gained paranoid tendencies. After what felt like 20 minute walk they arrived at their destination. As the door swung open Kieruko wanted to scream.

It was an adorable cozy room obviously designed as some sort of play area for children. Colorful walls, chests containing toys, and tables with art supplies gave off a welcoming vibe. Contrary to the cleverly concealed lack of windows, clocks, or doorknobs.

Nope.

Why does a governmental building need a playroom for children? One with almost no sign of use.

"I'm not going in there."

"Why Kieruko-chan?" her tone lacked indication of any emotion.

Sometimes finding a good excuse is a challenge those of small mind fail.

"It feels like lack of viable exit counts as a...violation of fire code." She did her best for it to not sound like a question while waving her hand in an approximate direction of where the doorknob should be.

That made the plain lady pause.

"I'm going to stay in here with you."

That doesn't really make it better.

Kieruko sent her an incredulous look without moving an inch.

"Look." Lady swiped her card through the air close to the place where the doorknob should be. She heard a quiet beep and clicking sound of the door frame. "I can unlock this door." Great. "And in case of a power outage, all doors unlock automatically." The opposite was much more probable but she had no way of proving that.

Ever so slowly Kieruko entered the death trap. Plain lady as promised followed her. She began a closer inspection of the room. It was clean. Toys didn't have almost any signs of being used. Still no blood splatters. Few normal scratch marks. The tables were fine too. Art supplies lacked any sharp items.

"Is everything all right?"

"Sorry...I'm just a huge fan of...Health Code Regulations. And thankfully everything seems to be good."

That comment earned her a look of utter disbelief.

Fair.

With nothing better to do Kieruko grabbed a piece of paper and drew a koi pond she saw when they visited a park with Seichi a few weeks prior. The quality of crayons was not too bad but the drawing certainly would not achieve the title of the piece of art and she put all the blame on those blasted baby grippers.

Doesn't matter, she was getting bored anyway.

She lazily let her gaze sweep through the room in search of something more entertaining. On the table to her left plain lady was quietly working on her laptop. The table to the right was barren of distraction worthy objects except for...

There.

A tablet. In comparison to her previous life where she never left the house without her phone, it was a devastating change to suddenly walk with pockets empty of any electronics. She would only receive a phone this year for her birthday (snooping for the win).

The sacred piece of technology turned out to be a disappointment. No access to the internet or fun apps. Only educational games.

She stifled a groan.

Still better than nothing. She tapped the blue icon. How could anyone think asking a kid for the meaning of kanji counts as a game, as long as it is presented on a piece of tech instead of in a classroom? She did a few symbols at first and skipped around cause shit was too easy before meeting a barrier a few levels later.

Behind the red icon was a math game. Why. Still, if she was to be stuck here for some time, might as well get a reminder. When letters became more frequent than actual numbers she tapped out.

The green icon hid something much better. A few mini-games testing memory and hand-eye coordination. If not for the minimalistic design, the app could be mistaken for a recreational one. She spends a good chunk of time on that before switching to the next.

The last one was a doozy. Reading comprehension. Again, after going through a few exercises about 3 apples and 4 oranges she skipped a few levels and things got fun. Short texts with quizzes at the end. Who was the true author, where did that buried treasure go, murder mystery (it was the butler), discovering the meaning behind a painting on the cave wall and...

Oh shit. She was a dumbass.

There it was. An open question.

Meaning they are gathering all the data from that nifty little tablet.

And she just spent anime gods know how long, carelessly giving info for free.

This is bad, this is bad, this is so so bad.

Why is she nervous?

They can do jack shit with being aware she could skip a few grades.

And her Quirk wasn't that powerful.

She was just being occupied because they needed her mother's services.

Stop making conspiracy theories out of nothing.

She wants to run.

"Can I go to the toilet?"

Kieruko didn't want to go back to the playroom. Her palms were sweaty. She needed a good excuse.

"Can I see my mom? I don't feel so good."

"I noticed you have problems with anxiety."

What. Are you talking about?

"I think, I'm sick." She feels sick.

Take me to my legal guardian before I cause a scene.

"Kieruko-chan my Quirk, Empathy, detects emotions and their intensity. I can say with certainty that your state is caused by emotional distress."

Right now for sure it fucking is.

She clasped her hands around Kieruko's. "You were having fun just before your feelings switched and began to fluctuate.

I can help you calm down if you let me" She didn't want to. That woman was a part of the reason she was panicking in the first place.

"I know you are a smart girl" she fucking knew it. That was an assessment. They are watching. She's being watch-"but sometimes even the brightest mind can get overwhelmed."

Plain lady, you fucking suck.

"Nothing happened, I'm fine", she lies through her gritted teeth. Why is her heartbeat so loud?

At this point, she's definitely not fine and both parties know it.

"If you're sure. Maybe it's a side effect of your Quirk." She hates how reliable her voice sounds.

"That's not how my Quirk works."

"How does it work?" Oh no, you fucking don't.

This conversation is going in every direction but intended.

Redirect. Divert, deflect and redirect. "I miss my mom. Can I go and see her?"

"She's busy helping heroes. You'll have to wait a few w more hours" HOURS?! "before she's done. It would help her if you didn't cause any accidents. This way she'll finish faster."

This was bad. Plain lady was not only immune to emotional manipulation but also proficiently wielding it against her.

Wait.

Silence.

Wait a second.

She could feel her emotional state.

Their eyes met.

"Yes, I'm aware of all those changes." Fuck. "It's actually quite fascinating. Your switch between frantic anxiety-ridden jumble of nerves and analytical mode is so distinct, that I had no problem recognizing when you lied."

Uh oh.

"You are one smart cookie, aren't you Kieruko-chan?" Not really. Actually, considering today's fiasco she would say the contrary is more accurate.

"You could achieve so much if you wanted." And she would become an incredible hero. With rat's blessing.

"It's obvious your potential is stifled. Aren't you bored?" As much as the menacing lady had a point, the jumpscare recruitment pitch would not convince her. "Remember, if you ever decide to challenge yourself there are people ready to help you exceed."

Shinasa-san was not so plain anymore. In fact, she was quite distinctly terrifying.

She probably shouldn't go with her usual: no, thank you.

"I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask."

They didn't go back to an extremely normal child storage chamber. Kieruko almost thanked her luck before remembering her attendant was literally an empath.

She knew that place made her nervous. She was exposed, stripped of the only safe space that truly belonged to her, as she realized after reincarnation. Everything but memories and feelings was...recyclable.

They entered a small room with with office desk and an uncomfortable-looking small couch in the corner. To anyone else, it would look like a downgrade of a century but right now she felt relatively safe...er. They were in a space not designed to catch her off guard and that's what's most important. She swiftly sat herself on a sad gray furniture in the corner.

Kieruko finally looked at the woman. She truly wasn't anything special at first glance. Brown hair, blue eyes, gray suit, in her thirties, average height, and the attitude of someone who knows more than you. She would never guessed one of her worst nightmares could take the shape of a normal office lady.

"Shinasa-san, what do you do at work when you don't have to babysit guests' kids?" She was genuinely curious about what kind of position the borderline mind reader had here.

After settling herself down at the desk and once again pulling out the blasted laptop, the woman answered. "I usually help with work distribution and performance assessment of young heroes sponsored by the commission."

She wondered how insane her train of thought would look to someone who did not possess the same context. Because her first thought was still child soldiers but this time with all the calm she could muster as to not tip off the older woman.

"That is kind of cool." Cool, cool, cool. "Do I know any of them?" Kieruko was hoping the woman would throw her a bone and ease accumulating concerns. Just say a name of a single person right now and I'll finally have proof of my paranoia. One verifiable fact to show I'm the problem. Please.

"I'm afraid none of them had a big moment on a screen yet." Of course. After all, Hawks is like 15 and there were no mentions of other "adopted projects" in the manga (maybe except for a certain Tartarus resident). Maybe she's just lying. Stop thinking about anxiety-inducing topics. Blue sky, soft blanket, warm dinner, Hagakure family. Calm. I'm calm.

"Huh." Hopefully, it was enough to make her appear relaxed. Having a moment to process, she finally felt worn out by the absurd amount of stress she experienced in a short span of time. A wave of pure exhaustion fell over her. With the soothing sound of the keyboard clicking mortal realm faded away...

Ishiki woke her up. Neither of them knew how to act so awkward silence was the winner during the ride back. Then anger finally came in.

"I'm not leaving the house until dad is back." She was pissed. Beyond pissed even.

Wh"at the fuck was so important you JUST HAD TO leave me alone with a stranger for a whole day?!" Oh, she was saying things out loud now. Not waiting for the answer she stormed off to her room. She was way too emotional to handle that confrontation correctly.

Kieruko had some time to contemplate during the next few days where she vehemently denied staying in the same room as her mother.

First of all, she definitely panicked. There was no reason to think anything bad would happen even if Hero Commission was sus in general. Her reaction was blown out of proportion because of some absurd paranoia that didn't even exist prior to entering that building.

Second, anger was her primary reaction to upsetting situations. Something that was worked through a long time ago in the first life. What a fun way to find out that emotional maturity at least partially regressed along with gaining a young physical form.

Last but not least, Ishiki absolutely deserved the silent treatment, even if the reason Kieruko was furious was different than the one she should be upset about. Fuck the canceled outing to the beach, carnival, or any other establishment where they had a chance at repairing broken bonds. She didn't care about those. It wasn't even dumping her on a random stranger. Nope. Her slightly irrational anger originated exclusively from being forced to be in the HPSC building. She would have an identical reaction to a mandatory school trip with the same destination. Doesn't change the fact Ishiki fucked up.

And so the tense mood at home continued.

After returning from the trip Seichi got tackled by his daughter's hug. It was adorable if not for the fact she rarely showed this amount of affection.

"What's the occasion sunshine?"

"M'glad you're back." was the answer of a small figure whose arms were still tightly secured around his waist.

"Awww, I didn't think you would miss me so much" he cheerfully teased.

"I guess I did." She missed having the responsible parent around. She let go of him.

"How was your adventure day with mom?" Oh boy. So she let him in on the idea of the original outing but failed to inform him about the slight change of plans.

Kieruko still felt too emotionally invested to give an objective answer. Flat "ask mom" did seem to make the message clear enough.

The mood instantly dropped after that statement. With a gentle smile, he crouched in front of her. "Why don't you play in your room and I'll ask, okay?"

Slow nod.

As much as she loved her family and didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble, there was no way she would simply forgive and forget. She had barely stopped herself from escalating the argument that surely was going to happen. Besides Seichi deserved to know the truth.

She situated herself behind the door left ajar, cause family drama and she's nosy. And maybe a possibility of getting some answers. She didn't have to wait too long. Not everything was discernable but the important parts were screamed out quite distinctly.

"You did what?!"

Vindication.

"I thought it would be fine considering her usual reaction to..." curse the limited sound access caused by abundant house noises.

"...at does that even mean? You said the NDA was making it impossible to..." maybe it won't be too bad. "...but it's okay because you had just the most important..." whatever incoherent end of that sentence was it must have shaken at least one party judging by a crashing sound. Never mind.

"She's eight, she should be doing what we're telling her to do!"

"This is the first time you used that argument! Where is your typical 'she's too smart so it would be insulting to her...'"

"...overreaction..."

"...just as absent as..."

"...providing for..."

"Stop projecting all of your issues on our daughter!"

"I DON'T! I- I just-" followed by sobbing. No one said anything after that.




At least everyone is miserable instead of just me, not even remotely comforting assurance popped into her mind.

Going back to school brought top of the line relief. She was busy again but now with extra incentive to avoid her house.

It was great.

She found every excuse to work on extra projects, train, or even hang out with other extras (heh) as long as her bf was involved. Toru was delighted by that development and took it upon herself to introduce Kieruko to the joy of sleepovers heavily overloaded with her newest greatest hyperfixation: prank shows. Kieruko acquired a newfound hatred for anything containing a laugh track. She really hoped it was a phase (it wasn't).

The classes were still too easy, sports after school were still fun, and Quirk training was coming along as well.

Toru could proficiently make flashbangs (she had to have "a talk" about blinding unsuspecting people and why it's wrong) and now was in the middle of so-called laser practice.

Greatly inspired by Traitor and Final War arc Kieruko got a laser pointer. Originally it was supposed to be for practicing precision but it slowly transformed into the game: can Toru make shapes out of laser light?, then: how much of light spectrum can Toru control? and ended with: can Toru make herself visible? The answer to the first one is: with a lot of practice, kinda. To the second: she can feel she's changing something but not see it, so probably a lot. The third one is more complex. In theory, it could be possible. In practice? Not for now, to the great disappointment of both girls.

That occupied Kieruko's attention for some time but frustration slowly grew. She had countess limitations mostly due to physical age. Her own master plan for now just suggested gaining friends allies, improving physical prowess, and speeding up character development of canon characters because what else could she really do?

And then she remembered. There is still one pink haired genius inventor just waiting to be befriended. Well. Hatsume may haven't started her tinkering journey yet but there is no harm in finding out!

She didn't have any classes with the girl and Toru would definitely figure out something was wrong if she just began pestering a random student unprompted. So she had to find a believable reason.

"What kind of hero do you want to be?"

Toru had a lot to say on that subject and Kieruko began to slowly build upon it. Invisible girl wanted to be popular, save innocent, and kick the butts of bad guys with her best friend as a partner. Adorable even with the slightly misguided order of priorities.

But Kieruko did with it what Kieruko does best. Make a lot of complex plans with a concerning amount of details. She talked about teaming up, networking, Hero agencies, challenges of DNA infused costumes (they were currently almost unheard of) and smoothly went to the topic of support gear and its importance.

Toru was entranced in the (conversation would be a generous term here) monologue with almost visible sparkles in her eyes. In the following week she gave Kieruko her own presentation of her future hero costume, agency, all the awesome hero friends she would make, and super fun villain defeating she would do. She was also still eight and just happily rambled while showing her crayon drawings.

And then it once again became a dialogue Kieruko offhandedly mentioned someone aiming to be a support inventor "...and you know, we could find out if she wanted to make support gear for us in the future and maybe get to know each other better..."

"You want us to make a new friend!"

"...yeah."

"That sounds fun!"

Could it be that easy? After almost two weeks of covertly approaching the subject? Maybe she got into a habit of overcomplicating things a bit. A bit.

The recruitment was scheduled for the next lunch break. She decided to go with the most efficient route.

"From what I heard she's super smart and likes to invent stuff." Then she added with a smirk. "And she's the future CEO of Hatsume Industries! I'm sure you're going to like her."

Using Toru's natural charm.

After getting their lunch trays the visibly giddy green haired girl approached chibi inventor with a spring in her step.

"Hi, my name is Hagakure Toru. Would you like to be friends?"

There must be something in that smile because those two immediately got together like a house on fire. Who would have thought that an energetic aspiring hero and hyperactive aspiring support engineer would find a common language? And yes, Hatsume already was tinkering with something at the table. The object looked more like a toy but it was probably still impressive no matter what it was supposed to do. Kieruko just sat next to them enjoying the chatter and mediocre food.

At the end of the break, the yellow crossed irises finally turned to the tranquil figure.

"I'm Hatsume Mei." The girl said with a beaming grin as her smile sharpened and she extended her hand. "The future CEO of Hatsume Industries!"

Who was the reincarnator to not return the handshake with a well-practiced (for havoc related purposes in the distant future) Cheshire cat like grin of her own.

"Hiseki Kieruko. The future hero."

Chapter Text

In April new school year began yet again. Only nine more of those and she can begin higher education. Also famous battle between All Might and Toxic Chainsaw took place. The plot was moving forward and Kieruko finally felt like she was getting the BNHA experience she was expecting.

Then she remembered "Vigilanties" series and with a quick search, she was able to confirm that indeed spin-off was canon as well. Or at least the Pop☆Step part for now.

And then in June, there was sparse news about some kind of natural disaster and All Might dropped off the face of the earth. An obvious gag order had to be put on news stations because no one was mentioning it.


"All Might got hurt."

"How do you know that Kieru-chan?" asked Toru.

"It's the first time he's gone for more than two weeks. Even when on "vacation" he always inevitably reveals himself the second crime takes place in his vicinity." It was amazing to talk about plot even if it was in a roundabout way. And she was right. "So actually, ever since debut he rarely leaves the spotlight for more than five days." Ergo Toshinori Yagi lost a lot of weight organ-wise and All for One finally achieved his ultimate potato form. For now, the plot was smoothly going.

"You seem to be really interested in All Might lately Kieruko", Mei interjected while tinkering with what was supposed to be a jet pack but for now only qualified as a fire hazard.

"Mmm-hmmm I was just... interested in his Quirk initially and then found all those fascinating discrepancies."

"So you must have figured it all out by now, right?" Toru teased.

Kieruko would not disappoint. "Oh yeah, I did figure it out. His Quirk is a transformation into his powered-up form that he fights in. I mean otherwise someone would have pictures of him doing anything besides hero duties. There is no way the guy didn't step into a grocery store in over 30 years." Ah, yes. The art of dropping heavy lore onto kids who didn't know it was the absolute truth of this world. And it's not like they could prove her right or wrong.

Toru looked like someone had just given her a divine revelation, even surprised Mei took her eyes off the death contraption for a second.

"There is no proof that's true." Invisible girl pouted after a second.

"You're right", Kieruko replied. "But that's the best" and 100% correct "theory you'll find."

"You are our Quirk specialist after all," Mei added.

And wasn't that true. Nothing could be better than some harmless foreshadowing on a peaceful day.

Vacation sneaked up on her.

"You're going to a summer camp for two weeks."

Was she happy about that? No. Would she throw a temper tantrum over this? Also no. Seichi deserved a break.

"Are Toru and Mei going?"

"Unfortunately, that's why we decided to sign you up. Neither of them will be here in that time period, so we are doing it to avoid incidents similar to what happened last year." Great argument, she agrees wholeheartedly. Still upsetting.

She was going to spend 14 days with children who were not destined to save Japan from ultimate destruction and found it disappointing. Her standards became simply too high.

When the two first weeks of August were marked with "Summer Camp 𖤓" on the calendar she just sent a silent prayer to Kōhei Horikoshi begging for an upgrade from whatever emotionally taxing disaster last year was.



Even during ungodly early hours, children continued to be loud. Parents were one by one checking out offspring by the bus and saying their goodbyes. The father-daughter duo stood to the side getting ready to make their own farewells.

"If the camp turns out to be a disappointment, I'm not doing this again."

"How about we'll talk about it after? You might love it."

"But if not?"

"I'm open to negotiation." An agreeable deal.

"I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too, sunshine. Now go and remember to have fun."

Fun. She didn't like that word anymore.

Child-based noises did not stop after she entered the bus. In fact, they intensified as the menagerie began participating in a ritual known as socializing. And they did it for multiple hours they were all stuck in a vehicle. It will never be known where they get their seemingly infinite social batteries from.

She was ensnared in that amazement the whole day as they arrived at the camp, divided kids between rooms in an old-school wooden building, and gave dinner to the starving locust. She really was bad at making friends when Toru wasn't the spokesperson. Yikes.

To be fair while not exiting camp was fine. Few cabins in the clearing of the woods. They had daily activities and edible food. She wasn't outright attacked by resentful masses but also others didn't really talk to her. Then again, no one knew her Quirk, and camp counselors actually were trying to keep a friendly atmosphere.

Oh. Now that she had a chance to think about it, kids were starting fights with her every time she showed off Not Today. Why they thought it was a good idea remained a mystery.

Unremarkable days went by till last evening before going back home.

Local village small town held a widely popular summer festival. A lot of people loved the idea of a cute outing. Too many.

With the amount of stands and enough tourists to fill the town thrice, the main street felt too narrow to fit them all.

Sun was setting over the nearby peak, giving the local temple and trees a gentle glow.

After drawing attention to themselves counselors' instructions were clear. Campers had an hour to split up, and have fun, then everyone would meet up again at the gathering point and together they would watch fireworks.

It was obvious that kids were supposed to stay in groups watched over by a chaperone. It was also incredibly easy for Kieruko to slip away and enjoy the festival on her own. She was eager to finally have a moment to herself. Besides, what would they do if she was caught? Send her home a few hours early?

The village had one main road filled with vendors on both sides and ended with a small square where the stage was located. Countless lights and lanterns illuminated the street packed with colorful folks.

Allowing herself to "get lost" in an energetic yet gentle crowd gave Kieruko a chance to truly appreciate the spirit of the festival. She drifted along with the current of people, observing obviously rigged game booths, a few local artists selling their crafts, and a whole lot of food vendors. Surrounded by the noise of countless conversations and laughter she soaked in the genial ambiance.

She couldn't remember the last time she had a chance to simply exist. Like a passerby instead of an active participant.

It was nice.

Sometime later she purchased a dango and began to cheerfully nib on it while standing on the side when she noticed an abandoned phone lying on the ground. It looked new and when Kieruko turned it on it became painfully obvious it belonged to a middle-aged woman. For one it's wallpaper was a photo of a forty-something lady with distinct magenta hair and two teenagers, one on each side of her. Three of them were proudly standing on the peak of a mountain, both an older woman and younger son grinning to the camera while the other boy was visibly flustered for some reason.

It was a charming picture.

Second, the phone had no code. She almost went straight for the album before remembering that privacy was a thing. The contact list showed the last call was made 30 minutes ago. Finding the owner would be too easy.

So no reason to stress over that.

This would count as hard to trace back, right? In a stroke of "pure genius," she logged on to her burner email and ignored an unread answer. She tapped away happily, only for it to slowly transform into anxiety and lingering concern by the end of the email.

Dear Nedzu,

Not crazy after all.

I think that proves I know the future (unless you think I manipulated somehow both OfA and AfO but that makes me crazy powerful and contacting you would be redundant.)

Actually, I also realized that changing things now could be irresponsible or rather potentially disastrous. So I won't be contacting you in the near future unless this timeline gets spectacularly derailed.

I just kind of became aware I might have doomed us all by writing to you...

Please don't mention/act upon the implications of my existence.

We'll talk again,

Sibyl




Always overthinking.

She really hopes the principal won't do anything drastic as a response. If he even read what she wrote. Wait, there was some sort of reply to the previous email. She checked the response to the first message.




Very well.


The Principal of UA,

Nedzu




???

For some reason, she fully expected an auto-reply. The thought of being ignored, unable to influence the flow of events even if disheartening would bring her solace in knowing she couldn't screw it up.

Besides, what an insane way to answer. Menacing as fuck.

Not wanting to linger on that any longer she dialed the last number. She was answered by a teenage voice and they agreed to meet by the stage. After carefully wiping her fingerprints, still paranoid for some reason, she once again let the vibrant crowd guide her toward her intended destination.

She recognized the merry family from afar. It made her feel slightly bitter as she gave the phone back. And she had to confirm multiple times that no, helping out wasn't a problem, yes, she was not lost and no, she didn't need help.

Thankfully, she had to dive once again into the sea of people and hurry back to the rendezvous point. She was already late.

As to confirm her suspicion of how unpunctual she was, the fireworks began to light up the dark sky. Many turned their gazes up to enjoy the show, consequently slowing down their pace.

Kieruko was going to get the worst scolding when she reunites with legally responsible for her adults but for now, she marveled at the enticing display of pyrotechnics.

Far away behind her, there was one deeper sounding explosion to those of fireworks. She turned around to see a rapidly growing cloud of dust. A hulking figure stood in a hole, the crumbling wall of a building around it. Just a few meters further person clad in purple was slowly rising from the prone position. Collected demeanor indicated they were used to this kind of situation.

"There is only one fate for those who wronged me." Said with disdain man in purple.

People were slowly beginning to notice the commotion.

The massive gray guy roared back. "Brave words considering you won't be more than a smear on the pavement when I'm done with you."

The exchange made Kieruko realize one thing. They were both villains. Engaging in combat in the middle of jam-packed space. She needed to run.

Just as she was turning around, the gray guy fell to his knees and an enormous purple flower sprouted from his back. Dead.


A flash of recognition. She was so incredibly fucked.


Now everyone was moving.

Screams echoed as the crowd began to run in blind panic away from the villains. A writhing mass of hysterical bodies wanting to immediately go in the same direction jammed the only available path. Why was she seeing so much red? Kieruko was barely standing on her feet crushed by frightened tourists. Worst part? They were barely moving forward.

That's when everything went from bad to disastrous.

Cries rapidly began to still one by one. There was so much more space now.

Pain.

Red bloomed all around. Multiple bodies dropped as not only huge plant-like monstrosities emerged but also countless smaller flowers shot out, spearing defenseless victims.

Kieruko fell to the ground as something went through her thigh. Fuck, it hurt. After a flimsy attempt, made of her frantically yanking at a stalk with the durability of a metal cable, she realized it was impossible to pull it out. She had nothing sharp to cut it.

Stuck.

All the struggle was brought to a halt as she felt movement under her skin. Left forearm. Right shoulder. Under right shoulderblade. There was something squirming inside her. No. No no no no nononononononononononononononononononnonononononononnononononononononononononoononononononononononononononononononononononononnonononononononnononononononononononononoononononononononononononononononononononononononnonononononononnononononononononononononoonononononono

She was going to die. She was going to die. She was going to die a gruesome death. She was going to die a pointless death. She was going to die for no reason. She was going to die suffering. She was going to die. She was going to die again. She was going to die. She was going to die. She was going to die. She was going to die.


She didn't want to die.




F o c u s




Emotions were undesirable at the moment.

She needed to act logically.

With fascination, she watched as a small crimson bud broke through the skin on her forearm.

More pain.

She did not have time.



T h i n k



This disaster was a product of a Quirk.

Locate the source.

She looked up to see the man in purple. He was currently talking in an amused tone to the only hero available. Pro was doing his best to attack the villain with his stretchy limbs but he was visibly losing strength. Dark buds springing out of a simple sky-blue costume told everything there was to say.

The villain's name was Kunieda. Quirk: Ability to propagate and control carnivorous plants.

Hero's name: unknown. Quirk: Elasticity (of some kind).

Terrible compatibility in combat.

Plan of action:

Kieruko lay down calmly on the ground, erased the villain's Quirk, and squeezed her eyelids shut.

Just as she hoped predicted, it stopped the plants from growing further. The sounds of survivors' ragged breathing, whimpering, sobbing, and begging for help filled the air. She didn't move.

The choking scent of iron. The expanding pool of warm thick liquid slowly soaking into her clothes. The smooth voice of a villain who was getting closer. It made the dormant part of her mind beg her to move, to run. But she couldn't afford to even flinch.

The villain was forced to fight Quirkless with the badly injured pro. Somehow it evened the odds out.

The plan was simple. Keep Kunieda's Quirk inactive as long as possible, hope that the hero can knock him out, stay hidden in case hero fails, hope reinforcements come as quickly as possible, remain undetected as long as she can. This way even if the villain figures out someone in the crowd is blocking his ability, he'll go after moving suspects first. After all, you have to be conscious to activate most Quirks.

She could hold basic Not Today for around 7 minutes. Recovery time 20 seconds. Those were her safety settings. Today was an exception.

Sounds of combat were ceaselessly approaching as the pressure grew.

Angry howl. "What did you do to my Quirk?"

Migraine achingly settled in, her ears were barely picking up anything besides the deafening sound of pulsing blood, even her eyes were throbbing.

She let go of the connection. Necessary if they're to survive long enough. Roots in her muscles shifted. Focus. It's expanding. Just a moment. One more twitch from the alien organism. This should be enough.

She opened her eyes, and the second villain's head was turned activated Quirk, once again closing them immediately.

A growl of frustration followed.

This was a waiting game with the highest stakes possible. All or nothing.

Kunieda seemed to be capable enough to keep up with Quirked Pro even if the latter was severely weakened. It was taking too much time.

It felt like hours went by.

Where is the backup?

They were too close to her. If she canceled Not Today now, it would be impossible to re-establish the connection without being noticed.

The thoughts were becoming increasingly less coherent as her brain became liquid agony, her eyeballs were screaming for the sweet relief of what was not coming, how long, how long, how-how long?

She felt a stream of warm tears steadily making their way down her face.



N o



Remember.

Pain is preferable to death.

She experienced both before and the permanent deletion from existence was not an option. She had too much to do.

It wasn't "I AM HERE" but a sudden shift in temperature that finally gave her hope. A moment after an audible clash between two forces she let go of her Quirk.

Even with blurry vision, she saw a torch of a man decking the villain.


Endeavor.


Thank fuck the guy was a workaholic and in the area.

As the fight was finally over, the cacophony of human suffering reverberated through the air once again. Moments later first responders began to arrive.

With her leg still skewered she didn't dare to move more than just to sit up. She desperately needed medical attention and really didn't want to be mistaken for a corpse.

When Tenju got his Hero License it seemed like there were countless adventures waiting for him. Now, two years into his official solo career he found himself in a slightly stagnant position.

Even if he was good at his job, and in Tenju's humble opinion he was incredibly effective, there was barely any recognition from both HPSC and the public. So he decided to do a soft restart of his career. A rebranding as it's called.

And while he waited for his friend a marketing specialist to redesign his hero persona, he volunteered to watch over a popular festival in some village that was too small to have an active hero working there. It's not like he was needed anywhere else.

What he could not predict was having to fight an A-class villain for his life. In the least favorable circumstances to exist.

Just his luck.

He immediately recognized there was a low chance of him stopping the villain so he called the high-level emergency immediately on the Hero Network. And that was the best decision he ever made, considering he barely endured long enough for Endeavor to arrive. There were no words that could describe his relief, even if he would feel bitter about it for years to come.

Now here he was, barely standing in the middle of a disaster site. Dozens of people lying on the ground, many of them not moving. And there was just so much red. Not only because of the villain's Quirk but also...

No matter. He's still a pro hero and has a job to do. Helping victims is the cornerstone of his profession. His gaze stopped on a small motionless figure.

Child drenched in blood.

He almost threw up before realizing that they were alive. Just in shock.

He is a hero. This is his vocation.

Tenju approached the kid surrounded by unmoving forms and, oh god they couldn't be older than 10, why are there people in the world who would without any hesitation do such things?

"Are you okay?"

The child twitched as if snapped out of a trance, then pointedly looked at their leg. The sight wasn't pretty. And he didn't have anything to sever the stalk growing out of... a casualty. The kid who began to follow his gaze paled instantly.

No. He was supposed to act professionally.

"Hey, look at me." Thankfully it worked. The pair of dazed black eyes snapped back to him. "Everything is going to be alright." It feels like this line would bear more weight coming out of the mouth of someone who wasn't almost killed a few minutes ago. "What's your name?" Keep the victim engaged, just like in training.

"I think I'm bleeding out." Not exactly what he wanted to hear but it's better than nothing. "Could you find someone to cut the stem thing? I'll be fine...alone." A beat of hesitation. "For a moment."

So maybe he didn't expect the kid to be this composed but it was probably due to the shock. Tenju had to be in a worse state than he thought cause he barely remembered catching the attention of a firefighter (or maybe paramedic?) and in the next moment, he was already in an ambulance with the child and had no memories of how he got there.

He really wasn't a good hero, was he? Almost got killed by a single villain, saved at first by seemingly divine intervention deactivating the villain's Quirk but that wasn't enough, he still needed to be saved by another hero. And he was too injured to even help in rescue except for a single person. How pathetic.

"I'm glad we both survived", whispered a small bandaged figure.

"Me too", he murmured back.

"Kieruko. That's my name."

"I'm Mr. Elongastic."

The sudden bark of laughter startled him.

"That is a terrible name."

A smile slowly crept onto his face. "Hey! It's not that bad", he argued jokingly, starting a playful banter between them. It seemed like they managed to distract each other, even if only for a short while.

She didn't remember a lot from the first few hours in the hospital. When she came to consciousness she was greeted by the worried faces of her parents and information that the surgery was successful (when did that happen?). The doctor said she was going to make a full recovery with just a few scars.

While Seichi hugging her tightly while crying was welcomed and expected, it was a nice surprise to see that Ishiki actually cared. And she did, judging by the just as tight hug accompanied by more tears.

Why can't any relationship be simple?

Convincing her parents that she was fine, she wasn't, and that she didn't remember a thing, she did in vivid details, was a necessity. No need to treat her like a fragile piece of glass or send her to a shrink.

She was going to be just fine after some rest.

It took her a while to realize that besides obvious injuries she still had a pretty severe case of Quirk exhaustion. Might be cause the doctor didn't mention it and whatever pain meds she was on were working wonders. But the familiar memory of a migraine and mild strain to her eyes were still present. Her vision was still slightly blurry. She hoped that wasn't permanent but at least it confirmed her theory. Even if the line of sight wasn't needed to keep it active, her Quirk, in fact, was channeled through the eyes like Aizawa's. So it wasn't exactly a telepathic link like in Seichi's case. Fascinating!

And now she quietly observed as nurses and doctors were running around trying to help as many people as possible. Even hours later there was still a shortage of staff and a surplus of victims in need of medical care.

On the morning news, she will be mentioned as a number. Part of a statistic. Fucking powerless to truly change anything.

...well...

That's not exactly true now, isn't it?

That hero would not survive without her. The number of victims would be higher. She did something.

That was the ironic part. She tries to be just another extra in the background to keep the balance, not changing anything of importance. But she also wants change. When she decides it should happen, on her terms.

The less people know the less will change. Easier to bend fate to her whims when she knows what to expect. That is the easiest way to keep everyone safe. Besides, there is a guaranteed strategy to actually avoid more incidents. She simply should exist around people who she knows will survive next few years.

There is no way she's going to experience this kind of excitement out of her own free will anytime soon.

Slight change of plans.

New list of priorities just dropped.

1. Make sure Kunieda never has a chance to escape Tartarus (slightly personal)
2. Kill All for One if she has to because her heart won't survive Tartarus prison break
3. Do whatever it takes to achieve those two goals

After all, she can and will make the change no matter how hard it's going to be.

It's late. Everyone else has a break from their duties for the duration of summer, leaving the building eerily empty. In the vast office, a small figure illuminated only by the light of the computer screen sighs deeply.

Almost a year ago he received the most intriguing message. A possibility of a person under a Quirk capable of some sort of time-space and/or perception manipulation (the wording was too unusual for it to be their own Quirk). A promise with a vague threat. On itself, it was more amusing than intimidating so he decided to play along with the sender's request.

Tracing the email was a dead end. It led to a library in a village. Mail address was created there and only used once. He chuckled at the password "Iknew¥0Ud_DOthis". Whoever his correspondent was, they decided to hide by using simple methods and outdated technology with no link to any other physical or virtual identity. Basic yet effective.

He filed away the unusual occurrence in the back of his mind and went on with his life.

Then unexpectedly early second message went through. The content of that one was anticipated but still thrilling. He treated it as a green light to check the Prediction and he was not disappointed but disturbed.

When he was informed of All Might's triumph in his fight against All for One, the thought of "one of the biggest victories your allies will achieve" automatically was brought forward. It was only a prediction but he doubted anything more important would happen soon, still, he was content with not opening the mysterious file yet. But now that it was referenced he felt completely justified in satiating his curiosity.

He read the text again.

All Might and All for One will have a battle to the death.
AM performs lobotomy via fist on the AfO.
AM ends up with severe injuries in the hospital +falling out with Sir Nighteye.
(this is a good ending DO NOT CHANGE)

The implications of everything he found out in the last 48 hours were not exactly comforting. 

Nedzu glanced at a bloodstained piece of technology still wrapped in a police evidence bag lying on his desk.

He was able to track the owner of the phone. He was also able to construct the timeline and deduce the message was sent minutes, at best, before the owner was swept up in the villain attack.

Considering the woman was now peacefully waiting on a shelf to be processed out of the morgue, his plans of getting answers directly from her were no longer feasible.

With that, the mysterious future-knowing sender remained anonymous. And hopefully was still alive.

Oh dear.

Chapter Text

She spent a lot of time lately thinking about reincarnation. The first life was good. There was no overwhelming yearning or grand ambitions. Just a quiet content life filled with different kinds of media and sufficient socialization. For some, it was a goal, for others a baseline. Then it was just enough. And then came the reset. Well. That's what she calls the violent accident that ended the first life. In the second one, she was somehow blessed yet again with a great starting point.

After realizing that she was reborn in the world she obsessed over deeply enjoyed the lore of, she decided to participate in the plot. For the first time, she found herself a goal in life. Then her enthusiasm slowly withered off as she realized what the plot conveyed. Even more with Ereaserhead revelation. And the societal issues. And villain attack. The world gradually became a much more rigid and grey place. She was vulnerable, weak, and questioning her life choices. Was becoming a secret puppetmaster of BNHA worth it? Or even possible? Maybe dumping it all on Nedzu was the correct answer.

She didn't have to risk her life in the name of...huh. She didn't want to die or see the people she cared about suffer. Also, the novel experience of seeing the anime from the front row sounded fun. But beyond that? It didn't really matter.

Selfish.

Her reasoning was purely selfish.

She didn't see that as a bad thing. It just put everything else into perspective. Like the fact her mentality was not even close to the one of a typical shounen protagonist. Most of her actions were a product of her curiosity or survival instincts. When one overpowered the other the results were...mixed but in her opinion she managed to keep the healthy balance most of the time. Not exactly a heroic personality.

And now she was left with the question how much she was willing to give to fulfill her little power trip fantasy. She didn't have to be secretive and alone. But she wanted to. This way every change in the world was a product of her actions. It's the closest she'll ever get to divine powers.

How much did she care for her life? Maybe it was a one-time thing or maybe she will be stuck reincarnating time after time after time again and again. Maybe the wisest decision was to just enjoy her life while it lasts, without caring too much about consequences or death.

Selfish.

Would it be that selfish to manipulate them into creating a better ending? Just a different ending. Or maybe derailing it all was the answer. Cutting strings of all the puppets and just letting them flail to their own accord.

But then again.

She had already chosen the path she wanted to follow. 

Kieruko was fine.

Period.

She was still attending school and all of the extra classes. She was still hanging out with her friends. So what if she completely lost the initiative in her irl interactions? She did enough. If the trio planned to do something together she participated. She might have started to spend more time online, talking to strangers about her favorite topics. Hopping from site to site in search of community just as excited about Quirks as her. (Unsuccessfully, why were people just fine with not knowing everything there is to know about evolution-defying mutation?) And maybe she even got into some private server that looked like hero trivia exchange heaven but hosted a lot of conversations of potentially criminal characters.

If she was in a better place mentally she would not make some of the decisions but right now she was in a.. transitional state. No contacting important characters, no changing the main plot, no destroying anything already established in this world (even outside of canon when the domino effect exists). She already let All Might get his crippling injuries why would she risk ruining the plot now by helping Izuku build up his confidence or snitching that grandson of a certain dead pro hero was alive?

So instead she was gossiping with small-time criminals on how to avoid heroes and what kind of trends were moving the local underbelly. Reckless but in the grand scheme of things harmless. Then again she didn't know how she would ever explain to her parents that the only way to cope she found effective, with being almost killed by a high-rank villain, was to chat with less murderous criminals. Still, it was a shit coping mechanism.

She did not leave her house the next summer but a year after her nagging friends managed to drag her out. No one died when they went to the beach or the mall. After all, the plot dictates canon characters had at least a few more years of life in them. Maybe being outside wasn't that dangerous.

As time passed her confidence was slowly coming back.

Toru once again proved that she's the only truly organized person in their group.

"Which middle school are you planning to go to?"

"Eadu," supplies Kieruko without looking up.

"Either Ondero or Nabu Middle School," Mei adds nonchalantly.

"I nearly went with Ondero," gasps Toru. "We could have all gone to different schools!"

"Huh, I guess you're right." Kieruko just chose the closest one with good ratings.

"How can you be so calm! I would be so upset if we didn't go together."

"Sooooooo...what's the plan?"

"Hmmmm." The next few minutes the invisible girl spent searching on her phone. "We all should go with Edau, it has the best commute out of all of them."

"Okay." Pink-haired teen didn't seem to have anything against that choice.

"I mean I already was going to aim for that place."

"But now we go together!"

"Sure."

If somehow those two won't get into the U.A. because of Kieruko's choice of middle school, she'll cry. A lot.

Graduating from elementary didn't feel like an accomplishment. But yeah. She felt absolutely nothing saying goodbye for the last time to those people. Her only hope was to never step into this building again.

One of the baffling choices of the Japanese education system was having the opening day on a Sunday just before the start of the school year.

Kieruko was waiting for her friends in front of the school gate. Technically today was just orientation day but Toru seemed slightly nervous so Mei and her decided to accompany her as much as possible. She was too early. Why. Students were slowly trickling onto school grounds as she scrolled through her phone. Any moment now. She looked up to see a familiar figure.

"Fumi?"

The sudden explosion of darkness formed a bird demon creature in front of her.

"Kieru-chan!" shouted delighted Dark Shadow with claws outstretched.

She received the message. With a thrilled laugh, she jumped into the hug. It was almost crushing her. In a comforting way.

"Dark Shadow! It's so good to see you two. I missed you" she says fondly. It's nice to see birbs once again. She thought they wouldn't see each other for three more years. Honestly, it's great to see she was remembered. Toddlers don't have the best memory. "How have you been?"

"I am pleased that our paths cross again." Puzzled Fumikage froze for a second before softly adding "Kieru-chan." Dark Shadow let go of her.

So he was already in his chuunibyou form. She always wondered what made him embrace the edginess in the first place. Considering he wasn't like that before it wasn't an inherently Quirk-induced personality trait. Just a teenager thing.

"School is boring and Fumi is so shy around people but now we can-"

"Yo! Will you introduce us to your friend?" Mei called out from behind with the invisible girl walking beside her. The whole canon squad was here.

"Of course! The crazy one is Hagakure Toru and the pink one is Hatsume Mei, the greatest inventor in whole Japan. And this is Dark Shadow and-"

This time Kieruko froze. Oh, wait. Technically speaking they never called each other anything else besides childhood nicknames. Huh. So that's why he acted awkwardly before. It must be hard to act aloof and give -chan suffix at the same time. She paused to give him a chance to introduce himself. Fumikage had the gall to actually look her in the eyes without making a single sound. He knew what he was doing. Petty birdboi.

"-Fumi."

"Pleasure is all mine."

Dark Shadow cackled before disappearing.

They were put in the same class and quickly she came to the conclusion that thankfully all of her friends liked each other. Also finally they knew each other's names due to first-day introductions. Then the most genius idea came to her. By the end of the day, she gave Fumikage a piece of paper before briskly walking away.

Toru was worried whenever her friends started to plot something with a mischievous glint in their eyes. She was distressed the next day when Fumikage approached Kieru-chan and they spent the whole lunch animatedly whispering to each other. It was rarely a good thing when her friends hid their plans from her. After all, she was the impulse control of the group and without her interventions, there were a lot more accidents (and explosions in Mei's case).

"Tabletop RPG."

Huh?

"I've given Fumi an idea for a fun game to organize for us all" exclaims loudly Kieruko before whispering to Toru "I've planned to do this before but didn't want to be stuck as a DM" What does that even mean? "And now I found someone who was more than excited to take that position." She chuckled. "Don't worry I'm doing anything stupid, you're going to love it."

Kieruko was not fine. Whatever happened during that summer, it was really bad. At least the first time she had a bad summer the only change was her best friend spending more time with her. Next time she looked genuinely scared most of the time. Not in the obvious way. More of the: flinch at loud noises and look behind when she thought no one was looking way. She said it was a reasonable cautiousness. Toru didn't believe her. But it was okay. Kieruko still would go outside her house with Toru (or Mei) so the trust was there. And she would not disappoint her friend as the most trusted person.

She just needed to support her and be patient.

When she talked about complicated topics like a joke. When she lied to hide her fear. When she looked for excuses to avoid certain places. When she recklessly tested with their Quirks and got injured, Toru helped her hide it. Sometimes she got a grateful look and sometimes a hug from a sobbing mess that her best friend was on bad days.

She would never say it out loud but it was good to feel needed.

Even with the first accident that brought them together, Kieruko's face made it look like the rescue while appreciated was not necessary. Then Kieruko called her a hero. And suggested martial arts. And Quirk training. And always looked at Toru. Even made it possible for others to finally notice her. I made her feel seen, wanted and loved more than ever before. Her life changed drastically for the better. But only hers. Kieruko liked to spend time together but didn't have to. She would be absolutely fine on her own, just doing her thing, probably thinking how her classmates' Quirks worked. And that thought stung.

But now they needed each other. And Toru would prove how much of a great friend she was.

Two weeks later a new party began their journey in a small tavern at the edge of Forgotten Realms. They all met up at Kieruko's house on a sunny Friday afternoon to practice the almost extinct after 150 years art of playing Dungeons and Dragons. Fumikage looked positively elated to act as the Dungeon Master. Dark Shadow was excited to be an active player (half-orc barbarian), Toru spent way too much time deciding her character before going with a pink tiefling bard, Mei saw the artificer class and that was it. Kieruko went with a cleric in the hope of keeping the party alive.

It began a bit awkwardly with them just talking.

Two hours later that was definitely not the problem.

Everyone at the table was screaming in panic.

"How many cultists there can be in one basement!?" 

"Apparently enough to almost kill us all. We need a rest, I'm out of heals."

"I'm at 1hp."

"Me too!"

"And we still have at least one more encounter."

"How did we even survive this!?"

By the end of a session certain keep was finally free of it's unwanted occupants and the ragtag group of barely alive adventurers left it with heavier pouches. Everyone felt emotionally exhausted.

"And now you're level two" announced stoically Fumikage.

The rest of the table groaned.

"We are repeating this next week, right?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Absolutely."

The good thing about indoctrinating your friends to your beliefs is that sometimes they do the work for you, Kieruko noticed during one of the school lunch conversations. 

"We are planning to go to UA. Me and Kieru-chan to Hero Course and Mei to Support. We are learning how to fight, train our Quirks and we'll become the best hero duo ever!"

"And I'll make their babies." Unfortunately, Mei started to call her inventions that.

"I am also considering enrollment into the prestigious establishment that is UA."

"Oh, what kind of preparations do you do?" asked Toru.

The silence told a lot.

"Group training?" Kieruko finally suggested.

Fumikage nodded.

Their first group hero training session was informative. Fumikage's lack of physical training became apparent during spars. In a Quirkless fight, Toru could knock him down in a matter of seconds. Ironically for similar reasons, in a Quirked match, Kieruko would win almost just as fast. (And no, she wasn't as bitter as she could be about being worse at martial arts than a child. Just a little bit.)

"You need to know at least the basics of hand-to-hand. Standing vulnerable makes you much less effective and..." Kieruko's eyes sparkled. "...we should do some tests to find limitations of Dark Shadow."

"Again?"

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

"Perfect, because I've already prepared a list of things to try out."

Same way Tokoyami left the party barely alive after each dungeon, Hiseki with matching ruthlessness and precision judged Quirks.

So maybe Kieruko had a habit of gathering data. But at least it was for the greater good (called her curiosity). And maybe answering dozens of questions wasn't the most thrilling way to spend an afternoon for a kid but there was a payoff. Fumikage in manga mastered many ultimate moves and she gladly gave "suggestions" to the younger counterpart as a thank you. Starting with the-

"I'm flying."

"You're flying!" 

"I've never thought of that."

"That's why giving me info is a great idea." 

"Do you have more of those?" Dark Shadow asked.

"Maybe. I'll share them when you're good enough at staying afloat."

"I do not think there is a reason to stall-" Tokoyami crashed to the ground.

"Daylight" she informed his form splayed out on the ground.

"Daylight" he solemnly echoed.

Kieruko showed the simple sketch. "He should go around you like a suit of armor."

"That could work." It did originally.

Fumikage enveloped in his Quirk looked over himself. "With a cape, it would be possible for Dark Shadow to rejuvenate even during day hours."

Look at him go, making the same decisions as in the first run.

"Yup."

"I don't know how to thank you for all the help."

"Awwww. Don't worry, that's what friends do. And analyzing Quirks is pure dopamine for my brain." As well as making sure you will be well-prepared for the future. Also sorry Hawks, but I'm afraid by the time Fumi gets into UA he'll be competently using all the techniques you were supposed to teach him.

The canon was approaching rapidly and she was running out of time for preparations.

Less than 3 years left till UA.

Chapter Text

Quirkless sparing got boring fast. Thankfully they found a way to spice up training by playing a more advanced version of "Heroes and Villains". Close to Fumikage's house there was a fenced off forested area with enough foliage and an abandoned building deep inside. Now if they were rational, well-behaved kids the "DO NOT ENTER" sign would deter them from going through a hole in the chain-link fencing. But they were excited and needed a space to test some of the stupider bolder ideas Kieruko came up with, far away from sensible adults.

So to the abandoned area they went.

The idea was simple. They would split up into random teams (as much as it was possible in a group of 3) and act out one of the prepared scenarios ("I just compiled the most popular scenarios in usual hero work")

For their first ever game they drew hostage situation with Fumi and Toru as heroes and Kieruko as a villain. She did find some ironic similarities to the first heroic class in BNHA as she put 'tied up' plush bear and rabbit (provided by Hagakure) in one of the rooms in the building. It either never got finished or got 100% stripped of anything but concrete a long time ago. Like many things on the first try, she didn't exactly know what to do so she just stood in a corner, waiting for someone to come.

Not exactly creative or innovative but she was curious how serious were the "heroes" before attempting to actually attack them.

It was quite entertaining that somehow they all were on a similar level even with Fumikage having clearly more combat-oriented Quirk when both Toru (as long as there was enough light around) and Kieruko (it was a long talk before she erased Dark Shadow as a test and thankfully it only "put him to sleep" for the active erasing time) could easily neutralize it.

She activated Not Today the second a pair of footprints appeared on the dusty floor. Her very naked (she needs to do something about that) friend froze in a cartoonish sneaking pose for just a second before they both bolted. Toru towards 'hostages' and Kieruko to tackle the hero. That's why she hadn't noticed the second opponent until Dark Shadow slammed into her with A LOT of force, sending her flying. Auch. She didn't think her friends would be this serious on the first try. Kieruko dropped her Quirk to negate the more pressing danger but before she could do anything a flash of all-encompassing light blinded her.

A few minutes after they ended the exercise, she was finally able to see again. Same for Fumi.

The final results were: the victory of the heroes, with one being untouched, one traumatized Quirk, one hero and one villain still recovering their sight. No broken bones but a few scrapes and bruises were earned in the process.

Kieruko lay on the floor in defeat. "Some things need to change because there is no way we can possibly survive this kind of training long-term."

"...indeed."

"First, Toru you need to wear clothes-"

"I'm okay with-"

"I am not okay with what you were about to say. You either figure out how to make your clothes invisible or ignore the benefits of your mutation in favor of NOT running around buck naked. And that's the other thing! I'm glad none of us pulled their punches but we need basic protection. I'm not getting yeeted by Dark Shadow a second time without some kneepads."

"Understandable."

Toru groaned.

Changes were made.

Knee and elbow pads were obtained.

Turns out that with a huge amount of effort, Toru can make her clothes almost perfectly invisible. As a compromise, she wore a T-shirt and shorts (which was not enough in Kieruko's humble opinion) during their group exercises.

At least once a week they met in their illegal area as they tested more combat ideas. Unanimously their favorite became free for all capture the flag when it came to games training because it was one of the few times when they all were on an even field. Besides, more time was spent training their Quirks. Fumi and Dark Shadow were slowly discovering all of their canon moves while Toru with a dash of inspiration came to some disturbing ideas for special moves of her own.

Flashbang was already her specialty ever since she rediscovered her Quirk but now she wanted to expand on her ability by shooting condensed light straight at the opponent's eyeballs. Kieruko talked her out of that one.

The other special move, dubbed Lights on! Lights out! was an expansion of the previous idea. She still blinded opponents as the Lights on! part and then knocked them out as the Lights out! component. Apparently, it's possible to knock out a person if you punch them in the right place. And it's very hard to avoid fists you don't see coming. For some reason, there were no volunteers to help Toru with her new technique.

Also while educating herself on the properties of light was an obvious choice given the nature of her abilities it became apparent that Toru was more than excited to recreate starting fires with the magnifying glass. But with her Quirk. They brought a fire extinguisher for that.

The meetings became even more chaotic after Kieruko mentioned them during one of the D&D sessions because of course the chaotic inventor gremlin always needed a secluded space to test her babies.

So maybe she didn't accept her failures as gracefully as she should.

To be fair it would be upsetting for anyone with an ounce of pride to lose a fight to children on a semi regular basis. On one hand, it was understandable she wouldn't magically become superior to a girl with the same amount of training in martial arts or a boy with a birb demon. Still, in a few years, she would face against actual villains. It didn't feel like she was doing enough.

So Kieruko decided to make more dumb decisions in her life. Like asking a dude, she was pretty sure was an underground broker and a criminal, if he had any contacts in her area for a guy who could teach how to fight, no question asked. As in the street fighting, dirty stuff that helps you avoid being stabbed in a back alley. And she got a contact! For an equivalent of corn chip in the info exchange business.

When she sneaked out to meet the guy she didn't even worry. Then she realized it was almost midnight and she is in a fucking abandoned warehouse with a random adult and yet she somehow felt less stressed than when she wrote any of her messages to Nedzu.

Guy looked to be in his 40s, built like a brick house with short black hair and stubble. Even without a scar across his face, he would look like a skilled combatant. And Kieruko's expertise was shit considering she sparred exclusively with children. But she could see it regardless.

Also. This was stupid. She's 12 with her allowance in the pocket and the guy could probably kill her with a single punch. Suddenly her asking a hypothetical villain for a hypothetical teacher with fighting skills no questions asked seems silly. This probably qualifies as self-destructive behavior. If she survives this meeting she just might go and talk to a therapist after all. Terrible idea. Abort the mission. She needed to find an excuse to back out.

"You're a kid." Gruff voice welcomes her.

"The deal was no questions asked." But for now, she should at least look sure of herself. Like she knows what she's doing.

"Kid, why do you want to learn how to fight?" Before she opened her mouth he continued. "And that's not even to mention how risky was coming here. Forget street fighting, you need basic street smarts."

True. Rude.

But. He seemed off-putted by her appearance. Made his features look a bit softer. Maybe he has a child of his own? Which would be perfect for her to find an excuse and skedaddle back home to rethink her life choices. Back to acting tough.

"I'm already in danger. Learning self-defense sounds like a good idea." Please tell me to go home.

Man's stern look faltered, "I won't teach you anything except basic combat." You're kidding me.

Well, her last resort. She put her hands in the pockets of the jacket while looking down at her shoes. "I can't pay much." Perfect show of childish naivete. The guy made a face.

What the fuck was that look about? NO. No no. It looks like pity (good) and resigned acceptance (bad, very bad).

"Listen, kid, when Giran" How could her luck be this bad? "told me that some wannabe vigilante" How in the everloving fuck did the guy come up with that conclusion? "is probably gonna get themself killed unless someone teaches them basics I expected at least a high schooler." So this is a rejection after all. "But" Fuck. "you are also a known informant." What? She is? Since when? "It's not a bad idea for you to know how to defend yourself." This is ridiculous. "And you can pay in useful information." To be fair the whole situation is 100% her fault.

The "...sure..." that came out of her mouth did not convey her supposed enthusiasm well.

"Call me Master." No.

This interaction went off the rails enough that she gave up and decided might as well go through with this bullshit.

Kieruko might be not as fine as she claims to be.

There were countless reasons to suspect that. One of them was her weekly meetings with a sus military guy who would teach her how to fight. The one-strike takedowns and surprise attacks mostly with some classing sparring. Usually in a brutal manner. It was surprisingly fun but she had to also learn how to hide a plethora of bruises from others.

Despite knowing it was not a smart thing she continued to show up for weekly sessions. It finally felt like she was learning something useful.

"You already know basic hand to hand."

"I ain't effectively defending myself with some karate chops with my impressive height of a child. I need to learn how to actually fight."

"Alright, kid. Watch closely." Master gives her a feral grin.

Ishiki was rarely home (probably working on some evil shit) and Seichi...while he did make enough time to have at least one bonding activity every week, he was almost just as swarmed with work as his wife. It was weird to have so little contact with her parents in this life.

Kieruko was more than okay with D&D sessions taking place in her home to at least temporarily fill up the emptiness.

She didn't even need a good excuse to drop gymnastics. Seichi just withdrew her without a single question. It gave her more time to spend digging up useful info on the private chats and forums.

"Is that a knife?!"

"Criminals more often than not use some kind of weapon in a fight. It's not always Quirks, ya know kid?"

"So you are going to attack me with a knife?"

"It's a training one. Can't harm you with it. And you should know how to use one."

"Thank you for teaching me how to avoid being stabbed but also how to stab a guy." She deadpans still out of breath. "I sent you all the relevant info on Trigger routes I could find."

"You knew nothing about it two weeks ago when I asked."

"And then I did some sleuthing. Apparently, many dealers are dumb enough to just write a thinly veiled text about fun drugs they have on sale. Also found a few contacts on Deluge and Sugar Dew if you're interested. But yeah, it's not that hard when people think you are a contact, broker, or something and they want to find clients. Then you just connect names and locations with organizations and bam! You end up with enough data to find needed details." She had quite a challenge with figuring out a few of the Chinese suppliers but her technologically inclined friend-

"You are an info broker. People expect you to deal in information." He sounds vaguely amused.

So some say.

How the fuck talking to people online ends up with her having a reputation? She's really bad at the whole not messing with people thing.

"Yeah, so maybe don't mention it's from me when you'll inevitably go and confront those guys."

During the "Heroes and Villains" game in October, she overpowers Toru in a direct 1-vs-1 fight. For the first time in a while.

It's an exhilarating feeling.

Toru does look dejected after the fact.

"Don't worry, you're still better at martial arts. I just picked up a few tricks from a more practical source" Kieruko consoled her friend.

"Is that a GUN!?"

"I feel a strange Déjà vu kid."

"I feel like you've been strangely upping the lethality of our lessons lately."

She's met with a thoughtful 'hmmm' and nothing else. The cold metal shine of the barrel screams death.

"Sometimes I get the feeling you might not actually understand how much you know and that one day someone dangerous might target you. It's better for you to know more than less ways to defend yourself. That's why you wanted me to teach you in the first place, right?"

"...right."

Hiseki Kieruko looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't have a habit of doing that.

The young teen with wide dark eyes, pale complexion, and chest-length black wavy hair looked back at her. Dark bruising under the eyes was relatively new.

Even after all those years, it didn't feel exactly real.

She watched again the Eraserhead video traded by a "friend".

And then looked over a few okay quality photos of him she could find.

Too similar.

Aizawa Shota was a cool character she enjoyed watching on the screen.

Her uncle was a stranger she never had the chance to meet. As much as Ishiki seemed to hate the guy and see way too much of him in her daughter, Kieruko had no deeper feelings. It sucks that her mom with that shit reasoning continued to avoid her but it wasn't Aizawa's fault. And it was unreasonable to blame a stranger for that mess. So she reserved her right to stay neutral about him for the moment.

But similarities did annoy her sometimes. Both quirk and looks. She liked the character. It was funny to quote his dumb logic. But Kieruko had no plans on becoming Eraserhead 2.0 even while aiming to attend U.A. She wanted to be her own person with her own style and personality. Deeply traumatized hobo ninja was not it. Shame she liked dark and comfy clothes but sacrifices had to be made.

"You never asked about sparring with Quirks."

"Neither did you."

"I can give you some pointers if you would lik-"

"No need."

"Seems to be a touchy subject for you, kid."

"It's not, just... with my Quirk what we do already is the most effective."

"If you say so."

"Besides, I'm not revealing this kind of identifying info to some suspicious dude. What even brought this up?"

"You look familiar."

No, she doesn't. There are two family members she could be compared to and the circumstances of meeting either of them are wildly different. Somehow she doubts he has a kid with unusual Quirk in need of counseling considering he's in contact with Giran. And she really doesn't want to know the circumstances under which he met with Eraserhead."

"That's one way to call my face plain, old man."

"How well do you know your heroes?"

"Quite well."

"What do you know about O'clock?"

Oh fuck. She looked at the Ma-Knuckleduster with sudden wariness. How did she miss it? Of course, it's him. The scar and knee bracer and Sky Egg incident months ago, and now it makes sense. The probability of finding yourself in the middle of every problem possible should not be that high. AND YET.

"He retired few years ago." How much to reveal? She actually heard some interesting rumors beyond the plot of "Vigilantes" now that she thinks about it. "There are rumors of a new criminal with eerily similar Quirk. Some say they are related, others that they have student-mentor relationship."

"And you?"

"It's strange that only one person at the time can be seen with this ability."

"Hmm."

Hmm indeed. She could reveal so much more but also why make a target that she somehow painted on her back even bigger?

"What do you want to know, Master?" She never used that stupid title but also they never exchanged any kind of names with each other.

"How much do you know about that new villain?" with pure disbelief on his face the older man asks.

She tells him about places he's been noticed, people she knows he talked to, and a very familiar scar across his face. In a few sentences, she mentions multiple Quirks, a very influential benefactor and wisdom in not interacting with whoever associates with an ancient Quirk-stealing boogeyman of the underworld. "Then again I do understand that you want to take responsibility for the guy who kills while showing off your Overclock."

Oguro Iwao known as a former High-Speed Hero: O'Clock and current vigilante Knuckleduster stares at her with an unreadable expression.

"You really know way too much for your age kid." Well technically- "This was our last meeting." Huh, kinda unexpected. "Don't trust people so easily" it was boredom and frustration combined with a severe lapse in judgment that she regretted immediately "and remember you are, in fact, an informant." Bruh, she just mentioned AfO and Master said nope immediately. Fair. But also... "You know enough now and can learn rest on your own."

Yeah, yeah, the last act of your own storyline awaits.

Knuckleduster reaches for his coat and pulls an item which he then presents to Kieruko.

"That's a knife" she states flatly.

"You don't sound too surprised." Oh, she is surprised. Maybe a bit too exhausted to emote it right now.

"It's better than a gun for sure. I just realized you never used brass knuckles in front of me." She took the combat knife. Older man shoots her one last look before putting his coat on.

"Take care kid." 

"Take care of yourself old man."

Vigilante walked away.

It was late evening after one of the D&D sessions at Kieruko's house. Ten minutes after finishing everyone winded down and began to gather their things to go back home.

Except for Mei who just put her head on the table, barely staying awake.

"Want to stay for the night?"

Nod.

"Okay, just give me a moment to say goodbye to the rest of the gang."

Minutes later when she came back to take care of her guest, Mei spoke up. "We need to talk."

For some reason, while it was her idea to make friends with each other, they didn't really bond that much. It was a bit sad as Kieruko really liked Hatsume in the manga and they didn't manage to really get to know each other.

Mei looked unusually serious.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I know you're a time traveler."

Well.

Shit.

"What?"

"I knew since our first meeting."

WHAT?!

"I heard you announcing me as the future CEO of Hatsume Industries on that day in the cafeteria but it's something I never said out loud at that point. It was one of a few ideas I had for a name for my company and haven't decided at that point."

Oh, she's dumb.

"And you don't even hide your speech patterns or weird knowledge. How you knew some random hero will get into top 10 in less than a year after his debut. Not a single person thought All Might was hurt. And you knew chocolate is my favorite."

"...people don't need supernatural events to figure out the last one."

"But you didn't deny the rest! So why are you here?"

Why is she here?

Too tired to find a good lie excuse. Besides, time travel is already not exactly true. Well. Technically, she did travel to another world over a hundred years forward in time. Into a manga/anime. Fucking wild. But her accusation was that she was sent back. Huh, maybe she got gifted with an okay excuse after all.

"You got me."

"Really?"

"Yup." That made them both pause for a second. "What now?"

"Why did you go back?"

It wasn't a choice on her part, really. But. This was her chance to gain an ally who would put faith in her unexplainable choices with the argument 'I know the future, trust me, bro'. If she just sold it in the right way.

"Future is fucked." Truth. "In a bit more than two years bad things are going to begin happening, good people will die, cities will be razed to the ground." Not a lie. "And I know what needs to be changed so the tragedies won't happen again." Wishful thinking.

That silenced the young inventor.

"I'm not exactly strong, as you know time traveling is not my Quirk so the only thing I can do is quietly apply small changes and make a few deals behind closed doors so as to not disturb this timeline too much. There is a reason for that."

"Butterfly effect," Mei said with widened eyes.

"Exactly."

This should be good enough, right? Excuse why she didn't disclose too much and Mei will fill the gaps herself.

"So if you reveal that to the others-"

"I won't."

THANK FUCK. That would ruin years of planning.

"Thanks."

"I want to help you." There was a look of pure determination behind those words.

This is it. She just gave away all of her karmic points for the bad stuff that happened in this life to redeem a favorable opinion of Hatsume Mei. What an amazing chess piece.

Chapter Text

Kieruko was becoming nervous.

She wanted to check if any events changed but she didn't have a lot of information on the og timeline before except for a few flashbacks shown in the canon content. It made her take a double take when she realized that somehow anything BNHA-related was stuck in her brain in an unnervingly perfect state. She didn't remember what she had for breakfast two days ago but the fact that Vlad King owns a dog, Sero Hanta's favorite foods, or Midnight's birthday date were right there if she ever needed it for anything. Great memory was not a thing before reincarnation. Or after actually.

It's best to ignore some things.

But with every scrap of knowledge available she monitored the hero scene as well as she could. It was easy considering the amount of media coverage. With access to the internet, she was able to keep tabs on the state of publicly known characters. As to future members of the Hero Course, she knew the names of a few schools they attended and there was a questionable plan forming in her head.

That's when she realized how little free time she had between extracurriculars, game nights, hanging out, and training with friends. She couldn't even cut the amount of after-school activities because Toru would drag her back to the muay thai lessons the second she tried to not participate in them (might be connected with the fact that while Toru excelled, it was hard for her to spar and learn without make-me-visible cheat code present).

So Kieruko didn't manage to free her schedule. But it was still enough for her to start the stalking observation campaign. It wasn't anything bad, just making sure her existence didn't harm anyone by accident, she rationalized in her head. 

While it was impossible for her to get to the Salty Banks Middle School in a timely manner on school days, there was an online site where the newspaper club regularly published articles. After a few months, she managed to notice in one of the photos Asui Tsuyu. Thankfully. Otherwise, she had to choose between living in uncertainty or skipping school to stalk a frog girl living one prefecture away.

She decided that raiding Somei Private Academy in Tokyo was unnecessary to check on Iida Tenya. The guy was related to a public figure so if anything bad happened there would be coverage and there wasn't, she checked frequently. Same with Todoroki and Yaoyozuru.

The easiest were local schools.

She only had to do the 'inconspicuously standing some distance away and looking for the targets characters' thing a few times before confirming that Kirishima Eijiro and Ashido Mina were alive and enrolled in Mustafa Private Middle School.

It felt like getting too close to the Aldera could end up with a world-ending butterfly effect. So she decided to ignore it at least until chapter 1 of MHA. Besides their training place was already too close to it for her comfort.

And then there was her chosen stalking ground for today. Nabu Middle School.

For once, she even had a good excuse.

Good enough at least.

On an unrelated note.

Most subjects in school while still not challenging were a relatively novel experience (she kept repeating to herself) for one reason or another. But English. It was rough. In the first class of middle school, she might've had a small argument with the teacher about one thing or another. Doesn't matter. What does matter is that the guy could not deal with the fact that a random kid for no good reason was better than him. One lesson into what would probably become three years of subtle sabotage Kieruko might have gone with the nuclear option. She might have sweetly asked her teacher if he had any English proficiency certification and on what level. Then she might have with the help of her parents get the same certificate but one level higher. And then maybe, just maybe, she got herself excused from continuing to attend English classes after getting full marks on 3rd year mock test the principal gave her.

Now, at the beginning of the second year, she was still free of that annoyance.

Which meant that on Fridays she finished early and had time to do her surveillance side-quest.

Nabu was the easiest one so far in the sense that there was a bakery across the street and Kieruko could eagerly pick pastries for their game night while overseeing the school gates. No sign of the guy. Shame. But last time it also took her a few times before confirming the target so she didn't feel too discouraged.

Her phone rang as she started to walk towards the closest train station.

"I have terrible news." Toru's voice was raw with emotion.

"Did someone die?"

"Mei said she's too busy with her newest baby to play tonight."

"But." Her mind screeched to a halt. "But we are doing a dungeon crawl."

"I know."

"Fumi won't lower the difficulty."

"I know."

"We are all going to die."

"I know."

"Don't you have friends in our class? Can't you just invite someone?"

"Neither Utsuku-chan or Ryu-chan wanted to and the rest left before I could catch them."

"We could play a normal board game instead."

"Mei wants to permanently remove herself. Fumi plans to kill us all. He sounded unusually excited when discussing TPK."

"Ah, so we're fucked."

"Can't you ask someone?"

"Who? I'm picking up muffins in another ward. Should I just ask a random stranger on the streets?"

"Yes!"

"You're way too emotionally attached to...fine." The things she does for her best friend. "I'll ask one random person, they'll say no and then we all die in a battle tonight."

Kieruko looked around before locking onto the victim. She was already apologizing in her head.

Hitoshi with mild amusement listened as a random kid was freaking out over a missing member in some online game they were playing with their friends.

Maybe he should try one of those MMOs everyone seems to gush about.

Still, it was a surprise when a figure suddenly turned around and after few people around looked directly at him.

"Hi there stranger!" The same voice called him in a more bubbly tone. "Do you have plans today?"

"...no" he answered stunned.

He didn't exactly have friends and no one waited for him in the apartment.

"That's great! What would you say to spending a few hours in amazing company provided with free food and beverages?"

WHY WERE THEY TALKING TO HIM?

People don't engage in idle chats with him...but if someone didn't know about his Quirk then maybe...

He really should say no to a stranger offering to take him to a secondary location. But Hitoshi would have to lie if he had to say that the proposition didn't sound too good to be true. Besides it seemed they were similar if not the same age. 

"Sure?"

Astonishment flashed across the stranger's face for a split second.

"No backing out now purple guy." With that, he was grabbed by hand and guided towards train station. In bewilderment, he thought this must be how people feel under Brainwashing.

Hitoshi began to doubt the existence of his decision making skills.

Shinso was currently standing next to her watching on her phone with headphones Toru giving probably less than optimal explanation of how "Dungeons and Dragons" worked. While they were riding in the train to Kieruko's house. The craziest timeline.

She still didn't know what possessed her to talk to Shinso. She found him and confirmed his safety but instead of doing the normal person thing (leaving him alone) she just kidnapped the poor confused kid.

Good thing she only had a habit of pestering background characters otherwise this could be disastrous.

She tapped the boy when they were about to arrive at their stop.

He shot a quick "thank you"  to his invisible guide before handing the phone back to Kieruko when they exited the train.

"I want to thank you for doing this." Shinso just looked at her. "Out of pure curiosity, how much did you get about the rules?"

"It's not an online game. And I'm playing as a...rouge?"

Good enough.

She probably should fill the quiet with something.

"If you really hate this feel free to just go back to whatever was your original plan for today. This may be better than proving Toru right about how easy is to befriend strangers. I cannot match her energy, patience, or charm to survive her usual dose of socialization."

That was an understatement of the year. Toru liked meeting new people and she was good at socializing.

Sentiment that was not shared by the rest of their group.

Fumi was fine with talking to the three of them, Mei was too busy with her inventing to care, and Kieruko... The only reason she even approached her current friends was because they were canon characters. That was the only incentive to interact with them at the beginning. Now, she was okay with hanging out together but she would not go out of her way to spend even more of her free time with just some random brats.

But right now it was up to her to be the sociable one so for the full 15 minute walk they drowned in awkward silence.

When they arrived at the destination, the front door swung open as she was looking for the correct key.

...

"I didn't know my parents were home."

Kieruko used her Quirk at the not-quite-empty space in front of her and Toru popped into existence. "Oh, they aren't. We let ourselves in with the spare key."

"That's on me for hiding it in way too obvious spot. Doesn't matter. This is Hagakure Toru our resident social butterfly and a burglar, apparently."

"I didn't steal anything!"

"And yet my sanity is gone somehow. For the second half of the introduction, that's..."

"Shinso Hitoshi."

"...a guy you told me to kidnap." Kieruko ignored the choking sound behind her. "He's purple and has a nice voice so it should be fine."

The rest of the introductions went in a more coordinated manner.

"Very long and convoluted story short, world ending cult wants to bring a reality-devouring deity to our plane of existence, it's a huge conspiracy, and we are trying to stop it. Right now we are collecting shards of some legendary sword that can stop them from succeeding according to the cool mysterious wizard. Today we are raiding a labyrinth containing second to last shard. Did I forget anything?"

"It's our moral duty to seduce every frog-like person." ("It is NOT Toru.")

"Clowns are carnivorous." ("Dark Shadow please.")

They survived the session. The young green dragon did not.

Kieruko was amazed at how quickly everyone seemed to adjust. Shinso was a big gamble. He wasn't exactly a friendly trusting type of character so even if she tried to interact with him, there was no expectation that he'll respond in kind. But now he was here, almost smiling and she had an ambition to make him more than one of the protagonist's many distorted reflections.

"Well, I had fun. Unless anyone has something against it I would like to invite you to our weekly sessions."

"He does have a nice voice so I would say he gets absorbed into our squad, no questions asked."

"Toru's right, now he's one of us!" Dark Shadow chimed in. Fumikage nodded.

"People have spoken. If you'd like, feel free to hang out with us more often." Shinso looked at them intensely, not saying anything. "Game nights are usually on Fridays, most of the other days we meet up to do training for UA or just school stuff."

"You're training to get to UA?" There is that spiteful look she anticipated.

"Yeah, mostly just sparing with each other."

"You said I'm part of the group now."

"If you want to."

"I do." Shinso balled his hands into fists. "I want to train with you."

Man, she didn't have to even convince the guy, her life was just that easy. "I'll write down details in the group chat. This is going to be a treat." Then again, she had quite a good guess on what was going through his head.

[Eye of the Beholder] welcome to our chat

[Eye of the Beholder] until we find something good ur stuck with the most basic nickname

[Artificer IRL] so this is who you are replacing me with

[Eye of the Beholder] you're irreplaceable Mei<3

[Invisible stalker] during campaign tho...

[Artificer IRL] HEY >:(

[Invisible stalker] you ditched us first >:((

[Aara-caw-cra] welcome

[Artificer IRL] I need all the babymaking time I can get

[Invisible stalker] at the cost of our friendship </3

[Eye of the Beholder] don't worry about that

[Artificer IRL] I will let you test all my babies from now on so we can have extra bonding time :D

[Eye of the Beholder] we have closest training dates tomorrow and Monday

[Invisible stalker] on second thought I'm fine with current situation

[Human man] tomorrow is fine

[Eye of the Beholder] ayyyyy

[Eye of the Beholder] get ready:)

Kieruko was positively giddy from the get-go and that made the rest take a step back. After a warm up Shinso had a spar with Toru to gauge his abilities. Considering the girl folded him like a lawn chair they weren't exactly earth-shattering.

"How much effort are you ready to put into this?"

"What?"

"I'm asking because I can help you with training and planning but it's going to be your effort. You'll have to do all the work and work much harder than any of us. Neither Toru nor I have a physical Quirk but we trained since we were six. And Fumi also trains with us despite having Dark Shadow who could pass the entrance exam even now." She gave him an even look. "The question is what do you want and how much you'll be ready to endure. I can just give you some basic fitness routine, dojo recommendation or I could make you an actually effective combatant in less than two years if you sacrifice enough of your time and effort."

She counted on his bruised ego to urge him to say something prideful.

"I'll do anything." Perfect.

She gave him her best Cheshire Cat grin. "Oh, I'll make sure of that."

Having a student was great, she decided. Shinso didn't seem to share that belief.

"Are you still serious about it?"

"Considering I'm still faithfully sticking to the crazy training regime you drew out, I would say: yeah."

"Then we should be on our first-name basis taking into account how much time we're about to spend together. And please stop being dramatic about doing simple cardio."

"I'm not dramatic, Kieruko. You just have inhumanly high standards. You all have."

They do.

"Anyways, I know it might feel frustrating but as soon as we get some muscle on ya, you can safely join us in the part where Dark Shadow is one of the opponents in close-quarter combat."

Shinso shuddered. "After seeing one of your Quirked sparring matches, I'm fine with not getting to that part yet."

"Good call. Besides, it seems like you don't have a combat Quirk so you definitely should put all your heart into physical training. Oh! If you're going to fight Quirkless ask Mei for a weapon that would mesh well with the style you're aiming for. I don't know a lot about that so you have to rely on your own research. Probably having more than one thing would be wise."

"You're already teaching me."

"I am, my dear student, ("Not your student.") however the arsenal of skills and tricks I acquired is but my own. I could share some of them beyond what I'm already showing you but even if something works for me, it might not always work for you."

"What you're saying is that I have to think for myself and make my own choices. Terrible."

"Exactly, although for now less thinking, more running. Chop chop."

Time passed, everyone enjoyed light training on one of the last warm days of the year. 

"Today is a lecture day."

Shinso splayed on the ground, heavily panting shook his head. "This is entrapment."

"Nah, today is a fun one. Actually fun enough where I think rest of the squad might consider staying."

"You are doing hero update!" called Toru with a sudden surge of energy.

"Well, I'm doing basics and an update because of my student."

"Not a student."

She ignored her student in denial. "So, are you staying or nah?"

"I wouldn't mind sitting in on it for a while," said Tokoyami while Toru just nodded.

"When you think 'Pro Hero' what comes to your mind?"

"All Might?" Shinso asked.

"Pffft, why the questioning tone? Yes, you are correct, he is the symbol of what modern heroes strive to represent and the prime example for the first category. Spotlight Heroes! Combat kind. Also there are Rescue Heroes like Thirteen. Both are self-explanatory. The ones you see on the screens and on your cereal every day. They participate in Hero Billboard rankings, yell out loud special moves, have colorful costumes, and tons of merch. Classic stuff. You know what I'm talking about. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Underground Heroes."

"I've heard of those."

"Oooooh, tell me more."

"...I know they exist."

"Righto. That they do. One of the main things about them is the lack of public acknowledgment so that checks out. The main thing is that they are not publicly announced by the media, don't strive to be recognized, work more with organized crime and long-term cases, or anything that would not be pretty enough to be shown on TV, really. Often patrol at night or incognito, have more practical than flashy Quirks, and take on undercover missions. As an example for this category, I present:"

It became obvious this was the part of the monologue the speaker was most excited about.

"Our local Pro, The Erasure Hero: Eraserhead!"

Kieruko pulled out her phone to show a few videos of his fights (that were not quite legally obtained) as she ranted about fighting styles matching Quirks, using the environment in combat, and support items. Shinso's mask of indifference slipped as he watched in pure fascination a black and grey blur absolutely destroy three goons in some dank alley.

Judging by awestruck look Aizawa just earned himself a diehard fan. It seems some things are a constant in every universe.

"So this 'lecture' turned into a presentation showing off Eraserhead," quipped Toru. Perhaps this was not the first time Kieruko was talking about that particular Hero. 

"Hush, I needed to study him for reference. And so what if I think it's kinda cool to have a Pro Hero uncle with basically the same Quirk? Besides, I'm pretty sure he does not even know I exist so he's just a stranger with similar abilities at best."

"If you say so," Fumi teased her.

"I haven't noticed at first but you do look similar." Nope, please Shinso don't. 

"Oh, yeah. There is also the in-between, the so-called Twilight Heroes." Kieruko changed the subject. "Those who despite being public figures still do underground work to some extent, usually help in cases where their Quirks or skills are useful and they can investigate without being recognized. Great examples are Sir Nighteye who despite being All Might's (ex)sidekick wears a costume so generic people often don't recognize him, and now retired O'Clock who was good at working in disguises." In fact, he was so good she didn't recognize the motherfucker until he asked her about himself.

"Now the update. In local news, Airjet, Backdraft, and Death Arms are still the most basic bitches with no creativity. Kamui has steadily grown in popularity ever since that documentary came out and now he spends even more time on patrols in the central part of the city.

On the underground scene, our beloved Gray Ibis finished moving her business down to Osaka, Brass Sentinel still brutally neutralizes anything even slightly suspicious in the area of West Musutafu, and Eraserhead, as always, terrorizes ruffians in the central part of the city.

In Tokyo Starstrike went MIA and the lack of any public announcements does not bode well.

Speaking of Tokyo Heroes I've finally figured out Astrobolt's Quirk and...and I will explain it to anyone interested in that topic after the update, please stop glaring at me."

"What about-" Toru began piping in. Ever since last Hero Billboard she got herself a big celebrity crush on Hawks.

"I can send you links to accounts of people who do all the hard work of gathering all available data and photos like good little fans that they are but that guy does too much for me to personally track him." 

"Thanks."

"No problemo. Now onto the villains.

To the surprise of no one, competent criminal organizations continue to avoid our city like the plague. Which is understandable.

There are rumors that the Niigata smuggler situation is getting better- or worse depending on what side you're on. They are getting better at their job of hiding and transporting cargo. Which makes local dealers not so happy. But with the explosive growth they're catching the eye of some hero any day now.

Stain killed Fissionist. There were signs of embezzlement if that makes anyone feel better.

It is the third week since Frozen Edge successfully escaped Jeanist's grasp. The trail went officially cold (hah) and I can confidently say she got away with that robbery.

Honorary mention to the Dazzler." There was something incredibly funny about watching Endeavor's fight against a man who decided to become a villain with his superb glitter summoning powers. He even had a fancy homemade costume and chose a name! "Shame he was on the news for only two minutes. His performance immensely improved my day." And ruined Flame Hero's chances of not sparkling for the next few weeks.

"That would be it for today."

Toru and Fumi went home as Shinso was sitting still, slightly dazed.

"That was a lot."

"I know but as much as I'll always support my friends' ambitions, I still want them to keep in mind how dangerous their dream profession is. Thankfully they understand and appreciate it. Aaaaand this is like the only time I can show off my awesome info gathering skills."

"I thought you were a Quirk, not Hero enthusiast."

"Unfortunately, the Venn diagram of high-quality recordings of Quirk use and high-quality recordings of heroics is basically a fucking circle. And I do want to specialize in intelligence as a Pro Hero hopeful myself. So it's three birds with one stone."

For a few minutes, they sat in silence, enjoying the light breeze.

"I know Toru hasn't presented you with her ten-year plan for our future hero agency yet, and yes by our I mean every single person in the group chat. Nevertheless, do you have an idea what are you aiming for?"

"I do. With my abilities, I'll do best as an Underground Hero." Hitoshi dispassionately looked ahead. "At least that's the plan for now."

She anticipated that answer. "Sounds rational. And if you ever have any doubts and need someone to talk about it, I'm here."

"Thank you."

After one of the first group training sessions went a bit too long Shinso stopped by Kieruko's house to take a shower and then stayed for dinner too. Understandable, after all, he lived further away than anyone else. So it wasn't a surprise when it happened again next week. And twice the week after that. Next week, he was so exhausted he almost collapsed after dinner so like a good friend Kieruko offered a spare futon for a night. After that occurred one more time she lost her patience.

"Hitoshi, my friend, my great friend. I am a paragon of hospitality when it comes to guests, I really am. Unfortunately for you, this has to end."

She glanced at Shinso. He looked unusually pale for some reason.

"At this point, you've gained the status of my part-time roommate, congratulations! Bad news, you have to help me at least a little bit with chores if you plan to continue to stay here this much. Starting with peeling those damn vegetables. We are making curry tonight!" In a dramatic flourish, she handed him the tool needed for the job.

He grabbed the peeler and began clumsily peeling a potato. "You're not mad at me."

"I'm not. Why would I be?"

He hummed in response.

She steered clear of the obvious landmine of a topic. "Is this the first time you're using a peeler?"

"...yeah, how did you know?"

"Because you're butchering that poor potato. Please let me show you how it's done."

"You're making it look so easy." It was really easy.

"Practice makes perfect."

"Are you always making dinner?" Since when Shinso participate in small talk? 

"Not really, dad is going to be late tonight and I wanted to show I appreciate him. Plus now that I have an unpaid worker it would be a waste to not use him." She beamed at him. Hitoshi looked thoughtful. She had no idea what was going through his head.

"You know, when I originally decided to be a hero my thought process was 'I'll prove them wrong through sheer determination and spite.'"

"Huh." She knew that.

"Then after meeting you, I realized how much effort goes into attempting to get into a highly competitive, physically demanding field."

"Yeah."

"Do you know what my Quirk is?" So they were discussing an emotional topic after all.

Yes.

Some lies will always feel heavier.

"I didn't know when I kidnapped-we met for the first time. Now that we spend some time with each other, I would say something mental, Emitter type probably, maybe voice based? We are friends so it would be rude to discuss it if you're not comfortable with it. But I am a Quirk nerd so I did some theorizing in my head. Sorry," for not being honest.

Shinso hesitated.

"...it's Brainwashing."

"Okay."

"Okay? Okay? That's your reaction?"

To be fair it wouldn't be exactly sincere to feign surprise. "I mean, I'm really curious about the mechanics of it but I didn't want to be insensitive when it's obviously a difficult subject for you."

"Huh."

"The name itself is vague so I'm not sure what it does..."

"I can command anyone who answers my question," smirked Hitoshi.

"Fun. How long can you wait before activating your Quirk? How long can you hold onto a person? How many people can you hold onto? How complex can be your commands? Are those interpreted by you or your target? Do people remember what they've done under your influence? Can you actually brainwash people or is your Quirk mislabeled and it's just the simple command/puppeteering situation? Did any of your grandparents have some form of telekinesis? For some reason it seems to be a trend for people with control Quirks have at least one ancestor with telekinesis. You see, in its purest form it's not the strongest ability but the more specialized Quirks of the descendants are, the more powerful- I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry."

"...and you are fine with me being able to use my Quirk whenever?"

"Yup. Why shouldn't I?"

"I have a villain's Quirk." Ah, so it's the classic root of the problem.

"Quirks are tools, it's impossible for them to determine your morality." Even if her research points out that some of them do affect the personality of the owner, at least to some extent. "Besides, by that logic, I also have a villainous Quirk."

"What?"

"Oh come on, I know you've seen me make Dark Shadow disappear or make Toru visible with Not Today so it's pretty obvious that my Quirk erases others' Quirks." She wiggled her fingers like a witch casting a hex. "Takes them away. Steals the one thing that makes people unique and special. You cannot possibly think that other kids sang my praises for having that kind of ability?"

"...I didn't think about that."

"To be fair I never talk about it. Kind of staying above the whole wallow-in-self-pity thing. But long story short, I am in no position to judge you."

"..."

"I have" some "no idea how others treated you before, nonetheless I promise the rest of the squad will share my sentiment on that matter. We are all equally prone to being bodied by Toru in this house after all." He smiled. 

"I started this conversation dreading it was all a prank. Three months of fake friendship, a practical joke that can end at any moment. And now it feels like I'm the asshole for not believing someone might just randomly scout me off the street to become part of a friend group for no good reason."

"I mean...everyone agreed your voice is nice."

"That is not what I'm talking about and you know it."

"Yeah, sorry, I'm known for making hasty decisions and just kind of deciding I want to be friends with a random stranger." Hitoshi snorted. "What's your verdict?'

"It's real." Yay. "You're fine." Yay x2. "I'm paranoid." Not really, the situation was bonkers to begin with.

"And are you sure you want to continue talking to this villain in the making?" Kieruko teased.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Great, it's time to show you how to cut an onion."

"Soooo...now that we shared this touching moment of vulnerability, it means you're open to training your Quirk, right?

"Maybe."

Close enough.

Chapter Text

Hitoshi looked at a moderately tall stack of papers standing between him and Kieruko. He agreed to participate in her ("Very serious analysis endeavor, Shinso stop laughing!") shenanigans if they kept the results private. At least for now.

"Well, you said, you don't currently want the rest of the squad to know about your Quirk, right?

"Yes."

"But I still need the unbiased data and by recording the session we get the optimal information considering... Nonetheless, I'm not going to be conscious for a good chunk of this session and as such need to somehow review the result."

"That's fine." He didn't feel fine in general. Looking at his friend for a second he saw a towering entity so much older than it seems with no compassion, only unsatiated curiosity before he blinked and once again saw Kieruko. Just a fellow teen inquisitive about his ability. In a normal way. Nothing unnatural here to see, no sir. Was he nervous? Maybe? A little bit. He was rambling.

"Great, then let's begin."

Convincing Shinso to agree to the session was half the trick. She also managed to persuade him to officially "hire" (for free) her parents' counseling office to get her hands on the original verdict given by his government-assigned doctor. Was this legal? Probably? But more importantly, it gave her a frame of reference. And what an unexpected context it was.

His first counselor figured it was a response based short-term hypnosis. Regardless of that, there was an addendum to the doctor's quirk, which as it turns out was called True Name and it allowed its owner to just know the correct names for things. Someone could say that it was a useless power where at best the dude sees an ugly figurine and knows it also serves as a saltshaker but the doctor being a fucking genius went into medicine and used it to diagnose patients. Every episode of House M.D. would be 15 seconds long with that guy. Invaluable for saving lives, less than great for figuring out the mechanics of a superpower since the doctor in question just left the original description, slapped Brainwashing in the quirk title, and went on his merry way.

But that amazing catastrophe left Kieruko with questions. 

She once again was watching the recording of Shinso's session. It seemed that there was a need for a verbal component on both sides for the quirk to work, but multiple trials confirmed that Shinso didn't need to ask per se, the target just needed to react verbally, confirming that they were (unintentionally) allowing to form a link. That was the surface conclusion.

They tested how much force is needed to snap out the target (it changes with the concentration of the holder), if distance changes anything (after the target is caught no), if quirk works through electronics (nope, Kieruko knew that one already but they still needed an official test), how long Shinso could hold his quirk and a lot more.

The hardest part to judge was the influence of Brainwashing on her cognitive functions. Because once again the name of the quirk sounded like bullshit. Under the influence, she was instructed to solve a simple quiz. She obviously did nothing. If told to mark answer a), she marked answer a), if told to circle answer a), she circled answer a), if told to underline the correct answer, she did nothing. Because his quirk did not work like that. So why?

Kieruko once again reread her notes.

The longer she was under the influence the easier it was for Shinso to communicate what she was supposed to do. Telepathic component?

The target has no recollection of him using Brainwashing on them. Was that a bug or a feature?

She had no memories of him overriding her will.

Kieruko chewed on the tip of her pen. The answer was just beyond her grasp.

The frontal lobe is responsible for motor control, memory, speech, and behavior. The loss of control over the first two she experienced firsthand. The third one was shown in the manga. She made a loop around the last one and added a few question marks around just to display how much the conclusion was escaping her.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

Once more Kieruko flipped through her papers from before and after their testing. There was a difference. Prior to the session all of the important bits were underlined (to keep the notes at least slightly less chaotic) but following the session, she switched to circling her conclusions. He told her to circle answers. A n d  s h e  s t i l l  d i d.

Holy shit.

Amazing.

It meant that his quirk was, in fact, correctly named. Could he only alter people's physical reactions or could he truly change their opinions? New question, did the long-term effects only work on targets under obvious influence, or did Brainwashing have a passive effect Shinso wasn't aware of due to ostracization? Because if that was true, he just hadn't had a chance to talk to others often enough to realize his own abilities. Could she find a pattern in the actions of other people in the squad indicating they took one of Shinso's suggestions too literally? Or just too vehemently in general.

Although, Kieruko noticed that probably due to being shunned for his quirk, Shinso naturally avoided asking questions and giving commands. Ironically enough that might have been for the better in the long run.

Currently, it was just a theory.

A Quirk Theory.

There was a need for a second round of testing but for the time being, she was content with her achievement of solving the most important part of the puzzle.

Kieruko's room did not look like it belonged to a teenager. It had a wardrobe, a bed, a chair, a desk, a computer, and a huge floor-to-ceiling shelf filled with notebooks, folders, and loose papers. Every piece of furniture was either gray or navy. The only sliver of personality was in three hero merch items; a first-edition Hawks figurine, an Endeavor keychain, and bootleg looking poster of some dude named Mr. Elongastic.

Hitoshi couldn't understand how anyone could choose to make their bedroom appear so soulless. Yet here she was, the least sane person he knew with the most boring taste in interior design.

"Hi-to-shi, I have taken hours upon hours of analyzing and crossreferencing to compose this piece of art." Kieruko with a flourish produced a plain manila envelope. "Everything about Brainwashing by yours truly~✩"

That whole experience was anxiety-inducing. He was so sure by the end she would never want to talk to him again. Despite doubting he would find anything new he obediently took the offering.

"Thanks."

"Nah, you don't have to act interested or even read it at all if you don't want to. I just think it's fair for me to share the research about you."

With a nod, he quickly deposited the envelope at the bottom of his backpack.

After that, he had dinner with the Hisekis. It was the first time he met the matriarch of the family. She looked like what an adult and functional Kieruko could be. Maybe. Possibly. In an alternative reality.

During the meal conversation naturally steered in the quirk-related direction and for the first time it felt like he was the odd one out for not obsessing over them. Miss Hiseki was explaining an altercation she was in with her academic nemesis. Mister Hiseki and (much less often) Kieruko were asking for clarifications or adding their own opinions to the recount of a debate whose topic was way beyond Hitoshi's understanding. Every once in a while he gave a polite one-syllable sound before hastily stuffing his mouth with food to avoid further interrogation.

Despite it being an unusual dinner, the overall experience left Hitoshi feeling weirdly warm and only slightly grated by his lack of knowledge. When both teens were left alone in the dining room, Kieruko turned to him and smiled.

"Damn, if I knew you're all it takes for her to lose deeply ingrained bitterness I would've let you meet her ages ago."

What did that mean?

Hitoshi once again overstayed his welcome and stayed for the night at the Hiseki household. And as it happened once more his insomnia made it nigh impossible to fall asleep so after an hour of looking for the answers to his existence on the ceiling he decided to relocate to the couch in the living room.

It was the first time neither of Kieruko’s parents stayed for the night while Hitoshi did. The house felt colder.

He quietly lay down on the couch in total darkness, thinking how appropriate would it be to raid the snack drawer when he heard a click. If there was any background noise he wouldn’t have noticed it but then it could have been as well a thunderclap.

A clad black figure slunk out of Kieruko’s room and oh so slowly sneaked to the entrance door.

Hitoshi owlishly stared as his host (and self-proclaimed roommate) put on the most nondescript pair of sneakers and left the house.

As if a spell was broken, the second door closed leaving him the only person in the house at 1 am he all but threw himself onto his phone. The only person still active was Toru. He called her.

“Kieruko snuck out of the house,” he frantically yell whispered.

“Mpff-wha-” answered a confused half-asleep voice.

“What do I do?”

For a moment he could only hear sounds of rustling material. “I’ll take care of it.”

What the hell. “What is happening?”

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll explain it when we meet in person.” Sound of a zipper. “But long story short our friend tends to…make…decisions while bored and unsupervised.”

“She is literally always doing something. Or napping. Those are her two states of being.”

Toru’s voice took on a tired quality. “I know.” More shuffling noises. “I’ll send you an update later. You should try to catch some sleep” and she hung up.

Hitoshi stayed wide awake for the rest of the night vigilantly awaiting updates.

30 minutes later he got [Found her].

Around 4 am Toru sent him a selfie of her in a hoodie with a face mask and sunglasses with Kieruko and a few more blurred silhouettes in the background. For some reason they all had slushies. The picture was titled “delinquency at its finest”. 

He relocated to his guest room after receiving [heading back now] sometime later.

The invisible weight finally left his chest after hearing the front door slammed significantly louder than he expected.

Hitoshi had no idea what to think.

The next day was one of the rare instances when the whole squad was hanging out in public. The reason why it wasn't a more regular occurrence became obvious an hour after meeting up.

As always easily sidetracked by quirks, Kieruko accompanied by Mei and Fumikage stood in the crowd spectating a hero fight. She was taking notes while actively debating with them whatever minute detail caught her attention. Hitoshi and Toru stood in the back overseeing the whole spectacle.

The invisible girl bumped his shoulder. "Got questions about yesterday?"

"What happened?"

"Kieru-tan had a meeting with her online friends."

"Why so late?"

"Maybe that was the only time they had all free time? I haven't asked."

"Was it legal?"

"Hm. Nothing they can prove."

"What did you do?"

Floating shirt shrugged. "Walked around, talked, visited a historic building, got slushies, and went back home. It was fun even if circumstances were unusual, you know?"

"So this wasn't some secret villain gathering?"

He was answered by laughter.

"Hitoshi, if you see Kieru-tan pulling this stunt again don't hesitate to call me, okay? I know she plans out those excursions but that doesn't mean she should go out unsupervised. Sometimes she forgets about her limitations."

"Limitations?"

"Huh, I must've forgotten to show you." Toru would never forget something like that. "Kieru has...triggers and those appear often during hero fights. It's better if someone who knows what's happening is with her. As to what to look out for...here."

Hitoshi's phone pinged to indicate the arrival of a new message. It was one of those articles describing yet another epic showdown between a hero and a villain. Then he began to read the content. The man called Corpse Collector, death count, photos of enormous purple flowers with blurred figures lying on the ground. He felt sick.

"She was there wasn't she?"

"Yeah."

"How badly she-"

"Not too bad. She just needs someone to snap her out. And I'm only mentioning it so you won't spook if she acts weird since you're staying for the night often enough. Hey guys, are you finished?" Toru cheerfully called the last part towards the returning part of the squad.

"Yep, enhanced speed tends to make those altercations short."

The whole group returned to their original goal of finding and visiting a particular bookstore. Ten minutes later Hitoshi realized he hadn't found out anything on the original topic of their conversation.

The second time it happened he had a valid reason to be disturbed.

He almost had a heart attack after seeing the lone figure standing in the dark office illuminated by the loud machine that foiled Hitoshi’s attempt at getting a few hours of sleep.

At first, he was too tired to comprehend the sight beyond ‘am I about to get murdered?’ with a sudden rush of adrenaline that woke him up. Then he realized how ridiculous was the scenario playing in front of his eyes.

After all most people don’t use printers in the dead of night. But then again, Kieruko was not ‘most people’.

Hitoshi felt more than justified to approach the source of what looked like a possible beginning of another inspired decision born from lack of supervision.

“What are you doing.”

“Printing.”

“My bad, allow me to rephrase that. What are you planning to do?”

“Nothing illegal.” And wasn’t that just a thing to make Hitoshi’s blood pressure rise.

At his unimpressed eyebrow, Kieruko elaborated. “I’m attempting urban free running, which is absolutely legal if you do it correctly.” She began to highlight parts of a rapidly growing stack of paper.

“Why?”

“Why not?”

Under an interrogative stare, she once again expanded upon her explanation without looking away from her current work.

“I am bored and had an ambition to try it out for months. After thorough research, I know I’m in the clear legally but in case I stumble upon a moron the printout of urban law should keep them away from arresting me. I educated myself on basics and practiced them in a controlled environment. Also after investing, I made a pretty good route for a beginner. Does that answer your questions?”

“In the middle of the night.”

“No parents tonight, most people are asleep…aaaand I might’ve forgotten you're here.”

Well, that explains basically everything. While baffling, still informative.

“Alright,” he could see her relax at his serene tone of voice. “But I’m coming with you.”

Kieruko stared at him. “You do know that if anything goes wrong your career in heroics will end before it even begins, right?”

“Same for you.”

“True but unlike you I have privileges including but not limited to; more than one dream job, coddling parents and guaranteed two different positions if I choose to abandon my dreams of UA.” That was all news to Hitoshi who was hastily losing his conviction.

But Kieruko generates issues when left on her own, Toru left him with countless questions and he just might finally get some answers tonight.

“That’s why you do the printer stunt. Give me a moment to change and I’m coming with you.”

He hoped it wasn’t one of those ‘curiosity killed the cat’ situations.

The whole activity was a bad idea. Terrible one even. It didn’t change the fact that despite twitchy vigilance and dread clinging to his skin Hitoshi was having fun. The squad already did a similar thing on a much smaller scale in their abandoned property they usually used but running and jumping through the night was different. Black sky above, countless lights below, what a novel experience.

Kieruko was leading the way, gleefully murmuring ‘parkour’ under her breath every time she went over an obstacle.

He could understand why she would go above and beyond to do dumb stuff if this was the usual result.

It was was…

Exhilarating.

Hitoshi giggled under his breath as he copied his friend’s move to jump over the cooling unit. He could never confess to anyone how giddy it made him feel to participate in the ‘act of delinquency’ but now he understood Toru’s behavior. It wasn't villainous. 

He only noticed something was wrong after a moment when Kieruko’s sudden evasion shook him out of his distracted musings.

He froze as grey tendrils shot out of the darkness immobilizing her in less than ten seconds.

Oh fuck.

'You do know that if anything goes wrong your career in heroics will end before it even begins, right?’ Echoed in his head again and again. Of course, the second he was having fun something terrible had to happen.

As he was panicking internally, Eraserhead jumped in front of his capturee.

They were doomed.

And Hitoshi had no one to blame but himself.

Dammit.

“Hello there random attacker-san,” chirped Kieruko and it took everything for Hitoshi to not balk at the confidence in her voice. “How can I help you?”

Apparently, the Eraserhead, his idol who’s about to arrest them, also wasn’t prepared for the sheer audacity by the way he froze without answering.

“What are you doing here?” Hero’s voice was void of any emotion.

“Taking a stroll.”

“Unusual time and place, kid.”

She rolled(!) her eyes. “Is this a kidnapping or an arrest attempt good sir?”

They were so screwed.

Hitoshi was trying his best to become one with the night by dissolving himself into the air with the power of pure anxiety.

He was failing quite miserably.

Eraserhead with obvious annoyance took out and presented his Hero License. Kieruko looked at it, nodded, and wordlessly stared at him.

“Do you know why I stopped you?”

“Since there were no laws broken, no actually.”

Man stared back at her for a while, massaged his temples then shifted his gaze to Hitoshi. He twitched under the heavy watch and did nothing else. Currently, all his faith lied in the fearless leader of this expedition.

“Hero-san,” she brought the attention back to her. “Would you mind releasing me?”

“Trespassing.”

“Huh?”

“You claim there were no laws broken but you’re trespassing.”

Hitoshi could hear Kieruko grin even if he was standing behind her. Uh oh.

“Well actually, in urban areas where more than 75% of buildings of a sector are over 14 meters in height, roofs are considered public spaces unless specially marked as private areas with the yellow tape. The amount of paperwork needed to get the permission for it is ridiculous tho.”

Eraserhead glowered. “You have an answer for any accusation possible, don’t you?”

“Even printed out the applicable parts of our law,” she singsonged with delight. “If you need proof I have it in my backpack.”

The scarf tendrils loosened up and returned to the dormant state on its owner’s shoulders. The tired hero grumbled something under his nose that sounded suspiciously like “I’m not paid enough for this.”

No way.

The adult all but groaned before addressing both of them. “Even if you’re not technically breaking the law, I’m still escorting you back to the ground level.”

Minutes later they all were standing on a walk in front of the building they had their confrontation on. Eraserhead looked at two teens like he wanted to lecture them. Instead, he applied the soulless glare no.12. The effectiveness was questionable.

“Stop acting stupid or you’re going to regret it,” and with that, he disappeared into the shadows of the closest alleyway.

No fucking way.

Neither of them moved for a good minute as if to confirm they were safe.

His partner in crime slowly turned around to make eye contact. She had a medical mask on which was probably the only thing that saved her from being recognized.

”…we’re fine,” Hitoshi whispered.

Kieruko buried her face in his hoodie, shoulders shaking.

”He let us go.”

Is this how normally those acts of delinquency went???

”I cannot believe printing at midnight worked,” he sighed still shell-shocked.

No longer able to stop herself Kieruko bursts into laughter.

"I-I was so ready to spend the rest of the night at the police station defending our honor and your records," she giggled maniacally, "but we lucked out and got a reasonable law enforcer just giving us a heart attack."

"Luck?" Hitoshi cringed.

"We got out with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist even if pinning any charges on us was borderline impossible."

"...good to know."

"And you got to meet your favorite hero."

Boy groaned and put his head in his hands. "Not like this. Preferably never."

"Understandable." Kieruko managed to finally rear her amusement in and tugged her friend on a sleeve. "Come on, there has to be a 24/7 café somewhere around and I bet you're obligated to send Proof of Life to my keeper."

Shadow followed the kids as they made their way toward a more populated area of the town.

"At this point, the whole squad is your keeper. You need it."

"Slander, I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself out of trouble," she whined. A moment later she added, "except when trouble finds me first."

"Which is always."

"Exactly!" Kieruko cheered.

Hitoshi sighed dramatically.

"Please distract me from this disaster of a night."

His companion complied immediately. "Fumi seriously considers changing his hero codename to "Penumbra'".

"Wait...like one of the NPCs from his D&D campaign?"

"Yup."

"What's Dark Shadow's opinion on that?" the taller kid asked clearly invested.

"He agrees under the condition he also gets to be called by his character's name."

"You're joking."

Kieruko struck a pose before seriously announcing. "The Grimdark Hero: Penumbra and his familiar Dave."

Both kids laughed as they finally arrived at the safe part of the town. They were still animatedly discussing one thing or another as they faded from the man's sight in mild traffic.

Shota lingered on the rooftop for a long while. He didn’t want to even start thinking how much trouble those two could’ve caused.

Especially the annoying one. Shota was sure that they didn’t use Quirks. They could’ve continued roof hopping and Shota would have no legal reason to stop them. And after eavesdropping he was pretty sure the kid would actually bring out the paperwork to prove their innocence if confronted. Why did he ever want to do this job again?

He resumed his patrol.

From the conversation, he deduced the kids were still in middle school. He prayed they wouldn't get into UA but knowing his luck...

Shota spent the rest of the night fantasizing about expelling troublesome students.

Chapter Text

Toru is 6 when for the first time she's able to see her reflection in the mirror.

Toru is 8 when Hatsume Mei becomes a part of her life.

Despite Toru being an incredibly popular girl with many friends, this specific one is special by the merit of also being Kieruko's friend. Kieruko doesn't do friends very well. Kieruko unnerves her peers with uncanny comments and then gives up after finding no common ground to bond over. Yet Mei is special for a reason that takes Toru embarrassingly long to discern. Mei is brilliant. She has the potential if honed to become something magnificent or fizzle out if stifled. Kieruko in quiet desperation tries to keep that passion aflame.

In the end she finds herself with more questions than answers.

(She likes Mei.)

Toru is 9 when Kieruko almost ends their friendship.

What she did know at the time was that there was an accident that hurt Kieruko and made her scared. Toru had a very serious conversation with her parents about being understanding and supportive. That talk became a foundation for her behavior in the decades to come.

She learns to pick up her pieces again and again.

Toru is 10 when she finds out Kieruko is a vigilante. Kind of. The whole thing spiraled out of control when no one was watching.

It's been years since Toru concluded that her best friend leads a very busy life. She probably was the only person who knew just how hectic it truly was. Starting with her unfairly good school grades. She knew Kieruko could have skipped grades years ago because she eavesdropped on the conversation she had with her parents on that topic.

Kieruko said no. She declined because she wanted to stay with Toru.

That left Toru with a feeling of unending gratefulness for not being left behind, a modicum of guilt, and a bored Kieruko.

The first two she dutifully ignored but with the last part it was impossible to do so.

Because after absorbing lessons, finishing homework, and doing Kieruko's version of light reading during classes she was left with 17 hours of unallotted time (since Kieruko didn't account for such silly things as sleep as would Toru eventually realize). All the after-school activities whittled down on that free time but even then she spent hours reading and writing about Quirks. On a daily basis!

At least that was what Toru thought before one day looking over her bff's shoulder only to realize that instead of researching some innate topic she was actually making notes on a crime ring based in Chiba. It took her a good moment but she politely asked Kieruko what she was doing after witnessing her respectfully messaging someone about a drug deal. As her brilliant but completely ridiculous friend explained, she stumbled upon the criminal activity by accident while (Toru did see the next part coming) researching Quirks, and instead of doing the normal human thing of leaving the shady dangerous people alone, Kieruko decided to do the online equivalent of vigilantism.

By gathering enough information and then sabotaging perps via discreet leakage of information to either their competition or the police. She even proudly presented statistics indicating an actual decline in criminal activity in the influenced by her actions areas and an article about heroes arresting a villain group in charge of a trafficking ring. She was giddy while presenting her evidence.

That was Kieruko's free time activity. A hobby one could say.

What the fu-

Toru assumed Kieruko would lack time to continue that hobby after Fumi joined their friend group and they spent most of their waking hours together.

Toru assumed incorrectly.

Kieruko could and would make time if necessary. The rude English teacher whom she made almost cry that one time wasn't that much of an issue. The mysterious "practical source" of Kieruko's rapidly growing combat prowess was much more alarming.

Similarly, years later, finding out that her deepening eyebags as well as the concerning amount of naps during the day, were a product of Kieruko not only switching her Vigilantism Light to be a nocturnal activity but also no longer bound to the safety of a laptop in a bedroom via Hitoshi's frantic phone call in the middle of a night was less than optimal.

At that point, Toru did the only thing she thought was reasonable enough; made sure Kieruko was fine. She couldn't- wouldn't try to stop her. It wasn't exactly Kieruko's fault that she was lacking proper enrichment in her life, now was it? Since it was Toru who was stifling her potential. It wouldn't be fair to also prevent her from enjoying one of the few things she entertained herself with while waiting for Toru to catch up.

Toru is 12 when she meets Kieru's first friend(s).

She doesn't like Fumi very much or Dark Shadow for that matter. Deep inside her stomach swirls anxiety born of eerily familiar emotion. That feeling surprises Toru. But it does it, truly? She knows she might have a slight issue with the idea that Kieru would choose someone else over her as a best friend and it makes her anxious for weeks to come. Despite that, she manages to get over herself and refile Fumi as another quirky introvert in their group.

It's not a surprise when Toru wakes up in the middle of the night and finds her friend's futon empty. Neither is finding Kieruko with her laptop on a couch in the living room. Toru wordlessly joins her. With bleary eyes, she half registers the content of multiple .txt files, slowly focusing as graphs and visual aids begin to appear, and is fully awake by the time photos and videos are on the screen. They were not censored. 

"What the hell."

As if broken out of a trance Kieruko glanced in her direction. "The Festival Incident," she monotoned, full attention back on the screen.

Click.

"A fight between two villains broke out in the middle of the crowd." A recording of fireworks shaken as a deeper-sounding boom thunders. The camera turns towards a cloud of dust. The recording stops as the cloud begins to dissipate and people are screaming.

Click.

"Casualties began racking up fast." A photo of an alley littered with unmoving bodies and giant flowers growing out of them.

Click.

Another video. This time it's of first responders cutting a survivor out of the floral deathtrap. Fire rages in the background. There is no way it's available on social media with the amount of gore in the view. The pavement looks sleek with blood. It's the worst thing Toru has seen in her life. Not for long.

Click.

"Kunieda the Corpse Collector." Picture of Endeavor escorting a limp figure of the villain into an armored vehicle.

Click.

"He was a gardener in a way, I suppose."

Click.

"He didn't consider himself to be human, I think."

Click.

"Maybe he's insane, maybe not"

Click.

"Definitely a mass murderer though." With bile rising in her throat Toru watched a slideshow of a greenhouse filled with grotesque cadavers in different poses, those flowers growing out of them like macabre plant pots. "Police found that place three days after the Incident."

Click.

"That was almost me," she whispered. As Kieruko absentmindedly scratched her scar, Toru finally connected the dots.

"Oh."

No reaction.

Toru leaned her head on the other girl's shoulder. Neither of them slept that night.

(Later they would talk about triggers and boundaries. Kieru was fine with Toru sharing all of it with the rest of their group. She even asked for it in a roundabout way. After that conversation, Kieruko went back to pretending nothing happened. Fumi and DS were subdued during the revelation, Mei, on the other hand, was weirdly nonchalant about it. Why?)

Toru is 13 when Hitoshi joins their group.

This time around her insecurities are much more manageable because now she finally sees the pattern. Kieruko has always had a habit of treating people like projects. As a kindergartener figuring out the mystery of a sentient Quirk, later giving a push to a brilliant person to realize their potential, and with Hitoshi reforging one into something different. Her befriending style definitely held a pattern.

It sounds callous worded like that but it's not malicious, just...pragmatic. And it was possible that Toru felt slight superiority over the rest of their group since she was the only one who approached Kieruko, not the other way around. That meant there couldn't be any secondary motive ending up in their friendship, they just clicked.

She also noticed how Kieru never asked Hitoshi about his Quirk. It meant the boy felt uncomfortable with sharing that knowledge. It meant Kieruko knew what it was and as a courtesy pretended not to. How nice of her. (Still didn't like how he monopolized Kieru's "free" time.)

There is a farewell ceremony for the oldest math teacher. One of the students hands her a bouquet during the ceremony. Kieruko looks at it like it's a nest of live snakes.

"Dammit." Kieruko rubbed her eyes after one of their Quirked spars.

"Something happened?"

"Nope, just overused Not Today and it seems like I'm getting all the fun drawbacks," she gritted through her teeth.

Toru immediately grabbed Kieru-tan's face to see the bloodshot eyes. Her frustrated best friend swatted caring hands away.

"It's nothing."

Toru disagreed.

"It really is nothing dangerous. I'll need to use eyedrops which is inconvenient and annoying but not catastrophic." She didn't know what she could do to convince her otherwise without starting a fight or worse, losing her trust.

They both started carrying extra eyedrop bottles since that day.

Chapter Text

With unparalleled vigilance, Kieruko combed through the local news sites since the beginning of April. She was determined to not miss out on the official beginning of The Plot™.

During lunch break while pretending to listen to the conversation the rest of the table was having she grinned at her phone.

Mt. Lady enters the scene!

She vibrated in excitement while scrolling through the headlines about the newest addition to the limelight scene. Holy shit, today is the day! It's time to find out if she fucked up or if the story is flowing as it is supposed to. She planned for this. It's going to be okay as long as no one dies. She has contingency plans.

It's going to be just f i n e.

She shot Mei the message [Today is the day!!!]. The young inventor opened her phone only to almost drop it after reading the text.

"Oh shoot, my parts were delivered to the store. Kieruko could you-"

"Yeah, absolutely!"

"That's great!"

"Mhm."

No one commented on that normal interaction.

They stood across the street from the sign reading Tatooin Shopping District.

"What now?" Mei looked around in a futile search for some huge evil dude.

Patience, not yet.

Kieruko put her foot on the metal pedestrian barrier, putting most of her body weight on it. "Now we make small talk and wait." She pulled out her pair of sunglasses. "If everything goes to shit, I'll intervene. If the timeline is stable we'll just get to witness history up close." She put sunglasses on top of her head. "In case it isn't obvious, whatever happens, you cannot step in."

"I know, we had this conversation before."

"Just making sure."

They stood in silence for a long minute.

"I...expected more action by now."

"There is a chance that our future messiah died because of the ripple effect."

"You sound unusually nonchalant about this."

"It's going to be fine. Worst case scenario I come clean to Nedzu. He tells me my plan was shit, it's not by the way, otherwise, he would be more aggressive about contacting me back." She monitored his public activity meticulously, to say the least, in case he decided to take drastic measures. "Striking your enemy down at their weakest when you know the variables is the best strategy." He as an important part of the future could change too much by just knowing what would happen, even if he decided letting his school, students, teachers, and pride be attacked repeatedly was worth it.

"But worst case scenario is not going to happen," Mei halfheartedly said in the spirit of Kieruko's intent.

"Exactly." Okay, they quite literally ran from school to the nearest train station but she was honestly surprised that it hadn't started yet. "Listen, if I'm wrong and he kil-" BOOM! That doesn't sound like fireworks. She turned around to see both villains square off before an enormous purple flower burst out of the back of the bigger one. Red. Purple. Purple flowers are blooming, red fire spreads, fire? there wasn't any fire before..."Kieruko?" pressure on her shoulders oh god no nononononono not again, they never took it out, didn't they? Doctors lied. Don't you want to be a hero? The seeds were still under her skin, oh fuck, why can't they at least kill her in a more humane way? She won't give up without a fight, this time she is stronger, knows more, and jokes on that motherfucker, she has a knife. As she reached towards her hidden blade someone stopped her.

NO

This time she would not hesitate to take him down like a rabid mutt he is. "Can you hear me!?" Of course, she can hear...Mei.

The source of those explosions was an extremely frustrating bully fighting for his life. She was safe.

Kieruko closed her eyes. Deep breaths. Count from one to ten. And then from ten to one. Still breathing. No one was going to harm her. In fact, there was a 50% chance she could kill the Sludge Villain simply by looking at him. Or make him a normal but naked criminal. She huffed after considering that entertaining scenario. Explosions were good. They meant her plan worked.

She opened her eyes. "I'm back"

"Are you alright?"

"Of course, just a few flashbacks from the war," she tried to joke. "Don't worry about it." Kieruko's eyes were drawn towards black smoke. "How long was I unresponsive?"

"Around a minute." Any other answer than 0 seconds meant her previous version of exposure therapy was not enough. She'll deal with that later.

"Did anything important happen in the meantime?"

Mei looked deeply concerned. "You mean excluding your episode?" A nod. "Nothing beyond what you said would," she replied in an even voice.

"Good."

The Sludge Villain looked larger in person. And much more terrifying. Those teeth were huge. Also, the kid who was currently fighting for his life looked so vulnerable. There are better ways to go than public suffocation.

The mob rapidly crowded the entrance to the shopping district barely giving anyone space to pass by. Buildings around began catching fire. People parted like the Red Sea for police officers and 3 heroes entering the scene.

Kieruko noticed the entrance of the Baseball Hero: Slugger with his horrendously misused ability to negate and enhance kinetic force in the palm of his hands. In annoyance, she watched as he, Death Arms and Bird Hero: Hitchcock-A-Doodle (terrible name) got absolutely trashed by the amorphous villain. Well...Death Arms got thrown into a shutter before backing out. It would be nice if the other two would do anything other than look helpless. With Backdraft prioritizing firefighting and Kamui Woods despite being flammable as fuck putting all his effort into evacuating civilians, there was an incredibly noticeable lack of people attempting to save Bakugo.

Wow.

The whole crème de la crème of local heroic mediocrity and disappointment gathered in one place.

Oh, wait.

Mt. Lady arrived.

She didn't do shit.

Now all of them are in one place.

"If it was legal" and not timeline-breaking went unsaid "I could've resolved this stalemate in 5 seconds top." Deep sigh. She started to look around for the missing characters, trusting Mei to keep track of the main scene. "Is the wonderboy still holding up?"

Mei gave a tense "yes".

"You know, if I was the criminal with a Quirk that lets me possess others or maybe puppeteer corpses, I'm not sure, of my victims there is no shot I would ever be fucking stupid enough to corner myself like that. Especially since he can use their Quirks. This ability screams 'perfect to hide in plain sight'. We live in a brain-dead society. Wait a second, you won't believe who just arrived." Her voice indicated pure delight. "Mei, look at the right corner of the crowd. Skeleton man with baggy green pants and a white t-shirt. The one who puts all of his effort into not hacking out his lungs while supporting himself on a lamppost. Do you see him?"

With reluctance, the pink-haired girl scanned through the crowd. "Ye, who's that."

"Mr. Number One himself."

"...you're kidding."

"I told you it's a transformation type Quirk."

"You're not kidding," she deadpanned.

"Nope. Now we wait for the protagonist boy."

He arrived.

They watched Midoriya Izuku's origin story unravel live before them. It was exactly the same as the source material. But much more impressive in person. First responders had their hands full. Then useless excuses of a hero scolded the green boy while praising the blond. All Might was swarmed with reporters.

Midoriya dejectedly walked away.

Now all that's left was to make sure he got chosen.

How was she going to do that?

Great question. No idea. Tailing him right now would be too suspicious. A problem for tomorrow her.

The next morning she cursed herself of yesterday.

Kieruko was in a great mood.

"Welcome one and all to our first war meeting," she announced in a dramatic tone.

The group of teens were sitting around the dining table in her house. They didn't seem as enthusiastic. 

"As you all know the UA entrance exam is in less than 11 months. There are thousands of people trying to get into the hero course and only 40, ney, 36 will gain that illustrious acceptance letter through the same exam we'll take. But unlike them, we will succeed. Do you know why? Because we have a plan."

"Yeah!" shouted Dark Shadow, the best hypeman.

"Do we?" Hitoshi muttered before almost immediately answering himself "of course we do."

"Let me begin with, yes, I am still your awesome informant with amazing investigation skills.

Now.

The exam will take place on one of the last days of February during the morning hours. The written exam is first and I believe no one here will fail that part on account of none of you being absolute ding-dongs. The trickier part is the practical one. I feel like this has to be said out loud even if I trust you. So, NOT A SINGLE word of what we'll talk about today can leave this house. There is no rule about subterfuge, information gathering or simply theorizing but we cannot lose our advantage by revealing our hand before the exam. Understood?"

Slightly concerned nods from the group. Good.

"Based on previous years I can confidently say the practical exam will be an urban combat scenario where you compete against others to gain points by neutralizing as many robots as possible."

"Fuck."

"Fuck indeed. And normally that would be something we find out an hour before the test. But we have time to strategize and thankfully I already did some of that for you. First, except for the Villain Points named after the villain bots we are supposed to smash to bits, there is a second, hidden merit system - Rescue Points!"

"How do you even know that?" Purple anti-hypeman asked.

"Now, now, my sources want to remain anonymous. But long story short I compiled publicly available data and online friends. Back to the main topic, the points. They are gained by helping other examinees." She clasped her hands together and fluttered her eyelashes. "You know, because you are doing the selfless, right thing instead of just egoistically destroying hunks of metal. So it's possible to pass the test without a physical Quirk. But just going around kissing boo-boos is not a foolproof tactic. After checking and rechecking on the official site I found no rule against bringing support items. As such I had one more idea. Take it away!" 

Mei sprung up from her seat, switching places with Kieruko. The young inventor presented the rest of the table with multiple ideas for support items (and just straight-up weapons). There was never a regulation against owning and using them after all. In the exams that is, still incredibly illegal in public spaces.

Kieruko cleared her throat. "Of course, the rules might be changed later but for now we continue under the assumption they won't notice that loophole. We'll make a contingency for that later. This is hope for the best, prepare for the worst kind of situation.

In the ideal world, all of us get into the Hero Course. But worry not, we'll be prepared for the contrary. 60 best scores will get a chance to attend the General Course so we won't be slacking on the educational front in case one of us fails. For those who do exceedingly well during the Sports Festival, there is a chance to be transferred. But there is no reason to think about the worst-case scenario for now." With the theatrical part over she quietly slumped in her seat and let others take over the discussion.

They talked for hours about more and less probable scenarios and by the end there was a sizable amount of half-baked plans and strategies.

It was going to be a long year.

"From now on we'll have one more participant join our spars." With a flourish of her arms, Kieruko presented the awkward Hitoshi to other members. "In today's exercise, we'll be learning how to combat an adversary with an unknown Quirk."

It was a good introduction that gave him an advantage over his opponents and with a sliver of hope Hitoshi was excited to see how he handles the trial by fire after months of training.

Fumikage, arms crossed, nodded while Toru gave a predatorial grin. Dark Shadow cackled.

Suddenly Hitoshi felt much less confident about his chances.

Only a few hours later he realized no one reacted negatively to the reveal of Brainwashing.

Over the next month Kieruko managed to take a few inconspicuous morning runs that just so happened to let her pass by Takoba Beach. It took a few tries until she managed to spot the green mop of hair and could with a clear conscience cease sabotaging her nonexistent sleep schedule.

The story was still on track.

After ordering one of the cheaper drinks she sat down in the corner booth. Thankfully no one was particularly interested in her wearing a hoodie to cover as much face as possible as she sat down and pulled out a laptop. Bless Quirks for changing the line of normalcy in modern society.

Kieruko pointedly ignored one unread email. This time for real. She was not planning to engage in mind games with someone smarter than her. She just needed to shoot a short message and be on her way.

Your favorite correspondent here :)

Hope everything is good and well in your neck of the woods Mr. Principal.

I was doing my thing and checking if there were any significant changes in the timeline (there were none btw) and decided to just mention I'm still alive in case you were worrying. With that out of the way a word of advice. Since Yagi's going to teach starting in April you might consider investing in better PR. It'll save you some headaches.

As Kieruko was thinking about what kind of goodbye would be fun enough to finish off the message, the monitor froze. It didn't surprise her considering it was more of a resuscitated piece of junk than an actual- oh. This was a hostile takeover.

A chatbox appeared on the screen. 

Aw shit. She wasn't ready for a confrontation. Her cursor moved in search of an X to close the window. There wasn't one. She tried to move the new box to the side. It did nothing.

>I think it's time we talk Sibyl.

Nope. Actually, it was time for her to pull the battery out of the laptop and skedaddle back home. The Rat definitely read the email already so...

>no need

>now you know what you need to know

>bye

>Please give me a moment of your attention. I just want to convey a few things.

Damn her curiosity. Still, she doesn't have to reveal anything. She'll just see what kind of game Nedzu wants to play. No harm in that, right? Right???

>mkay

>watchu want 2say? 

For the first 32 years of his life, Sasaki Mirai believed that his Quirk foretold the inevitable. He tried countless times to prevent what he saw happen in his visions but never succeeded. The futility of his endeavor almost brought him to the brink of despair after Toshinori's disastrous fight. He couldn't support the self-destructive nature of his symbol of peace anymore. So he left. He created his own agency, began an independent operation, and threw himself wholeheartedly into expanding it.

It worked splendidly as a distraction.

Through it all, he only wished Foresight could show predictions instead of promises.

A wish he dearly regretted soon after.

He didn't realize it at the time.

It was another late evening when he would catch up on the paperwork. His last sidekick was inefficient and the epitome of "utter disappointment" to the point that he had no choice but to fire the young excuse of a hero. The side effect of that was an increased workload. After finishing the last report Mirai slowly skimmed through sidekick applications. There were kids freshly graduated from their heroic academies, a few low ranking heroes, and one sidekick with an actual experience. The last one, Moashi Jūzō aka Centipider looked like a promising candidate. He quickly drafted an email with an invitation for an interview before clicking back to the list. None of them was impressive or especially promising in Mirai's opinion but for some reason, his mind kept snapping back to that list with slowly growing agitation.

The list was wrong.

Except it wasn't. 

Just a bunch of mediocre names of mediocre people. Maybe Mirai was too tired and needed some well-earned rest. He reread the email for the last time and sent it. No need to overthink those things.

The second time he definitely noticed.

And it was such an unimportant detail. The crime rate oscillated more than usual in the Tokyo area. Most wouldn't care but most didn't have to actively fight and detain villains. On one hand, it was expected since All Might had to slow down with his injury so he worried over the number of committed felonies and any change to the statistic. Toshinori was a symbol after all and his injury while a secret, would impact his career nonetheless. Still, the statistic nagged him at the back of his mind. So he went to meet up with the local police chief to analyze the data. They both agreed that using Foresight to see if they found something especially unusual might speed up the process.

Mirai spent a good 10 minutes looking at himself and the chief both reviewing numbers.

Except those were wrong.

The charts in his vision have shown a steady but uninterrupted decrease in crime rate, unlike what he found himself. He released his Quirk and asked for the review. The numbers were the same as in his earlier investigation.

Which meant his Quirk was wrong.

There were discrepancies between his visions and reality.

And it wasn't even like someone had a chance or possibility to change the charts in those 10 minutes. No. It seemed like Foresight worked with a wrong assumption or incomplete data.

Mirai was wrong about the future.

Someone could work around his Quirk. Never before he was more thrilled by this kind of terrifying thought. 

The more time passed, the more frustrating it became. For the first few months, he attempted to find a source by checking the futures of different people, scared the changes could be a temporary phenomenon. Reality check came when he realized that more and more often the specifics of his investigations were not what he saw. What he expected. He couldn't trust Foresight anymore since it acquired a habit of feeding him impossible futures just as often as the probable ones. The early hope became an annoyance and he didn't know what to do.

But maybe someone smarter than him would.

Nedzu seemed more than delighted to discuss any misinformation his Quirk has presented since last year.

Mirai took his time meticulously describing every single thing he could remember was wrong. Explaining his frustrations took a lot of weight off his shoulders. He finally finished his tale on the third cup of tea.

The Principal stayed silent the whole time, seriously listening to his colleague.

"Fascinating."

Mirai noticed the gleam in chimera's eyes.

"It seems that Foresight cannot perceive the actions of a person affected by a Quirk of similar enough nature. Instead, it ignores any influence that person has on our timeline." Nedzu took a long sip of his tea. "I'll see what I can do. For now, it would be wise if you tried to stay true to what Foresight expects of us. And please keep me updated."

"You knew about this beforehand" Sir Nighteye realized in disbelief.

"I know of the anomaly that causes it. I also think that in case the anomaly assumes we deliberately try to find it, detaining it will become a much harder task." Nedzu doesn't disagree.

"So I'm just supposed to ignore it and report to you?"

"That would be ideal."

"It would, wouldn't it?" he responded in a much lower tone.

Nedzu should have predicted the frustration of his guest.

He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Here he had a perfect source of information that could either make his job much easier or ruin everything he prepared so far. On the other hand, he had a skittish informant he needed to find. They did mention the possibility of contacting him again if something that's not supposed to happen happens. Now with the help of Sir Nighteye, it would be ridiculously easy to arrange a fabricated tragedy to lure them out. Then again, one wrong move might scare them away for good and Sasaki's emotional response suggests he might act in a less than wise manner when provided with details of this case.

In the ideal world, Sasaki would comply with his request without questioning it, Sibyl would describe in excruciating detail everything they know after being taken into his custody and Nedzu himself could make the best plan of action with no interferences. Unfortunately, in the real world, his position was much less favorable.

What to do?

Nedzu didn't convey shit. That was exactly what she expected. For the last 10 minutes, he didn't say anything of value while prodding her for information.

She needed to leave yesterday since the rat was employing the stalling tactic. He definitely tracked her down in the blink of an eye, maybe he got into local cameras or sent someone after her, who knows? Kieruko was done risking her safety for a contingency. Time to leave. She typed out a goodbye and closed her ratproofed laptop (removed mic and camera, courtesy of Mei).

I'm out.

This time Nedzu was prepared.

As soon as someone logged into that specific email address his system pinged him. As always it was ridiculously easy to get into the machine the sender used. Then he checked the IP address and couldn't believe his eyes. It was a café on the other side of Musutafu. Either they got cocky or found a safe way to communicate closer to their home. Maybe both. No matter what it was, the Principal of UA was not going to waste his opportunity so he sent a friendly request to his one colleague who was in the area to check the location incognito.

Then he got to work.

Sibyl did not take kindly to being questioned. Or stalled. It became obvious he would need to at least seemingly lower his guard to keep their attention occupied.

They were both going in circles, neither willing to show their hand.

>why contact me at all if you’re not sharing any details?

>butterflies 

>besides ur a safety net in case I manage to fail

Fail what? No answers, more dodging the subject, he needs to-

>times up

And they went offline.

That didn't go as planned.

What would happen if she got caught? How would different characters react to her reveal? Fate seemed to be an active force in this world, how strong was it? How exciting.

Kieruko shivered at the potential of exploring different scenarios, then almost immediately smacked herself for being distracted. She was supposed to discreetly leave the (not) crime scene. And so she did. Nothing seemed out of place on the street outside as she sauntered away.

With a straight face, she passed someone with a striking similarity to the Midnight’s civilian persona. She was getting paranoid, wasn’t she?

Nah.

At least the message was clear. Nedzu believed her claim but going to him would impede all her preparations. He remained a last resort option.

Only on the train Kieruko finally felt the pressure lessen after she let her hair down, fluidly swapped her hoodie for a jacket after she made sure she wasn’t followed. A faint smile never left her lips.

Scheming was her life’s work and the rush from getting away with her shenanigans was worth it.

The thing about Quirks was that they weren't like anything before. It's human nature to categorize, put things into neat little boxes with labels. But nature doesn't exactly give a fuck about classification when birthing out new proof that gods were long dead. (That's how we ended up with Kingdom Protista.)

So.

Quirks.

In the first generation the number of people manifesting meta abilities, as they were called back then, and the distance between them suggested the source to be viral since a virus can implant its genes into its host's DNA. It kind of made sense if you ignored the mountain of inconsistencies that arose from that theory. And with easy access to media and fearmongering, people did what they do best. Turned on each other. Virus theory was quite helpful to people advocating for quarantining or even extermination of first metahumans, after all.

With the second generation, it became obvious that Quirks were hereditary. As much as it was inconsistent with the definition of evolution, it might've been chucked to a mutation. Then again it would have to be the same mutation happening to countless people across the globe who were not even close to being related to each other.

Except early on it manifested even in young adults but within a few generations the manifestation age went down drastically.

Except every generation had more metahumans both awakening due to heritage as well as on its own.

Except it could manifest in animals.

Except, except, except.

Why were the rules so annoyingly intuitive while deeply irrational?

Because it was a fucking fictional source of superpowers.

Quirks had both characteristics of a virus and a mutation but it was neither. They were something new that didn't allow itself to be categorized. And so it didn't. It's one of the reasons why even over a hundred years later society is still adjusting to the rapid changes.

And the other annoying thing that haunted Kieruko's mind.

The good ol' nature vs nurture.

She believed that Quirks were like muscles. If a person exercised regularly, they liked that feeling of tiredness after a good workout and even if a person didn't exercise, stretching after sitting in a chair for five hours was a pleasurable experience. In the same way, using your own Quirk was nice. And humans tend to find excuses for their less explainable wants. Since technically most people didn't have to ever use their Quirks and the law forbade doing so in public spaces, the social perception became warped.

Giving into urges was considered barbaric but Quirks themselves were perceived as the next step in evolution, a sign of progress. Due to that the dichotomy in public views was staggering. 

And then some insisted that having an explosion Quirk meant their behavior had to be naturally volatile. They didn't even consider that maybe a person behaved in a way that others encouraged them to.

And then there were cases with Quirks that not only influenced instincts but even physical needs.

How much did superpowers influence the perspective of their owners? Quirks were a tool many learned to overly rely on. To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Don't get her started on cognitive bias she observed in everyday interactions with others.

How much of owners' nature dictated the way they use their abilities?

Quirk influenced its owner's perception but it didn't define it. Ultimately, it all comes down to how people channel their energy.  A good person with a fire Quirk would use it to caramelize sugar on their crème brûlée and an asshole with similar ability would torch an orphanage.

That was where she finished her essay, stopping herself from going on a rant about the aforementioned physical needs and possible repercussions (Toga Himiko) from ignoring them.

As it turns out, besting your English teacher in a basic game of wit makes you a prime target for any extra work. Like submitting her for some dumb government-funded competition including writing an essay on a subject you would like to research in the future (and she's like 95% sure that asshole only made her do it because her first choice was UA's Heroics Department). So there she is, watching the bastard reading and slowly faltering more with every new sentence seen. She wonders if it's because she's that good, that weird, or if the topic is more controversial than she thought.

Regardless, her work is submitted. Unfortunately for her free time, she passes on to the next stage.

Toru laughs at her after finding out her original essay signed with Kieruko's full name and the title 'finalist' on an official site.

In silent awe, Toru watched her visible hand.

But unlike with her Quirk erased, it was a staticy, not 100%, work-in-progress visibility caused by overusing Refraction. She achieved it on her own. And then immediately after, immortalized it with a dozen pictures that quickly filled the group chat.

For the rest of the day, a stupid grin never left her face.

"Good news Hitoshi, we are going to test the limits of your Quirk," a familiar voice announced exuberantly.

It sounded incredibly suspicious.

"And what are we exactly testing the limits of?"

"I'm glad you asked." Kieruko pulled out a sizable folder out of seemingly nowhere. “The permanence of your commands.”

His mouth went dry. What?!

Kieruko blinked. "You know, the second point on the testing priority list in the packet I gave you ages ago."

The packet. The packet that Kieruko gave him. The one where she wrote out all the ugly truths and predictions about his Quirk. The unopened packet he shoved under his bed where it stayed till this day. That one.

“I,” he scrambled for a neutral statement capable of hiding his lack of information. “Forgot that part,” he finished lamely.

”Fair, it was just an armature attempt at analysis.” She handed him the folder. “So, the main question is-"

Hitoshi opened the file and skimmed through it, his heart sinking with every registered word. Turns out he's worse than he thought because apparently even just hearing his words could unconsciously shift someone's actions. He's capable of truly brainwashing people and he probably did before without knowing. Oh God, any offhanded comment in any conversation he ever had could destroy a person's life but especially...his friends'. Oh fuck, he was a monster. What was he thinking when dreaming of a hero career? He should never, ever speak again.

"-and that's what I would like to find out today," she finished oblivious to Hitoshi's world-shattering revelation.

He flinched. "How?" can you continue talking to me, he didn't say.

"We just measure the effect of commands and comments under Brainwashing and out of it," was supplied (un)helpfully, with much less humor.

"And you're fine with it?" Hitoshi asked with clenched teeth, clearly not speaking about the intricacies of the assessment. The air went still around them.

"We had this conversation before," a warning bled into her tone.

"That was before you revealed that me even speaking was a hazard," he hissed at her.

Kieruko clicked her tongue, now serious. "What's more dangerous, talking as little as possible while hoping for the best or testing your soft limits in a controlled environment? Because let's be serious, you're not going to stop talking." The slightest hint of mockery seeped into the words by the end of the sentence. "Besides, without proper research, the whole thing is a conjecture at best." She turned a page of the folder Hitoshi was still holding and tapped the table printed on the paper. "If you really want to prove that a villainous Quirk doesn't make you a villain then use it to do good." Her cold gaze bore into him.

With utmost difficulty, he swallowed a lump growing in his throat, entirely ignoring the tightness in his chest. 

"How would I use it for good?" Hitoshi croaked out.

"If it goes well, we're going to un-traumatize me," she informed him. "If it doesn't work then I overestimated the strength of Brainwashing and there was no reason for you to go all twitchy in the first place. Either way, you get training and I get answers. It's a win-win situation, isn't it?"

He jerkily nodded.

Kieruko let out a sigh. "I know it can be difficult to come to terms with genetic lottery handing you a gun instead of a spork but that doesn't mean you have to be dramatic. You've been given a more powerful tool than expected, learn how to take advantage of that. Okay?" The barest upturn in the corner of her mouth was unfamiliar.

"Alright." The miniscule waver in his voice was ignored.

"Then let's begin."

Chapter Text

Everyone was spending their last evening before the big event differently.

For example, Hitoshi said his goodbyes early and, in an uncharacteristic bout of wisdom, forced his body into a healthy amount of sleep.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mei downed three coffees to keep herself awake as she made a final check on every single item prepared for tomorrow.

The rest of the squad started as a united front ready to make last-minute revisions on the written part but quickly splintered into Fumikage and Toru watching random online videos while Kieruko fell asleep on top of Dark Shadow who also quietly joined the watch party. After it became clear they had nothing more to prepare, they decided to call it a day. That was when others noticed their fallen comrade. Giggling, Toru immortalized the scene with her phone despite her friend's mortification.

“Dark Shadow, you are a sentient being not a piece of furniture,” despaired Fumikage.

“Mom said I can be whatever I want,” his Quirk pouted playfully.

"I think Kieru-tan chose well her preparation tactic," Toru snickered, "unlike us."

"I feel too jittery to go to sleep," admitted Fumi.

"Despite having the highest chances of getting in?"

"Especially because of that."

The invisible girl sighed in response. "I don't want us to be split into different classes even if due to our planning we all miraculously get into UA," confessed Toru. "I know it's silly because that assumes everyone will pass and Mei will be on a different track regardless but..."

Silence filled the room. They all knew there was little they could do about that.

"Neither do I."

The next day, on February 26th, the day of the exam, five teenagers and a Quirk gathered by the entrance to the most prestigious hero school in the world.

"~Today is the day~" sing-songed Toru with more enthusiasm than the rest of the group could muster together.

Hitoshi continued to sip coffee from his thermos, his hands only slightly shaking. Others stiffly stood around. One particular person was looking more dead than the rest.

Toru gasped after seeing her best friend with hair that missed their date with a brush and in a tracksuit with no jacket. "Kieru-tan, what happened?!"

"Overslept," the reincarnee replied in a monotone, ignoring incredulous looks.

"School uniform?" Hitoshi hedged.

"Unnecessary."

"You are going to catch a cold" Toru lamented before taking off her scarf and almost smothering Kieruko with it.

"I'm fine."

"You are trembling" Mei pointed out.

"As I said just fine," retorted Kieruko, now more annoyed than anything else.

Hitoshi ended the argument with a distraction. "Let's get going before they start without us."

There were so many teenagers swarming the place. She forgot how many people were trying to get in. When they looked at the main building it took her a moment to realize just how massive it was. Kieruko wondered how much of a security threat was letting thousands of strangers just roam the UA. After all, they only asked for her identification and gave her a number. This place was daily attended by multiple celebrities. She probably could saunter in, leave mics/cameras/bombs and no one would notice. What were they thinking? 

The written part was easy in Kieruko's opinion. She didn't think there would be any 100s but she definitely aced it.

Then the hero hopefuls had to say goodbye to Mei who had a separate practical.

"Welcome one and all to my live show!" Present Mic called in English "EVERYBODY SAY HEEEEY"

No one said "hey".

The silence was just as deafening as The Voice Hero himself who unperturbed by the lack of reaction from his audience he continued to explain the rules of the practical exam. "Now pay close attention, listeners!-" Kieruko was pleased to notice no changes to the canon format. After months of strategizing she and her friends were carefully waiting for the most important statement.

"You can take whatever you like!-" Bingo.

So Exam plan A variant 3 was a go. Plan A meaning they all could use Mei's support gear (she almost felt bad for the rest of the shmucks). Variant 3 was a code for how they were scattered in different areas. Hagakure was in A, Tokoyami in B, and Kieruko in G. UA didn't want to test how they cooperate with friends. Too bad because as Hitoshi attended a different school he also was assigned to battlefield A. Damn, somehow she got the shortest stick out of her group. No buddy or flashy Quirk. Just some technical support, knowledge about the secret scoring system, and over twenty extra years of life experience. How will she manage?

The whole squad, including Hitoshi who sat in his school's section, winced when Iida did his shouting interruption only to start scolding Izuku by the end of it.

"Doesn't he feel embarrassed?" whispered Toru.

"It seems any and all self-reflection goes out the window when the stick is so high up your ass" Kieruko murmured back. "Look, the guy is so stiff he even moves like a robot. And poor greenie, he doesn't deserve the public call out."

Tokoyami shivered with secondhand embarrassment through the whole thing.

They were slowly exiting the auditorium surrounded by a crowd don't think about it when she accidentally noticed a green bush of hair. The protagonist boy, Midoriya Izuku himself. She needed a distraction and this was perfect. She squeezed by a few indignant students before tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, greenie."

"Hu-huh? How can I help you?" The 'do I know you?' was audible in his tone. They both swerved to the side where people couldn't trample them.

"I just wanted to say, you shouldn't listen to that rude guy. Don't worry. I'm sure you are going to be amazing!" That should be enough pep talk to cheer him up, right?

Apparently, as Izuku's face turns into a nice shade of pink in clear embarrassment. "Tha-thank you"

"No problem!" She flashes her best unhinged Eraserhead grin before almost jumping out of her skin when someone suddenly squeezes her shoulder. "Kieruko, everything alright?"

"Holy-Sh-Hitoshi, are you trying to me a heart attack? I was just saying good luck to my new friend."

"Please stop harassing him, the guy clearly needs some space." He squinted at the protagonist. "And what's the name of your new friend?"

"Uhmmm." We didn't manage to get to that part! Dammit. She looked at him apologetically.

"Midoriya Izuku."

Okay, time to wrap up. They still had robot butts to kick. "It was great meeting you!" She showed fewer teeth in her smile.

Wait a second. This was her only chance to check out the thingy if he still counted as Quirkless or not. She activated Not Today at him and it didn't connect to anything! Holy shit. Quirkless people with small enough amounts of the Plus Alpha gene were invisible from her standpoint. She stopped her attempt at making a connection. Oh my. That means that Izuku almost went into practical Quirkless because All Might didn't think through the whole passing the torch thing. "Kieruko?" What if practical was first and Izu only manifested One for All during the written part? This is so messed up. Adults can be so irresponsible. But wow, her Quirk really is a great source of insider info when used corr-"Kieruko!"

"Yes?"

"You should let go of Midoriya's hands. I have no idea what kind of fascinating Qu-"

"OKAY! I'm back. So sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts." She let go (when did she even grab his hands?) and waved at the boy. "I really hope you get into the Hero Course. Good luck!" With that, she grabbed Hitoshi and joined the crowd to get to their respective testing areas. Toru and Fumikage managed to catch up to them.

"What was so special about that guy?" Hitoshi groaned.

"I had nothing to hold onto with Not Today. It's the first time this happened" Kieruko mused.

"He's 100% Quirkless with absolutely nothing?" Toru knew how rare it was.

"Yeah, I do hope he gets into the Hero Course to show how little superpowers have to do with heroism." The amount of discrimination against vanilla humans was frankly ridiculous even if this particular person-

"Nope."

"Not again."

"We do need to hurry up and go to our sites." 

Kieruko for a hell of it activated her Quirk while tagging her invisible friend so she could look directly at Toru. "Oh, come one. I don't ramble that much."

"Of course not," Hitoshi deadpanned in clear disbelief. "It would be just illogical to distract us right before an important exam."

"...I hate that you're right."

Before anyone else could add to the banter Presentational FUCKING Michael himself rushed in their direction screaming:

"SHOTA???"

Hizashi liked this year's batch of kids. They looked energetic. As he was making his way through the crowded corridor his eyes suddenly snapped to see familiar black hair rise into the air. No, he should already be in the observation room and would never go out of his volition to spend more time with examinees. Then he heard his infamous gruff "illogical" and all the calm went out of the window.

"Shota?" Hair flopped down to once again obey the laws of physics and the figure turned around. OH, GOD. Someone shrunk his best friend. He still was wearing a black tracksuit and a gray scarf he called a hero costume but now he looked like his teenage self.

"What happened to you Sho?!"

"I fucked up," Mini-Sho whispered to which a few examinees around him began to snicker. Mini-Sho just hid his face in the scarf, clearly embarrassed. "Present Mic-san please stop making a commotion," the flustered tiny Shota begged.

Present Mic? Were Shota's memories also tampered with after being hit by the Quirk? Oh no, he needed to help him immediately! "Sorry kids, I have to take this one to see Recovery Girl" he stated while reaching for the shrunk Shota.

He looked mortified by that idea. On the other hand, the teen with distinct purple hair was wheezing so hard he almost fell to the floor. Only the help of an invisible student was keeping him standing. Although that one was also shaking like someone who tried to stifle laughter.

Before Mic could come to even more insane conclusions he was stopped by a voice slightly softer than expected. "I am not Aizawa Shota. Please, I have a number and everything." And there it was. A ticket number belonging to an examinee proudly held in their hand. That revelation stunned Hizashi. "We are just really similar to each other. Quite unfortunate honestly." Not-Shota made nervous feet shuffle that was so familiar. "I don't want to be late for my practical exam sooooo...I'm gonna go now..."

With that group disappeared in a stream of students rushing to their respective Battle Centers, leaving the confused hero behind.

I took him a minute to compose himself before dashing to the control room. Members of the board, HC representatives, and most teachers were already there. Including his normal-sized friend. "Shota! You'll never believe who I met!" Without even giving a moment for a reply he continued. "It was your tiny clone! I almost kidnapped the little listener thinking they were you hit by a de-aging Quirk." Nemuri turned her head so fast it looked like she snapped her own neck. "Hiding any secrets Shota?" she teased while wiggling her eyebrows.

The tired hero looked somehow even more exhausted by that comment. He slowly pulled out a tablet and browsed for a moment before flipping it in the direction of gossipers. There was presented a profile of one Hiseki Kieruko.

"Wait, I was right?" 

She was met with dead-looking eyes and a flat "no."

"Shota! Sho! What happened to you?!" Hitoshi bemoaned dramatically while shaking Kieruko's shoulders.

"Please stop."

"NO! Shotaaaaaaa don't you recognize me?" Cried Toru as she hanged on Kieruko's back.

"I beg."

"Oh Sho come back to me" added traitorous Dark Shadow.

"For the record, we do not look that similar to each other."

"What a mad banquet of darkness," said Fumikage.

Toru and Hitoshi were standing at the starting line with other examinees in the A area. "You know, I'm glad we made all those plans for everything even if it felt like an overreaction at the time."

"The practical exam tests exactly that: practical skills. Information gathering counts as one of those." Toru muttered in a mock-serious tone parroting her best friend's words.

Hitoshi snorted in reply.

They both stood motionless, waiting for the unexpected start while kids around them began to talk to each other out of boredom. She probably would also fraternize with her opponents if not for the Plan. Any second now the exam could-"AAAAND START" calls Present Mic. They were the only ones to bolt forward immediately. Even if their advantage was gone seconds later when many mobility Quirk users overtook them, no matter what, they'll be the victors in the end.

"Have you noticed some promising chicks already?"

There were a few kids that started running the moment Mic gave the green light. Two of them went to the same school. And there there was a third, 4695, considering the way he interacted with examinee 4391. They were cooperating way too well for it to be a new alliance.

How was a kid with Brainwashing downing 3-pointers by simply tapping them with a...rod?

Nedzu was scanning the monitors in fascination. As always there were countless kids, who just realized the impossibility of the challenge, a few exceptionally strong individuals, a diamond in a rough or two, and at least one schemer, it seemed. He noticed a possible fourth member of the little alliance. His attention jumped to the examinee with an Explosion Quirk who was tearing through robots as if they were made out of papier-mâché then to Aizawa's pained expression observing the same boy.

This was panning out to be a fascinating batch of kids.

Fumikage felt slightly guilty at how easy the exam was. While Dark Shadow continued to smash through legions of robots, he kept an eye for any soul in need of a savior. If his math is correct he has over 50 villain points alone. Suddenly the earth trembled beneath his feet as a behemoth of a robot emerged. His first instinct said 'run'. He knew better. Both of them saw a girl stuck under the rubble. As they jogged in her direction to provide some urgently needed assistance, the green-haired boy Kieruko harassed earlier passed them sprinting by in a blind panic. Maybe there was something true in her meandering monologues about heroism.

And then the boy launched himself at the multiple-storey high monstrosity, which HE DECIMATED WITH A SINGLE PUNCH.

Even Dark Shadow's eyes went wide. "There is no way he's Quirkless."

"Apparently he was just 30 minutes ago."

Ultimately, their help was not needed in catching the falling definitely-quirked boy but they still ensured he wouldn't splatter on the pavement. 

Kieruko did not have a good time despite putting down a good amount of bots. Was it enough to let her into Hero Course though? Helping people was hard. Mostly because she couldn't find many people in need of help. Oh no, she was so screwed. There must be more people- well there were originally. Unfortunately, Shiozaki Ibara made it look like helping multiple people at once was easy. Fucking vine tentacle monster of kindness.

She was running out of time and...yup. Here comes the zero pointer. As the panicking children were running away, walls falling and rising clouds of dust, she, with growing detachment, looked around for the last time if anybody needed help. Oh look, there was a Monoma-looking guy who decided to ignore for some reason approaching disaster in favor of destroying one more bot. And wasn't that adorable? Kieruko trotted his way to make sure maybe-Monoma won't get lost while evacuating his ass away from imminent danger.

Turns out it was a good idea because a few seconds later loose rubble from a building next to them began to slide. Exactly on the guy. Well... She wanted heroic points and now she had a chance.

"Watch out above, dumbass!" She rammed into the unsuspecting blond with her full body mass.

Good news: the dude was okay except for a bruise he'll 100% get.

Bad news: her heroic sacrifice was exactly that. A sacrifice. The falling rubble hit her hard.

People were slowly exiting the observation room after the practical exam concluded. Principal with an ever-cheerful tone was giving his farewells to the small crowd still buzzing with moderate excitement after witnessing a few especially impressive performances.

"Ready to go, Sho?"

The slumped pile of black clothes remained still. "...Need a moment to think. I'll join you later."

The obvious dismissal didn't go unnoticed.

She was exhausted and miserable. Did she get enough points for the Hero Course? She certainly hoped so, going Plus Ultra during the Sports Festival would be a drag. Nope, this is not the time to feel sorry for herself!

Currently, UA was experiencing a massive exodus of hero hopefuls and Kieruko was on the prowl for the certain green haired protagonist. There is over a month between exams and the new school year. A massive gap in time, perfect to inconspicuously educate Izuku on the intricacies of One for All and ensure the boy won't ruin his body.

But that can't happen if she doesn't find him.

And so here she was, with her phone on silent mode, avoiding her friends in the hope of finding her mark. She already sneaked past Hitoshi and was in Fumi's blind spot but- Kieruko made eye contact with Dark Shadow. She put her pointing finger on the lips in a universal 'shush' gesture. The sentient Quirk winked at her and wordlessly turned in another direction.

Small victories.

Then she finally found him. Izuku was looking...dazed, to say the least. She tapped him on the shoulder and when ignored, just stood in front of him.

"Yo."

Life began returning to his eyes. "Kieruko-san?"

"The one and only," she smiled. "I'm so glad we bumped into each other here. What a happy accident." She cleared her throat. "Say, I was thinking you look like a cool guy," Kieruko cringed internally. How the fuck did she ever befriend anyone? "Ah, sorry, umm, would you like to be friends?" What is wrong with her?

"Uh," Izuku, as expected, was stunned. Probably from being accosted twice by some rando, she gathered. "Sure?"

Kieruko sighed in relief and presented her phone with open contacts to Izuku.

"As I was saying: friends? Mayhaps? Please?" There was a flash of disbelief in his eyes. Damn, that guy had a low self-esteem. It was so unhealthy and she wanted the protagonist to be just a little more selfish. Enough where he would feel brave enough to say no. Or not break his bones as a conversation starter.

Izuku wrote down a number. As she collected her phone back, now one number richer, she decided to test her luck even further. "Actually, I'm meeting with friends in a moment. Would you like to join us?"

"I wouldn't wa-want to impose and make it awkward."

"Nah, they already handle me on a daily basis so they're going to love you. Unless you're busy or don't want to... I know I can sometimes be a bit pushy." What is happening to her? Was there some sort of universal failsafe in case she meddled too much?  "But we are going to just hang out and talk for a bit. And you can go home whenever you want," she continued her ramble.

In the end, Izuku joined her more or less voluntarily.

Chapter Text

They managed to find her gang in record time. She announced the arrival by making the best girl visible and received immediately excited waves. Instantly, the familiar presence made her less jittery.

"This is is Midoriya Izuku. The cool kid I meet today." Translation: I want to befriend that one. Already kidnaped and prepped him for indoctrination. Please help.

"Are we adopting him?" Translation: Does he get to have a word in this?

"Hopefully." Translation: Nope.

Hitoshi sagely nodded in response and Kieruko gracefully allowed others to take the lead as they moved towards the closest cafe.

In the meantime the rest of the group introduced themselves and began to describe their practicals. According to Mei, the Powerloader had already started to invest in blood pressure meds in preparation for the arrival of the pink prodigy. So she obviously crushed it.

The Sunshine Cafe was not ready for the kind of energy they were bringing, judging by the expression of the barista who took their order and with quite relief watch them sit far away from her.

"And how did my babies treat you during the exam?" Mei prodded with a grin.

Giddy Toru began to animatedly gesture. "Oh. My. Gosh. Hitoshi and me were assigned to the same arena. Working together really does wonders. And your tech one shot them every time they were even grazed! And! And, and, and we helped people! Hitoshi even got to use his med kit. I don't think I'll pass on villain points alone though. But helping a 'fellow examinee' should count for extra points."

"I'm really counting on rescue points here," Hitoshi took a long sip of his coffee, "because there is a snowball chance in hell of me getting in exclusively by taking down bots. But yeah, your stuff definitely saved me."

Mei beamed at that. "Amazing! With a working base, I already thought of a few upgrades you might be interested in. Actually, right now I could-"

"Rescue points?" A shaky voice successfully cut through the conversation.

Oh, there was one person at the table who was not on the whole operation. It was Kieruko's fault and she had to deal with it.

"Right. You know how practical exam theoretically checks your aptitude for heroic work?"

Izuku nodded with slight confusion.

"There is more to being the hero than beating up an opponent." Kacchan would disagree. "For example, I aim for the intelligence hero title. Meaning, info gathering and investigation are two things I should excel at. With my amazing skills and super secret sources, I found out about the other point system. The rescue points are awarded to those who help a fellow human at the cost of their own gain. Basically, given to someone who did good just not in a pure combat scenario. The clue was even in Present Mic's speech. You get Villain Points for beating bots instead of just Points. Meaning there was another system for gaining them."

This was a great explanation which she practiced multiple times in the shower because somewhere along the way she committed to the 'exposition guy' role. And words were quite a useful tool in directing the thought processes of the listener in the right direction.

Emerald eyes began to tear up "I still have a chance at getting in."

Like for example right now Izuku was no longer in numb despair.

"Of course you do." Kieruko patted his shoulder.

"About his chances!" Dark Shadow emerged making the sobbing boy jump in his seat. "You said he was Quirkless! There is no way that is true when Greenie destroyed the zero pointer with a single punch." Fumikage nodded to show his support for the argument. "It was crazy! One moment he was next to us and a second later he was twenty meters in the air smashing the robot into bits!"

"It was a maddening display of prowess," Fumi added tersely.

"Wha-what? I had a Quirk before. I-I just..." Oh no, Izuku was on the edge of a full-on panic attack. That wasn't the intention.

Quick, distraction! "Midoriya, did you figure out my Quirk?"

With wide and still teary eyes he began to mutter. "-with the change of eye color, it would suggest an Emitter type. The only thing affected was...Hagakure-san is your Quirk Invisibility?"

"For the sake of this analysis, yes," the temporarily visible girl replied.

More muttering "would suggest Erasure." For added dramatics, Kieruko pulled the hair tie off to show her hair in its full floating glory. Izuku gasped. "This is exactly like-"

"-Eraserhead's Quirk" chanted in unison the rest of the table.

And just like that Izuku set his anxiety aside in order to bombard Kieruko with all the questions she would ask someone about their fascinating Quirk if her brain to mouth filter was nonfunctional. Instead, like a good little supporting character she was, Kieruko answered most of his questions honestly while valiantly ignoring mystified looks the rest of the group shot in their direction.

Ten minutes of undisrupted rambling later Kieruko not so gently corralled the conversation back where she needed.

"Anyways, before the exam, I couldn't even notice you, that's how" nonexistent "inactive your Plus Alpha gene was. But now, let's see..." Kieruko activated her Quirk on Izuku before he could even protest. She was erasing something. A LOT of something. "Yeah, no. There is definitely a Quirk here." She switched Not Today once again to Toru. "Congratulations on your (very) late manifestation! Please allow me to buy you a slice of cake. As a congratulatory gift."

"Does that include all of us?"

"Why would I pay for you, Hitoshi?"

"I'm also celebrating Midoriya's manifestation. So proud of him. In fact, I'm crying tears of joy right now and need to rehydrate by ordering another cappuccino."

"How low will you stoop for free coffee?"

"You don't want to know. But I am genuinely happy for him."

"I'm sure you are."

"We all should celebrate!" Toru cheered in an upbeat tone.

As the rest of the table exploded in a sudden wave of opinions, Mei shot a quick glance at the newest addition to their group.

Izuku was sitting frozen with blown wide eyes. Poor kid was on an emotional rollercoaster. From being thrown into a group of chaotic personalities, finding out he still had a chance at getting into the UA to somehow being outed on how recent was his manifestation.

She watched as Kieruko with unusual enthusiasm pulled the shy boy into what became more of a banter rather than a genuine conversation.

Mei wondered if anyone would believe that less than a year ago Kieruko was blasé while talking about potential death of the same person as if it was nothing more than a joke.

They probably wouldn’t.

Sometimes Mei wonders what would it be like to live a life that’s not overshadowed by awareness of future tragedies. Judging by happy expressions all around her it was pretty nice.

A lull in discussion brought her attention back to the source of her musing. Kieruko tapped away at her phone, then turned to her newest victim.

"Midoriya, are you free tomorrow afternoon?"

He stuttered in the affirmative.

With that brunette happily went back to texting.

"Not anymore," she informed him. "We'll do all the fun paperwork and registration."

Hitoshi mouthed to himself 'fun paperwork' incredulously but couldn’t completely erase the fond look on his face.

Mei wished she could feel anything but rising anxiety towards the person puppeteering their lives behind their backs. She knew this was for the greater good, she knew it saved countless lives but it didn’t make her wish less she didn’t ask that question years ago.

Here's the truth.

Boku no Hero Academia doesn't have a good ending.

Abusers stay unpunished, villains broken by the system end up either killed off or locked up for life, HPSC and that thrice-damned popularity ranking remain unchanged, hero hopefuls grow up to become the exact same as the previous generation. Izuku, quirkless, keeps the hero name that literally means "useless" and gives up on his dreams. Despite all the implied character growth, it looks like the status quo has remained intact.

Stagnant.

Boring.

Uninspiring ending.

Every day is a trial for Kieruko’s impulse control as she convinces herself that taking on AfO and society isn’t exactly feasible.

Maybe that’s what stopped her from revealing her hand to heroes, the knowledge it wouldn’t do shit in the long term, except make her no longer special.

Or maybe not.

The next day the protagonist of this world and its unexpected interloper met in an unused room of a popular Quirk counseling center.

Kieruko patiently listened to Izuku's bogus explanation, writing truths, half-truths, and straight up lies in different rubrics as she labeled them; facts, speculations, and wishful thinking. They talked about his only use of his Quirk for a while, then spent twice as long brainstorming before Kieruko started wondering out loud about the obvious logical solution and two hours later Izuku arrived at the same conclusion he did originally with Gran Torino.

Considering results, channeling 100% of OfA to a single limb was not it. On the other hand, spreading a low percentage through the whole body had the potential to be a breakthrough in their brainstorming (*cough cough* guiding *cough cough*) session.

“Let’s test it.”

Uhm, what? Now? “Are you sure?”

Izuku answered with a decisive nod and boundless determination in his eyes.

All Kieruko could do was smile and pray this didn’t spectacularly backfire on her. Yes, they were here because of her own machinations and yes, she wanted him to associate her with safely using OfA…but weren’t they moving with this relationship a bit too fast?

He stood motionlessly and after a while began glowing then crackling with electricity.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the breaks." Izuku stared at her with toxic green eyes. "You good?" A hesitant nod. "Great! Now, dial down the input," she recommended. "Preferably just under the glowing part." Light show subsided, now limited to occasional sparks and discoloration of skin.

"How are we feeling?"

"Tingly."

The corner of Kieruko's lip twitched. Legendary Quirk ladies and gentlemen. "Try walking five steps forward."

With expression of complete focus Izuku complied.

"Are you okay with trying to lift some weights?"

Suddenly, the boy looks panicked as his control slips and green energy surges around him. With the reflexes of a Western movie gunslinger, Kieruko latches onto him with Not Today and instantly extinguishes One for All.

"That is as good an indication we need a break as any," she throws lightly, politely not fretting over the now panicked figure kneeling on the floor. "For what it's worth, everyone's control is shaky at the beginning," she says in a relaxed cadence. "Even adults slip with that sometimes and you're going to learn more about it in UA, there's a reason half their teaching body has Quirks designed to subdue out-of-control students."

Izuku numbly nodded.

"How are you feeling?"

"Still good, I just need a moment." The determination in his gaze was daunting, knowing the context.

Kieruko nodded back, unconvinced. "Okay, now remember that I'm not, in fact, the Recovery Girl, would hate to take you to a hospital, there is a month before high school starts, and lying hinders mastering your Quirk." Also the collateral damage, they were indoors, holy fucking shit, she didn’t think this through, did she?

A beat of silence.

The boy slumped like a puppet with cut strings. "I think," his voice cracked, "I went a little overboard."

"Alright." She plopped down next to him. "Then this is the end of the practical part for today."

Izuku hunched, equally relieved and ashamed.

“I could go for longer,” he murmured.

"I’m sure you could,” Kieruko allowed. "Unfortunately, I cannot. Too much new information, too little time to analyze it.”

Izuku’s expression did a funny thing where he clearly wanted to say something but wasn’t going to.

”Thank you for believing in me,” he said instead, tear glistening in the corners of his eyes.

Nope, too much emotional intimacy way too soon.

”Ah, you don’t have to thank me for that, I mean- I’m sure anyone who gets to know you can see how much effort you put into things you care about. It’s clear you’re- uhmm, a great person and-"

The famed Midoriya waterworks were now working at full capacity.

Kieruko clapped her hands.

“Alright. It’s time to fill out the registration form.” Originally she wanted to strong-arm Izuku into at least one more meeting but this wasn’t worth it. Better to just talk over dramatics, pretending they never happened.

"And talk about the correct way to do so.

Let's be honest. The Governmental Quirk Database is unhelpful at best and potentially harmful at worst. Both law and medical sectors have easy access to it and statistics are presented to the general public. Quirk trafficking is actually a growing issue except now it's easier to track it than it was in the early days.

Other issue, dad mentioned a few cases where in court a person who gave incorrect information out of ignorance was penalized regardless while a criminal with an ambiguous synopsis ended up scott-free. As a rule, your information should stay honest but vague.”

Well look at that. Izuku listened with focus, earlier emotional turmoil already forgotten.

“The one difference between government-founded and private counseling is the former doesn't care and will cram the easiest most explicit description while the latter will do in-depth research for the client while giving as little as possible to the government."

Izuku stared at her.

"That's why I was thinking how we're going to register your Quirk. Luckily, since you were legally Quirkless before we have a lot of space to work in," Kieruko bit her nail, thinking out loud. "The fact that above a certain threshold, your Quirk produces a visible electrical current makes me want to utilize it. We could go with 'releasing stored energy to enhance physical abilities'," thus describing just OfA, "or go a step further and say 'releasing stored energy to produce enhancing abilities'," which would serve as a cushion when vestiges appeared. "It would be the most generic description with no lies regardless of specific mechanics of your Quirk."

It was at this moment that Izuku realized he had to lie about having All Might's Quirk to the government without getting caught. "O-oh," stuttered a rapidly paling boy. "Vague is good."

“Okay.”

"Can we go with the latter version?'

"I was only giving suggestions. Don't you want to make your own description?"

"I'll leave that for my private analysis."

Fair enough.

"Well then, that leaves us with one last thing."

Izuku looked faint at the prospect of enduring more emotional distress.

"What are you going to name it?" Kieruko asked sweetly.

All tension dropped. Instantly Izuku wet into 'thinking mode' muttering under his breath about countless possibilities, which Kieruko tuned out in favor of writing down the most important points to take away from the session. She filled out the form with the description they agreed to, leaving space at the top for a title.

"Is that why it's called Not Today?"

Huh? Kieruko blinked.

"Your Quirk," Izuku clarified, "because there is a danger to calling it what it is."

"Oh yeah," she admitted freely. "I'm pretty sure there were attempts at my uncle's life to either get him for Erasure or to remove the ability from the equation altogether.” She ignored protagonist’s horrified expression. “Currently there is no technology on the market capable of suppressing a Quirk. Meaning that from an already tiny pool of people having Quirks interacting with other Quirks, to people who can subdue them, to people who also honed their ability... We are left with almost no one and I know statistics a little too well to share publicly what I can do. Some would call it paranoia with capital 'P', for me it's Common Sense+."

She sighed.

"I derailed your train of thought didn't I?"

She received a startled groan as an answer.

“What about heroes?”

“What about them?”

“Don’t they work at dismantling trafficking rings?”

“Oh, they absolutely do,” Kieruko would know, this specific topic being the center of big chunk of her extracurricular activities, “but the truth is this kind of crimes are mostly investigated by underground heroes and police with few limelight exceptions.”

“That’s why there’re so few reports of it in the news,” green haired boy mused. “But you make it sound like they don’t do enough.”

Because they don’t.

“It would be nice if we could always trust authority figures to protect us. Though this doesn’t work in practice, does it?” Kieruko mada a vague all encompassing gesture with her hand. “Bullies, criminals often get away with their actions. Adults don’t always understand or are capable of assistance even if they want to help.” Gods know as much as All Might wanted to be obliging he didn’t really help Izuku with assimilating OfA. He acted suspiciously helpless despite being Number One Hero, never asked Nedzu for opinion, barely had one on one training with his protege after giving him his Quirk, and didn’t even consider letting Eraser know despite him being not only Izuku’s main instructor but also owner of incredibly useful Quirk in this particular situation.

Inefficient use of resources.

It left Kieruko to wonder whether Yagi Toshinori was incompetent or… well he wasn’t malicious. Maybe there was some kind of paralyzing fear factoring into All Might’s stagnant stance on mentoring the ninth.

“But good intentions don’t always make for positive outcomes. They make for excusable damages. Especially since it’s not like they have to live with the consequences of their actions and young tend to idolize their seniors.”

Well, judging by Izuku’s morose demeanor she definitely killed not only any memory of gratitude but also their original goal.

“On the topic of help, currently I lack the ability to offer proper guidance but like with Hitoshi I could find someone with similar enough Quirk to understand your situation and share their perspective on potentially similar experiences.”

That was an empty gesture of kindness she wasn’t expecting him to accept. Because secret Quirk origins and all that jazz. And who would she even contact to begin with? Hey, mister Shigaraki All for One, would you care to talk about the struggle of containing too much power and multiple Quirks? Yeah, right.

“No, it’s fine.” Called it.

“Well,” she began, uncertain how to stop herself from giving another obnoxious monologue. “In any case, feel free to ask me for help anytime if you need anything.” She handed him the mostly filled form. “For example, a name for your Quirk,” she quipped.

For some reason this triggered another round of tears. Izuku let out a hiccuping giggle. “I- I think I got it, but thank you.”

“That’s what friends are for.” They’ve known each other for less than 48 hours. Kieruko once again ignored disturbingly emotive expressions of green haired boy for the sake of her sanity.

Shortly after they ended their session and said their goodbyes.

The second she was alone Kieruko flopped bonelessly on the floor.

Woah, establishing herself as a support character was exhausting. Hopefully, this will minimize the future damage but just in case she still should ensure Izuku has a wider choice of people to rely on. Especially since currently that only was his anxious mother and a very busy mentor. She definitely should take care of that.

…yeah.

Kieruko shot Toru a very polite message with a ton of big eyed emojis asking her to do her friendship magic on Izu.

This should be enough.

Was she stealing a bit too much of All Might's role in the early story?

.

.

.

Nah.

She acted like a decent human being, something Izuku had experienced a severe lack of in his life so far. He deserved at least this much.

Besides, what was the worst that could happen?