Work Text:
Aether, the young traveler, who was just trying to find his sister, found himself in quite a compelling situation. He was currently in Nod Krai, the closest nation to Snezhnaya, or so he was supposed to be. You see. He had been on a walk with Paimon, the floating creature who had been tagging along in his journey. He noticed a strange, circular device on the floor. It was small, just about the size of his palm.
“Huh, that’s a strange-looking object,” Aether stated. As he had just held it in his hands for a mere 2 seconds, before the reality started to warp around him. The screams of Paimon were muffled before disappearing completely. The whole ordeal was making him quite dizzy, so it was no surprise when he lost his consciousness.
When his eyes fluttered open again, he was lying down on a grass field in a park. The circular device, however, was no longer in the palm of his hand. He stood up quickly, making him wobble a bit. It didn’t take long for panic to set off on the poor boy. Luckily for him, he was quite adaptable. After all he’s been through, he’s grown tougher skin than most people, but a knife can still cut through it nonetheless.
”What’s going on… Nghm…! My head is spinning.” He took a deep breath as he locked in and started to figure out his surroundings. The architecture was nothing like he’s ever seen before, although he is used to traveling between worlds, so new and strange surroundings weren’t a huge problem. What was a problem was that he could definitely say, without a doubt, that he wasn’t in Nod Krai anymore. Heck, not even in Teyvat. His gaze wandered around the people in the park. Compared to their attire, he stood out like a sore thumb.
As he began to walk in the strange place, he felt the ground shake. The heroin in him woke up, and he started running straight towards the sound. A crowd had formed in the area, or more like fleeing the area. As Aether moved quickly through the crowd, he could make out words like ‘villain’ and ‘monster’ being shouted all around. As he finally reached the location, he saw a 500-centimeter creature destroying the futuristic-looking buildings. Even though the villain was around 5 times bigger than Aether, he still launched right into action.
Aether yelled out, “Blazing light!” He attacked the villain with his elemental burst. Whilst fighting the villain, other people showed up, heroes to be exact.
“What is this kid doing!” A blonde man, with ridiculously long hair, yelled so loudly that anyone in a 200-meter radius probably heard him. Aether was slightly confused, but continued fighting nonetheless. With his impeccable fighting experience, he was able to take down the villain almost completely by himself. After defeating it, a few adult heroes rushed to the kid in shock. Most of them were praising him, quite impressed with his skill. One of them, however, was doing the exact opposite.
The tall man had long, unbrushed, black hair. He also had a long, scarf-looking thing around his neck. He walked straight towards Aether and started scolding him.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? Not to mention you barely even look fifteen. I’m guessing you have no hero license either. If you end up in UA, you‘d better pray you don’t end up in my class. ” Aether couldn’t understand half of what the man was babbling about. Hero license? UA? This new world was frying his brain.
“I’m sorry, but what is a UA, or a hero license? I’m not exactly from around here. Feels like I’ve traveled into a completely new world.” Aether smiled awkwardly. His demeanor had calmed down after he had recognized that these people were on the same side as him, not the enemy. As the blonde introduced himself as ’Present Mic’, he explained that in here, you needed a hero license to properly fight against criminals and villains.
Present Mic explained that UA was the no 1-ranked high school for heroics and is considered the top Hero Academy in all of Japan. He also explained that the man who scolded him was an underground hero who worked as a teacher at the UA. And apparently, he was grumpy because he had not gotten enough sleep, as per usual.
“But seriously, don’t let him scare you! UA is great for someone like you, who just radiates potential! Look, the entrance exam is in a few weeks, and you were supposed to send in your application for the high school months ago, but considering your situation, I could pull a few strings. It’s not every day you see a kid defeat a 5-meter beast! Just think about it.” With that, Present Mic left his contract Information for Aether right before he exited the scene with the grumpy one.
Aether did not have the currency of the world he was currently in, but surprisingly, the material mora is made out of is highly valuable here. He was able to trade his mora for enough yen to pay the rent for a place for about half a year, counting groceries. He also went shopping for clothes. When he was still with Paimon, looking like an outcast didn’t bother him too much. But now, it was only him.
As a few days passed, he found himself really missing that flying mora gobbler. The nights felt empty without Paimon just lying there with him. In fact, he might’ve learnt knitting and then knit a Paimon plushie to make some of that pain ease up. This world had a lot less fighting than what he was used to. He spent his days catching robbers and helping cats out of trees before the entrance exam started.
After a few weeks had flown by, Aether was ready for the entrance exam. He struggled a bit with the written part, but after being connected to Irminsul for a while back in Teyvat, he’s acquired a middle school level of understanding of education. After that, he was more than ready for the second part of the entrance exam.
Some guy named Iida wouldn’t stop shouting while everyone was preparing for the countdown. Aether got slightly annoyed, but got over it. After the countdown ended and the gates opened, there was a horde of robots ready to fight. As everyone launched into combat, Aether managed to slide past most people and got on the front lines. Defeating robot after another, not to mention that he’d help out other students who had bitten off more than they could chew. Not long after, they started introducing the big guys. He saw a brown haired girl get stuck with a massive robot closing in on her. Aether was about to jump into action, but then the green-haired boy who had embarrassed himself earlier jumped in, blasting the robot into pieces. Aether was impressed, but then realized he had messed up his arm and was now falling with the girl. As he was about to rush into action the second time, the girl used her quirk and made them float before hitting the ground.
Aether still rushed to them, making sure both of them were okay. He then picked up the boy and carried his unconscious self into safety before giving him up to the faculty, who said they’d take care of him.
A few weeks passed before he got a message in the mail. As he opened it, he found out he got into the Hero Academia! His written part was a bit faulty, but his overall top score on the second part had paid off. He’d be starting school in August. As happy as he was, he still felt slight sorrow. After all, it felt like he just abandoned everyone else. He’s never really been properly alone after all. Before Paimon, he had always traveled with his beloved sister, Lumine.
He spent the summer working at a local restaurant and writing down everything that had been going on in his life. He wanted to keep a journal so that if he ever saw Paimon again, he’d be able to give her something to cheer her up a bit. When he had free time, he sketched out the people he had met throughout his journey, because he was afraid that he’d forget them. When spending every day at its fullest, time flew by fast. Not long before, he was trying on his uniform for the first day at school. He had been learning about the internet through his neighbor and managed to navigate through YouTube to find a how to tie a tie video from eleven years ago. Backpack ready and his tie tied properly on, he was ready to experience high school.